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Short Film Trailer: REPRODUCTION - Download the OST!
Drunk_caterpillar
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello Penny Arcade!
So there're threads about photos, threads about bands and drawing, but I don't see very many threads on films that we're all working on. I thought I'd pop over and post a trailer for a short that I'm submitting to festivals this year. I'd love to post the whole thing, because it is finished, but it would really compromise my chances of getting programmed into a festival if I did. Anyway, here's the synopsis of the project:
The New Republic of Alberta flourishes after separating from Canada during the recession in 2010, but things take a dark turn when the government begins reintroducing eugenics policies from Alberta's past. Gina Phillips and Mark Robson star in Alex Mitchell's ambitious blend of philosophy and speculative fiction as two ordinary citizens who's lives are deeply affected by the Department of Fertility and Reproductive Rights.
As a technical aside, this was shot on a DVX-100b but I uploaded a 720p master to make the Youtube version look as good as it could. Please rate it and let me know what you guys think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KALcMw-vGFw
[Edit]
My composer just finished the soundtrack a little while ago, so I'm in the clear to release it free of charge. Here's a link to my downloads page:
http://www.drunkcaterpillar.ca/Reproduction/Downloads.html
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www.drunkcaterpillar.ca/reproduction/
Also, the trailer has since made the rounds and even got picked up by the Newbury Film Series blog. They're going to be conducting and interview soon about the short and the creative process behind it.
http://twitwall.com/view/?what=0008050C01
In addition to all this, the film is pretty much done. My composer just got a new score to me this week, which means that the sound mix is pretty much finished. I think I'm going to get my actors in for a few quick re-shoots but other than that, and erasing a few brand logos here and there, the film is complete!
Also, the idea for the trailer is something I've actually wondered myself... with all the terrible parents out there, would it be a idea to make parenthood a privilege much like driving a car. I'd really like to see this idea expanded upon, I can see it being a very powerful film/shortfilm.
edit: and double posting is alright as long as you add new/important information or projects
As for the idea, I actually got it from a forum I used to visit a while ago. There was an article about some bonehead parent and everyone was talking about parent licensing. We were arguing about this for hours, and it turned out to be something I was really interested in making a movie of. I'd love to make a feature length version of this too, because I think that the idea would support a ninety minute film for sure.
Thanks for the note about double posting. It's good to know I'm not being a total jerk by updating a thread that fell off the first page. ;-)
Anyways, good luck at the festivals!
Anyway, as part of an effort to be really open about the project, here's the official soundtrack. It's only two songs, but I feel like my composer did a really spectacular job getting the tone right. Enjoy!
http://www.drunkcaterpillar.ca/Reproduction/Downloads.html
Anyways, this looks interesting, since I think the idea should actually be put into effect. Nice use of Nine Inch Nails for the trailer. I think the trailer could have a bit more content in relation to the characters that are going to be involved, if there is a protagonist. Otherwise, this looks like it was shot really well; I like the muted colors. Gives me hope for the quality DVX can produce; I'm shooting on an HVX but I can't get a P2 card, so basically the same thing.
Good question. Obviously the DVX can only shoot 480p because it's an NTSC camera, but converting the final output to 720p and uploading it to Youtube does have some compelling benefits. To start I'll just answer your first question. Compressor, part of the Final Cut Studio, is able to scale video pretty well. Like any other scaler out there it can't add detail that isn't there, but it can smooth out some jagged lines or remove a little noise, but that's pretty much it. Essentially, it's just a high quality scaling algorithm that may or may not be better than other scaling algorithms out there. I shot 480p and then told Compressor, on output, to scale it to 1280x720. That's pretty much all it takes.
Why I did it is another story. See, uploading to Youtube is all about minimizing compression artifacting. The better the source that you can upload, the better that the video will look. Uploading a video at 720p, even if it was only shot at 480p, looks better than if you only upload at 480p. The way that they dole out bitrates for different resolutions is mostly to blame. Anyway, I'm sure you'd agree that the "HD" version of the video looks better, but they both look really good for Youtube videos, IMO. Also, I find that they also encode the audio at a higher bitrate for HD clips, so it sounds better too.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words and good luck on your own stuff! The HVX is a wonderful camera, and now that the new E series P2 cards are out you should be able to pick up a 16Gb card for a few hundred, or less.
I guess I didn't mean I support eugenics, but in general I think it sucks that a lot of kids lives are pretty terrible just because their parents got drunk one night and didn't know what the hell they were doing with their lives, and are not really prepared to be teaching new human beings how to live in the world. I don't know what the premise of the film is, but I guess there's other solutions before relegating parenting that could solve those sorts of problems. There's not actually any realistic solution to anything other than just letting the human race develop as it does, helping those you can, and suspending grief over the fact that you can't ever help everyone.
In respects to all that, I can tell your film has an obviously biased slant, and I can't say until I watch it if I agree whether or not such regulations would ever be practical if developed appropriately. I honestly wouldn't mind if the world's population stopped growing so quickly. Maybe then it would be easier to take care of some problems.
I know nothing about film production, however, so I can't give much criticism.
So right now I'm working on removing some brand logos. Someone wore a Stewie Griffin t-shirt and a Calgary Flames hat in plain site during the filming, so now I have to go through frame by frame and stamp tool the damn things out by hand in After Effects. Does anyone know a better way of doing this other than drawing out a thousand frames by hand?
Yeah, but those both usually don't look quite right. What I'm doing right now is using the stamp tool to re-texture over the logo and then doing a motion track of the hat itself so I can soften out the edges of the stamp enough that it doesn't look super unnatural. I suppose I could create some kind of mask that also tracks, but the hat moves so often that I don't know if one shape would work, and tweening a mask would probably be as much of a pain in the ass as painting every one of the frames. There are also things moving past the hat, which compounds my issues because of motion blur. It may be that a lot of these issues get ironed out when I colour correct but that's a long way down the workflow chain.
Learn this lesson kids: make sure no one wears a logo in your shoot!