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watch SAMURAI DEAD -- a zombie short film

Check out our new zombie webseries: "SAMURAI DEAD"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjLv4CkTkE

Inspired by WALKING DEAD, MAD MAX, and TWILIGHT SAMURAI, my filmmaking buddies and I decided to shoot our first zombie movie. We shot everything with a Canon Rebel T4i + 18-135mm STM lens, a four-man crew, and no $$$. Hope you enjoy our work. If so, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We’ll be releasing the next episode next month!

https://www.youtube.com/glasspixelstudios

Thanks!
 
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2 points:

1. I prefer it when individuals contribute to this forum. Meaning you gotta give a little to get a little. If you put on lots of posts, give advice, help others, this is preferable to simply using this forum as a means to publicise your stuff.

2. For zero budget, you are one seriously talented dilm maker. I would refer if you give to this forum and help others but your work is excellent for someone without a budget.

You have created suspense, strong cinematography and a little story in the space of a short period of time and created something of quality.
 
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Hi Gorillaonabike, thanks for the feedback. I take your first point to heart: It's definitely better to contribute and helps others rather than simply using a forum to publicize your work. Though I must say, my filmmaking buddies and I are relatively inexperienced filmmakers and we've never much considered that we can contribute substantially to a group of other filmmakers (at least not at this point).
 
Hey mate, watched and loved it. already asked this question on youtube but will ask here as well. who did your score? it really built up the tension. was really good.
 
Hi Gorillaonabike, thanks for the feedback. I take your first point to heart: It's definitely better to contribute and helps others rather than simply using a forum to publicize your work. Though I must say, my filmmaking buddies and I are relatively inexperienced filmmakers and we've never much considered that we can contribute substantially to a group of other filmmakers (at least not at this point).

On the basis of what I've seen, you're more than good enough to give good pointers and I could learn from you.
 
Watched this and liked it a lot - you've done a great job with the cinematography and the score was perfect, really built up the tension like dlmade says. Looking forward to more.
 
One of the best looking shorts I've seen

Bravo! Everything was well done from the cinematography to the editing, to the music.

The only critique I might have is that the script seems a little cliché.
 
Hey mate, watched and loved it. already asked this question on youtube but will ask here as well. who did your score? it really built up the tension. was really good.
Hi dlmade, I answered you on YT, but I figure I'll answer you here too in case anyone else wants to know. Most of the music from our short film is from Video Copilot. They sell royalty-free, cinematic music called ProScores. It's a great collection of tracks that you can mix & match and cater to your own movie.
 
Watched this and liked it a lot - you've done a great job with the cinematography and the score was perfect, really built up the tension like dlmade says. Looking forward to more.
Thanks Marcus! Really appreciate the feedback. Building tension takes a bit of time and we were afraid it might be too slow, especially for a YT video. Glad you enjoyed it. We're planning to release Episode #2 next month!
 
Bravo! Everything was well done from the cinematography to the editing, to the music.

The only critique I might have is that the script seems a little cliché.
Thanks for the constructive feedback. I have to admit, if I were to do it all over again, I would focus more on the story and make it tighter, more compelling, and more interesting (less cliched). During the entire process, we were more focused on technical issues (zombie makeup, camera equipment, shot list, etc). Hopefully, you'll enjoy our story more on future episodes!
 
Hey man cool short! Did you learn that zombie change effect from videocopilot? What gorilla said, i hope you stick around!
 
Hey man cool short! Did you learn that zombie change effect from videocopilot? What gorilla said, i hope you stick around!
Thanks Baba! The zombie change effect wasn't a direct result of anything specifically from VideoCopilot, but a lot of their principles and ideas definitely helped lead us to learn more about the tools needed (and used) to achieve this effect. In specific, we used MochaAE with MochaImport+ and zombie graphic elements from Rampant Design.
 
Hey, glasspixel, that was superb. Not without it's flaws but these are just niggles. The background/sky masking looked a bit fuzzy on the tree at times, and try to match the sword schwing to the footage - it's too fast and not drawn out enough at the mo. Otherwise I liked it a lot (and I'm a cynical Zombie film fan too!)

I think your work is a great inspiration for those that have yet to realise that you don't need eyes (or expensive gear) to see, you need vision. I can live with the cliches as it was presented so well, and I found the supense was very well handled.

