half cut

[ParisInTheAutumn]

What did everyone think? I thought a lot better than last year overall. THere were some that I didn't really appreciate like that pretencious poetry reading at the start, but overall good. The Kung fu film was my favourite! Also, who decides who gets the awards? - just curious.

[Paul Carey]

Yes I have to agree that with each year the quality of student films goes up and up. I just wish that these budding filmmakers would get more support from the university, i mean there is a Film Studies dept afterall.

For me the best film was Paradise Island 3. Stop motion animation must be one of the most fiddly and time consuming things ever, and the amount of time they must have put in to make all the sets, models etc. Stunning wee film.

Also forgot to add well done to Andrew, Grant, Naysun and the rest of the Half-Cut team who do all the hard work behind the scenes. Good effort guys.
[hr]

Paul Carey
NPH Cinema, St Andrews

[Malcolm]

Quoting Paul Carey from 14:27, 5th May 2007
For me the best film was Paradise Island 3. Stop motion animation must be one of the most fiddly and time consuming things ever, and the amount of time they must have put in to make all the sets, models etc. Stunning wee film.

Yeah, I heard that one was made up of at least 30k still images!

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

The poetry film was drivel and the 'Passion' one lacked any content or relevance and was essentially soft core porn. The rest were excellent though - I especially enjoyed five iron fist. The Ian Rankin one was very good, although the audio was a bit iffy in places and made the accents rather hard to decode.

I also thought that little short at the end was wonderfully written and (for those that know St Andrews) impeccably casted. Apparently it was all shot in one take?

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[[James]]

Quoting Dave the Explosive Newt from 15:57, 5th May 2007
The Ian Rankin one was very good, although the audio was a bit iffy in places and made the accents rather hard to decode.

That's true, though the sound was far better than the first round of shooting - I had to ask for the entire film to be reshot. It was extremely difficult to edit as several individually-shot sections had to be combined to make it look as though there were multiple cameras, and audio from 3 or 4 shots at a time had to be combined as there was only one external microphone. Do you remember if there was any music in the film? Once the editing was finished I handed it over for music to be put in, and as such haven't seen the final version.

Edit: Oh, and I'm not James (Jamie) Smith, if that's causing any confusion.

[Frank]

Similarly with Dave (2 above), Kung Fu and Rankin-One were my particular favourites (though that isn't helped by me having seen the Paradise Island one before[I think...], so I felt best not to judge that!). Pret-poe was precisely that: Not entertaining. Softcore was amusing, somewhat, but essentially still softcore, eg= unsatisfying with no proper plot!

I (also) noted that the sound on Jamie's (seeing as I'm the only one here who still knows the lad as Jamie!) one's sound was a bit off, but otherwise it seemed spot on.

Overall, however, the whole lot of them were darned good, with few weak links (from a less personal perspective).

As a sidenote, the Toilet one was also a tremendous little idea. Certainly something to think about when next on the porcelain throne...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Quoting [James] from 17:35, 5th May 2007
That's true, though the sound was far better than the first round of shooting - I had to ask for the entire film to be reshot. It was extremely difficult to edit as several individually-shot sections had to be combined to make it look as though there were multiple cameras, and audio from 3 or 4 shots at a time had to be combined as there was only one external microphone. Do you remember if there was any music in the film? Once the editing was finished I handed it over for music to be put in, and as such haven't seen the final version.

Hmm - I can't remember any music, but I'm sure someone could correct me there.

Also - Harry Giles is an excellent and versatile actor. Yay him.

[hr]

Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[James01]

hey, i'm Jamie Smith the Director of Natural Selection (the Ian Rankin one).

Thanks for the comments, its nice to hear feedback for your work!

The sound was a bit iffy, unfortunately I've become immune to it because I knew every word off by heart, but its defiantly going to be something I'll be looking into for next year.

James, the music was in for the final cut yeah! Thanks again for your excellent job in editing, it was one of the most commented things about the film, i remember one person remarking "That Rankin one was very well cut together!"

