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Short Student Films - Nikon D90, No Budget, 50 1.8 / 105 2.5
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:24 am    Post subject: Short Student Films - Nikon D90, No Budget, 50 1.8 / 105 2.5 Reply with quote

I shot two of my latest student film projects on a Nikon D90, mainly with a borrowed 50mm 1.8 (e series) and 105/2.5 nikkor. Criticism? I know sound is off in many scenes, I am on a very tight (basically 0$) budget! I also used a homemade counterweight system to keep some of the moving shots a bit more balanced to try and avoid the terrible jello effect on this camera.

Rufous (about 10 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1QH4UUNKr4

Blight (About 4 minutes) This video has a lot more technical issues, especially with the editing, as we only have 24 hours draft our script, shoot, and edit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiGyZ7NEkFA

Please do not be turned off by the bars and tone at the beginning - It is so you can set your speaker volume to a safe level! It should be audible but not at all piercing.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very nice, the cinematography is very pleasing, good work.


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

captivating, very well made.
congrats and keep up the good work!


PostPosted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really like the second one, because the use of blur is really coherent and tight to the story. Congratulations! Too often I see aesthetizing only use of blur in DSLR movies. In this case, the effect really serves the story.
Which, I have to say, does not always happens in the first movies. Sometimes, there, you feel that some blur passages are really a limitation of technique and tools rather than a language adherent to the story.
In the second movie, I also liked a lot the more direct style.
Congratulations and keep up the good work.


PostPosted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

At the time of shooting these I still wasnt too used to SLR cinemtography, so I didnt stop down too much.....next time I think I want to have a big mix of shallow and really deep focus.....probably shallow as possible shooting at 1.4 for closeups of faces and whatnot, and then for action or other wider scenes shoot much deeper.


PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 3:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the quality is pretty darn amazing! I sent this to my son and daughter who are also interested in video.


PostPosted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I too really like the second one. There are a couple of technical areas that I think could be improved slightly, but this is minor to the overall content.

Got a couple of questions:

Was the sound recorded by the D90? If so, what did you think of its sound quality? I'm listening to the video from speakers built in to my monitor, so it's kind of hard for me to tell. Smile

Also, does UCI stand for UC Irvine? My alma mater is just down the road a piece: Cal State Fullerton. I got my BA and MA from there. UCI is a cool school, though.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yup, UCI is Irvine. The second film has mostly sync'd sound - so none of it recorded at the time. The only exception is the scene where the guy and his girlfriend are coming home right before he reads the letter - that sound is direct from camera. And it really, really sucks.

In fact, I had a guy doing sound on a zoom H1 which we used for a lot of the sound work. For this scene, however, we were on such a time crunch with the 24 hour time limit I didnt have time to sync it up even though I had him running behind me with a paintpole boom just over my right shoulder. If anything thats the one scene I really hate - it wasnt even a decent take and the sound is constantly clipping but we had to use it.

As for the blurry aesthetic, we originally wanted to have that effect only on the sort of surreal "dream" sequences, but as we couldnt afford much lighting it sort of found its way into many more of the scenes Very Happy


PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What school do you study? I like to see what another student film makers trying to do. I also study at Film faculty.
Regards your work. Camera was fine but decoupage (don't know how to say it other way) sometimes wasn't too good. Sound could be more solid also. Boom is good thing which you can have behind shoulder. I heard that sound it what makes film more better looking and I think that it is true. Second film was better. Editing was more fluent and dreamy look also succeed. Cross finges in next shooting.