Short Film Portfolio
Hello, I’m Conner Ward and I helped to create the short film, Overdue. We wanted to create an intense action, ‘against-the-clock’ kind of film. We were experimenting with elements from the movie we saw, Run Lola Run. Our audience was our teacher Mr. Bigue and the starter Art of Video class. I think this idea worked because it was based on a simple, everyday kind of problem that many people could relate to.
I was the cinematographer for this film. I coordinated handling the camera, creating the shots we would need, and also taking still images for our little “Run Lola Run” camera burst section. I shot the film with my trusty “Canon Duo”: An HDV HV40 and a video DSLR T1i. Unfortunately the DSLR only shoots at 20fps, but image quality and wide lens blow away anything possible with the little DV camera. We used these personal cameras to mkae it easier on our stress and convenience levels. I also managed to find beautiful shots, such as the “Lola’s Room” scene, given the locations we were in (dirty boys locker room etc). For example, in Jessica’s (Kim’s) room in the intro, we realized her ceiling fan would make a great shot, just to incorporate a calmer feel before the whole call to action, thus contrasting these tones. With my own camera I also shot the still images of Jessica imaging the future if she had to pay all that money with her allowance. She would be doing chores later in her life and she did not want to handle that.
Problems for me included deciding which camera we wanted to shoot with and figuring out how to obtain nice shots with the lack of advanced equipment (sliders, dolly). I had the choice to shoot between tape, or on SD card. We tried to mostly shoot card, despite the lacking features and problems that plague DSLRs (Moire, rolling shutter, etc) because of the easier transfer and better reliability. Rolling shutter, due to the large sensor in the DSLR scanning from top to bottom left to right rather than the traditional “video camera style”, creating a “jello” effect, was a big problem because many shots were handheld in our action packed film. We also didn’t have certain equipment to help us obtain aesthetically appealing shots, so we DIY’ed many shots including using pieces of plywood and skateboard as a dolly, and making a slider looking effect with simple tripod tricks.
We decided to use the camera with SD card because we decided that it would be faster and easier to transfer into the editing software. For tape, you’re going to have to log and capture. That means we’d have to rewind our entire footage and then watch through it all over again. Plus, with card, it’s easier to go back and look at the individual shots, in case there was an error that one would want to fix by re-doing that shot.The shots that were listed above included the beautiful opening scene with Jessica’s room. We didn’t have a dolly or slider for these shots, so instead, we decided to make practical use of hardwood flooring and things with wheels. Gino brought his skateboard over, so we were struck with realization that these shots were still possible. This make-shift slider didn’t disappoint and the resluts looked very professional.
(sorry, got a bit carried away. this paragraph probably contains both 4 and 5.)
Problems as a whole included getting the schedule to work for everyone, transportation, and being on-task. Our film schedule was revised several times, considering that if those who needed to be at certain locations, we couldn’t necessarily do without them. Even though not everybody was present on certain days, the only ones needed were Ashley and I. Still, with the help of Kim, Gino, and Alex. It made my job a bit easier considering there would be people to hold the boom, manage whatever is going on off frame, and keep things in order even though we were not always on task. Sometimes when we’d all get together, our productivity rate slowed to a really slow pace. However, there were NO days when we’d get absolutely nothing done. Every day we shot ended up being in the slightest way productive. The problem of transportation arose again considering none of us are legal drivers. Instead, we ended up gathering at certain locations that would be reachable by everyone, and we walked to our destined location.
The film as a whole didn’t disappoint (as much as we would have thought). I believe with what we shot, the narrative doesn’t necessarily look good. However, with editing, it turned out to become a pretty decent project. I still feel there is a lack of actual elements of a short film, compared to the elements of a music video. Having the song play practically throughout the entire film, and only having two scenes with dialogue seemed to stop a bit short if becoming a short film. Although we missed a few scenes, I believe you don’t get lost once when following the plot, which caused it to be a pretty fluid film. This film was great and I look forward to what other projects are in store for us.
Evidence:
This schedule includes what we planned to shoot to get the shots necessary for a fluid plot
This is one of the wonderful shots that i captured on a make-shift slider. This beautiful slow truck is performed with a skateboard on hardwood.
Although this may look odd or disturbing, it’s just a simple prism effect that flows well with the edit. It matches up in the song, and seemed appropriate to match the “dirty techno” polyrhythms of dubstep.
