My short horror film: THE CALL

[WasteOfGoodSuffering]

I've already had lots of feedback on this short digital film of mine, I'm aware of all it's flaws, but more feedback is welcomed. This is my first film project I've tackled outside of High School and I'm starting another one in May.

The Call
Plot: A man recieves a series of phone calls through out the night from a woman being held captive by a sadistic serial killer.

Watch it here:
http://onthelamproductions.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

or here:

http://blip.tv/file/543810/

[SaulB]

Solid effort.

Editing is fantastic, cutting out unimportant details while leaving enough and having a good enough pace to keep the audience interested. The cuts which seem to be leading to later points in the same takes indicate the hopelessness of the situation on more than one occasion.

Sound design is solid, could've used more pipe dripping in the boiler room ala the Nightmare series, but much better scoring than I'm used to seeing in short student horror. I would've liked a longer audio build up to the final reveal, as it was extremely intuitive, in a classic Twilight Zonish manner, but came and went rather too fast.

The cinematography is an issue, but I'm particular and I'd have to watch it again to really get a feel for why it didn't grab me. The feel, thankfully, isn't greatly diminished by my issues with the camerawork.

Overall, like I said, stellar. Keep it up.

[WasteOfGoodSuffering]

The cinematography is an issue, but I'm particular and I'd have to watch it again to really get a feel for why it didn't grab me. The feel, thankfully, isn't greatly diminished by my issues with the camerawork.

Overall, like I said, stellar. Keep it up.

I think the biggest problem was not using a tripod at all. That's something I'm going to take care of next time. Thanks for the feedback.

[Flashheart]

I really liked it -- I had a feeling for what the twist would be, but not quite how it would materialise -- I actually think you could have safely cut down on some of the stuff with the guy coming home and going to bed, etc and still gotten the same thing across. I'm from a different discipline, though, so that could just be different ways of working Really good work with the sound, though, definitely agree with the above.

I am having a nightmare of a time with sound at the moment, I'm really not qualified to do it, but I'm the most qualified of everyone working on the project, so it leaves me stuck with it, haha.

[Your Mothers Boomstick]

poster reminds me of the cover for the book cell

[Westcroft]

poster reminds me of the cover for the book cell

Although this has nothing to do with this thread... I hated that book, so much!

Anywhoo, I remember seeing this movie posted on Indymogul's forums. You're everywhere

I thought it was very good, the lighting was a bit of a problem. I might do a quick tutorial post for lighting (I did one before the forums closed and were reopened).

[WasteOfGoodSuffering]

Really? I've actually never registered an account on that forum before. Maybe someone I know posted it there. I'll have to look for it.

Thanks for that lighting tutorial by the way. Very helpful.

[Westcroft]

Really? I've actually never registered an account on that forum before. Maybe someone I know posted it there. I'll have to look for it.

Thanks for that lighting tutorial by the way. Very helpful.

I tried to find a link, but now I'm starting to doubt myself... maybe it was somewhere else... poops. Well I'll keep an eye out and no worries about the tutorial! I appreciate the feedback though.

Does anybody want to suggest some ideas for my next tutorial?

[Your Mothers Boomstick]

how bout marks and/or editing

[WasteOfGoodSuffering]

Special effects if you know any. I need to find some advice on how to slit someone's throat.

[Westcroft]

how bout marks and/or editing

What do you mean by "marks"? Perhaps I refer to whatever they are as something else, for I'm not sure what you're referring to

Special effects if you know any. I need to find some advice on how to slit someone's throat.

I'll see what I can do. I remember seeing a tutorial on how to do this, but I can't recall where... so I might just rehash it from memory!

[Your Mothers Boomstick]

telling an actor where to stand and mainly explaining cuts and movements to actors especially with regard to marks

[Westcroft]

telling an actor where to stand and mainly explaining cuts and movements to actors especially with regard to marks

I would get some gaffer tape or cloth tape, putting the tape on the ground will mark where your actor stands. Use different colors to mark for different actors. To explain a camera movement or cut to said actor, I will simply have the actor stand behind the monitor with you, then have someone stand in his place... then do the camera move, this way the actor will see where you want him.



Storyboard any camera movements and make sure to draw in where your actor will be in every shot for the more complex camera moves. Then go over it with your actors so they aren't coming on set with no idea as to what's going to happen. Also a shooting draft of your script will help... I always write in my camera movements into my script, so every draft is a shooting draft. This is a great way to write if you're making scripts for yourself... but if it's a script you're pitching or giving to another director, try to reframe from making a shooting script.

Get a storyboard template here: http://www.open.ac.uk/crete/movingwords/pdf/storyboard.pdf



As for editing, depending on what kind of equipment you're using to film... I would suggest Adobe After Effects or Adobe Premiere Pro for  high end footage or Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas for less serious work. If you're using a mac then use final cut pro for high end footage or just imovie for fun. Take a ton of test footage and practice color correction... it's my favorite aspect of the higher end editing programs (unlike Pinnacle Studios that is a waste of cash)... when you film a scene and there are multiple angles, when you intercut it there will be obvious differences in the lighting that cannot be changes... perhaps one shot will look more yellow then another. Color correction fixes this... Practice doing this.

Reframe from using transitions... the only one you'll probably get away with is dissolve, other then that it's always too cartoony. The simple cut is pretty much the only transition you'll want to use unless you're using it for a specific reason... If you're using transitions like "wipe" it'll just look like an episode of the Brady Bunch.

As for audio editing, try layering audio tracks on top of each other so that when you're intercutting between two people talking, then you'll have the audio track to seem fluid... so layering the tracks will make them feel like one track opposed to a track with many cuts.

[Your Mothers Boomstick]

thx, glad i already started making a storyboard, btw do you know of any free editing software that is better then microsoft movie editor

[Westcroft]

As far as free editing programs, you're not going to get fancy color correction, video and audio tweaking options and other bells and whistles...

I'll make a list of free software for different things in the form of a new topic.