watch Till Death... Short film shot on 5D

Hi all.

We just finished our latest short film. Shot in January on a Canon 5D. Please check it out.

http://vimeo.com/12362116

We are quite pleased with the end result but we´re unsure whether it´s festival material.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Wow, that was amazing. It was beautifully shot and sound design was good. I really dug the story and how you got to the end. Great work!

That 5D still blows me away with the picture quality. Interesting story and execution not sure if it was me but I feel it was almost a tiny little bit too long. However I did watch it again and did struggle to find anything to cut. So there goes that argument. Lovely cinematography and visuals I would defiantly be submitting.

I loved it...the acting has depth and the story kept me engrossed throughout. I liked the colour treatment of the piece , the highlights dipping just a little towards blue/green works really well...

If you don't mind can I ask you a few questions,
* What did you use to do the colourgrade
* Was any of the blur added in post or was it all from the camera

This is terrific work , goodluck with the festivals , definitely submit...

I like a lot of the photography, and some of the grading choices...however, it seems inconsistent. It looks--to me anyhow--like you're color grading/correction doesn't know where it wants to be. More green...more brown...more yellow. It can obviously be OK to jump to different grades from scene to scene, or location to location, but when you go from one shot to the reversal of the shot and the grading style has changed, it's a bit odd.

I like the vignetting for the most part...it suites itself well to the style, tone, and setting...sometimes it's a bit much though (as is your shallow DOF).

I would cut out the frying pan scene all-together, or get a pick-up shot of that in focus. Yes...we get it, you're using a lot of DOF...but don't over use that technique.

Nice work overall.

That was great, but really depressing

I gotta agree with Michael, the vignetting is nice, but in some shots it really was way too dark for me. Also, the out of focus frying pan took me out of the story.

I'd add some camera movement, but considering that you didn't use any, it looks really really good.

I think you tell a good story, but it's just a little sad for my taste.

Also

Hi.

Thanks for the feedback. It is really cool to hear what you think about our project.

It is a sad story but with a happy end, or at least that is how I feel.

I can see what you mean when you comment the darkness and the DOF but we were trying to visualize the two worlds the couple were living in (darkness vs light) and with the DOF show that things aren´t as obvious as they might seem. Maybe we went a little overboard, but hey you live and learn.

Regarding the money shot I agree. We didn´t originally plan to show it, but somehow it came to be my brother´s pet project within the project and I think it ended up well.

This was a really great short. I believe many have gone over what I'm going to say but here I go.

- Excellent establish shot.

- The jury on the lighting is out. I'm not sure if I like it was too dark at times or not. I wouldn't mind at all if you threw a tab bit more light on things (especially when he picks up the remote) BUT.....you did keep it constant through out and it could fit the mood/mystery of the story. Maybe just a touch more would have been better just to highlight a bit more of the really dark locations. But again, I only watched it once and it I might like it after time.

- Along with the lights, the look of the story was fantastic. Washed out and with high key lighting in the living room was nice. I wish it went a bit more with the story but it still looked good. And went with the story I'm think, something to the effect that the high contrast in the living room was because that is where he found his wife ****. So the lighting in the room has more meaning for that situation. Because the kitchen and bathroom had equal lighting and I think the bedroom was fine too. Fine meaning dark and washed out but didn't have any extreme dark areas. BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG, it look fantastic I just wished it had more meaning behind it in the living room and why it looked different (and something to clue in the audience about that situation). Sorry if this didn't make much sense.....

- Story was great. I did predict that she was **** after he put the plate in the sink. Not that it ruined it for me but I started to get a sense of what was up. But the ending was a nice twist on a harsh subject which is hard to do in any story, so hats off.

- Sound was good.

- Shot set up was good through out and had no objections. What M1ichea1 keeps bring up I would agree with. QUESTION TO ANYONE, now when these shot with the out of focus background are you able to manually focus into the background or is this a limitation of this lens? If so, it seems like a lens I would only use a few times in a shoot with a close up. I didn't like the shot of the husband and her blurred in the background. It did nothing for me.

