***Furious Angels Part II: Vengeance RELEASE***

Downloading....

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I enjoyed it. The story kept me interested through the whole thing. There were a couple of things that kinda jarred me out of the moment. There was a lot of shaky camera. The duel at the beginning kinda came out of nowhere and left me saying "Huh?" You probably did this on purpose but I'm just letting you know what effect it had on me. There was another bit near the final duel where there is a brief flash of a couple duel shots. Again, "Huh?" Finally there was a moment there during the final duel where red saber guy looks like he is saying something but there is no audio.

Overall, great work. There was actually a moment in there where I had an emotional reaction while watching it.


Like I said great work.

 

I'm glad you liked it.

Shaky camera was okay imo.. the shot of me running before I confront "red saber guy" was supposed to fade off way before it did. Some of the others were shaky, but I decided I liked how they were. although let me know which ones popped out at you. Maybe I could make them shake a little less with AE.

The two flashes of duels are transitional moments. The first one is actually shots from FA1, which lets you know exactly where that duel takes place in this storyline. The second one show that Spenceley, as a character, is about to turn a corner and make decisions which he would regret, were he in a normal state of mind.



EDIT: By the way, if Part 3 comes out the way I've written it, you should be in for a bunch of emotional moments. Just a reminder, we're filming on Sunday.


For sure this time.



EDIT 2: By the way, I finally got ourmedia.org to stop giving me error messages, so I think I should be able to upload the rough cut for EVERYONE to see.
Funk mentioned this is a slow server, but it's better than nothing.

 

The link worked for me. I'll download it later because I'm at school right now and I usually just download short clips here. Not that I do anything in this class, just that whole issue of people crowding around and asking continuous questions.

The dwelling on the past quote was directed at you, Vapor DV beat my post by a few seconds or something. I blame him though If this was my board, I'd delete his post so my joke is funnier (I've done it )

 

I have no idea how to do the black bar thingy. By the time I figure it out it will be to late to edit so I just removed the part that I think you wanted me to black bar. Your the one I wanted to see it anyway, so it doesn't matter.

 

yellow highlighted text which DMP will learn to love

 

And then we discovered VaporTrail was color blind. Completely.

 

DMP.. I hate you.
I really do.

I'm like Smeagol. I call you my precious, but in fact you torture me.
I merely hope that when we finally fall into the lava pit, I escape while your destruction ends the existence of every evil thing on the planet. Oh, and make sure I have my camera.

Anyway.. your dwelling on the past thing is much more humorous if it was directed towards me, but I will have to exact my revenge one of these days.



Meanwhile, I just submitted the upload request to Ourmedia.org.
It's just a matter of time...

Ktulu.. for the shot of the red saber guy where you thought there was no audio, is that the one where he turns around and takes off his hood? If so.. there IS no audio. He doesn't speak right there.

 

DV beat my post by a few seconds or something.

 

DMP.. I hate you.
I really do.

I'm like Smeagol. I call you my precious, but in fact you torture me.
I merely hope that when we finally fall into the lava pit, I escape while your destruction ends the existence of every evil thing on the planet. Oh, and make sure I have my camera.

Anyway.. your dwelling on the past thing is much more humorous if it was directed towards me, but I will have to exact my revenge one of these days.

Oh joy!
//Stimpy

Whoa, we both confessed our hatred in two separate threads without seeing the other.

Well I can't wait to get home now to see this

 

Nope it's at 24:04.

 

Oh!! That shot.

Yeah, I apologize for the darkness, the heavy Sor3 compression kinda messed up my color correction.

In that shot, he's fuming right before he attacks, because Spenceley just used the Force to speed up/strengthen his attack, and red-saber barely blocked it, plus it hurt his arms to do so, kind of like swinging at a baseball the wrong way. If you listen right before Spenceley charges, you'll hear the Force rumble.

But yeah, he wasn't talking.







I love the black highlight. Oh man, so glad I figured that out.

 

Lol, well I guess his fuming looked a lot like talking to me. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

Hmmm... ourmedia.org did the same thing Zeb usually does.

Maybe it's just too big of a file.
They don't mention any size limits that I can see.


EDIT: D'oh. I see what I did wrong.


From Ourmedia.org FAQ:
Whatâ??s the maximum file size I can upload?

