Short clips I made :)

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:49 pm

I entered the first one in that film competition thingy but thought I'd post it here too..

http://matt.echowave.net/uploads/jedi.wmv
http://matt.echowave.net/uploads/fs-toths.wmv

Thanks to all the forum peeps who helped and thanks to Epsilon for hosting them.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:53 pm

Very interesting, I'll have to check them out when I get home and see what masterpieces have been placed on my server!

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 9:51 pm

Hmm, I must say that was very interesting. Both of them.

The Jedi movie is rather silly and the cinematography is quite bad. For one, none of the camera angles relate to one another in the storyline. It Looks like a home video. The visual effects are fine, but it looks as if that is the Only thing you were trying to create out of this movie. There really isn't a plot from I can see. Definately spend some times going through books in a library and really learn about effective videography and nature of filmmaking. Most important of all, watch more movie and really try to grasp the feel of the art. You broke too many rules in the aspect and there is so much for you to learn still. The soundtracking didn't make any sense and cut in and out. Perhaps you should set high standards for yourself and really try to create a masterpiece.

For starters, really sit down and come up with a storyline. It has to have emotions and involve the viewer. The actual filming is a very important task. It should take critical thinking and piece it together shot by shot. Having a guy standing and hold a camera is not good cinematography. That displays amateurism. Find out the rule of thirds and the 180 rules. Any angles in this type of movie where the camera is higher than the actors' head is an overhead shot, which are unnecessary. Be creative and brainstorm.

On the other hand, the action did look somewhat planned and even rehearsed with the fighting. But remember, do Not base a movie on special effects alone. Make it really worth your time and effect. Make it something you want people to look out and Feel it! Anybody can do boom bang effects! Most importantly of all: Have fun! Though you seem to have that one down perfectly fine!

Good job and keep trying!

Experimentation leads to great things.

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 10:36 pm

Yeah, that's probably a pretty good overview, although I thought I at least did a little better than a home video as far as camera work goes. Maybe not.

There was no script and any story is just me attempting to explain what we filmed. It was more of a special effects test, which is why I put it in the Special Effects forum.

I wouldn't mind reading more about camera angles and stuff, though. I messed around with a wide-angle lens for some of the first part of the movie, but wasn't sure if or how to effectively use it.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 10:43 pm

Yeah, make sure you learn the basics. Then read more and more into your variety options, like using wide angles and depth of field. Taking a photography class and learning more about applying lenses always helps too. Not to mention it'll open up more creative freedoms while still remaining in the threshold of good camerawork. I like wider lens usage in tighter areas, like in a hallway. That way the viewer doen't get motion sick!

The lightsabers aren't bad. But if you want the final touch, make them glow and flicker a little more like in the Star Wars films. You know, they uctually used rotoscoping in the original trilogy for lightsabers.

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 11:15 pm

Yeah, I agree with epsilon. The second one I'm not going to comment on becuase the keying was just yeah well really badly done. The first one seemed good for visual effects to an extent, but a lot needed work, you should start small , do a plot that requires little to no visual effects at all, remember a movie dosn't need effects to be good, just a plot.

Firestorm · Post by **Firestorm** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 4:17 am

The keying? Haha, I used the sky for that.. :p I've since built a blue screen tho.

mercenary123 · Post by **mercenary123** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:34 pm

I only watched the jedi.wmv, I thought it was alright, i really liked the jedi deflecting the lasers.

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:56 pm

Yeah, mercinary it's a pretty simple effect, i've seen it done better.

Nomaden · Post by **Nomaden** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 3:19 pm

I liked it, keep up the work

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:47 am

I feel it lacked.. I duno, depth.

By the way, this is posted in the wrong section

Parallax · Post by **Parallax** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:46 pm

holy cr**, goto film school lol. camera angles continuity i know your young but the sooner you learn the techniques the better off you will be cause it looks to me like playing with friends to giggle at later and not the kind of thing i would even watch the whole thing after the first few seconds if i was the judge in a film competition

ipon70 · Post by **ipon70** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 5:41 pm

Epsilon wrote:Any angles in this type of movie where the camera is higher than the actors' head is an overhead shot, which are unnecessary.

I am just curious on this comment, are you saying that in any situation that an overhead shot is unnecessary??

Because I think an overhead shot of say a couple of people looks ok.. Let me know what you are thinking on this.

Thanks.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:58 pm

I just felt the camera placement could have been much stronger, and simply lowering it would have made a drastic improvement.

The best book I've ever seen on Cinematography is titled: Cinematography:Theory and Practice by Blain Brown. It's a college book and has so much depth into the art. At least seek it out and read through it once. You will learn so much and things will make sense! There are other great books out there too. One I also recommend is called Directing: Shot by Shot. The whole book talks and shows camera angles and usage. Somewhat pricey, but just spend a day in Borders or Barnes and Nobles to read it through. GREAT STUFF!

V|Esquilaxer · Post by **V|Esquilaxer** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 12:34 pm

Guys, you can clearly see they were experimenting with filming, clearly shown by 'pod' race and the whole idea of being a parody in many ways.

Surprisingly, I am shocked to see how well you've got the visual effects down.

We can clearly see they had fun when filming this, no pressure and no business hollywood production setting for them. Having fun is just as important as getting the right angles.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:48 pm

Having fun is THE most important aspect in amateur filmmaking!

ra2929 · Post by **ra2929** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:11 pm

Since the lightsaber effect is easy, will someone tell me how to do it? My kids would get a kick out of it, if I could make little 4 and 6 year old jedi's on film.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:25 pm

Nobody said lightsabers are easy. It takes a rather devoted amout of time to learn your effects program like Adobe After Effects or Pinnacle Combustion. The concept of making a glowing rod in a movie can be far more tedious than it seems. I'm not that familiar with lightsabers in post production, but there are many great tutorials around. Definately check out www.ryan-w.com for starters. He has posted many great tips and some rather fine details. Also take a look around in the past special effects threads here, members have posted great ideas in the past. The trick is to get a 2d composite that moves as you want and masking as necessary. You can always do it frame by frame, but that's a lot of work. Once you get faster at it, it will seem easy. But no one can blast off from the beginning!

Did you know in the original Star Wars they actually use rotating reflector rods for the lightsabers!? It was so unimpressive they did rotoscoping in post! Optical composites are more effort than what anybody should do today. Digital is great!

By the way, it isn't the weapon that makes a Jedi, it's how it's used.

redrobinonline · Post by **redrobinonline** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:45 pm

I only watched the first one and i thought the light sabers were pretty cool. I especially liked the part where he deflects the lasers. But it did lack a story line but it was pretty interesting to watch.

redrobinonline · Post by **redrobinonline** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:46 pm

I just watched the second one and i was wondering did you take scenes from Pirates of the Carribean. If you did you should be careful cuz they could get you for plagarism.

I3lade203 · Post by **I3lade203** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:47 pm

Parallax wrote:holy cr**, goto film school lol. camera angles continuity i know your young but the sooner you learn the techniques the better off you will be cause it looks to me like playing with friends to giggle at later and not the kind of thing i would even watch the whole thing after the first few seconds if i was the judge in a film competition

Thats a pretty stupid post, no need to spend money going to film school, you can learn it all your self through experiance.. thats how your really gonna learn. Film school yeah it's fun, but isn't what it sounds. Mabye it's his first film, but you learn through experiance , not as much in a classroom.