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watch Moments (Spy film)

I think with the type of short film that this is (sort a narrative reflection on the guy's life), you really shouldn't have his face introduced in the first shot - normal set ups for films start off with an establishing shot of the scene, in your case a couple of shots of the city or something like that would suffice.

With the film being set up to be a very internal story, it's an odd choice to have developed the woman's character at all, even if you did so very briefly. Your film would have benefited a lot from being a completely internal story without external characters. I know that's a hard thing to do with this, seeing as the whole thing is that he kills people, but if you'd gone along with a story that focused a lot more on his coping with the knowledge that he'd killed people as opposed to bringing in the female as a main character (which I feel you've done accidentally, but having him let her go when he saw her family photograph basically makes her an important part of the story) I think it would have been a lot better. Imagine a scene basically the same as the one where he let the woman go, but instead he kills her and then finds the photograph, reflecting back on it later when he's in his apartment and going through essentially the same thought process.

That end scene where he gets killed... I dunno, it just didn't feel right. The whole film seemed too fast, and I think your main problem is that you've tried to fit too much of a story into too little a space, making it feel fairly rushed. The sound quality was fine, as was the image quality, but I think more planning should go into the shots.

tl;dr: lengthen the film or simplify the story further, and plan it all out a bit better.
 
Thanks for the feedback, you bring up some really interesting points that could help my future projects. the shot were a little rushed because I was filming in downtown fort lauderdale and I'm not really from that area so I couldn't stay for too long and my actor had to be done early. As for finding the photograph afterward, that would've been a really cool twist that I didn't think before about. Thanks for the help!
 
I thought for a new filmmaker this was pretty good. I think, however, there is a lot that needs to be cleaned up. For one, the camera work needs a lot more refining. I don't mind handheld when it's done properly, but it was kind of off-the-cuff, and there were far too many messy racks and zooms in the piece. There was way too much 'finding' the focus. I don't even mind if you go from out of focus to focus to start a shot...but you should never miss the mark and rack past the individual and then come back to them...there was one shot (where he leaves the building) where you racked past then over compensated, then racked again...just couldn't find focus. You should always have enough coverage and footage to never have to use that kind of error. One shot I liked was the pan outside...know why? Because it was on a tripod. :)

I would say to get a steady cam...I'm guessing you didn't have one. For instance you can tell when the camera man starts to walk to follow a subject. With a decent steady cam (even homemade ones) you wouldn't see so much sway when the camera op goes from stationary to moving. It gets distracting and is a sign of an ultra low budget and/or inexperienced camera op or DP. We almost have to work even harder as indie micro budget filmmakers to prove ourselves. All your ducks have to be in a row, and you can't throw any red flags out. You're asking a lot with a film like this (very young inexperienced actors) so you especially have to hit all your production marks.

I would also comment on the audio...it needs a lot of TLC also in terms of initial recording as well as design and mixing.

Don't take this advice too harshly. It's just my opinion, and I think you've got some really good starter stuff in there...keep it up. Kudos for the good work.

Thanks for listening.
 
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canon t2i stock lens and some cheap tripod. for the v.o I used an azden smg-x mic and recorded with my dvx100b since I dont have a beachtek adapter yet.
 
The advice is great because it points out ways I could improve my production value. I wasn't taking the shoot too serious, I just wanted to film something for the fun of it!thanks for your input!

Also I need to invest in some kind of stabilizer support for a T2i, have any suggestion that would break the piggy bank?
 
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