I made a “neon” noir short film for Noirvember

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It’s called Glass Stairs. It’s been the longest and hardest production of my film life. I’m just grateful to have finished it. I’ve always shared my stuff with my RT/Corrie peeps so I hope it’s cool to share it here.




It was a script! And now it's a film!

Congrats!

Love the
WARNING: spoilers below
POV fall down the stairs
That was actually an ALMOST catastrophic filming accident but it all worked out so I’ll take full credit!



Congrats, MKS! Nice short. I liked the dialogue, lighting, and camerawork in it especially.
Thanks! I think I bit off more than I could chew with the equipment and time I had so it means a lot.



That was pretty enjoyable, I'll admit that I found

WARNING: "" spoilers below
["the back and forth about unloading guns and them having noticed perhaps a bit to cute."]


Outside of that small quibble though I enjoyed it, the lighting was particularly good and gave it a good neon noir feel even in the home setting.



That was pretty enjoyable, I'll admit that I found

WARNING: "" spoilers below
["the back and forth about unloading guns and them having noticed perhaps a bit to cute."]


Outside of that small quibble though I enjoyed it, the lighting was particularly good and gave it a good neon noir feel even in the home setting.
Originally, that element was going to be taken to an extreme to where it was flat out satirical but I cranked it back a bunch. I think it’s a fair criticism but I was hoping to capture the playfulness that’s in a lot of noir that gets lost in the midst of more popular archetypes.

I learned SO much while lighting this thing to the point that I feel like it’s glaringly obvious which shots were done first. Very pleased that area has gotten compliments thus far.




Once again I'm impressed by how good this stuff looks given your budgetary limits.
Liked the edit after the first gun shot. Cutting from the shooter to the victim on the floor made it seem like a really violent impact.
And the score is creepy/cool, too.

I'mma get me some filters and start lighting my apartment like this.
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Once again I'm impressed by how good this stuff looks given your budgetary limits.
Liked the edit after the first gun shot. Cutting from the shooter to the victim on the floor made it seem like a really violent impact.
And the score is creepy/cool, too.

I'mma get me some filters and start lighting my apartment like this.
Thanks! Something went terribly wrong with the video files so we ended up with banding and compression issues but I worked with it a lot (both lighting and color correcting) to get that look. I pitched this to my production partner as “Bava directs Chandler.”

That hard cut to her on the floor was actually a very late edit. It originally lingered on the pistol for a moment longer but I randomly decided to tighten that up. Fells good hearing it was the right choice!

Get those Neewer lights and gels. Affordable and makes you look like you had some budget after all.



I've never made a short film, but just from running this place I'm aware that it's a LOT harder than most people think it is, so this is really impressive. I can quibble of course (the difference between the ADR and the regular audio is very noticeable), but mostly I think it's really good. I agree with the compliments about the lighting, the colors, and the camera angles in particular. Good stuff.



I've never made a short film, but just from running this place I'm aware that it's a LOT harder than most people think it is, so this is really impressive. I can quibble of course (the difference between the ADR and the regular audio is very noticeable), but mostly I think it's really good. I agree with the compliments about the lighting, the colors, and the camera angles in particular. Good stuff.
Thanks! Due to the amount of reverb in that room and having to have an inexperienced grip on the boom (just whatever friend was around), it basically made it impossible to get an even audio sound. There’s actually way more ADR than it seems but certain files were just beyond my talents of mixing and mastering to make even. I have no question about why there are two Oscars for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. There should also be one for Foley work. Sound is the unsung hero of modern cinema and when it messes up, it’s a nightmare.

Thanks for the compliments! Glad the strengths are shining through.



Cool, I figured you'd take all that in stride, and I imagine a lot of the quibbles are things you're super aware of, but probably still want to hear anyway to see what stands out to people most.

Honestly, just doing something like this at all seems to be the biggest hurdle, because everyone I know who's gotten into this talks about how they learn so much the first few times, so congrats on starting that process.



Cool, I figured you'd take all that in stride, and I imagine a lot of the quibbles are things you're super aware of, but probably still want to hear anyway to see what stands out to people most.

Honestly, just doing something like this at all seems to be the biggest hurdle, because everyone I know who's gotten into this talks about how they learn so much the first few times, so congrats on starting that process.
Absolutely! While I was hoping everyone would say “no, you’re crazy! The audio sounds great!” I’ve been prepared to be trashed for it so it’s nice knowing that it’s noticeable but doesn’t detract TOO much. At least it’s fairly clean audio, right?

It’s a big hurdle getting anything made. This short wasn’t my first but it was my first attempt at stylized lighting, using new lenses and having a LOT of dialogue. It was also my first non-horror so it was a completely new set of skills. It was actually doing this one that allowed me to make another short film, Warpaint, in less than 2 weeks. I think that one went so smoothly because I knew what to plan for, so despite being shot on an iPhone, this one is more polished and came out earlier for an online competition (it lost but I’m proud of it)




Yeah, it clears the hurdle of "I basically can understand all the dialogue" which is obviously the main thing. And I know that's not something you can take for granted, because we've had people here post short films where the audio made it legitimately difficult to hear what was being said. It actually seems like audio stuff is the trickiest thing for new filmmakers to get right, at least anecdotally. Maybe because they just assume the built-in whatever will be good enough? I dunno. But yeah, it cleared that hurdle.



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Really well done!

Please post more as you complete more projects.

Feature length film up next?
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Yeah, it clears the hurdle of "I basically can understand all the dialogue" which is obviously the main thing. And I know that's not something you can take for granted, because we've had people here post short films where the audio made it legitimately difficult to hear what was being said. It actually seems like audio stuff is the trickiest thing for new filmmakers to get right, at least anecdotally. Maybe because they just assume the built-in whatever will be good enough? I dunno. But yeah, it cleared that hurdle.
Audio stuff is definitely the hardest for a few reasons:

-Good sound equipment is expensive.
-It’s a different skillset recording audio (having to avoid clipping, unwanted noise, and maintaining a consistent direction and distance between subjects), editing the audio (getting all your new audio synced correctly with the video), foley/adr (recording all new audio after filming to fill in the gaps or replace bad audio) and sound mixing (making sure the mix levels all sound natural and work on multiple devices. Mixing for surround sound headphones is VERY different than mixing for a cell phone and stuff gets lost in the, well, mix).

With cinematography, there are some basic principals but you can get a lot from a cheap light and a decent lens with some tinkering and post production fixes.

Glad that hurdle was cleared! Phew



Really well done!

Please post more as you complete more projects.

Feature length film up next?
I’ve got some that I finished previous to this! My favorite is a b&w 1 min horror short called Sangre Dulce.

I have a werewolf script that made the rounds at some festivals (maxed out at semi finalist in some national competitions but I’m bitter about it not going the distance) and I was aiming to try and make that in the summer. However, it sounds like The Wolf of Snows Hollow is suspiciously similar so I need to watch that to make sure I don’t have to abort. I’m going to be very bitter as I’ve invested 2 years into that script and probably wrote it before that film was written. It won’t be the first time concurrent ideas have destroyed a project of mine.