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watch A dark Comedy preview critiques needed

Please take a few minutes and watch the first two minutes of my short film "The Hollow Heart" A dark comedy. Please note there has been no color grading yet. We are still shooting scenes and I would like to know how I can make this better. This will be my third short film.

Honest critiques are appreciated!

Thank you.

Please watch in 1080p

http://youtu.be/vYCL_spCOwY
 
It's okay. I think the framing could be improved just a little bit. The editing was good, and the dialogue was adequate. I am not sure what that blurry thing was though, and it needs a better sense of 'place'.
 
I'm watching without sound since I'm at work, so this critique is just on the more visual/technical aspects, since I obviously won't be able to react to the story or comedy elements.

First thoughts, your lighting is very hard, there's a lot of hard shadows, glare on the faces, and the images are even bordering on overexposed. I do appreciate that you obviously took the time to try and light your scene, since most new(er) filmmakers tend to say, 'Hey, I've got a DLSR with a fast lens, who needs to light?' So step one accomplished, you're aware of and thinking about lighting. Now it's time to refine that. From the amount of light I'm gonna guess that you're using a pretty strong light, maybe even one of those 500w work lights. Go out and grab some diffusion gels and clip them on the front of the light. Don't use just anything as these lights get very hot and can be a fire hazard. Gels meant for lighting are flame-resistant and at worst might get a little melty. The other option is to get a soft-box. Make-up will also help with the facial glare.

The shot at 0:53 is out of focus, even at 1080p. Just keep an eye out for stuff like that. If you can't tell clearly from your camera display, you can use focus assist (with a static shot like this) or measure the distance and adjust your lens accordingly.

Some of the framing could use some work. It's not that it's terrible, but it could be more artfully done to use the camera to help tell the story. Also, you crossed the line slightly from your very first shot to the second one. It was a little disorienting. Crossing the line is fine if it's intentional, but you need to establish context so we as the audience still know where/what we're looking at. The only other shots that seemed jumpy/disorienting are at about 0:35 0:37 and 0:44. I think the reason the first one is jumpy is because you've put a shot of the other two guys in between the shot of him getting up and then of him walking toward the camera. So in a way, it's like we're going from no movement to movement. The second one, is a little strange because you've got the guy walking straight toward the camera, but then when we cut to the other direction, he steps in frame from the right. And the third just has no context. The last time we saw those two they were sitting, now BAM, they are walking to the door.

If those were intentionally like that to disorient the viewer, then ignore my comments, like I said I'm watching without sound so I'm not getting the nuances of the story.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks for replying and yes this is helpful! Yes I did use a work light, I did notice how hard the light was while shooting and didn't have access to any diffusion materials at the time, next time around I aim to have those materials along with a more affective and safer light source. As for crossing the line in the first shot, are you talking about the 180 degree rule? If so no I did not intentionally cross the line and will have to work on that. I get what your saying about going from no movement to movement, maybe it will go smoother for you if you ever get the time to watch it again with sound. I would appreciate your critique on the dialog and story line aspects as well. Thank you again!
 
Just to add a little to the above, the scene with the gold, I was feeling like I wanted more shots, cutaways there. They, the actors, tell us, oh, look, there's some gold, but I was left wondering where the gold was. True, the one picks up the gold necklace or chain and we eventually see it catch the light a little bit, but that felt inadequate to me. Unless not showing us well lit close-ups was intentional to convey a sense of mystery. But that didn't seem like what was at work there. Instead, if felt like some artfully lit cutaways and close-ups were missing so that we could see what was going on, instead of just taking the actors' words for it.

The actor who gets up and goes for a smoke...it was a bit difficult to make out what he was saying.

Nice work. =)
 
Thank you for watching! I will do another shot of the gold for sure...I was trying to come off a bit mysterious but it seems like the viewers aren't catching that. Was it difficult for you to hear him talking because of an technical audio issue? Or was it just the way he was talking?
 
Thank you for watching! I will do another shot of the gold for sure...I was trying to come off a bit mysterious but it seems like the viewers aren't catching that. Was it difficult for you to hear him talking because of an technical audio issue? Or was it just the way he was talking?
 
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