First ever short fiction (Shot on T3i)

[dafreaking]

So I made my first ever (fiction) short. I used a Canon T31/600D and a Tamron 17-50 2.8 Lens. Would love to know what ya'll think. 

 

 

Thanks

[silverstate]

it was good! i was interested with the plot most of the time. i felt that it was a little too dark in some places; even if it was meant to be dark to convey the mood of the film, i couldn't really tell what was going on for a small portion of it. good job though!

[Gregormannschaft]

Surprisingly good! And only 'surprisingly' because shorts are so hard to do, especially watchable zombie ones. But this was really well shot.

 

I thought the colour palette you used was appropriate, nothing was out of place or looked off from one scene to another. Stylistically, I wouldnt have done the warm and fuzzy cut away to 'better times' because it seems a little cheesy. A brief cutaway to another photo may have been better. Your main non zombie actress was also pretty good, but the zombie didn't feel particularly dangerous.

But great work.

[dafreaking]

Jeez thanks guys. A few points that I was discussing with a friend of mine, thought I'd post them for further insight by me into my film before, during and after making it. 

 

 

- Technical - Valid use of lighting or lack of it rather. Excellent make-up. More thought should have gone into the costumes and props.

I had blocked the shots in the other room of my house. Little more angles and not completely back lit. The room changed at the last minute and so had to reblock it. Also my walls are way to bare so I had to cheat as much as I possibly could. The original room looks much better. My make-up person is a star. She was probably the only professional working on it apart from the Sound Designer. I wanted the zombie to wear coloured contacts, but couldn't find decent ones here and didn't have the time or money to order them from abroad. Also feel at times she's a little too sedated. Costumes are really not my forte and once again I asked the girls to wear their most run down stuff.. They obviously didn't have much as you can see. I wanted a slightly cricket related theme and the non-zombie girl was meant to wear some more protective gear when she comes in. I could go on and on about the stuff I wanted to do but will leave it at that. 

 

- Sound - Score and sound fx fits the theme however sound is an extremely important part of this genre/theme and was not used to it's full potential.

 

A lot of the sounds I wanted to add in were just not possible due to time constraints. I was getting the sound studio for free so had very limited time (most of it late at night) So this is the only thing I am more than satisfied with even though it could have been better

 

- Story - The motivations/tribulations of the non-zombie sister could have been explored further. Maybe a little variety in the flashback cuts or some shots of well placed props in the current timeline. 

 

To be honest, my concept was decent but everything was done so last minute (as the makeup person just had one Sunday free) that I didn't write it out properly. Just shot and 'winged' it. Lesson learnt, need to have it nailed down before bringing out the camera.

 

- Title - Immediately noticed the clever nod to one of my favourite zombie films. In retrospect however, feels a little cliched. 

 

Again all last minute and it was totally clichéd. Almost cringe-worthy when I think of it. 

 

 

 

Thanks once again for your feedback. I wanted to re-shoot the entire thing and had designed better looking shots in my head. Sometimes these things just don't happen. The stabbing could have been done better. Needed more blood. Also, needed a few zombie extras which I didn't end up having. Sometimes when everything is done through favours and without a budget things don't go according to plan.