[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd15HFoARTc

Seven Deadly Cinema is back, you sonic twats

 

(i still <3 u knox, yr not a twat )

[EVOLghost]

Wacthed it. I dig the dood's jokes.

[Murmer99]

I liked it a lot.

my favorite part starts at 10:06

[EVOLghost]

Lol oh yeah! I forgot to ask. Those chicks smoke? Fuck!

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Originally Posted by EVOLghost

Wacthed it. I dig the dood's jokes.

Yeah, I think his stand-up is pretty clever too. That's what inspired me to try and make a show based on him.

Originally Posted by Murmer99

I liked it a lot.

my favorite part starts at 10:06

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I've watched this damn thing so many times that I can't even differentiate what looks good, and what looks bad/what's funny vs. what isn't.

Originally Posted by EVOLghost

Lol oh yeah! I forgot to ask. Those chicks smoke? Fuck!

I know, right?

[floatingslowly]

I had no idea you were black. :EEK:

I wish I had more time to watch your sitcom. alas, I spent what little time there is watching your video of girls in panties dancing to heavy metal.

WOW detroit is ugly like a motherfucker.

life is too short. MOVE imo.

[gast30]

6.5 pionts /10

i know....
that you know....
you can do better and go heavy'r down
be more creative, ect

i'm really now in the mood to go to a comedy show
here they don't have that

they still don't have time awareness
why?
why do europeans have no future time?
they were brainwashed for 2000 years by churchbells
now they only reach the awake state by the ringing of the bells


if the church dies out
they never reach a state of awakeness

those euro apes
or shall we make the word european a bit smaller
eurape??
you-rapian

they sure broke the record raping childeren

congratulations to the vatican : YOU GROUP IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MOST RAPES OF CHILDEREN
CONGRATULATIONS


always know that i'm not a eurape
even if they giving me a digital passport with ethnical subcoding on the digital passport

you eurapes can shove their passport in their baboon retarded sapian ass

digital passport???
like i'm going to get access into a ultra modern spâceship

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Originally Posted by foreverasskiss

what?!?!? where?!?!?

I think he's referring to this atrocity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZNrZwfSnA

[!@#$%!]

oh!! gonna watch now!

[!@#$%!]

alright, i watched the sitcom once, will watch again later and post comments. jootube was fuckin slow.

but re: the music video-- nice car shots-- and EXTRA POINTS FOR THE BLONDE IN THE UNDIES. she can make that butt wiggle! (i hope she gave a good audition in the casting couch-- hA!)

okay mang. nice job on that pilot. will post comments later, maybe tomorrow or something.

[gmku]

interesting!

Here's a theme for a future episode: Do You Know How I Can Travel Overseas Without a Passport?

Or maybe I should keep that for my own sitcom?

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

alright, i watched the sitcom once, will watch again later and post comments. jootube was fuckin slow.

Oh I know! Their server (or whatever) has been giving me hassle all week! I appreciate your patience with the load times and whatnot; especially seeing how long the video is.

And please do, you're a man who's opinion I can really put some merit towards.

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

EXTRA POINTS FOR THE BLONDE IN THE UNDIES. she can make that butt wiggle! (i hope she gave a good audition in the casting couch-- hA!)

Yeah haha, her ass is the only thing about that video I actually like!

I don't wanna whore my shit out too hard, but if you're actually interested in a GOOD music vid I've done, I couldn't recommend the UUUUUU vid more. Derek's music was intimidatingly good, and I really tried my best to rise to the challenge and create something worthwhile.

You can watch it here if you'd like - www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9hp7D_RMGA

Thanks again for all the compliments everyone, I haven't been on these boards in a LONG while. It's especially nice to see gmku return as a regular.

[!@#$%!]

alright mang here it goes. i'm taking notes as i rewatch so it will go in that order.

who reads the disclaimer at the beginning?

handheld camera is cool but sometimes too shaky-- it pans wildly. more on this later.

the main character i get is this horrible person. ("nobody is laughing")

i like the cut to jesus. [later: i dont know what role religion plays for him]

i don't hear well what they are saying in that room. are you using NR plugins to cut noise after recording? there's also loud hiss. not sure what mic you used but you can get a decent rode short shotgun for cheap ($100-200).

the chick does a good job acting.

his routine: use a de-esser

the weird old man, arthur, is totally offensive and hilarious. his is one of my favorite segments.

the canned laughter doesn't work for me most of the time.

i like the music, generally.

the thing friend back in the room it's funny too but the recorded laugh doesn't work for me. i won't say that again tho just try watching it without?

are you using lights? there's a lot you could do with some cheap lowells. sitcoms and tv usually use high key light, it's easy to do & people can move around. so something that will boost the light levels should work.

dr's office or something- handheld is cool but see about stabilizer. like a merlin, or a fig rig or something. you don't need to use a tripod, just have more camera control.

