I have more films now online

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:36 pm

Thanks to jpon i have been able to get these films uploaded and ready to see so i thank jpon for all of his work on helping me just to get these things uploaded. I know they suck but watch the idiots on parade to get an idea of what my friends are like. Please i know these suck, but wach them all the way through. Here are some of the shorts i have done so far...

http://downloads.city17online.com/downl ... t_Work.wmv

http://downloads.city17online.com/downl ... /C_I_A.wmv

http://downloads.city17online.com/downl ... Parade.wmv

http://downloads.city17online.com/downl ... _Wrong.wmv

Please let me know exactly what you guys think of this. I cant wait to hear the feedback on it. Lemme know what improvements i could make on these films.

Post by **Matt** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:40 pm

Downloading now. Will watch them some time this weekend ...

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:44 am

First Film : Sucked horribly, i dont care about the legal system, they dont need a warrant when it comes to guns. (Horrible)

Second film: No audio, it blows, and a shotgun doesnt make a gunshot sound effect. Thats a nokia phone not even making the nextel noise for 2 way. (HORRIBLE)

Third Film : I only watched 36 seconds of it. This is f*** retarted. The guy on the skateboard in the white shirt, and red pants, u can so tell he's faking falling. Seriously, this is not film making, this is total s*** (s***)

Forth Film : Ok, yes this is the dumbest robbery. If your going to rob something, be swift, have your plan ahead of time. Not standing at the door, with a gun. Second, dont tell the other kid what to do in the house. For god sakes, yeah dumbest robbery.

Overall : Ok, you need to work...ALOT....i mean...ALOT, i know my films were bad, but seriously dude, u have got to get on the ball, i know your tryin, and thats good....I noticed your useing windows movie maker. The first film i heard her say "cut"....whats bad about that, is u can actually chop up your footage in movie maker, so next time, edit it right. Overall this is total cr** and was a waste of my time. Im sorry to be harsh, i was at this stage too, believe me, take what im saying towards the positive. Dont be stupid and do this, actually try to make a film, i know your limited with what u got, try to make it so its not so obvious that your not trying. You can do so much better, u just gotta try

-Drifter

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:34 am

To be honest none of these are scripted, and second...........

the first movie is a comedy ting one of my friends did for a class.

The second one I did try on that one a little too hard. thephone inst nokia its a sony ericson in a big holster i go t with it.

THen the third is basically to show you what my dumbassed friends do when i have a camera. they act like performing monkeys who want to look dumb.

The fourth one yes i once again tried a little too hard, but its to show the stupid mentality of some men when they rob houses. I know how horrible it looks, but to be honest these were all meant for fun. I understand that they suck and im ok with that, i really am. I am not gonna take this as a sign of stopping what your doing. I am gonna keep on trying. And i remember people saying that your stuff sucked but that was a really long time ago. I liked the things you put in back then because it was better than anything i could do. I tried so hard on 2 actual films not hoping to be as good as everyone in here, but hoping that i would get the respect for trying. And im not feelin much of that, but i am willing to take more feedback. Anyone is welcome to say what they must. Be honest to the point like good old truggy here, dont try to soften up your opinions.

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:08 pm

i mean i know you your tryin, but try harder. Script it, most thing u have to work on is your Audio.

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:59 pm

my cam has some problems with audio i hav eno idea what was up with the humming in the background. Its because of the gears in the cam. That and my cam was too far away from the screen in the beginning of CIA

ipon70 · Post by **ipon70** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:50 pm

Thats IPON not JPON...LOL.

I to have downloaded and watch all of them, most I can't hear anything...except if you consider hum of the camcorder something

You are young and that is evident, but you can do better trust me. Do not settle for audio like that, I mean could you hear what was going on when you were editing it??? or did you just watch the picture and assumed the audio was ok. I don't like to bust on people really because I feel that sometimes you can kill someones spirit and they give up before they should. But I will say this, if you have any money at all, or can save a little, buy a book called "cut by cut" and another called "shot by shot", they are worth the money to give you ideas and training on what makes a better film. If you have to choose one, pick shot by shot.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 52-0844138

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 52-0844138

maj_barnes · Post by **maj_barnes** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 12:56 am

Alot of them, not to sound mean or anything, I had to like jump from one point ot another because at some points it got pretty boring.

Another thing, the CIA one, it could have been better; a good gun fight, isn't two guys shooting from cover in one giant shot. Try running around with the camera, if you have to tell the people to freeze what they're doing then do it, as long as you get different camera views. (But the shooting of the gun from the person's POV was pretty cool!).

Also, you seem to use different gun sounds for different guns, I don't know which one goes with which, like some times you use a pistol sound for for a shotgun, or a shotgun pump for cocking a pistol.