You could, in theory, upload a 5-gigabyte video file. (If youâ??ve got a dial-up connection, good luck with that!) Limitations on file size are mostly practical ones: the larger the file, the smaller the number of people who will download it.

However, be aware than large files â?? anything above 10 or 20MB â?? must be uploaded with the Ourmedia Publisher tool (click on Tools in the main nav), not through the Web site's publish my media pages.


Sigh.
Let's try this again, shall we?
Good game, Ourmedia. Good game indeed.

 

Hi-larious.

 

I really liked this one! I really like your style and I love the use of music throughout the whole thing. You need more practice editing, and I saw a few times that the 180 degree rule was broken (and it bugged me). But I really do like it.

I especially like the shot of you walking away from the guy in red at night.

 

I noticed the 180 degree violations as well. The most jarring for me was in the opening conversation. It happened a few times.

 

Ok, I downloaded it, and as I'm watching, here are some suggestions for improving similar such scenes in the followup.

On dialog scenes, work on using the cinematography and editing to complement the emotion of the conversation. When people are angry, push the camera in - and use faster edits between closeups to get that "in your face feel". In this current iteration there are on occasion dramatic closeups, for example at 4:14... but most of the shots are uninterestingly framed.

Also, try and get the dialog to flow. I get the sense I'm being lectured a script. Try to get your actors to practice the whole conversation and get it flowing hyper-naturally - without hesitation. Actors have to get used to speaking quickly...

2:35 - Nice game face. This cut needs to be a lot faster to maintain the intensity, although really, I don't know why it couldn't have been one take. When you try to puch a guy, and the choreography says he's going to block it, REALLY TRY to punch the guy. In this case we're not talking about safety, since the hit won't actually occur. So make it a real threat.

5:59 - This framing sucks. This shot should have the dude on the right's face in frame showing his hesitation, with the other dude in the background occupying the left side of the frame. As it stands, we get an ear, a wall and the door being the focus of the shot.

Girlfriend sequence at 7:09 - I watched this in fast forward and didn't miss anything. Implying it probably should have been that fast.

7:55 - again, framing could be a lot better. Try using the rule of thirds.

9:17 - In general you should try to use camera movement as opposed to zooms when trying to replicate filmic stuff.

20:00 - The red saber looks badly out of place here. Your choice of green color correction doesn't help it. Scenes like this either require INSANE rotoscoping to get light casting, light casting props, or more delicate color correction.

In general, I'd try to say cut it down as much as possible to improve the pacing. I have a few suspension of disbelief issues with the plot, which could probably be improved with better acting - though conversations about the Force from people who are clearly not monks of any kind is a little tough.

-Spiff

 

Downloading now...

 

Nooooooooo!!!! I was at 70% and the download quit! Now I had to start all over. Why?! It stopped earlier and I didn't notice it for 20-30 minutes and it continued. Why why why?!

 

180 degree violations.
Yup. I knew the term, but barely knew what it meant until the film class I've been taking in this spring semester. Most of FA2 was filmed in the fall, with pick-ups during winter/spring.
The moment my professor explained the rule, I pictured certain scenes of FA2 and slapped myself in the face.


Literally.

People turned around and looked at me.
It was embarrassing.


Alrighty Spiff.. here we go:
Your review, my clarifications. This should be fun.


On dialog scenes, work on using the cinematography and editing to complement the emotion of the conversation.
Yeah, I hate the "Force discussion" scene between me and Matt. With a passion. I can't even watch it anymore unless I haven't done so for a week or two. I'd trim it if I were able, but I'm not because of my crappy method of filming it. Keep in mind, before this film, my whole frame of experience for filming a dialgoue scene was a campy remake of a minute long sequence from M:I2 in my 11th grade acting class, and it was bad, lol. Before that all I've done was stuff with people talking directly to the camera or music videos/montages.
I've been talking to some of the members around here who have more experience with this sort of thing, and I've gotten some good tips which I'll definitely be using next time around.


Also, try and get the dialog to flow. I get the sense I'm being lectured a script.
Heh, yeah. Especially for the Force discussion. I was trying to convey what the Force is like in my little world, and how it's different from the Star Wars universe. This will be explained more in depth later.


