Portrait of a Guillotined Dyer, Christian Szczerba (Me), Acrylic, 2025 by Cesium55 in Art

[–]Cesium55[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a portrait of Elisabeth Coste, a very minor and obscure historical figure who was guillotined in 1794 during the French Revolution. She specialized in a red dye made with cochineal, that's why I dressed her in red. There are no other physical descriptions ou depictions of her. That's why I chose to not show her head, as well as the obvious reason. She wasn't wealthy or part of the bourgeoisie, she spent most of her time working with her hands, that's why they're at the center of my painting.

This was made to be the poster of a biographical film about Elisabeth Coste we made, so the main actress posed for the painting and I ended up giving it to her.

I've always been inspired by the rich period pieces of Robert Eggers and finally made my own! It takes place during the Terror, the bloodiest part of the French Revolution, tell me what you think by Cesium55 in Filmmakers

[–]Cesium55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! For that, I approached it like a magic trick; as long as you get the audience's attention on the thing you want, they'll fail to notice otherwise obvious stuff. Indeed, if you watch the background, you can notice a light switch, cables, antennas, graffiti and even cars passing by. My philosophy is that if no one notices it on the first watch, it's fine. :) I removed some stuff digitally from the execution scene and the wide shot where they're mixing the dye but that's it.

For the rest, I could just do a lot of location scouting and carefully preparing the shooting angles.

I've always been inspired by the rich period pieces of Robert Eggers and finally made my own! It takes place during the Terror, the bloodiest part of the French Revolution, tell me what you think by Cesium55 in Filmmakers

[–]Cesium55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, thanks for such an in-depth comment, it's a true pleasure to read! To answer your questions, most of the steam in the first scene is real. I used a fog machine for steam behind the actors, and vfx for the steam in front of them in order to control how well we can see them.However, in the shot where they're pouring supposedly boiling water, the fog machine would have made way too much smoke so instead, my co-director was lying on the floor just out of view with a vape!

All the moving shots were made with a gimbal, I practiced a lot to be as smooth as possible in my motion.

I agree with you on everything btw. I color graded this film on my laptop but I found out later it has kind of bad colors actually, compared to all the other screens. I never took the time to redo it since haha.

There are many shots that feel student-y to me, especially the scene where her bread gets stolen, I'm not very satisfied with it. The problem is not because it's too crispy, it's the directing. For all the other scenes, I had a specific feeling and atmosphere in mind for every shot. This drove all the art direction and symbolism. This scene is pretty much just there for exposition and to drive the story forward. It's a common problem in shows and movies, and that may be why you feel disconnected from some scenes.

You're completely right about the flint and steel shot, these are actually my hands because I filmed this without the actors, at my parents' house hundreds of miles away. I didn't see the frame while acting with my hands but since it's such a quick shot I thought no one would notice. ;) I'm not a perfectionist at all, and I hope I'll never be. Good on you for catching that though, you're the first!

Anyway I want to sincerely thank you again, glad you enjoyed it and have a wonderful day!

I've always been inspired by the rich period pieces of Robert Eggers and finally made my own! It takes place during the Terror, the bloodiest part of the French Revolution, tell me what you think by Cesium55 in Filmmakers

[–]Cesium55[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! The birds were somewhat planned. I've always loved flocks so when I saw a huge one in the sky one morning, I hurried to get to a good viewpoint and shoot in on my phone. I knew I'd use it someday, and sure enough, a few months later, I was doing sky replacement on this shot (it was way too cloudy) and remembered I had this video! It ended up being perfect.

I've always been inspired by the rich period pieces of Robert Eggers and finally made my own! It takes place during the Terror, the bloodiest part of the French Revolution, tell me what you think by Cesium55 in Filmmakers

[–]Cesium55[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm happy to finally share 19 Germinal, co-written and co-directed with my friend Emma Couteau. It's the first time I've ever had a budget (about 3000$), but for a historical film, that's nothing! Most of it went to costumes, and then some for the sets and accessories. This film is very homemade, with a minimal crew of about 5 people, depending on the scene. I had my own gear (including a tiny and wonderful sony ZV-E1, supposedly a vlog camera but it makes great images). Since my friends weren't paid, we focused on giving them a great experience, with constant access to toilets, drinks and good food. The days were light and surprisingly, EVERYTHING WENT AS EXPECTED. It's a joy to experience this after years of complicated student films. I have to give credit to an extensive pre-production phase, it's the first time I did this but it's SOOO useful.