2 chicks on the bed w/ lights/effects was cool, is that what they want to do vs. what they are actually doing? regardless of whatever it means the contrast is cool.

k having a hard time understanding the dialogue again. your boom operator needs more practice & some headphones.

mannequin fucking-- bizarre and funny. when the door gets knocked, why the laughter? lisa does look good. oh mang the laughs why. stabilize camera.

k one thing i realize at this point is the camera angles & shots. there's lots of long and medium shots and few closeups. also the camera angle from above doesn't work for me there. if you could cut and do the 2 shot at eye level it would work better. yeah you need to cut and set up again but it would work better. this reminds me w/ the old man the shots were also from above always. put that knee on the ground and get to eye level more.

the shower part is more bizarre shit that i like with that wolf hat.

oh i get that now that lisa cheated w/ the other girls? i don't get why these 2 like each other.

the next routine i didn't like and i dont know if he's really joking or just playing an ass.

anyway i think you got a good idea there, a character everyone can hate, and bring back that funny old man.

for characters everyone can hate, it's not my kind of thing but there's shows like peepshow that are based on that-- ive had arguments w/ people here about it, but regardless, you don't need to have a "likeable" character. i just wanna see or hear more clearly what he's saying so mics is the thing to do. and lights. light that thing.

also this is something completely different but have you watched "workaholics"? this reminds me of that show somehow-- well it's a stretch but it has some common stuff. watch it & see.

anyway so if this justin guy is the main character, who are the others? is he a kind of mr. bean who exists in his own universe? or do the others around him count? i think they could come across more as characters of their own so you have more of an ensemble situation like seinfeld if that's what you like (i saw your post about the 90s), but they need more of a story rather than just be around him i think.

but anyway if you had to prioritize 1 thing and 1 thing only i'd say start with audio! audio is more than 50% of video, doesn't need to be perfect but what they're saying has to be clear, like the old man, and make sure it doesn't clip. try having your dialogue peaks at -12 maybe?

check this out and read up on part 3: http://www-tc.pbs.org/producing/medi...%20Revised.pdf

you see their loudness target is -24db. that's PBS which is "quieter" than other TV but it works.

or see this:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/982763

ok man, i gotta run, i don't know if this was useful to you but i hope it was.

ps- do you storyboard your shots?

moar bout dat later. k-- be well dude. talk soon.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Thank you so much, that was an excellent critique. Many things you pointed out were things I noticed myself.

Here's my attempt at responding to such a large post....

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

alright mang here it goes. i'm taking notes as i rewatch so it will go in that order.

who reads the disclaimer at the beginning?

That's my mom. She's from Poland. I thought it was funny.

handheld camera is cool but sometimes too shaky-- it pans wildly. more on this later.

Yeah, I noticed that myself. I was trying to give it a natural, very amateurish feel in the beginning, to make it seem more realistic.


the main character i get is this horrible person. ("nobody is laughing")

i like the cut to jesus. [later: i dont know what role religion plays for him]

Correct. The title is an allusion to his offensive stand-up, and the fact that he is inappropriately trying to be funny despite dealing with very serious issues at hand.

It is only hinted at in this episode, but Justin is very interested in organizations (Christianity, Boy Scouts, etc.); I also feel that his Christianity is a good way to even get on the nerves of many too-hip-to-be-offended Atheists.

i don't hear well what they are saying in that room. are you using NR plugins to cut noise after recording? there's also loud hiss. not sure what mic you used but you can get a decent rode short shotgun for cheap ($100-200).

the chick does a good job acting.

his routine: use a de-esser

For this episode, I just used the mic on my camcorder (*booo....hissss* I know, I know) and sent it off to my 'sound designer' to clean up. I believe he used ProTools and some very expensive plug-in.


I plan on having him plug an external mic into my camcorder's mic port (CANON HFM31) and he can work with the sound from the ground up, rather than just fix all my mistakes and weird sound editing decisions that I made in Sony Vegas... for the next episode, that is.

the weird old man, arthur, is totally offensive and hilarious. his is one of my favorite segments.

the canned laughter doesn't work for me most of the time.

i like the music, generally.

Yeah, EVERYONE loves Arthur the most. I plan to actually have him have actual lines with purpose next time around, instead of just babbling curses.

