Indie Canadian Cop Show

[AshleyAshes]

[video=youtube;orVWW0BJs-M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orVWW0BJs-M[/video]

I had thread going on about this production but combined with lack of interest and the production itself dragging on into oblivion I let it slide. However we're finally done. There is one scene missing, where our would be shooter is picked up outside a bar. We were given permission to use our school's Ambulance and Police car but by the time filming came they were actually inoperable. :X We filmed this entirely on the campus of Algonquin College in Ottawa Canada, the school's sub-schools were nice enough to set us up with resources from the Paramedic, Police and Nursing programs on campus. I'll admit the acting is probably the weakest point but since we're all mostly working on the technical end of production and had only a couple of 'real actors', it's more of a demonstration of technical ability than anything else. We even had someone from the local police service give us a hand on shoots and supplied us with the airsoft guns we used for the shoot outs.

While we put a lot of production value into this, we actually filmed it using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i (or '550D' in Europe) which is a consumer level DSLR that only cost $700 or so when it was new. It's pretty amazing how approachable filming making has become thanks to technology.

 

[Kalmor]

The link returns a 404 for me.

 

[AshleyAshes]

The link returns a 404 for me.

Saw that, fixed it.

 

[Kalmor]

I have to say it's very good for an indie show. Very well done. I'd love to send you a critique from a viewer's perspective (as I absolutely have no clue about film-making or multimedia production) but I don't know if a post in this thread would be the right place or in a PM.

 

[AshleyAshes]

I have to say it's very good for an indie show. Very well done. I'd love to send you a critique from a viewer's perspective (as I absolutely have no clue about film-making or multimedia production) but I don't know if a post in this thread would be the right place or in a PM.

I welcome feedback, it's not a circle jerk of 'OMG congrats'. We're students who've only been at this for two years, there's TONNES of things we can do better, there's things in there I can pick out now that make me go 'Oh, I wish I'd done that different' and I bet you it'll be a much LONGER list if I look at it again a year from now.

Heck, I'll go first. Acting. Not enough extras in the ER. The hallway scene with the stretcher has focus issues due to some lighting issues that made us shoot with a shallower depth of field than we wanted. The blood on the wall 'jiggles' cause I'm new at tracking. Blood on his shirt disappears cause we only did the digital effect and weren't prepared with a practical effect AFTER he hits the floor. Not enough establishing shots between scenes (This is caused by some logistical issues we faced too). You can't actually get up after 2 shots to the chest if just wearing Kevlar without ceramic inserts.

...Your turn.

 

[Kalmor]

I welcome feedback, it's not a circle jerk of 'OMG congrats'. We're students who've only been at this for two years, there's TONNES of things we can do better, there's things in there I can pick out now that make me go 'Oh, I wish I'd done that different' and I bet you it'll be a much LONGER list if I look at it again a year from now.

Heck, I'll go first. Acting. Not enough extras in the ER. The hallway scene with the stretcher has focus issues due to some lighting issues that made us shoot with a shallower depth of field than we wanted. The blood on the wall 'jiggles' cause I'm new at tracking. Blood on his shirt disappears cause we only did the digital effect and weren't prepared with a practical effect AFTER he hits the floor. Not enough establishing shots between scenes (This is caused by some logistical issues we faced too). You can't actually get up after 2 shots to the chest if just wearing Kevlar without ceramic inserts.

...Your turn.

I'm kinda afraid of commenting on technical things I picked up through fear I may be completely wrong, but here goes:

One thing I noticed was some of the camera changes, specifically in the car (not ambulance) scene with the bearded (i think) male and female actor, seemed a little strange. At one point when the female actor was speaking, the camera seemed to rapidly switch between two in quick succession. It was a little distracting. There was another one when the camera switched just to catch the male actor's "hurh" and then switched back quickly (unless I'm being dumb and these two were the same. I'm on a phone so it's not like I have the video on another screen or anything).

Sound. This may be just the technical limitations or just the acting here, but I felt that some of the actor's dialogue was a little quiet. Were you recording from the built in mic of the DSLR or an external mic? Again this may just the technology playing up, or the actors not speaking up (but we're not here to critique their performances).

Another thing I picked up on was the "gaps". Not the fade in/out transition gaps but the gaps between dialogue(s) where nothing interesting on-screen or audible was happening. An example would be when yourself and the other officers (one of which was injured on the floor) were hiding behind the bed. There seemed to be an uncomfortable audio gap in the clip where the female actor was shuffling into position. To me it just seemed "too long" for that to be happening.

I'll probably have more tomorrow when I get back to my computer and can look a little more and not have to remember stuff. Overall the production looked visually quite professional. Just some food for thought.

Sorry if I'm being nitpicky haha.

 

[AshleyAshes]

One thing I noticed was some of the camera changes, specifically in the car (not ambulance) scene with the bearded (i think) male and female actor, seemed a little strange. At one point when the female actor was speaking, the camera seemed to rapidly switch between two in quick succession. It was a little distracting. There was another one when the camera switched just to catch the male actor's "hurh" and then switched back quickly (unless I'm being dumb and these two were the same. I'm on a phone so it's not like I have the video on another screen or anything).

