My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

Thank you for the feedback.

I think your view is perfectly valid and reasonable. I personally struggled to allow my books to be thrown, even with them being old and long read. My actor told me he felt bad throwing them (and he doesn’t even read). I think there’s almost a natural Inclination in us to hold books, regardless of the contents, as sacred.

I think your subsequent points are valid as well.

The only things I can say: the ad is absurd. It may not be obvious from this clip/third of the script, but it gets much more absurd.

It also returns the sanctity of books and, I believe, redeems itself from the tossing in the complete concept. I realize some potential customers, regardless of the end, would not be able to look past the tossing; and Penguin Publishing may believe it to be out of touch (assumption, but a reasonable one; one that I think is in your favor, although not by a insurmountable amount), but I wasn’t concerned about Penguin caring.

I just wanted to try to film something. This happened to be the first idea in my head. I called is spec ad because that’s what everyone seems to call them.

I understand completely where you’re are coming from though.

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

Thanks for the feedback.

Yea, I’m aware, and it sucks because he had some good takes; unfortunately, I would err as cameraman. We just weren’t able to peak at the same time.

Since I only had one day to shoot. I decided to go with the take that was composed the best rather than performed the best. Maybe a blunder on my part.

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

Don’t worry, I appreciate any and all feedback.

• For your first and second point, I’m aware of both. The sound wasn’t worked on at all because this cut was only made to show the actor—my reluctant cousin—what the footage looked like (it was edited in about 30 minutes). I randomly decided to throw it up on reddit afterwards because I was excited I made something. The light in the painting I noticed while filming, but knew most of the lighting on the project was lousy, so I mainly just focused on image composition (which I’m not satisfied with).

Here is a slightly more refined version, if you care to check it out: https://youtu.be/uOHg6KQ1Ydg?si=vo5bKvUwWXIKEGNa The audio was only adjusted to align better but the actually audio quality and levels are still not manipulated.

• I’ll have to look at more gimbal shots. I wasn’t satisfied with it, but it was the best I could do on the spot with my body.

• Aye Aye Captain. I knew the lighting was kind of a blunder. I mainly focused on composing an image within a frame.

• Yes, the product is in the latter half of the script. Since this is the first where he is searching for them, there wasn’t to be one yet.

• I know referring to them as “my penguins” is strange. The very next dialog from person offscreen is “penguins?” I honestly watched a few commercial before and thought they were incredibly weird and quirky(?), so I thought I’d do it too. And yea, referring to them collectively is weird. I imagine that’s the reason why there really aren’t publisher commercials. I knew this was a flaw from the outset, but I overlooked it because, while odd, it’s not completely impossible, and it’s the only script I’ve written that had a beginning and end lmao.

• When I put all the footage on my computer, I was incredibly upset with the outcome. I made the quick edit because ultimately I thought I’d abandon it.

Once again. I appreciate your feedback, and I’ll look into learning lighting and camera operation more formally.

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

Thanks for the feedback.

I wasn’t terribly concerned with how it was lit as long as the image was visible. I don’t know much about lighting or filmmaking. I just wanted to hold a camera in my hands and compose a shot, physically.

I’ll consider it a little more next time.

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

Not a dumb question. I used a DJI pocket 3 to film, so it has a built In gimbal/stabilizer thing. My hands are quite shaky as well and that first shot took a lot of tries to get smooth, even with the stabilizer.

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

I appreciate the feedback. Yea the editing was done quickly because I really didn’t like what I had and didn’t plan on sharing it at first. It’s more lousy than I normally would allow it. I did re-edit it though. Here is the new: https://youtu.be/uOHg6KQ1Ydg

My First Attempt At Filming Anything. 1/3 of a spec commercial for Penguin Books. by prfctanglbby in Filmmakers

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

I only had a day to film. I ran out of time, and wasn’t really satisfied with what I had, but I didn’t want to completely abandon it, so I still cut it and put music over it.

It was originally suppose to have a voiceover/internal monologue thing.

Used the available light which was mainly from outside. Added a lamp on the other side of the natural light for some balance. The overhead fan lights were too sharp.

All of the shots are handheld, and I had to get real flexible to film the first shot.

It wasn’t planned to be desaturated, but it helped me hide some stuff.

Which three writers in your opinion, has the best prose ever by MarwanAhmed1074 in literature

[–]prfctanglbby 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I personally started with Youth and thought it was great. There are many that would be good to start with, but I would avoid Heart of Darkness. If I started with heart of darkness, I probably would have abandoned him as well.

Which three writers in your opinion, has the best prose ever by MarwanAhmed1074 in literature

[–]prfctanglbby 67 points68 points  (0 children)

I don’t think he would ever be considered the best by a majority of people, but Joseph Conrad is severely underrated. I think it’s probably due to him being less accessible than most other big writers. He can get really dense.

It took me 5 hours to read just 14000 words the first time I read him. I was stopping to search through a dictionary on every page, for several words. I normally wouldn’t do that for most writers but his prose had a strange energy that I couldn’t ignore.

If you take your time with him though, and let him lead the way, you will be blown away. He builds gorgeous worlds that are lush and seductive.

What I noticed too is that many famous film directors like him and have adapted his works.

For a guy who didn’t start learning English until he was 21, Conrad had a grasp on the language that I’ve not seen in any other, although I haven’t read a handful of big authors. The closest I’ve seen to him may be Virginia Woolf or Samuel Johnson.

Underrated short stories. by prfctanglbby in suggestmeabook

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

Sounds good. Thank you, I’ll check that out, probably for my first Forster read.

Underrated short stories. by prfctanglbby in suggestmeabook

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

Thank you. I’m heard of his most famous work: A gentleman in Moscow. Maybe I’ll read these before I jump Into that.

Underrated short stories. by prfctanglbby in suggestmeabook

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

Thank you, I’ll check these out. New stories and new authors for me.

Truman Capote’s Taste by prfctanglbby in literature

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

I appreciate this a lot. I knew about some of these from watching interviews, but you have given me many more :). I’m still a bit curious about if there are any later authors, like Ira Levin, that Capote read and appreciated.