The canned laughter has been added, and removed, and added again so many times. A lot of people think it makes the show more surreal; I just have a love for 90's sitcoms and wanted to bring back the laugh track. Which is something you don't see too often anymore. It might be better to leave it out next time though.

Yeah, most of the music is provided by Anti-Raunchwagon Records, that's my producer, Scott's record label. I picked whatever I felt worked best for what I wanted to achieve.

the thing friend back in the room it's funny too but the recorded laugh doesn't work for me. i won't say that again tho just try watching it without?

are you using lights? there's a lot you could do with some cheap lowells. sitcoms and tv usually use high key light, it's easy to do & people can move around. so something that will boost the light levels should work.

Some scenes are lit, others aren't. I'm still pretty much experimenting with lighting setups. I'm familiar with the 3-pt technique, but I have trouble back-lighting without having the fixture in frame... and I'm too damn broke/unemployed to buy any new equipment.

dr's office or something- handheld is cool but see about stabilizer. like a merlin, or a fig rig or something. you don't need to use a tripod, just have more camera control.

I have my homemade steadi-cam thing my father helped me make. I'm still really bad at using it. Also, that office shot was guerilla filming at its finest.

We had absolutely no permission to be/film there and I guess I was just a bit nervous my scene would be interrupted somehow. I actually went back a few times to pick up a better shot of the receptionist, but received police threats and whatnot... let's just say I'm not going back there anymore. haha

If you really wanna nitpick, I had to flip a few frames to keep the 180 rule constant. Some of thetext reflects that, if you watch closely enough.

2 chicks on the bed w/ lights/effects was cool, is that what they want to do vs. what they are actually doing? regardless of whatever it means the contrast is cool.

k having a hard time understanding the dialogue again. your boom operator needs more practice & some headphones.

mannequin fucking-- bizarre and funny. when the door gets knocked, why the laughter? lisa does look good. oh mang the laughs why. stabilize camera.

yyup. lol

k one thing i realize at this point is the camera angles & shots. there's lots of long and medium shots and few closeups. also the camera angle from above doesn't work for me there. if you could cut and do the 2 shot at eye level it would work better. yeah you need to cut and set up again but it would work better. this reminds me w/ the old man the shots were also from above always. put that knee on the ground and get to eye level more.

Yeah, I was going for more of a pseudo-documentary style with the camera work, like I said. I only used a couple shots on the tripod here and there. More like Curb or The Office... y'know?


the shower part is more bizarre shit that i like with that wolf hat.

oh i get that now that lisa cheated w/ the other girls? i don't get why these 2 like each other.

love is a funny, funny thing my friend.

the next routine i didn't like and i dont know if he's really joking or just playing an ass.

anyway i think you got a good idea there, a character everyone can hate, and bring back that funny old man.

oh don't worry. he has many more lines in the next episode.

for characters everyone can hate, it's not my kind of thing but there's shows like peepshow that are based on that-- ive had arguments w/ people here about it, but regardless, you don't need to have a "likeable" character. i just wanna see or hear more clearly what he's saying so mics is the thing to do. and lights. light that thing.

also this is something completely different but have you watched "workaholics"? this reminds me of that show somehow-- well it's a stretch but it has some common stuff. watch it & see.

gotchya, lights and mics.


never seen workaholics or peep show. i have heard of both though.

anyway so if this justin guy is the main character, who are the others? is he a kind of mr. bean who exists in his own universe? or do the others around him count? i think they could come across more as characters of their own so you have more of an ensemble situation like seinfeld if that's what you like (i saw your post about the 90s), but they need more of a story rather than just be around him i think.

yeah, Justin is the main character. Lisa, Curtis, and Arthur are the other lesser-main characters. they definitely all get more developed in the upcoming episode.

and yeah I think with the first script, I was still starting to figure out who my characters were.... but now that I've literally seen them in action, it should be much easier to write.

Justin - likably unlikable

Lisa - bitch, but not completely so

Arthur - lots of cursing, making weird noises, etc.

Curtis - the polite straight-man

but anyway if you had to prioritize 1 thing and 1 thing only i'd say start with audio! audio is more than 50% of video, doesn't need to be perfect but what they're saying has to be clear, like the old man, and make sure it doesn't clip. try having your dialogue peaks at -12 maybe?

check this out and read up on part 3: http://www-tc.pbs.org/producing/media/producing/cms_page_media/1/TOS-1-2010%20(Submission%20to%20PBS)%20Revised.pdf

you see their loudness target is -24db. that's PBS which is "quieter" than other TV but it works.

or see this:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/982763

ok man, i gotta run, i don't know if this was useful to you but i hope it was.