Hello, I’m Conner Ward and I helped to create the short film, Overdue. We wanted to create an intense action, ‘against-the-clock’ kind of film. We were experimenting with elements from the movie we saw, Run Lola Run. Our audience was our teacher Mr. Bigue and the starter Art of Video class. I think this idea worked because it was based on a simple, everyday kind of problem that many people could relate to.
I was the cinematographer for this film. I coordinated handling the camera, creating the shots we would need, and also taking still images for our little “Run Lola Run” camera burst section. I shot the film with my trusty “Canon Duo”: An HDV HV40 and a video DSLR T1i. Unfortunately the DSLR only shoots at 20fps, but image quality and wide lens blow away anything possible with the little DV camera. We used these personal cameras to mkae it easier on our stress and convenience levels. I also managed to find beautiful shots, such as the “Lola’s Room” scene, given the locations we were in (dirty boys locker room etc). For example, in Jessica’s (Kim’s) room in the intro, we realized her ceiling fan would make a great shot, just to incorporate a calmer feel before the whole call to action, thus contrasting these tones. With my own camera I also shot the still images of Jessica imaging the future if she had to pay all that money with her allowance. She would be doing chores later in her life and she did not want to handle that.
Problems for me included deciding which camera we wanted to shoot with and figuring out how to obtain nice shots with the lack of advanced equipment (sliders, dolly). I had the choice to shoot between tape, or on SD card. We tried to mostly shoot card, despite the lacking features and problems that plague DSLRs (Moire, rolling shutter, etc) because of the easier transfer and better reliability. Rolling shutter, due to the large sensor in the DSLR scanning from top to bottom left to right rather than the traditional “video camera style”, creating a “jello” effect, was a big problem because many shots were handheld in our action packed film. We also didn’t have certain equipment to help us obtain aesthetically appealing shots, so we DIY’ed many shots including using pieces of plywood and skateboard as a dolly, and making a slider looking effect with simple tripod tricks.
We decided to use the camera with SD card because we decided that it would be faster and easier to transfer into the editing software. For tape, you’re going to have to log and capture. That means we’d have to rewind our entire footage and then watch through it all over again. Plus, with card, it’s easier to go back and look at the individual shots, in case there was an error that one would want to fix by re-doing that shot.The shots that were listed above included the beautiful opening scene with Jessica’s room. We didn’t have a dolly or slider for these shots, so instead, we decided to make practical use of hardwood flooring and things with wheels. Gino brought his skateboard over, so we were struck with realization that these shots were still possible. This make-shift slider didn’t disappoint and the resluts looked very professional.
(sorry, got a bit carried away. this paragraph probably contains both 4 and 5.)
Problems as a whole included getting the schedule to work for everyone, transportation, and being on-task. Our film schedule was revised several times, considering that if those who needed to be at certain locations, we couldn’t necessarily do without them. Even though not everybody was present on certain days, the only ones needed were Ashley and I. Still, with the help of Kim, Gino, and Alex. It made my job a bit easier considering there would be people to hold the boom, manage whatever is going on off frame, and keep things in order even though we were not always on task. Sometimes when we’d all get together, our productivity rate slowed to a really slow pace. However, there were NO days when we’d get absolutely nothing done. Every day we shot ended up being in the slightest way productive. The problem of transportation arose again considering none of us are legal drivers. Instead, we ended up gathering at certain locations that would be reachable by everyone, and we walked to our destined location.
The film as a whole didn’t disappoint (as much as we would have thought). I believe with what we shot, the narrative doesn’t necessarily look good. However, with editing, it turned out to become a pretty decent project. I still feel there is a lack of actual elements of a short film, compared to the elements of a music video. Having the song play practically throughout the entire film, and only having two scenes with dialogue seemed to stop a bit short if becoming a short film. Although we missed a few scenes, I believe you don’t get lost once when following the plot, which caused it to be a pretty fluid film. This film was great and I look forward to what other projects are in store for us.
Evidence:
This schedule includes what we planned to shoot to get the shots necessary for a fluid plot
This is one of the wonderful shots that i captured on a make-shift slider. This beautiful slow truck is performed with a skateboard on hardwood.
Although this may look odd or disturbing, it’s just a simple prism effect that flows well with the edit. It matches up in the song, and seemed appropriate to match the “dirty techno” polyrhythms of dubstep.
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