Also, you can can add muzzle flashes even though you are using Windows Movie Maker. Just take a screenshot where you want the flash, then the tenth of a second delete it; next go to the picture where you saved it, now open the picture of the muzzle flash and trace around it (the closer the better), then copy what you traced. (This is if you are using Bitmap!)Next paste the muzzle flash onto the screen shot and select the little transpanercy (bad spelling) box, then resize and place at the front of the muzzle. Then import the picture back into Movie Maker, and make the picture a tenth of a second were you deleted the other tenth of a second. Now you have a muzzle flash, repeat for more. I'll throw some test shots that I did a long time ago before I got Adobe.

ChemicalShaman · Post by **ChemicalShaman** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 2:55 am

Yeah look most of your movies are pretty bad, but still..... they are a start.

Nobody starts out brilliant, everybody has to start somewhere. I guess on the plus side they can't get any worse

so from here on they're only going to get better.

I know you have limited hardware etc available. Try recording your audio seperately and then sync it up, even if you use a tape recorder or something you will still get a much better effect for audio.

Also have a look around at some cheap editing software. Download ulead video studio from ulead.com, you can use a fully functional version of this for 30 days. It the sort of software you can just jump in to using and get really good efects immediately.

Anyways at least you're doing something constructive with your time

Keep trying, like I said you can only get better from here.

CS

maj_barnes · Post by **maj_barnes** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 3:07 am

Okay, I took a part out of that gun fight from C.I.A., and I did that Movie Maker trick to get muzzle flashes in and made it a bit shorter since it was so long, also I did the same trick when the guy gets shot. Took around a half an hour.

Also I used unified gun sounds for your shots, plus the two pistol sounds are Colts from BoB and SPR, the shotgun is from CS.

You may also notice that I took out alot of the gunshots, I did that to make it seem more like a real gun fight (of course this is based on the fact that gun recoils are bad and that people like to have aimed shots rather than walls of unguided lead).

Anyways, here you go!

http://barnesandbarnes.tripod.com/a.zip

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 4:34 am

it wouldnt let me download it man, so i cant see what it looks like.

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:24 am

i mean dont get me wrong, i jsut said my opinions, but man yes you have the initiative to do it, u can do lots better. Don't give up.

ipon70 · Post by **ipon70** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:42 am

Doesn't work for me either

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 7:33 pm

im not givin up, im gonna keep on goin, eventually ill be as good as you folks, until then i guess i need to read up more on what im doing.

Gyro · Post by **Gyro** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 10:11 pm

The skateboard one never ends!

maj_barnes · Post by **maj_barnes** » Sat Mar 26, 2005 10:47 pm

Okay try this one:
http://barnesandbarnes.tripod.com/C_I_A_Gun_Test.wmv

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:04 am

maj your still usign tripod to load it, i cant get into tripod to see it cause they want me to pay for an account

Truggy · Post by **Truggy** » Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:19 pm

right click, save as

V|Esquilaxer · Post by **V|Esquilaxer** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:12 am

Try blurring your muzzle flashes a little, it;ll blend more with your grainy, blurry source footage.

maj_barnes · Post by **maj_barnes** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:27 pm

Yea, I would have blurred them, but I was only using bitmap, and I didn't feel like messing with Photoshop.

Also, I saw your Dead Conspiracy, I was wondering what muzzle flash-
thingy stuff you used; I liked how they had a lot of smoke, any way I could get that?

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:16 am

yeah maj barnes thanx for tryin anyways man, but to be honest i am glad enough to say that my first work was shite. I think the only two films i got good reviews on was C.I.A. for the gun fight (minus the one pointless gun sfx that i forgot to take out) and the n one of my other films on here that i called The Bad Copy

maj_barnes · Post by **maj_barnes** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:33 pm

Hey no problem; I had nothing to do, and I thought that you might want to see some test footage of the whole screen shot minimize take forever to do muzzle flash thing.

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:54 pm

hey maj is your avatar from Saving Private Ryan? it just reminds me of the sock bomb thing they did in it.

dennismv · Post by **dennismv** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:22 am

1st video: sound -- background noise
some parts have sound out of sync.

Well, I'll take it as a social commentary on police work, and release of frustrations after the search I guess.

Somewhere I've read that they don't have to read you Miranda rights, and they don't always do. (But it's generally good for you to know that you have these rights anyway). The Miranda rights are usually read in movies for dramatic effect though.
There is an excellent site out there about knowing your rights, here are some excerpts:

If cops are at the door:
* Do ask if they have a warrant.
* Do not let them in without a warrant.
* Do say "I do not consent to a search."