Try to get your actors to practice the whole conversation and get it flowing hyper-naturally - without hesitation.
I may call them my actors, but keep in mind we're all students who are usually pressed for time during a shoot. We didn't memorize a single scene.. well, they didn't, and even I had to keep a script around because I kept forgetting lines. Professionals we are not, but we did what we could. Better shots would've helped sell the acting a bit, probably.


Nice game face. This cut needs to be a lot faster to maintain the intensity, although really, I don't know why it couldn't have been one take.
Just wait til you see the bloopers. You'll see why it wasn't one shot. If I were behind the camera, it would've been possible, but I find that it is a lot harder to get what I want when standing on the convex side of the lens. This is just how it's going to have to work for Furious Angels, but after it's done, I'm never starring in one of my movies again. Seriously. I've been that frustrated.


5:59 - This framing sucks.
Once again, I wasn't behind the camera. I recall a conversation similar to this:
Me: "Are we both in the frame?"
Cameraman: "Yes."
Ah well.


Girlfriend sequence at 7:09 - I watched this in fast forward and didn't miss anything.
You should see the long version of it. You REALLY aren't missing anything there. Believe it or not that was originally a dialogue scene which took place where it is, and also before the Force discussion. It's much better how it is now. That scene is just basically to establish the fact that Spenceley has a girlfriend who cares for him, and he explains to her what he's just done. Sara's character is to Furious Angels what Jar Jar is to Attack of the Clones. Not a very large role, but she plays a very important part in the outcome of the story.


7:55 - again, framing could be a lot better. Try using the rule of thirds.
Eh, I kinda like it. The villain does partially cover Anyikwa at the end of that scene, but I thought that was fine since it was only for a moment. I wish I had remained consistent with the previous shots though. You'll notice in the first shot, the villain walks in and is on the right side of the frame.. Anyikwa speaks, then the villain is on the left side. Whoops. For my dialogue scenes, I was filming them in the same way I filmed the duel that is Part I, which involved per

 

Haha, I got it in half the time it woulda taken the first time. Plus I ate supper in there so that passed the time.

Overall I enjoyed it, could be better of course, but I enjoyed it. I liked how you flashbacked to pre-FA1. But I wish there was more fighting

For a split second I thought the credits said
"Special Thanks to All of my cast/crew who suck"

Can't wait for FA3

after it's done, I'm never starring in one of my movies again. Seriously. I've been that frustrated.

Same here. In my upcoming big film that has the kick arse plot and characters, I'm behind the camera every step of the way. A) I can't concentrate on acting when I'm worrying about how much the camera guy is screwing it up. B) I can't act. C) I don't trust anyone else to get the shot

 

Heh, I agree with A, B and usually C.

I wish there was more fighting
Keep in mind, this is just the 2nd part of a whole film. This was a factor during the choreography of Part II, because I wanted a fight, but I also didn't want that to be the focus of the film. The duel was the conclusion of this part, but the culminating battle for the entire story has yet to be seen.

It should be rather intense, if the image in my mind's eye is conveyed onto the screen.
Cross your fingers, pray, and wish me good luck.

I'll need it.

 

Yeah that last bit is the hardest part. I've got my film burned into my head and hope it stays that way until summer '06. I might possibly write down some of my key ideas that aren't really stated in the script. Maybe storyboards and animatics would help

Good luck dude!

 

The more ideas you write down and draw sketches for, the better off you'll be during production.

I have a distinct vision for some of the shots in Part 3, and have been doing tests to make sure they would actually work/look cool. I know what elements I need for every special effects shot, which I should write down as a list before Sunday, and I've walked around my locations and looked at it from different angles and I know exactly where I want the different scenes to take place.

I just hope the weather works in my favor so I don't have to do a bunch of sky-replacement and drastic color correction.


EDIT: From personal experience, I can tell you that if you ever change your mind for the angle of a shot during filming, get the first angle as well as your new idea just in case. You never know which one you'll like more once you're editing.

 

It's good to see the comments about the film, and I am glad to see its enjoyed by those who watch it.

On a side note, I'd just like to apologize to anyone that many have taken offense to my pathetic attempt at humor. I am grateful that the mods have allowed me to come back, and I hope all can forgive, and I promise I'll be good...Scout's Honor!