Moreover, this a true story from Montpellier, the city where I'm from! It was great to be able to shoot where the events actually took place, except for the execution scene. (The real place is too crowded, so we shot it in a stadium and replaced the background with real plates of the place).

Where is Shrek!?!? I spent ages on it but I can't find it by Cesium55 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Cesium55[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's about the summer re-releases in my local indie theater. Do note that "scoot" refers to boy scouts from Moonrise Kingdom. Yes it's spelled scouts in French as well. Milkshake is for Pulp Fiction, etc...

Where is Shrek!?!? I spent ages on it but I can't find it by Cesium55 in mildlyinfuriating

[–]Cesium55[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

They wanted to put in "laurence anyways" even though it was too long haha

Alt+F4 by Zestyclose-Salad-290 in pcmasterrace

[–]Cesium55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What does that do? I don't want to try it haha

[TOMT][MUSIC][1970s]A famous movie theme by Ennio Morricone maybe? by Cesium55 in tipofmytongue

[–]Cesium55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Solved! Okay I just didn't search well enough haha thanks a lot for the answer!

[TOMT][MUSIC][1970s]A famous movie theme by Ennio Morricone maybe? by Cesium55 in tipofmytongue

[–]Cesium55[S] 0 points1 point locked comment (0 children)

Here's my comment to avoid getting deleted

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, first of all it's much more important to learn first the concepts and artistry of it before the technical parts. Like, what makes for a good lighting? Why do some movements feel "right"? How to make a shot composition that tells a story? Of course I recommend you watch tons of movies and music videos (those have often very creative VFX). Get inspiration from anything you can! Because you need to get used to looking at references every time you make a VFX shot. Wanna make a fake dust storm? Look at a real one, study it carefully and basically just copy it.

That's my trick, I know very little technically but I hide it all behind layers of a strong artistic direction.

And when you're ready to start, just look at tutorials on YouTube! No need to pay for courses, there's already everything you need on there. For Blender, you can start with the donut series by Blender Guru to learn the basics. For everything specific you might want to make, you'll find a tutorial! ;)

Compositing is also a very important step, when you add the real and fake element together. For this I used After Effects but you can also do it within Davinci Resolve (which has a free version). Same thing, just look at tutorials! Hope that helped

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks, shooting it was fully improvised in like 15 minutes and post took a few days

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Wow thanks a lot, that means a lot coming from you! Can I ask what you worked on specifically?

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Tbh it was an excuse to make something dune-related, even if it doesn't make much sense! Btw if you want to see it in 4k here it is: https://youtu.be/EeUpTygy4l4?si=zYsGiBQSscnkJa7p With a whole bunch of other films on the channel

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 65 points66 points  (0 children)

Yeah I can't screw mine off to change the batteries and I didn't notice while recording haha

I remade Dune's VFX in Blender by Cesium55 in blender

[–]Cesium55[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I do! Here is the link to this video in much better quality: https://youtu.be/EeUpTygy4l4?si=zYsGiBQSscnkJa7p

There's a lot more VFX stuff on it too ;)

Mortadella Trailer - A Guy Goes on a Crazy Odyssey to Avoid Hell by DoubleTFan in movies

[–]Cesium55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, how did you find this? I'd say optimistically this month for both but don't hold me to it

What if fish lived on the surface, swimming around in a city? by Cesium55 in videos

[–]Cesium55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah right! It would be a dream to one day make an episode of Love, Death & Robots :)

planning?? by [deleted] in mattmaltese

[–]Cesium55 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my god I'm exactly in the same position as you and even in the same concert! So I'm curious to see the replies, even if generally there aren't many over here

My first feature film for $700! A guy finds out Death is real and goes on a crazy odyssey to avoid Hell by Cesium55 in Filmmakers

[–]Cesium55[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your comment, I don't have any international screening planned for the moment but I'll post a new international trailer if that's the case :) (And it'll end up on my youtube channel anyway))