CFT Group- American Dog

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FILM THURSO
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Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:37 pm
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CFT Group- American Dog

Post by FILM THURSO »

Just to let you all know that we have uploaded one of our short films, "American Dog" to youtube in 2 parts.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvz-xmrUPnE&NR=1

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YAQO6LWlys

When it was uploaded on Thursday night youtube did blank the second part's soundtrack for copyright reasons but I filed a conflict form letting them know of our licenses and wey-hey, sound restored!

Enjoy!

:D
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Dave Watterson
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Re: CFT Group- American Dog

Post by Dave Watterson »

This is a big step up from the Gazetteer film. Part Two is where the fun really gets going - and it is mainly in colour, rather than the mainly b/w action in Part One. That location for the start of Part Two is also pretty amazing. Olrig Woods I can take or leave but that seascape!

More close-ups, please. We need to engage with the characters better, and getting the lens into their "personal space" is the most effective way to do that. It will also help some of the dialogue capture assuming you were using on-board mics.

- Dave
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FILM THURSO
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Re: CFT Group- American Dog

Post by FILM THURSO »

Thanks for the feedback, luckily I didn't direct this one but did assist. John called the shots and made the edit of the main action and there were certainly some sound issues. Dimitri's dying lines were captured from an earlier take which worked but Vladimir's lines in places were rough and lost with background noise. Some lines were replaced with studio recorded over dubbs which didn't sync well. The Base 1 voice was straight from the footage and was me simply standing behind the camera saying the lines. Given the windy conditions we were all surprised how clear it was given that Vladimir was only 8 ft away and couldn't be heard for the wind.
The film had been shot over a protracted period of time and in essence what you see is a rescue job. We spent some time going over existing footage and the script of the three original intended films to work out how to salvage it. There was an amount of re-writing to make things work. There are a couple of bits that need further explanation for sure and we might do that in a sequel. I then pulled in the soundtracking and titles to complete the picture. The whole background story on this film is a scale version of the hassle Gone With The Wind went through! :shock: I did put John under a lot of pressure to get it in the can because we had a deadline for premiere that couldn't be moved. As one Holywood director once said, "A movie is never finished, it's merely abandoned!" (That's no excuse though)

The location at the start of part 2 is the coast of Thurso Bay and did you notice the building behind American Dog? It was a former US Navy radio station from the cold war period. Thurso Bay is a stunning seascape looking out to the North Atlantic (in shot) on the west side and the Orkney island of Hoy to the north with Britain's most northernly point, Dunnet Head from the north east round into Dunnet Bay enclosing Haven Bay and Murkle Bay, Dunnet has 2 miles of beautiful sand dunes up to 25m high. Olrig is really good too but best seen in real life. The seascape is all the more amazing from the top of Olrig Hill and so is the landward view across the whole of Caithness. Film it in CinemaScope if you come here!

Gazetteer was an un-intended movie. There was no plan for anything the day that it was filmed. I simply took camera and filmed the guys (and girl) playing airsoft, got hit a few times and came home with about 17 miuntes of film. John also fiilmed that day and when my camera broke, Yoda turned up on John's film (well I was bored with no camera, okay!).
I spent a bit of time looking at it after I did a tidy-up edit and decided to experiment. I would say that either I needed more lines about the rebels' fight or chop 2 minutes out of the middle or both.
Again thanks for the feedback Dave, I'll make sure John also see's it. More to come!
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