watch Door to Door - Wanting some constructive criticism

We shot this in two hours, it was edited in four so it's not something we think is groundbreaking but we're interested in doing more shorts. What do you think can improve my style of directing and the editor's style of cutting?

http://vimeo.com/34695806

I guess it's perfect? :/

patience, they're out there... shhhhh....

Fun story. Right scope for the length of the short.

180 degree rule:
put your finger on the face of one of the actors on your screen... as they're talking they should have the conversation across the centerline of the screen as if they are facing one another and talking (which they should be in this case). In this short, the shots of the sales man require the camera to be on the right side o the door facing out - so when you move outside the door to face inward for the other actor, draw an imaginary line between your actors and keep the camera on one side or the other... don't break this rule until it is second nature and you know WHY you're breaking it.

audio:
- on camera microphones sound like crap, the story was compelling enough and the situation funny enough to allow me to overlook it for the most part.

- Watch out when editing for "Ping Pong" dialog (cuts from one angle to another exactly on the dialog breaks), they can be a bit jarring.

- Tighten up the cuts a little but too, there's too much gap between lines. You can almost entirely remove the gaps when dealing with most comedy dialog, using them then as points of breath for the audience to process the previous exchange, then right as they would "get it", move along.

- For each clip in your timeline, make sure you're cutting into something... if the clip starts with dead space, your audience will start to drift. They want you to cut, and they want instant gratification for the reason they want the cut. Either they want to know how the other person is reacting, or they want to see how the other person is delivering a line. Try to answer the audiences "want" immediately with each cut.

- Record some "Room Tone" (blank audio with no one moving)... you can place this under cuts to smooth them out a bit... 30-60s should be enough.

lighting:
- use some. While we are accustomed to seeing the world with regular lighting, the camera is really picky about how it deals with light value differences.

- Your footage was all a bit yellow and dark. Some color correction would serve this one well. First, use a color correction plugin to push your footage away from yellow (toward blue/cyan). Then, use a levels adjustment to bring the brightest bits up to white and the darkest to black (100% and 0% respectively, use meters and numbers to do this).

You got the important bit though, the story is really kinda good, and the bit at the end really funny. You HAVE the part that can't be taught, the story teller mentality, now just learn the technical bits.

Awesome. I guess Vimeo allows one HD short per week so we're going to try to do that & make improvements on each one. Right now we only have clip on Home Depot lights so I doubt the lighting is going to be able to improve soon but I guess we'll try to shoot earlier in the day. Thanks for the pointers on editing, it's way easier to understand when there's an example.

You can do some really good lighting with clamp lights... that was my kit for 6 years. Those and craftsman work lights.

The trick to using them is to:
A) get them closer to your talent as they put out less light than bigger pro fixtures.
B) Work with the light rather than trying to fight it. Light leaves the fixture in a cone. The center is brighter, then it feathers off toward the edge. You can use the edge of the light to brush your background while using the brighter center bit to light your talent. Place it so that walls block it from the camera to help control where it goes.

This was lit all with clamp lights and 100 watt bulbs:
http://yafiunderground.com/Video/Scare_Tactics-Knightly.mov
http://yafiunderground.com//Video/FO-final-20090526.mov
(don't judge me too harshly, we've improved our audio since then -- in fact, because of these). Made for a competition at this very site

Here are some tests I did with a craftsman 500w worklight and a white shower curtain as diffusion: http://yafiunderground.com/index.php?page=lighting_distances

Google for Portrait lighting and you'll get some really good tutorials on how to light a subject to make them look awesome, the 3 point is not the only trick in the book

I think it's great that your making movies! Huzzah!

OK, so the first thing you want to do is get a boom mic and start capturing quality audio. You can get an external setup, or you can get a camera that allows XLR directly from boom to camera. You can get quality audio from this setup, contrary to what some might say. The sound in your short is...well...no so good. And while we're on the sound card...err...you'll want some kind of sound 'design' for the film also. Leveling audio out between dialog, background noise...adding noise to help even things out or add atmosphere. Sound and sound design isn't optional...it should be integral.

Next thing you want to do is invest in three or four lights and a handful of gels. Your lighting is flat, washed out, dark, noisy and uninspired. Lighting is important. Not to say you can't produce something worthwhile by shooting something with 'natural' lighting...but there is a way to do natural lighting, and there is a way not to do it...like makeup for girls...they want to have it on, but you not be able to tell...

The acting is forced and not particularly creative. Yes, it's probably fun to shoot stuff with your friends and make some cute videos...but please realize that what makes a film stand out from all the crap out there is the obvious TLC and skill that was put into it. Cutting ALL the corners does not a good film make. Don't get discouraged...your posting this on a site for filmmakers...we are going to be more critical here (as it should be).

Good luck down the road. Keep it up. And as long as you improve in at least one aspect every project, you're on the right track.