Forum Archive Home -> Short Film Competition 2005 -> Entry: The Baldrick
Entry: The Baldrick | ||
| vitualis posted 2006 Jan 13 19:07 | ||
Download here: http://shortfilm.videohelp.com/video/the_baldrick_movie_(small).avi Author: Eric B. Thomasma Name of short film: The Baldrick Short blurb about the film This short film is about a nobleman, the Black Adder, and a conversation about sword carriers. Behind the scenes: I made this film because it gave me a reason to put to practical use some of the things I've learned on videohelp.com. I have always wanted to make a video that was an artistic endeavor, as opposed to recording an event (birthdays, weddings, kid's school plays/concerts, etc.). While I don't generally enter contests, it offered a means of "legitimizing" the time and efforts involved in producing just such a piece. I hope to someday make a living through some means of entertainment media and hope that having entered such a competition will assist in that goal. How this was done This was filmed using my Sony DCR-TRV230 camcorder. Principal editing was done using AviSynth and VirtualDub. Audio recording and processing was done using Audacity. Credits text was edited using Ulead VideoStudio. I found the subject "Baldrick" to be a challange, because other than videohelp.com's beloved admin. I had never heard the word. After a google search and alot of reading, I came up with a script that incorporated all of the references to Baldrick that I found, including not only the famous Blackadder character, but also the St. Baldrick's charity organization, a web design software, and yes, a guy named Richard with no hair. The original concept was for me to play all of the parts through the use of Chroma-key, however my camcorder proved to be incapable of recording a flat background color, and that made the resulting composite look extremely poor. I was not able to assemble a cast to be able to fill all of the roles so I had to abandon the original script. I did not, however, give up on the contest. On a suggestion from my wife, I came up with a new script that only utilyzed two of the many Baldrick references. I decided I could use the split-screen effect, as I had experimented in the past with that, with acceptable results. The challenge of this script came in the form of costumes and props. My wife went to work on the costumes while I figured out how to make a sword, sheath, and baldrick. Of course, all of this took time and during the process, Old Man Winter came knocking on our door. The setting for my new script was out-of-doors and the location I had selected for the shoot was now covered in snow, and sunny days were few and far between. I decided that since it was a comedy anyway, I could let the dialog stand even if I couldn't get a sunny day. This probably worked in my favor, because long shadows probably would have played havoc with the split-screen effect. It was, however, extremely hard on my toes as the costumes were designed with warmer temperatures in mind. And, of course, as soon as I had the camera set up, and the action blocked out, it started to snow again. My initial experiments quickly made me realize that I would not be able to use any of the audio from the camera directly. But would have to rely on "studio" recording of the dialog. The only audio recording equipment I have is my computer and a headset microphone. Since all of my (non-existant) budget went to costumes, it's what I had to work with. I had initially recorded all of the dialog so that I could play it in my ear as I acted, to keep the timing right. In the end, I ended up using that initial recording for the final audio track. The finished video uses approximately 3 minutes of the 60 minutes of footage that I shot over approximately 3 hours. At one point I had to stop filming while a hunter drove his truck to the woods to retrieve his deer. At another point it was snowing so hard that visibility was only a few feet. And at yet another point the sun came out and created huge shadows. The split-screen effect was made difficult by the subtle changes in the amount of cloud cover throughout the shoot, but some adjustments in the black levels on one side compensated with acceptable results. The more difficult part of the split-screen was that the camera shut off while I was changing costumes and when I switched it back on, it shifted slightly. Some creative cropping was required to realign the two "halves" of the screen. Fortunately, Avisynth was up to the task. Finally, I had to select background music for the closing credits. I long ago gave up any musical aspirations and remembered a thread on videohelp.com about a musician that offered his music royalty free. A big thanks to Bill Cushman for creating appropriate music and making it available royalty free. Overall, preparing this video has been challenging and therefore rewarding, even if it doesn't win any of the prizes. Sponsors No sponsors. (Unless you count my wife.) | ||
| offline posted 2006 Jan 15 23:18 | ||
| This one really played to the theme in a clever and funny way. One for the Blackadder fans!
Unfortunately I can't vote here but I can bump this one up, as you should not miss this. | ||
| MrMoody posted 2006 Jan 18 16:56 | ||
| Scores:
Story: 4 Photography: 4 Editing/Effects: 5 (I've seen worse split-screen on TV) Sound Editing: 5 Acting: 4 Comedy: 5 (Monty Python would be proud) Suckup Value: 5 The only improvement I could see would be to add a few well-chosen over-the-top Foley effects, like the sword being drawn & sheathed. | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 18 17:15 | ||
| Actually, the sword being drawn is a sound effect, as the sheath is made out of cardboard and really makes almost no noise at all. The sound was created by drawing a pair of scissors across the sword. I had to experiment to get the duration right, but I couldn't come up with a convincing re-sheath sound so the sword draw is the only sound effect.
Oh, and thanks for the feedback. :D | ||
| offline posted 2006 Jan 19 00:37 | ||
| The videos have been highly compressed and some sound/video value has been lost. The original lot took up 3 gig of space.
