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watch Detonation: Deflected

This is an action video I filmed at my college over the summer for a daycamp called the Geneseo Summer Scholars. This daycamp included a film course, so I volunteered to come and help, as it was a great teaching opportunity (I am an education major) and it was a fun experience.

Detonation: Deflected
 
Well other than the obvious low production value friend made film thing...congrats on shooting a short. I'm sure a good deal of time was spent on the editing...

I won't go into technical aspects, as from a professional stand-point, pretty much all aspects need to be greatly improved.

I give kudos for shooting this, and I'm sure it was a learning process. Keep making films like this...and keep trying to get better and better. Watch a lot of movies...take note of lighting, camera work, framing, timing...

Good luck with future projects.
 
I agree that yeah it could be improved in all the departments you just described. But honestly I have gotten so used to watching these greatly lit, framed, etc shorts that are just the most boring thing on the planet to watch. Always end up fast forwarding a bit, which is sad in a 8 minute vid ;)

But this, which wasn't lit, frames, etc. etc. Was actually fun to watch.

You guys made a good fun video to watch and I think that's the hard part. The rest can be learned.
 
I agree that yeah it could be improved in all the departments you just described. But honestly I have gotten so used to watching these greatly lit, framed, etc shorts that are just the most boring thing on the planet to watch. Always end up fast forwarding a bit, which is sad in a 8 minute vid ;)

But this, which wasn't lit, frames, etc. etc. Was actually fun to watch.

You guys made a good fun video to watch and I think that's the hard part. The rest can be learned.

Quite honestly, I don't get bored of watching a super well-executed short or feature, but you just don't see them that often--even on here.

I mean, if a film is not your cup of tea...I understand...but I don't think a bunch of kids running around with Nerf guns is my idea of thinking outside the box and creating some dynamic road less traveled.

I will sit through a boring short if it's very well executed...because I'm watching the technical aspects and admiring the art form...I will NOT however sit through a rushed, friend made film that doesn't care about 80% of the production aspect.

I am not at all saying this to bash the above film...I'm just using it as an example.

You better have the BEST damn story and acting in the world if you plan to ignore all other aspects of a production.
 
Sure you and me will watch boring shorts for technical aspects, but majority of movie watchers won't ;)

Absolutely. But also, the majority of watchers aren't going to watch a bunch of kids running around with Nerf guns and absolutely no production value or acting ability. :) See what I mean.
 
Ahem.

I actually enjoyed it to a point.

I'm glad you went with nerf guns instead of fake real guns.

BUT

It came crashing down with the butting of the guns and the end effect.

I liked the kid playfullness of it, but it was ruined by the above stated aspects.


Low production value, but good editing and pacing. Wish there was a story also!
 
The pacing was good, and the editing was sufficient...but what does the editor have to work with? I'm sure their job was incredibly hard. How many takes do you think they did per shot? How much coverage did they get? Do you think anybody thought about continuety of shots? I found the editing jerky...things didn't match up from shot to shot, because of the lack of coverage and continuity. But that may be just me...

And of course the problem wasn't the Nerf guns...it is what it is.

And I'm just being super picky...this is a fun movie, and it's far from perfect. It's all practice. But if we want to get technical about things...
 
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Guys, thank you all for your input, it was indeed a good opportunity for more practice and to see where improvement can be made.

To just wrap up a few things, we were under a major time crunch, which did prevent me from bringing my lighting equipment - we barely got the filming done within the allocated time. Had I attempted to set up the lighting equipment (on my own, as I was the only one who knew the equipment) we would have needed a lot more time, as we all know, it takes a good deal of time to set it up (and make it look good), tear it down and relocate, especially when using such a large amount of space, and having to let orientation groups pass in and out every 15min or so. Otherwise, I would have used lighting, in fact I probably would have tripled the amount of time we took if it were an option, whatever it takes. I did however use an on-camera light, which helped a bit, brought out skin tones and such, but that was about it, was definitely better than nothing at all.

As for the cinematography itself, there were quite a number of shots I did rather lousy on, primarily the beginning establishing shot, as well as the initial sniper shot (when the kid was aiming and cocking the gun just before the first kill - rule of 3rds violation). I know several shots were quite a bit on the bumpy side, I'll have to work on that - the first side-by-side running shot was also not so good, in fact, when I was editing, I found that the way I had adjusted the stabilizer, I swiveled it to far over, my own hand was in the shot, I had to stretch the shot a bit and cut off a bit of the right of the frame (arg!) after that, it was an improvement, but not quite satisfactory for me (but for everyone else there, it was). Several other shots were as some of you had pointed "jerky". One of the things I am also knocking my head around for is coverage...I totally forgot to get some shots to better show where the sniper and his buddy were in relation to the rest of the action, as well as showing the exterior of the room the "boss with the case" and his second-hand man went! There was also coverage I totally missed in the middle of the firefight that could have established a better idea of where certain people were, and which direction they were really heading toward, and I violated the 180 rule a few times, which I can see really could make things confusing. I also do tend to go for a few too many closeups, which may have generally decent, but I get too much of them, and not enough long and medium, or 3/4 shots...arg--coverage, coverage, coverage! I'm going to work at getting that in from here on out, and creatively.

One of the main things I need to be sure I get in everything that is important, is a shot list, preferably storyboards (though this was an on-the-fly project, I'm trying to get out of that and get into doing things with real plans made ahead of time, preferably scripted, and no 2hr or so time limits).

As for story, well, as you noted, there wasn't much, we just came up with something simple and easy to make something fast-paced and action packed out of - these kids had a lot of fun, they were really into it. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to shoot something more complex, after all story IS king, regardless of crazy action sequences, they're fun, but the time is coming to do something deep...

Thanks a lot for watching and sharing your input, guys, I'll definitely keep working at improving!:)
 
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