My intention was to show the other character's reactions to what the first character said though this may not have worked. Also it may have worked better if a tighter shot on the face have been available but we shot both sides of the car's with those medium shots. From what I've seen in 'Car Conversation Scenes' often a couple of focal lengths from each side are shot but we only shot one focal length. (It was our first time doing that kinda scene. XD)

Sound. This may be just the technical limitations or just the acting here, but I felt that some of the actor's dialogue was a little quiet. Were you recording from the built in mic of the DSLR or an external mic? Again this may just the technology playing up, or the actors not speaking up (but we're not here to critique their performances).

We used an external mic plugged into the DSLR and on a boom pole, but due to equipment limitations couldn't have a 'sound mixer' with someone on it riding the levels so sometimes we had to boost in post. Could also just be the fault of me screwing up the audio mixing in post production. Also fun note, what sounds like great levels on your headphones on your work station could be TOTALLY different when you fire it up on your $300 TV with built in speakers. 'Ohhh, this music is perfectly mixed, anything more and it'd certainly be too loud. Lemme try it on the TV to make sure. WHERE THE HELL DID THE MUSIC GO!?'

Another thing I picked up on was the "gaps". Not the fade in/out transition gaps but the gaps between dialogue(s) where nothing interesting on-screen or audible was happening. An example would be when yourself and the other officers (one of which was injured on the floor) were hiding behind the bed. There seemed to be an uncomfortable audio gap in the clip where the female actor was shuffling into position. To me it just seemed "too long" for that to be happening.

Probably my fault on timing the cuts when editing. I certainly think there are some points where the editing is stronger than others.

 

[Kalmor]

We used an external mic plugged into the DSLR and on a boom pole, but due to equipment limitations couldn't have a 'sound mixer' with someone on it riding the levels so sometimes we had to boost in post. Could also just be the fault of me screwing up the audio mixing in post production. Also fun note, what sounds like great levels on your headphones on your work station could be TOTALLY different when you fire it up on your $300 TV with built in speakers. 'Ohhh, this music is perfectly mixed, anything more and it'd certainly be too loud. Lemme try it on the TV to make sure. WHERE THE HELL DID THE MUSIC GO?!.

Heh, I can totally relate to the headphones thing (because if my sig didn't give it away enough, I make music). Every playback device will sound different. There's nothing more fustraighting than listening back on a different device and thinking "WHERE THE FUCK DID THE BASS/INSTRUMENT/EFFECT SOUND GO!!!!". I guess you just get used to hearing it on one device then just cringe at any others when they play it back.

 

[AshleyAshes]

Oh, I remember you trying to warn me about YouTube and trying to maximize visual quality so I thought you might get a kick out of this: To maximize quality and avoid exporting a lossy compressed file only to have YouTube run it's own lossy compression on that, I created an h.264 LOSSLESS file with FLAC audio in an MKV container and uploaded that to YouTube. It was 5.9GB for 9.5mins and it took YouTube 50mins to process it once it was uploaded. XD But that means the ONLY lossy compression pass was done by YouTube itself so we got the best possible quality considering our broadcasting medium. XD

 

[Kalmor]

Oh, I remember you trying to warn me about YouTube and trying to maximize visual quality so I thought you might get a kick out of this: To maximize quality and avoid exporting a lossy compressed file only to have YouTube run it's own lossy compression on that, I created an h.264 LOSSLESS file with FLAC audio in an MKV container and uploaded that to YouTube. It was 5.9GB for 9.5mins and it took YouTube 50mins to process it once it was uploaded. XD But that means the ONLY lossy compression pass was done by YouTube itself so we got the best possible quality considering our broadcasting medium. XD

That's pretty neat. I'll keep that in mind if I ever do music videos. Hopefully I can get a hold of my brother's cannon DSLR for them, if not, then it's going to have to be my HD camcorder which isn't really best suited for the job.

 

[Llamapotamus]

As far as I see it, I agree about acting being the worst part and the rest is nitpick sound and lighting stuff. For the most part, it looked like a professional level show with amateur level actors.

 

[AshleyAshes]

As far as I see it, I agree about acting being the worst part and the rest is nitpick sound and lighting stuff. For the most part, it looked like a professional level show with amateur level actors.

Since our program is technical, with one third focusing on live sports/event broadcasting, another third on live studio news broadcasting and only the remaining half being the 'film' style, I'll take that as a compliment.

However I still wouldn't call it 'professional', there's a LOT of little things that stick out. Though I think the scene of them driving the police car holds the highest production value and the closest to a 'TV look'. I finish this program in only a couple of weeks and then I'm off to Toronto to Sheridan College's Advanced Film and Television program where I'll focus on JUST editing and visual effects for 12 months. Expect more from me and expect it to be better each time.