- Acting was great.

- The effect of the gun shot did come a little quick. It looks like you could have had it get closer to his mouth.

But in all, this is a great little short shot and very impressive story. You did a fantastic job on the look of the piece and it was a pleasure to watch. Hats off to everyone involved.

wridingrlm said:

What M1ichea1 keeps bring up I would agree with. QUESTION TO ANYONE, now when these shot with the out of focus background are you able to manually focus into the background or is this a limitation of this lens?

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It's not just the background out of focus--which I don't mind, naturally--it's when the entire shot is out of focus...waiting for an element to come into focus. Hanging too long on an entirely out of focus shot is what bugs me.

M1chae1 said:

It's not just the background out of focus--which I don't mind, naturally--it's when the entire shot is out of focus...waiting for an element to come into focus. Hanging too long on an entirely out of focus shot is what bugs me.

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But then can you focus into the background through the lens with a rack focus? In this film I didn't care for the background out of focus and then they had to cut to entirely different shot of her in a close up to have her in focus and then they went back to the background out of focus. I'm wondering if the lens is fixed for only showing close ups and is not able to do a rack focus.

wridingrlm said:

he found his wife ****.

- Story was great. I did predict that she was ****

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Huh? What is ****?

Dreadylocks said:

Huh? What is ****?

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Spoiler for the story. I'm trying not to ruin it for anyone if they haven't seen it yet. If you have seen it and you know about the wife then count the letters and you should figure out what I'm saying. Just trying to be sensitive to other viewers.



ALSO note to the creator: I forgot to say in my original post. Since it looked washed out throughout the whole movie once he met his wife at the end I kind of wish it was brighter and more colorful. Nothing major but at the end I thought that would have even been more "happy". But without that it was still fantastic.

wridingrlm said:

Spoiler for the story. I'm trying not to ruin it for anyone if they haven't seen it yet. If you have seen it and you know about the wife then count the letters and you should figure out what I'm saying. Just trying to be sensitive to other viewers.



ALSO note to the creator: I forgot to say in my original post. Since it looked washed out throughout the whole movie once he met his wife at the end I kind of wish it was brighter and more colorful. Nothing major but at the end I thought that would have even been more "happy". But without that it was still fantastic.

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The **** pretty much give it away. I suggest you use the awesome spoiler tag for anything close to spoiler. from your ****.

wridingrlm said:

But then can you focus into the background through the lens with a rack focus? In this film I didn't care for the background out of focus and then they had to cut to entirely different shot of her in a close up to have her in focus and then they went back to the background out of focus. I'm wondering if the lens is fixed for only showing close ups and is not able to do a rack focus.

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You can rack focus...of course. As long--in my opinion--as you don't overuse it, or make it too obvious. You're really not suppose to notice a rack focus. The problem is people are so excited about using lenses, that they showcase the DOF way too much--this includes uber racking...which kinda annoys me.

If you want the BG in focus as well as the foreground, you use a specific lens with deeper DOF--sometimes called 'infinite DOF.' A lot of standard HD cams come with lenses that are infinite focus...you still need to worry about hitting a focus mark, but not nearly as much as prime lenses and such.

Oh wow, I'm an idiot (and my mind is in the gutter). I totally missed that twist!

I saw four letters referring to a woman and, well, let's just say I was about to jump to her defense.

Thanks for sharing that with my slow brain, it makes the piece even better.

M1chae1 said:

You can rack focus...of course. As long--in my opinion--as you don't overuse it, or make it too obvious. You're really not suppose to notice a rack focus. The problem is people are so excited about using lenses, that they showcase the DOF way too much--this includes uber racking...which kinda annoys me.

If you want the BG in focus as well as the foreground, you use a specific lens with deeper DOF--sometimes called 'infinite DOF.' A lot of standard HD cams come with lenses that are infinite focus...you still need to worry about hitting a focus mark, but not nearly as much as prime lenses and such.

