Well, the 24 Hour Filmrace is over. Whew. I’ve never had my brain running at 200% for that long. It’s amazing how things like eating, sleeping, showering, peeing and all the rest really CAN be pushed to the back of your mind.
But you don’t want to hear about that. Here are some pictures of the goings-on. We’ll post the final product as soon as we can; we just need to wait until we premiere the film next week in Portland.
Delve Films is collaborating with several local areas of talent to compete in this year’s 24-Hour Filmrace filmmaking competition. The idea is that you have only 24 short hours to concept, write, shoot, edit and upload a short film. The Film Race organization sends you a theme and surprise prop at the beginning of the 24 hour period, and each team takes it from there.
The finished films will be screened in Portland, Seattle, and (hopefully) New York City. This will undoubtedly be a whirlwind of activity, but an extremely fun day nonetheless.
As of this moment, our team members include:
Nate Salciccioli
Isaac Testerman
Eli Odegaard
Jason Silveus
Matthew Smith
Ben Larson
Marshal Burgtof
Elizabeth Fischer
Lonnie Chapin
Rachelle Thomas
Rob Anderson
Shoot us an email if you want to be a part!
This short documentary was created to give a voice to the over 1,000 nameless, homeless youth in Bend, Oregon. The stories in this videos are real, and the issues have never been more pertinent as winter approaches.
We worked with Icon City (a local organization striving to meet the needs of these youth) to find kids who were willing to talk about what it’s like to be homeless. This video is for their use to try and raise funds to provide blankets, showers, food, shelter and the basic necessities to survive.
As filmmakers, it was difficult to maintain our composure as these kids spilled their guts, laying out issues they face every day that we can only imagine. Their honesty and humility was completely disarming.
We had the opportunity to work with Brandon Hill (a photographer from Kansas City) while shooting the interviews. His expertise in lighting and composition really added to the presentation. And he’s a great guy to boot! Check out his photography here.
World Relief is a multinational relief and development organization. They recently completed a rebranding with the excellent Brand Navigation, and we were hired to create this video as an introduction to the new brand.
It was a great opportunity to get into a studio environment, and create a commercial, branding heavy piece. This was also the first video we filmed with our Canon 1D Mk IV. What a great piece of equipment. We also used our Zeiss prime lenses. Such great glass.
Another first for this project was the creation of custom music to accompany the video. Enter Ben Larson, a 25 year old prodigy who wrote, scored, and produced the entire musical backdrop to our video. Impressive stuf, and we hope to work with him more.
Ann Mara (the woman in the video) has a wonderful presence, and it was a lot of fun to work with her. Matt Smith helped out with direction and writing.
Our client approached us with a general idea, and let us run with it. It’s refreshing to work with people who trust us as filmmakers, and want the end goal to be something unexpected and wonderful. A great place to start.
We live in a society obsessed with stuff; clothes, food, image, technology. It’s everywhere. The saturation is so complete that it’s almost uncomfortable for many of us to just sit and be quiet. How do you portray this issue in film?
After much brainstorming, we decided to focus on mass media’s influence on our personal image/wants/desires. This would enable us to tell the story of man’s worry of clothes, food, possessions, images through the lens of our current culture. A conceptual approach was the best way to add commentary to the text, and not drown it out with a story we wanted to tell.
A conceptual film is all about it’s tone. You have to establish an emotional landscape that draws people in. It becomes particularly challenging when you don’t have actors reading lines, so the music, color, and voiceover have to do the heavy lifting.
The entire project was shot at night, and completed in just two nights. Since we couldn’t find a suitable location, we simply built the set ourselves in Nate’s garage. This worked great, as we were able to make the set look exactly how we wanted, and could even move the walls for the dolly shots.
Delve Films just finished our first Book Film project with Faceout Studio. Their new Faceout Publishing platform is offering the creation of what are essentially trailers for books (called Book Films), advertising and promoting upcoming releases. Hopefully lots more of these coming in the future!
…we’re back! Well, almost. Give it a couple weeks and all of you lovely readers (Mom, Dad, and the other fella) will be getting more updates from us. This place has been quiet for too long.
Until then, we bid thee adieu. Sweet dreams, gentle readers.
How do you review a movie like Citizen Kane? In almost any list you check, it appears very near or at the top as the best movie ever made. The idea that there can be a #1 film seems a bit flawed, but it’s enough to pique one’s curiosity. We both went into this film expecting something akin to It’s a Wonderful Life on steroids.
