We Steal From Children - Short Film

[alicelikesme]

My friends and I just finished this for a 48 hour film contest.
Along with writing and acting in it, I did all the editing, and as I'm always looking for constructive criticism, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S-R6XHdtA8

[nealbonn]

I really enjoyed it. The filming quality was not great, but it was a good effort.

[alicelikesme]

I really enjoyed it. The filming quality was not great, but it was a good effort.

Thank you! By filming quality do you mean the way in which we filmed it, or the picture quality? Both of which admittedly have issues.

[masterevilace]

the acting was a bit bad at times.. such as the awkwardly long moments of rolling around on the floor together. but that is forgivable. I love the concept of stealing from children, and would have liked to see more of that. Maybe even an overly dramatic filming of the children getting robbed, where the robbers are acting like children and the children are acting like adults (ok take it, just don't hurt me type of stuff)

The first half of the short seemed great, the second half was throwaway. There wasn't a lot of stuff happening off of each other. Such as the guy in the bathroom wouldn't come out. His friend was about to get raped, and suddenly he says "ok i'll come out".. there was really no reason for him to come out, especially after handing the condom under the door (which was funny).. it just felt like a lot of it was random.

The guy with glasses was really good in this. He felt real, and seemed to have a very unique personality.

Overall I enjoyed it. Especially if it was done in just two days

[alicelikesme]

the acting was a bit bad at times.. such as the awkwardly long moments of rolling around on the floor together. but that is forgivable. I love the concept of stealing from children, and would have liked to see more of that. Maybe even an overly dramatic filming of the children getting robbed, where the robbers are acting like children and the children are acting like adults (ok take it, just don't hurt me type of stuff)

The first half of the short seemed great, the second half was throwaway. There wasn't a lot of stuff happening off of each other. Such as the guy in the bathroom wouldn't come out. His friend was about to get raped, and suddenly he says "ok i'll come out".. there was really no reason for him to come out, especially after handing the condom under the door (which was funny).. it just felt like a lot of it was random.

The guy with glasses was really good in this. He felt real, and seemed to have a very unique personality.

Overall I enjoyed it. Especially if it was done in just two days

Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. It helps a lot.

I COMPLETELY agree with the horrid fight scene, that's been a big issue with most of the people who've watched it. We also desperately wanted to have real kids at the lemonade stand, but we're all away at college and didn't know anyone who was even under 18.

And thank you so much for the comment about the guy with the glasses, that was actually me, so it made my day!

[someaudioguy]

Funny premise!
Yeah the fight scene was a little ... um not great, and the door altercation just felt a little long, but not drastically so.

In terms of tech notes, it looks like you could use a little color correction, most of the short had a blue-ish cast, so it was distracting when colors would warm up in certain shots.

Also little things in the audio mix were distracting. Dancing at the beginning, throwing a little reverb on the music (careful with copyrighted music on Youtube btw) would've made it sound like it was actually in the room, as opposed to laying on top of EVERYTHING including the dialog. Also the car noise made me EL-Oh-EL. Going from hearing the horn to cutting to the car, and ALL OF A SUDDEN hearing engine noise was odd. Even just a little foley of hearing the car pull up off camera would've helped tremendously.

Can you tell I edit audio...

[hadees]

It was funny but the audio mix was really weird. I kind of get what you were doing with it but i didn't like it, i thought my headphones were messed up at first.

[alicelikesme]

It was funny but the audio mix was really weird. I kind of get what you were doing with it but i didn't like it, i thought my headphones were messed up at first.

I believe you're referring to the fact that some of the audio is stronger from one side. Sadly I wasn't aware of this till too late due to the fact that I can only hear out of one ear. So that ones on me. However, I've been ultra careful to not let that happen again.

[alicelikesme]

Funny premise!
Yeah the fight scene was a little ... um not great, and the door altercation just felt a little long, but not drastically so.

In terms of tech notes, it looks like you could use a little color correction, most of the short had a blue-ish cast, so it was distracting when colors would warm up in certain shots.

Also little things in the audio mix were distracting. Dancing at the beginning, throwing a little reverb on the music (careful with copyrighted music on Youtube btw) would've made it sound like it was actually in the room, as opposed to laying on top of EVERYTHING including the dialog. Also the car noise made me EL-Oh-EL. Going from hearing the horn to cutting to the car, and ALL OF A SUDDEN hearing engine noise was odd. Even just a little foley of hearing the car pull up off camera would've helped tremendously.

Can you tell I edit audio...

Thank you for all your suggestions, this was essentially my first attempt at extra audio in a film, so it's good to hear what things I should look for in the future.

If you don't mind, how would I go about putting reverb on initial song? And I agree with the whole copyrighted thing, it's all royalty free from here on out.

Almost forgot, the director/camera operator really wanted that blueish tint, so sadly it wasn't a mistake, just distracting as you had mentioned.

But seriously, thanks for your help.

[someaudioguy]

Couple things you can do to play with Reverb. Easiest and cheapest would be to check out a free piece of software like Audacity. It has plugins to create an echo that will help it blend in with the dialogue a bit better.

I've also gotten pretty good results by actually recording a stereo IN the space we shot the scene in. You need a REALLY good mic chain, and you have NO flexibility with that audio, but it can work really well.

As you get more advanced there are software plugins that can create 3d representations of what your audio will do in a given space. Pretty rad.

You know,the blue tint wasn't really bad, but with the whole short looking so cold, it's just distracting when natural light warms the footage up in a couple shots. It's kind of all or nothing. You just want to keep the look consistent enough that we don't notice, or you want to have a good reason to warm something up (like the end of Dark City for example).

You guys look like you're having fun though, and that helps a lot.

[cwordtv]

'BOOM. Just robbed a muthafuckin lemonade stand.' Classic.

Not sure about the end though.

[kimvictor]

It was kinda funny.
The acting could be better from everyone.

Premise was good, the fighting at the end was... weird. It wasn't fighting, just lying on the ground sort of moving a little bit.

Anyway, it wasn't bad, but could do a lot to improve.

[alicelikesme]

My team and I have posted a few more shorts on our page. I'd love some feedback from the rev3 community, we're always looking to improve.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamGoldblum

[jammer53]

i have done a 48 asheville nc ,, and i know the problems you can have..so what you did was very good considering the time limit, writing setting up shooting editing and getting it back to 48 group is nerve racking. so overall i'd say you did a pretty good job.. i heard that some groups cheat and you can tell when they do, and you can tell when some dont cheat you will have mistakes. wear them as a badge of honor that you did it as it should be done..

[alicelikesme]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who let me know their opinion or general thought, it helps out a whole lot.