I look forward to following this! All the best with your project!
 
Hey, glasspixel, that was superb. Not without it's flaws but these are just niggles. The background/sky masking looked a bit fuzzy on the tree at times, and try to match the sword schwing to the footage - it's too fast and not drawn out enough at the mo. Otherwise I liked it a lot (and I'm a cynical Zombie film fan too!)

I think your work is a great inspiration for those that have yet to realise that you don't need eyes (or expensive gear) to see, you need vision. I can live with the cliches as it was presented so well, and I found the supense was very well handled.

I look forward to following this! All the best with your project!
Yeah, masking around the tree was definitely tough and time consuming. I know exactly the fuzziness you're talking about -- I just hoped no one would notice. ;)

Thanks so much for the support and the constructive feedback. We'll definitely try to do a better job the next time around!
 
As I'm primarily a photographer, I'm not sure of the exact masking and layer methods you have available for that shot, but it's often best/easiest to use overlay/mulitply/grain merge/hard light/darken only etc, type layer modes in these situations. With a typically-blown sky these modes becomes extremely effective with only really a horizon grad to the mask needed. Edge and contrast detection type masking tools that attempt to follow complex and small outlines such as foliage, will strugger to convince the human eye effectively in my experience (and I usually have much more leeway due to typically working at much higher resultions than the vid guys too).

While a simple grad in a normal layer mode would have a wierd fade as it transitioned across the tree, depending on the scene, one of the modes above (and plenty more too) will allow the original outline and detail to show through, without any complex algorythms and frame-by-frame tracking needed. You'll have to play around of course as every scene/layer affects things differently, but in a typical scene where the sky is pastey/blown as a consequence of achieving better forground and subject exposure, it's very easy just to use something like the darken only mode on the new sky layer and tweak the curves for quick and effective results.

If I were to be compositing this scene myself, I'd make sure the sky and city were on seperate layers to facilitate this. Not sure if yours were or not, but just thought I'd throw that in there in case it's useful to you.

YMMV so it's worth experimenting, as with everything. And of course, if none of this is relevent then feel free to uttery ignore me. :P

The Mocha work was pretty cool too btw. I've not really had much of a chance to play with it tbh, as I keep getting sucked into my Source Filmmaker animation and modelling projects, but I could see the potential in it. There's only so many hours in a day to learn to use yet another piece of software! (and it's looking like it might be Blender next.... ugh). I was toying with the idea of doing a web series too, just for fun of course. It will probably on a comparably non-existant budget to yours too, so I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what other uses you find for it throughout the series.
 
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As I'm primarily a photographer, I'm not sure of the exact masking and layer methods you have available for that shot, but it's often best/easiest to use overlay/mulitply/grain merge/hard light/darken only etc, type layer modes in these situations. With a typically-blown sky these modes becomes extremely effective with only really a horizon grad to the mask needed. Edge and contrast detection type masking tools that attempt to follow complex and small outlines such as foliage, will strugger to convince the human eye effectively in my experience (and I usually have much more leeway due to typically working at much higher resultions than the vid guys too).

While a simple grad in a normal layer mode would have a wierd fade as it transitioned across the tree, depending on the scene, one of the modes above (and plenty more too) will allow the original outline and detail to show through, without any complex algorythms and frame-by-frame tracking needed. You'll have to play around of course as every scene/layer affects things differently, but in a typical scene where the sky is pastey/blown as a consequence of achieving better forground and subject exposure, it's very easy just to use something like the darken only mode on the new sky layer and tweak the curves for quick and effective results.

If I were to be compositing this scene myself, I'd make sure the sky and city were on seperate layers to facilitate this. Not sure if yours were or not, but just thought I'd throw that in there in case it's useful to you.

