Im new at this game so its important to get feedback, so here goes.

Im in the middle of doing a number of different film styles for an actor I know.
The first film was a period piece in the style of 'The importance of being Ernest' and the Jane Austen Films, such as Pride and Prejudice.

This is the first edit of the short scene and I hope people can take a look and let me know what they think.
Im looking to find out if the following are up to scratch:

Camera work
Sound
Editing
Acting
Script

It is only 2mins and 50secs including name tags and the scene can be found here. MySpace Videos: Reginald by Richard

You can also reach my myspace page by clicking here www.myspace.com/rjgfilm



Thanks in advance for the input.

Very impressive!

The look was technically very good, the lighting ratios just right. Either you were very lucky with the weather or you used reflectors very well. It looked very "natural" without ugly shadows or dark eye sockets.

The sound was superb. That, for me, made the whole thing stand out. How was the sound recorded?

Editing: It flowed very well. The pace was just right and the mixture of long, mid and close shots worked well. There was one slight jar from a 2shot to a close up of the man but that was the only time an edit was noticeable. Well done!

I'm not sure about the acting. In my opinion it was a bit forced, especially from the leading lady. I didn't feel that these were people who always talked in this way but rather people "acting" as Edwardian socialites. Just a small point.

The script pushed the point a bit. His biting comments were good and there was a fair bit of "Oscar Wilde wit" in there but... dunno. It fell a bit flat and I don't know if that was the script or the acting.

All in all though, technically it was top rate.

Did cottages have replacement double glazing back then?

Couldn't resist. Good work though.

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I'm not young enough to know everything!

Thanks for the info Guru, this was the first time I had tried to do a realistic conversation so im glad you liked it.

One of the things I was most worried about was in fact the sound. I dont have a great set of equipment for recording sound. Im using a Shure Beta 58A Vocal Dynamic Mic, which is on a mic stand off screen. It came with the camera gear I bought and does seem to do the trick. I dont think its a cheap micraphone.
I was the only one doing the camera work and direction so although I did use a reflector I had to prop it up on a chair off screen.

The actors come from theatre, and the male character is trying to go from this to film/television so over acting is important to catch.


To be honest they are the original 19th century windows, they have been repainted white of course but the whole house is as it was back in the 1800's
There are a bunch of pictures in my myspace photos section if you want to take a look as its a great location.
We filmed this scene in a large walled garden at the back of the house. Sadly they were building a stage for a play the other side of one of the walls which ment there are some bangs. Hopefully I have managed to remove the majority of the bangs.

Im glad you both liked it, the more comments the better as this is my first such scene.

That's really good. I don't think there was anything wrong with it. As for the acting, it seems to fit the setting very well.

I hope you'll forgive this slightly off topic question, but what file format did you use to upload it ? It's a lot sharper than one I put on there recently.

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I should have put the info about what I used to edit, shoot and upload it.
I used a canon XL1 with a shure Beta 58A Dynamic Mic.
To edit I used Premiere pro CS3 and SoundBooth to sort out some audio problems.

Then when I exported it I used the Export media thing in Premiere and saved it as a pal 1024bps wmv I turned up the audio to 192. The resolution before I uploaded is also pal quality.
Over all the filesize is 22mb which is big for a 2m50s film but in todays broadband world its not so bad.

Hope that helps.