Yeah, my orginal cut, most of the peaks were -12dbs... I did raise the volume a tiny bit by the time the final rendering took place... in hopes of giving the dialogue more clarity.

the audio should be generally improved next time around by the use of an external mic alone.

ps- do you storyboard your shots?

moar bout dat later. k-- be well dude. talk soon.

Usually I do, but I wanted this to be a bit more spontaneous. I find that if I storyboard every shot, I may get more interesting arrangements... but the scenes lack a certain liveliness.


I'm going to try and storyboard episode 2 though.

[!@#$%!]

i can only answer quickly tonight but maybe tomorrow with more detail.

okay so what's the problem here is you need a crew! if you're doing this all on your own it's bananas. make the fucking actors crew for you when they are not in the scene.

i highly recommend you storyboard and draw a floorplan. that way you can work out your blocking, your lights and your camera moves ahead of time. more on that later.

i get that you want that office/curb your enthusiasm looks but even with those single camera sitcoms the framing is always done right, the camera angles work, and you get a good variety of shots-- e.g. when they talk into the camera, etc. look here for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcf2CO65lf4

see how yheres a closeup as he approaches then the 2 shots are from the front & the side and it mixes them up?

storyboarding can help you set that up and figure where you wanna place yourself before it happens. what you wanna avoid especially are the high angles on characters who are sitting.

re: lighting you can work with regular bulbs and shop lamps that you clamp to things, as long as you have the same color temperature and while balance to them it should be okay. yeah, it's not as controllable as fresnels or light banks with egg crates but at least you get an improved look.

the scene in the room w/ curtis, they are in the shade and the back wall is brighter.and your camera if it's got auto iris is adjusting for the wall and not the subject.

and that's why i suggest using high key light, it's lower contrast and you don't need to set up every shot. here's an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoQfztMBi6A

one thing you could do is get some shop lights and bounce them off the ceiling or walls, it's as cheap as it gets (tho it can blow fuses, ha).

anyway good to hear you've been thinkig about this things. don't fear the storyboard or feel confined by it-- it's like a rehearsal for your camera-- if you're going spontaneous, you're gonna do that, but at least in your mind you'll have an idea of what you want instead of getting stuck in a bad shot or "searching" with the camera and shooting all over the place.

ps re- the floorplan-- it helps you see light ahead. for example when he opens the door and lisa is there, there could be a light behind the door so she looks better. know what i mean?

but def keep working on this! you're on to something, i swear.

oh and workaholics is on netflix online, if you have access watch it, it's fucking great, very funny, similar documentary style but not self conscious like office, but great fucking characters, you'll see.

oh and there's an episode about juggalos!

anyway we can chat about sound tomorrow, if you'd like. i hope i'm not being a fucking blowhard with the advice, i really believe in what you're doing that's why i'm taking the time to go over everything.

okay. seeya!

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by foreverasskiss

how did i miss this?. watched the video all the way through and did not see that.

you were probably blind drunk. i can't come up with a better explanation.

[demonrail666]

Can't believe I missed this thread.

I agree with El Symbols re you needing a crew and in that sense, you really needn't worry about those technical issues too much. Just get people in who do know them. Film students will usually offer their help for little more than the promise of a credit. It's obviously a good idea to have some kind of grasp of certain techniques but only enough to have a way of conceptualising what you want for yourself and so you can communicate it to your crew. Echoing symbol's point, unless you want the style to be an integral part of the whole thing it should be as anonymous as possible, which isn't difficult to achieve and likely won't cost you any more than you're already spending. You just need to get the right people in and let them contribute what they're good at so you can concentrate on what you're good at, while learning off them at the same time. Look at a lot of the porn being produced at the moment. That stuff's largely done with tiny budgets and a minimal crew but still manages to churn out some really quite professional looking stuff. (I'm convinced film students these days would be far better served watching less Bergman and more BangBros.)

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

^ Yeah, episode 2 will be the first time in my whole 'film making career' that I'm actually using a crew. I plan to have a sound guy (like I said) with a boom, and my other friend, Peter (who graduated film school with me...big Cronenberg buff) holding the camera. This way I can work wth the actors more, and have them figure out the shots (based on my storyboards...of course)

Originally Posted by demonrail666

(I'm convinced film students these days would be far better served watching less Bergman and more BangBros.)

Honestly, I couldn't agree more.

Except for Hour of the Wolf. Everybody should see that.

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

but def keep working on this! you're on to something, i swear.

Thanks man. I really appreciate the critique; it's hard to get such valid feedback IRL.

[Murmer99]

Originally Posted by Dr. Eugene Felikson

Except for Hour of the Wolf. Everybody should see that.

Persona