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The funny thing is, each one you made comments about never used a rack focus. It was always blurry and then someone walked into the scene blurred (or started blurred and walked into focus). A true rack focus through the lens would have been factastic in this scene where he was is the kitchen and she walked through the door. The reason I asked that it seems like the lens they were using did not have that ability bacuse ALL of them never used it (and of course one shouldn't use it - the violin short -EDIT- And same with the chase short too). But the other two should have used a rack focus and I think the shots would have come out fine.

Anyway, I agree with what you say 100% but to me it seemed like the lens they were using was just for close up shots. And the blur never gave any depth of field to be honest, IMO.


EDIT: because after thinking about something and the info was incorrect.

At first, when I saw the ending, I was like, whaaa? But then I got it, and I was like, awwww, how sweet. Really touching story.

I love the aesthetics, especially the lighting and coloring.

I will have to agree with Dreadylocks about the money shot. I see so many people using this effect, and I'm afraid it's just not convincing. Audio is plenty well enough to do the trick, especially if you were to use a creative angle, I dunno, I'm just going off the cuff, but perhaps a low angle, we hear the action, then he falls into frame.

Great short!

wridingrlm said:

The funny thing is, each one you made comments about never used a rack focus. It was always blurry and then someone walked into the scene blurred (or started blurred and walked into focus). A true rack focus through the lens would have been factastic in this scene where he was is the kitchen and she walked through the door. The reason I asked that it seems like the lens they were using did not have that ability bacuse ALL of them never used it (and of course one shouldn't use it - the violin short -EDIT- And same with the chase short too). But the other two should have used a rack focus and I think the shots would have come out fine.

Anyway, I agree with what you say 100% but to me it seemed like the lens they were using was just for close up shots. And the blur never gave any depth of field to be honest, IMO.


EDIT: because after thinking about something and the info was incorrect.

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No...I know. I know there was no rack focus there, I was saying they *could have* used one.

You can always rack focus from one subject to the next (unless it's macro and the lens doesn't allow for it). But I'm pretty sure all standard lenses can pull-off a rack.

No...I know. I know there was no rack focus there, I was saying they *could have* used one.

You can always rack focus from one subject to the next (unless it's macro and the lens doesn't allow for it). But I'm pretty sure all standard lenses can pull-off a rack.

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And I was agreeing with you.

BUT.........................


I just got a kick in the head and totally forgot this little bit a friend reminded me of. Boy it's been years since I studied film in a classroom and this short is going to make me read up on old techniques in filmmaking!

He (and now I) believed this was done for reason. While he was watching it he just couldn't understand why the diffused look. But he had a feeling there was a reason for them to do this because they just wouldn't do it for no reason. And then the end came up and he reflected back and understood. Diffusion in film history was used as tool for detachment from reality. In this film there is two realities going on, him and hers (two different worlds in a sense). So in this film they threw in an old convention in filmmaking to give us a subtle hint which there is a detachment of reality going on. Now forgetting my studies in the past and being manipulated by how filmmakers create films/commercials/videos/TV we don't normally see old conventions being used. So in fact a rack focus is not needed in that scene because it stamps that there is a detachment of reality and through out the story. For me and my friend this technique helps their story and makes it even more impressive for me. As another poster said in another thread about art in film, this one really pushed the art envelope in a sensational way.

Wow, an excellent film this is all around.

We are quite pleased with the end result but we´re unsure whether it´s festival material.

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Hell yes! I believe you should win LOTS of awards BUT don't be surprised if you don't win because people might not get it and its dark subject might deter voters. But if you don't display it then you are only fooling yourselves. I'm almost ready to say it's the best short on this board (that I've seen) hands down. Thanks for sharing!

Fantastic film, great story and very atmospheric. The hard contrast to the lighting wasn't quite to my taste but never distracting.

Congratulations on a great film!