10 Replies Latest reply: Apr 15, 2011 7:42 PM by mdubuque RSS

    TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut

    mdubuque Community Member

      Good morning all,


      Attached is a rough cut of my short film "Twitter Time" to be entered into the Big Sur Short Film Festival.  The "Netflix sleeve" short description is:


      "Mahatma Gandhi once said that there is more to life than merely increasing its speed.  Expanding upon that theme of collapsing time horizons, one rapper recently asked, "In the age of Twitter Twitter, no one has time for sound bites any more.  What comes next?"  This documentary explores the exponent'ial acceleration of our experience and various ways to change the meaning of time and the timing of our meaning through the creation of beauty in its various forms. "

      The purpose of a rough cut is to begin a conversation.  I welcome your comments. 

      The film will be color graded on a da Vinci system Monday and still needs a bridge/interlude portion between the two segments inserted at 2:00 minutes and work on the transitions and pacing.

      Here it is:


      Thank you.

      Matt Dubuque

        • 1. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
          joe bloe premiere Community Member

          First do you want sugar-coated niceties,
          or do you prefer the bitter taste of real criticism?

          • 2. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
            mdubuque Community Member

            I'm here to listen and learn and not to teach.

             

            You probably have quite a bit to teach.

             

            Therefore, you might want to select the method that you feel would best further that teacher/student relationship that we both seek.

             

            I enjoy working with great professors and I'm sure you would be no exception!

             

            Matt Dubuque

            • 3. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
              joe bloe premiere Community Member
              You probably have quite a bit to teach.

               

              A baseless presumption.

               

              Therefore, you might want to select the method that you feel would best further that teacher/student relationship that we both seek.

               

              No offense, but I am not seeking any type of relationship.

               

              I enjoy working with great professors and I'm sure you would be no exception!

               

              Another baseless presumption.  I'm just a guy with an opinion.

              • 4. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                mdubuque Community Member

                Very nice.

                 

                You asked me for my preference with respect to how you framed your response.

                 

                This is a video "lounge".    Given what I know about "lounges" and the people who own them, generally bitterness and spite are not uppermost and prized criteria of the hosts.

                 

                Given Adobe's expressed desire for a civil and professional community of its users (and we are their guests here after all) I propose we adopt a tone of scholarship and candor, consistent with professional collegiality.

                 

                Perhaps like a debate among surgeons or MDs, if you have ever attended a medical convention.  Brilliant, lively, emphatic, thought provoking, rapport building and the like. The key point is the advancement of knowledge and a relentless pursuit of learning in all its forms, including social relations.

                 

                I've been through peer review before.  Not every doctorate is trivial.

                 

                If that meets with your satisfaction, then let's proceed along those lines, unless our good host Adobe objects.

                 

                You asked.  I responded.

                • 5. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                  joe bloe premiere Community Member

                  I think your film is wonderful.

                   

                   

                  • 6. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                    mdubuque Community Member

                    Thank you.

                     

                    This was my first major project and I took a very defensive approach with it.  I'm entering it in the Big Sur International Film Festival and famed composer Phillip Glass and an Oscar winning cinematographer are on the jury panel.

                     

                    My overriding goal in producing this first effort was not to insult or infuriate any serious professionals who may be sitting in the back row.

                     

                    The first part of that conservative approach was custom white balancing everything to an Expodisc every few hours so that my color grader would not hate me in post.  The camera, a Canon 5d, has a nice dynamic range, so that helps of course with the luminance values.   Where possible, everything was shot half a stop low, out of deference to what most color graders prefer, all else being equal.

                     

                    My color grader saw the footage yesterday and said I was in "good shape".  He's pretty respected among his peers, so that was welcome news.  Color grading starts Monday.

                     

                    My favorite part is probably the music, which is why I am so thrilled that Phillip Glass is on the jury panel.  If you play my soundtrack on the finest audio systems you will hear that Danny Frankel has produced two astonishingly subtle, layered and textured pieces which are profound.  He's really quite a guy and a pioneer in many ways.  I of course had nothing to do with the music and am just fortunate and honored that Danny is my buddy buddy.

                     

                    The first track is titled Alice Coltrane and the second track is titled "Jupiter Says".   It's part of delightfully bizarre, original and profound, but always tight and coherent pieces Danny composed and performed about various aspects of life on Jupiter.  I much prefer his treatment of the subject to Holst.  Really serious, profound and hilarious music.

                     

                    It's from his CD "New Thing on Jupiter", the title track of which deserves an extraordinary video with 50 different video tracks with differing opacity layers laid down over it.  It's that good.

                     

                    I'm glad you found it enjoyable.  I've learned so much doing it and all my workflows next time will be so much easier.

                     

                    There is one segment I like that my DP Dennis Britschgi pointed out.

                     

                    There is a transition right around 2:15 between the reclining Buddha and the wide shot of me walking in the woods that is a beautiful overlay of the Buddha upon the subsequent forest scene in which I walk.  There are a few frames within that sequence that are truly pretty where those two images are combined.  The color tones from each shot match perfectly and I will be spending some time over the next week trying to highlight and improve the transition so as to allow viewers to see how nicely those two images blend together.

                     

                    Thanks for watching it.

                     

                    Matt Dubuque

                    • 7. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                      JSS1138 CommunityMVP

                      For better or worse, I'm more of a "bitter taste of real criticism" kind of guy so, here it goes...

                       

                      The music for the opening two minutes was well chosen.  Unfortunately, that's not a complement.  Like the visuals, it doesn't really go anywhere.  You can easily get to the same place, both visually and musically, in about 20 seconds.  And it'll be far more interesting if you do.

                       

                      The countdown slate...lose it.  If you want to emulate the pace of life increasing in geometric proportions, do something more visual.  Maybe a sidewalk with only a few people on it, dissolving to the same sidewalk with more people on it, then finally congested with people.  Once there, ramp up the speed of the clip to about 400%.  Use music that builds underneath, screaming towards a crescendo which, when reached, cuts to a black screen where you can show a line or two of text (but only once).

                       

                      Unfortunately, once the opening mud is finally slogged through, we're greeted to a bit more of the same.  A man walking, a man sitting, music that doesn't really go anywhere, no dialog or VO. I got bored and left at the three minute mark.

                      • 8. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                        joe bloe premiere Community Member

                        I only gave him what he was obviously looking for.

                         

                        I was prepared with a scathing review, but held my tongue.

                        • 9. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                          JSS1138 CommunityMVP
                          I much prefer his treatment of the subject to Holst.

                           

                          Wow!

                           

                          We are very different, you and I.

                          • 10. Re: TWITTER TIME: Request for comments on Rough Cut
                            mdubuque Community Member

                            Thanks for your comments.

                             

                            I've found it helpful to ask others "What is the worst thing about the film and then if I keep improving those items, then the project can become more solid.

                             

                            I've completely revamped the first portion.  Now, rather than concerns about slow pacing, I'm getting comments that people are more engrossed.

                             

                            I find that as a general rule, younger folks like more rapid cutting.

                             

                            I'll post the final version, sans color correction next week.

                             

                            To some extent I have tried to create a tension in the viewer.  As Kurzweil points out, we are accelerating exponentially in the rates of processing of information and that is something I want to challenge with the film.  As Gandhi says, there is more to life than only increasing its speed.

                             

                            That's why the film deals with one response to the hurry hurry disease, that of planting trees.

                             

                            But clearly that can be taken to unacceptable extremes.

                             

                            Thanks again to both of you,

                             

                            matt