If there is interest, they could be made available on DVD in their full glory. | ||
| MrMoody posted 2006 Jan 19 01:20 | ||
| Zip them up and seed them on a public torrent tracker - voila, free distribution. | ||
| offline posted 2006 Jan 19 02:07 | ||
| 1 seeder and maybe 20 d/l'ing a 3 gig selection? I don't know. Maybe ok with the top 3 films. hmm | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 19 06:41 | ||
If you decide to do that, (and you want to include mine), I would prefer to upload an MPG2 DVD ready version rather than using the Divx submitted version. It has a slightly wider screen and includes a little more detail. | ||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 23 17:57 | ||
| I was gonna do a "Reporting From The Front report" on this movie but I've been having some major back issues of late (ruptured disc, oh joy) that have shut down a lot of my "Cute And Clever" circuits in my brain. :? So I'll just wing it here with my response to your movie. :)
From one filmmaker to another, you put some serious effort and talent into this movie, and it shows. Nice titles, funny script, good camera work, tolerable acting :wink: (I'm kidding! You look good in tights!), clever "punchline," generous credits ... quite seriously I vote this little flick a solid 5 for both artistic and technical creativity. And kudos to your wife for the costumes! :) Also one thing I liked that I don't know if we should give points to or not but I really appreciated it -- your "Behind the Scenes" and "How it was Done" notes, which I hoped more people would include in their contributions (just because I'm really interested in how people make their movies). Thanks! | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 23 18:24 | ||
| Oh yeah, it's all about the tights. :lol:
Thanks. :) (And sorry to hear about your back. I know how painful that can be.) Edit: I showed your post to my wife, and she thanks you too. :) | ||
| dipstick posted 2006 Jan 26 18:43 | ||
| Great job. Even better acting. I never saw the series, but I liked your version. Five stars. | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 26 20:05 | ||
| Thanks Dipstick.
I hadn't seen any of the series either when I wrote the script. Then my wife came home and said "I was talking to my friend about your video and she said she's got a copy of 'The Black Adder'. Would you like to see it?":doh: Obviously, I said yes. She designed the costume to resemble The Black Adder from that episode, (if only I resembled Rowan Atkinson :roll: ) | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 28 11:14 | ||
| First, I want to say THANKS to everyone that viewed and voted for my video. I appreciate your support and it's been fun being a participant.
Now that the awards have been announced, I wonder if it's possible to get some feedback about my video from the judges. I'd like to know what areas to work on to improve for next time, (I have some of my own ideas, but I"m hardly an objective judge :wink: ) And please, even if you aren't an official judge, feel free to offer suggestions. | ||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 28 14:15 | ||
Gadgetguy, congrats on the award from a fellow awardee! And being we both tied, you can't get any more fellow than that! :P Frankly, I can't really think of anything you need to "improve" on in any specific way, just your standard "the more we make movies, or do anything, the better we get." Theoretically. :D And even if some person says, "I'd prefer this or that," you -- and many others -- might objectively look at the same thing and go, "Hmmm ... I see your point ... but still ... how about this instead?" Not really a linear process! :D But to give an analysis to your movie, if I really were to respond to every scene, every shot, frame at a time stuff, I, as a "judge" (and being I was a member of the voting public also and gave you a 5!), might say something like: * Opening credits were well done on a technical level, also they captured the mood of your old TV show or movie. * Funny line about "a warm summer day" with the snow in the background. :) * Oh, almost forgot the title tune, nice whistle. Clear and clean, on a technical level. * Scriptwise, good setup and introduction to both characters. Good camera framing for both single cut-away shots and split-screen shots * Excellent technical work on the split-screen shots!!! :) .... man, I could go on and on ... :) ... but as for the "judging" of "What Can I Improve" ... :| ... Would your next movie be about the exact same thing? Maybe you'll try communicating something that the audience person doesn't "get" for reasons of their own that have nothing to do with your movie as a whole? Maybe your jokes don't go across cultural boundries? (that's always my problem!!! :D ) Anyway, my bottom line is, would I want to see more movies this person has done or will do? And my answer is a resounding YES to you, so I just hope you go on making movies!!!! :) EDIT: When I was in college (many years ago), I took a writing class by Craig Kee Strete (great SF writer, nominated for the Nebula award 3 times), and I very well remember one thing he told us on the first day of the class -- "If you want to be a published writer, don't take any advice from writers who aren't published." :) Anyway, I took his advice and sold my first short story that year (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August, 1989, "The Idea Of The Month Club"). And the moral is -- don't take any advice from people whose advice you can't use. :) If the judges here and viewers here also make movies, then their advice may be relevant to how you might make movies. But otherwise ... just keep doing what you're doing! | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 28 17:08 | ||
| Thanks for the feedback. :D
Anyone else? | ||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 28 18:48 | ||
Ok, you asked for it... :P These are my personal opinions, I may very well be wrong. Being a fan of the original Blackadder series I really enjoyed watching your shortfilm. After watching it a couple of times there are a few things I thought could've been improved a bit. 1. There are a bit to much space between some of the dialogue. Cutting a little faster could've made the dialogue flow better. 2. It sounds like you used a noise gate or something on the dialogue. Some background noise is gated in and out on every dialogue. Maybe you could have overlayed some nature-atmosphere sound on the track to mask it. and maybe the british accent weren't quite there. ;-) Just kidding. Didn't matter. I've been thinking that maybe some didn't get the joke. Who knows what a baldrick is without checking a dictionary. I know I didn't. :wink: Costumes were great btw. :D Bo | ||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 28 19:04 | ||
| Yeah, as I noted in my blurb, the only recording device I have is a crappy microphone on one of my computers and it makes a noisy recording. I removed the noise as best I could in Audacity, but some segments couldn't be cleaned up without detroying the voice, so it resulted in what you heard. So I agree, I need to work on the audio. Hopefully by getting some decent recording gear. :wink:
Thanks for the feedback. :D |
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