Btw Frank, I never saw you after the film (or at least I can't remember seeing you), thanks very much for coming!

Finally, kudos to Harry Giles has proved himself again this year to be one of the most talented actors in St Andrews, after working with him on Natural Selection and seeing his "scary face" it was such a shock to see him in Andrew Scott's Toilet Tails playing an upper class twit so well! Easily a candidate for a Best Actor award... i may well suggest that for next year.

EDIT: for the record, in case i get lynched, I thought all my actors in NS where excellent, AJ, Kieran, Martin, Myles and Harry! I was just pointing out the contrasts in the two characters Harry Played!

Roll on Half-Cut 08...

[The Jaspar]

Are any of these films going to be put up on youtube?

[Freaker]

Quoting The Jaspar from 19:01, 6th May 2007
Are any of these films going to be put up on youtube?

Some of them are online already. You can find some of the Haphazard Studio productions online:

L'Homme Inverse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i79BzNgys8
Trouble in Paradise III - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBj5gL555s

I don't know about any of the others, though.

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[shepperton]

I thought the films were very good overall although I thought some of them would have been better if they had been five minutes shorter.

I may be controversial in saying this but I didn't like Natural Selection at all - the poor quality sound put me off it a lot and I didn't think the editing was much to write home about. On the flip side of that I actually thought that 'Passion' was beautifully shot - one of the most accomplished films shown on the night. I also liked the fact that the relationship was entirely ambiguous and that it was just a slice from a couple's life. And as for the pornographic nature - I wouldn't go so far as to say that... I can only surmise that those commentators have not seen much porn.

It was a good event though - congrats to all the film-makers.

[[James]]

Quoting shepperton from 17:16, 7th May 2007
I may be controversial in saying this but I didn't like Natural Selection at all - the poor quality sound put me off it a lot and I didn't think the editing was much to write home about.

I can't say I was happy with the sound recording either, but I'll defend my editing to the death! I defy anyone to do better with the same source material. It wasn't exactly simple either:


[img]http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/69152a99c1.jpg[/img]

[FURY-161]

I'm very glad to see that Half-Cut's reception this year seems to have been almost universally positive. Certainly, in programming I hoped to provide that almost impossible standard of "something for everyone". Personally, I liked them all, which was a first for me at Half-Cut.

Everyone associated worked really hard (and at a fairly difficult time of year), and I can't begin to show them all enough gratitude.

With a bit of luck and a lot of talent (the latter in large supply), next year should be even better: all profits go straigh into aquiring more equipment, which will continue to push future films higher in their quality.

So, here's looking forward to next year!

[hr]

FURY-161
"Anything to feel weightless again"
http://fury161.cjb.net

[shepperton]

Maybe it was just the film itself then. I didn't mean to offend by my comment - just a couple of shots that didn't seem to cut together too well but I suppose it was more the fact that I just didn't like the film as a whole that made me tar your editing with the same brush.

Sorry.

[James01]

I'll take the blame for the sound and some of the cuts not working together, my inexperience really shown through!

But like James said, i'll also defend his editing to the hilt, it was superb. He did a great job with source material that was less than top noch (from a technical viewpoint... again not criticising anyone in particular, except me!)

[FuzzyBeans]

The music for the Ian Rankin, (ie, during the credits etc) was interesting, where did it come from? I noticed you haven't mentioned it anywhere!

[hr]

If you disagree with anything im saying, you're wrong!....

[James01]

Paul Archibald composed it for me. He's a music student here.

He actually gave me a lot more material than we used, but in the end we just didnt have time to implement it all.

[FuzzyBeans]

How come he wasn't in the credits? I looked out for it...

[hr]

If you disagree with anything im saying, you're wrong!....

[shepperton]

Well I still thought that from a technical viewpoint Passion was far and away the best film of the night. Just a shame that everyone seemed to think it was porn.

[James01]

Yeah, kinda forgot bout Paul for the credits, I've already apologised and made it up to him!