If they have a warrant:
* Do step outside and close (but not lock!) the door behind you.
* Do say "I do not consent to a search"
* Do speak clearly so that others can hear you.
Do not stall them, but let them enter on their own if they wish. Repeat that you do not consent to a search if they do.

Well, these are just some things, but cops usually know their rights best, and they know when they can bend them.
So most of the time the cops are probably right. They can also manipulate you into letting them do certain things. i.e. they can lie to you, while you shouldn't lie to them, as it may later be used against you.

But then, suppose you know your rules and you can stop the cops from entering your house (temporarily), like when they don't have a warrant. I dunno, but maybe it may be best to just let them in. Otherwise, if they want to enter, they may (or will) get a warrant anyway and then they will probably be just more aggravated and p***. So if you have nothing to hide, it may be best to cooperate and let them in, but that's the area of your own judgement now.

I had a case when I got a ticket, and the rule goes that if the officer is not present in the courtroom, the ticket is dismissed. The officer was not present in the court room, but the case was not dismissed. Turned out that the officer was on patrol, and if I really wanted him in there, they'd page him, and have him there in 5 minutes. But then he'd probably be p*** because of the inconvenience, and give me a full sentence or something. Just to note I had a real lawyer, the one I paid to defend me, present, so he had to know best, I hope. They didn't call the cop. They dismissed some violation, but counted the other one, and I had to go to a mandatory driving class (one session).

Overall, the first video was kinda fun. Good idea. I liked the way the cop searched through the house. That was the coolest part !

I'd probably do this differently, still fun but more seriously.

these are the things I'd remove:
* you guys are having fun in front of the camera (first part, before the cop arrives). I like how you're having fun, yet I sense the resentment after the cop search. If you can get that feeling out of this part, it's probably be less taxing on the viewer.
* talking to the camera -- during the search
* mocking the cop, mocking the fact that the tapes are out of the drawers

I'd probably do it more like:
* in first part quickly explain why I'm doing the video, fade to black, and then go to the cops sequence. Alternatively, this part may be left out, and instead just put a description in text, next to the video. i.e. "this video was inspired by ..."
* When the cop searches, I would play dummy-like and express my emotions and ask questions like: "are you allowed to do this ??!!", "please don't search THERE". When the cop does something utterly outrageous, like throwing your favorite tapes on the floor, I'd say "oh please, no my tapes!!". You did this in the movie, but you had more mockery, like "oh, tapes, how could they do this to you". What I mean is, I feel that in the movie it was overdone. I'd tone it down a bit.
Your character, the one that's being searched, is cocky and acts like he knows what cop should an shouldn't do, comments on cop's actions, talks to the camera and at the same time he switches to the "Oh, please don't search me" mode. That's a bit two-sided. I'd just do the "please don't search me mode", or have two characters do each role separately.
* I'd also try to get some cop/security guard costume from a costume type store and use that.

As for when you said "cut" in the video, it went okay for me. Since you were having fun, and doing non-sequiturs, "cut" was just another cute thing.

-----
2nd: bad bad audio
I didn't quite get the point of the video,
some people shoot, some people die ...

but then I personally dislike shoot-outs,
so I didn't really try to follow this one as hard.

Finger in front of the camera lens kinda throws things off too... a sign of unprofessionalism.
These are details but they do matter.
Gun effects and other sound effects in general sounded out of place/out of sync.

-----
3rd: this looked more like something that I'd film for myself/my family to later look at.
Like a vacation video, or something that can be called "me and my friends having fun with skateboards"
Bad sound again.

As in, there was no real point you could latch onto. Just spending time.

-----
4:

What's the point ?
letter "A" on camera at some point in the clip ? hehehehe

It was not immediately obvious who the owner of the house was.
You can show this by having the owner arrive -- by showing the outside of the house and the owner coming, opening the door, etc. Or if the owner was already inside the house, show the owner suddenly hearing strange noises, going to investigate. I got confused a bit, as the owner and one of the robbers is played by the same person ..
First I thought .. why did the clothes change ? hehehe

-----
General comments:
Nice titles at the end of the videos

work on the audio, if you can. It will improve things greatly even without doing anything else.
I'm not sure why there's so much background noise ...
I got myself a wireless mic for better sound, but haven't used it yet.
The sound I usually have straight out of the camera is pretty good.

Camera movements are sometimes jerky, especially in the robbers video.
I usually try to find a point in the video. Sometimes the point may not make sense or be weird or silly, but I can usually tell that there is a point. The skateboard video didn't have much of a point for me.

The first video looked best to me.

Well, that said, I don't claim to be an expert, these are just my opinions :)

Spike_P_2 · Post by **Spike_P_2** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 7:19 pm

i understand and thats actually some good points, but in the robbers video there are two different black guys they r brothers

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