YMMV so it's worth experimenting, as with everything. And of course, if none of this is relevent then feel free to uttery ignore me. :P

The Mocha work was pretty cool too btw. I've not really had much of a chance to play with it tbh, as I keep getting sucked into my Source Filmmaker animation and modelling projects, but I could see the potential in it. There's only so many hours in a day to learn to use yet another piece of software! (and it's looking like it might be Blender next.... ugh). I was toying with the idea of doing a web series too, just for fun of course. It will probably on a comparably non-existant budget to yours too, so I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what other uses you find for it throughout the series.
Thanks, A.D. You're definitely right about the edge/contrast detection tools struggling to convince the human eye on complex outlines. Initially, we used a rotobrush tool in After Effects to key out the trees, but this was often time consuming and unconvincing. Eventually, we started using a filter in AE called "Colorama" that essentially converted the video footage to greyscale and automatically keyed out the sky (with a fair bit of tweaking). This process would often take out too much of the background (trees, leafs, ground, etc), so we'd use a matte choker to adjust the key and soften the edges. That's why there's a fair bit of blurriness or "fuzziness" around the trees that you noticed.

For the burning city shot, I believe we separated the composition into three layers: (1) the wasteland, (2) the burning city, and (3) the sky. Layer 1 was from the original footage shot on location, layers 2 & 3 were composed in Photoshop and tracked onto the shot.

If you (or anyone else) has anyone other tips or suggestions, we'd be more than happy to hear...
 
Ah cool. Interesting reply, thanks.

I'm not really up on AE, but if there's any way to adjust the radius around the tree then I find a broader mask will blend less obtrusively.

For a simply sky composit (photo, though just as applicable to film), I normally just mask in the sky overlay straight along the horizon line, and vary size of the grad until the new sky fades agreeably (depending on tree heights, hills, buildings etc). I then adjust the mask to bring any problem areas in or out by using a broad radius tool for this to keep the effect less jumpy to the eye. I've dont tend to find a need to get into the leaves as such unless it's really needed. It just takes ages to get looking good, and then yer still not happy. :D

A simply straight grad for the sky along the horizon generally makes it less jarring to the eye, and would keep any key framing, planar tracking, paralax stuff etc nice and simple too.

I presume that AE has a decent selction of layer blend modes to use. Have you played around much with them? No matter the shot/sky of choice, you'll probably find one that blends well without any real mask work beyond getting the horizon lined up and the initial grad applied. I'll stop waffling now anyway, as any more than this and I'm gonna be here all night nerding out over stuff that probably doesnt even factor into it for you video guys due to resolution and format/presentation differences.
 
Ah cool. Interesting reply, thanks.

I'm not really up on AE, but if there's any way to adjust the radius around the tree then I find a broader mask will blend less obtrusively.

For a simply sky composit (photo, though just as applicable to film), I normally just mask in the sky overlay straight along the horizon line, and vary size of the grad until the new sky fades agreeably (depending on tree heights, hills, buildings etc). I then adjust the mask to bring any problem areas in or out by using a broad radius tool for this to keep the effect less jumpy to the eye. I've dont tend to find a need to get into the leaves as such unless it's really needed. It just takes ages to get looking good, and then yer still not happy. :D

A simply straight grad for the sky along the horizon generally makes it less jarring to the eye, and would keep any key framing, planar tracking, paralax stuff etc nice and simple too.

I presume that AE has a decent selction of layer blend modes to use. Have you played around much with them? No matter the shot/sky of choice, you'll probably find one that blends well without any real mask work beyond getting the horizon lined up and the initial grad applied. I'll stop waffling now anyway, as any more than this and I'm gonna be here all night nerding out over stuff that probably doesnt even factor into it for you video guys due to resolution and format/presentation differences.

Thanks for the tips and discussion on blending and gradients. I believe AE has most, if not all, of the blending modes that Photoshop has. We haven't used them all, but in this project, we used several different modes -- not so much for replacing the sky -- but to help us blending in the zombie effects into the actor's face & body during the infection scenes.

For sky replacement, I agree with you that if the sky is blown out, you can usually achieve better results, especially if nothing is obstructing the horizon. The problem arises when you have a heavy gradient in your sky and there are objects (like trees) that are in the way. For that, AE has different effects (similar to filters in Photoshop) that allow you to key out the sky (i.e. "Colorama" in my earlier email). AE actually has really good tools for trees & sky replacements (i.e. tools like the roto tool). Unfortunately, we learned about all of this AFTER our project was already done! haha. Oh well, we hope we'll do better sky replacements in our next episode. I'm sure you'll let us know if we don't! ;)
 
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