And, in a way, it was. Citizen Kane is (to mightily truncate the plot) the story of a man’s life, and his search for a little peace in the world. Created by first time director Orson Welles in 1941, the film was revolutionary on many fronts. Although Citizen Kane received good reviews from critics, it was a box office flop (barely making back it’s budget, much less turning a profit). The film was virtually forgotten until it was released in Europe in 1946. There, it began its steady arc towards being remembered as a “Great Film”.
But enough background info. To avoid the risk of being completely out of our league with this review, we’ve chosen to keep the questions simple. Here we go:
Did you like Citizen Kane?
Most definitely. While some of the plot devices were a tad cryptic, the overall story is captivating. It’s hard to believe Orson Welles is only 26 in this picture…the sheer power of his acting makes it impossible to look away from many of the more dramatic moments. The overall look of the film was a real treat as well.
What stood out specifically?
First and foremost, the dialogue. While many older movies feel as if you’re watching an endlessly rehearsed play, Citizen Kane’s dialogue moves naturally, with people interrupting each other, obscuring lines, and giving the feel of improv. Here’s a great example.
As with all black and white movies, lighting the scenes is everything visually. The cinematographer on Citizen Kane took black and white to an art form. You watch just one scene, and you know every nuance of the lighting was carefully planned, like a painting.
Will I like Citizen Kane?
That depends. Do you have advance tickets to Transformers 2? Have you seen Twilight multiple times? If so, this film isn’t for you. However, if you’re even casually interested in filmmaking as art, you’ll eat this movie up. Plus, don’t you want to know what people mean when they say “Rosebud”?
Sum up this movie. Now.
Citizen Kane is a landmark film that isn’t easy to digest, but that everyone should try at least once. While we can’t say we enjoyed this film more than all other films, we can say we were captivated by it. It’s brilliant.
Night 1:
So Nate and I decided to start going through AFI’s (American Film Institute) top 100 movies of all time. The idea is to get a grasp on some of the classics and compare their direction styles, cinema-photography, acting—you catch my drift. We were both surprised to see how few we’ve actually seen. Our first: Lawrence of Arabia, coming in at a respectable #5. We’ve heard a lot of talk, but neither of us has seen it…this should be good.
Let me say before we go any further: this movie is LONG! Very LONG; the running time is 4 hours. So don’t jump into it unprepared (like we did).
We made it through 2 hours our first night. And we enjoyed it. I loved the long camera shots! One scene at the beginning of the movie went 4 minutes without cutting or changing angles…we would never get away with that today. Another thing I loved was the epic shots with the tent cities and all the horses and camels. There wasn’t CGI back then – all the elements had to be built and put in to place just as you saw it. Pretty cool. Time consuming!
But what is up with all the eyeliner? Peter O’Toole (and others in the cast) looked a bit like Captain Jack Sparrow’s albino lovechild (in Nate’s interpretation).
Like many old movies, it had an intermission about half way through, so we took the hint and decided to finish the movie another night.
Night 2: Both of us were excited to see the rest of the film, as the first half had impressed us (especially for it’s time). Sadly, the second half began to fall apart quickly. (I’m not just saying this to be different). They tried to change Lawrence’s entire personality in just a couple of scenes. He went from daring and adventuresome to whiny and egotistical, seemingly out of nowhere. The story got weird as well; there was a scene where he gets beaten and raped by a bunch of guys (you don’t see it—it’s very dubious and discrete—but it’s definitely implied) and then decides to give up his marauding ways and live a quiet life, only to change his mind a scene later with a vicious killing rampage where he “leaves no prisoners.” The second half for both Nate and I seemed rushed, (and it’s 2 hours long!!) confusing, and ultimately, disappointing. However, you should judge it for yourselves. It has often been called one of our (if not the) greatest films in history, so rent it and give us your opinion!
Wrap up: First half was epic and captivating. The second half was a disappointment and left us wondering why it was on AFI’s top 100 list. (# 5 for that matter). Either way, it was a good experience to sit down and watch. Next on our list: Citizen Kane.
One of the most important bridges from script to film is the storyboarding process. We utitilized storyboarding to get our ideas for different shots and lighting on the Myst Audtion Project, but we both wish we could’ve done more. Any project we tackle in the future will definitely be storyboarded throughout the process.
Anyways, here’s a few storyboards from The Audtion Project. Thanks to Rick for his help.
