Short Film Friday #2

Today I present to you the internet classic Black Button. Directed by Lucas Crandles, the film is 7 minutes long. Enjoy.

Short Film Friday #1

I love good short films. They manage to say something interesting about life in just a few minutes, and at the same time they are just the right lenght for my tiny attention span to handle. And now with the possibility for HD-streaming online, I would dare to say that the genre is entering its golden age. Finally the short film has found its perfect medium.

So to celebrate this I am going to share some new shorts with you every friday from now on. My goal is to present a new collection each friday that will not take up more than 10 minutes of your time. Some of them are internet classics, others might be hidden gems, but the common factor is that they are some of the best short films the internet has to offer.

Last Day Dream – Director: Chris Milk -  Lenght: 48 sec

How is it possible to say so much in just 48 seconds?

Lovefield – Director: Matthieu Rathe – Length: 5 min 29 sec

Beautiful photography, and a showmanship of genre awareness.

Just Colour – Director: Jesper Kirkeby Brevik – Length: 2 min

Who knew ink drops could be so mesmerizing? I could watch this all day.

I guess that’s enough for know. I have a long list of great videos to post, so check in next friday if you want more.

Why the Internet is Awesome – The Power of Creative Commons

So last year we made a short film called “Nemesis”, and a couple of months ago we posted it online under a Creative Commons-license. Basically the license says that anyone can do whatever they want to do with the film as long as it is non-commerical use, and that they give us credit.

About two weeks ago I found this comment on the Nemesis blogpost:

“Hi Stian!
I really enjoyed your film, it’s so damn good that I would stand out in my city’s square and scream the youtube adress in my head! Since that wouldn’t be so noticeable, I would like to translate it to Hungarian, to show it to my friends, and post it on webpages..”

We exchanged some emails, and then two weeks later, BAM!, here it is. Nemesis with Hungarian subtitles.

Press play. Then click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the youtube player. A new menu will appear. Hover your mouse over the arrow pointing left. You can now choose the language.

This is an example of how well Creative Commons-liscensing can work, not just for the consumer but also for the creator. I am now able to reach a bigger audience than I could have with just the english subtitles.

So a big special thanks to my new Hungarian friend, mr. Tooni:)

Small Penis

The word “penis” no longer makes much sense to me. After working on this film for the last semester I’ve probably said the word more times during the last six months than I will do for the rest of my life. In addition I will for always be associated with the subject, and forever be that childish guy who at the age of 23 wanted to make a movie about penises. But my oh my how it was worth it. As you can see from the bloopers at the end of the film, we had so much fun creating this short.

So why make a film about small penises? First of all because it has a big comedic potential. Secondly because a small penis in my opinion works great as a metaphor for the insecurity I wanted to address with this film. And last but not least because the subject still, in 2009, is quite taboo. I remember a phone call I had with a potential actor:

Stian: “Hi! My name is Stian Hafstad, and I’m calling from the University of Bergen. We’re making a short film and I was wondering if you would be interested in auditioning for us?

Man: “Yes, sure. I’d love to. I really enjoy acting. What’s the film about?”

Stian: “The film is called Small Penis, and is about a support gr..”

*click*

Stian: “Hello? Hello? Are you there?”

At first I was puzzled, then a bit mad, but then it suddenly hit me: “I think we might be on to something here.”

There are one million more things I could say about the film, but I kind of feel that my rant has lasted long enough. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them. So please enjoy our graduation film “Small Penis”.

It looks best if you go to youtube and watch it in HD.

Fun (and not so fun) facts about the production:

Shot in 5 days in Bergen, Norway, on a budget of about 400 dollars. All of the actors contributed for free, and I do not think we could have gotten a better cast no matter how much money we would have had.

Cameras:

Sony XDcam – 1920×1080 – 25p.

Sony EX1 – 1280×720 – 50p (the slow motion scenes)

Post production:

Final Cut

Color

Adobe After Effects

Crew:

Christopher Swahn Zibell – DP

Espen Hobbesland – Editor

Erlend Myrstad – Sound

Kristian Stakseth-Gundersen – Producer

Stian Hafstad – Writer and director

Music:

Erlend Myrstad – “Du er ikkje din penis” (You are not your penis)

Elliot Simons – http://meonsound.com/

Singers:

Jørgen Drejer Thomassen

Jørgen Aarø

Espen Rotevatn

Anders Ingebrigtsen

Magnus Bjørndal

Jørgen Østensjø

Steinar Christiansen

Jostein Torvestad

Actors:

Vegard Andre Skarheim

Tom Larsen

Olaf Heggdal

Frode Kilvik

Simon Ommundsen

Andrew Midson-Slettbakk

Joakim Næss Lea

Michael Deonarine

Fredrik Andre Myhr

Andreas Nonaas

Kristin Sissener

Joakim Hestnes

Vilde Evenstad

Anne Elisabeth Waage

Rudi Jakobsen

Kristian Stakset-Gundersen

Tom Rune Andreassen

Espen Hobbesland

Jan Ingar Grindheim

Cato Helgesen

Fredrik Bakke

Marie Rodal

Make-up:

Linn Christine Berg-Olsen

Illustrations:

Tom Rune Andreassen

Photo – End credits:

Arne Daniel Haldorsen

Font:

Agent Orange  – Jakob Fischer www.pizzadude.dk

Verdspremiere

Vi er for tida inne i innspurten på eksamensfilmen vår “Liten Penis”, og no er traileren til premierevisninga klar. Om du har lyst til å kome er det berre å sende ein mail til uibfilm2009[alfakrøll]gmail.com. Det er rikeleg med plassar.

Happy Birthday!

A friend of mine had her birthday last week, and I have been promising her a creative present for quite some time. So last week I finally decided to do something about it and put together this.

As you can see I was a bit short on time, so the choir disappears halfway through the third segment. Also I cannot sing so it is a bit out of tune, but hopefully that just adds to the charm. Enjoy!

Leaked scene from the new Harry Potter movie

We had a left over clip from the Harry Potter and the Outcasts of Hogwarts trailer we made back in November.  So we decided to post it as a separate video. Enjoy!:)

Miles vs fame

This graph shows the connection between how famous an artist is, and how many miles they are willing to travel to be with their loved ones.

As you can see from the graph you will not become very famous unless you are willing to walk one thousand miles or more.

Odetta said she would go 900 miles, but she is far from as famous as Vanessa Carlton, who was willing to go that extra (hundred) mile for success.

The Proclaimers would originally only walk 500 miles, but decided to add another 500. And just like that, they made it to the top.

The Offspring wanted world stardom, so they decided to go for 1 million miles.

The  most interesting part is that Madonna -who is probably the most famous of them all – says in her song “Miles Away”:

you always have the biggest heart, when we are 6000 miles apart.

Proving once and for all that success comes at the expense of your love life.

Nemesis – Have you ever wanted superpowers?

Our exam film from last semester is finally online.

watch it in HD here

HERE ARE SOME QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE PROJECT:

The film was made as a part of a script writing course at the University of Bergen, Norway. It was shot in 5 days on various locations in Bergen. About 6 weeks of planning. It was edited in about 15 days, with an extra 3 weeks for sound-, effects- and color editing.

Since it’s a student film it was made without much of a budget. All the actors contributed for free and our producer was able to get almost everything else sponsored from local businesses (like borrowing the bus etc). So a big thank you to all the people who helped us out!

The main character is played by Trond Giesel Gil, and the nemesis is played by Anders McAuley. The younger version of the main character was played by Julius Sagevik.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS:

Shoot in 1080i on a Sony XDcam. Edited in Final Cut, the effects are done in After Effects and the color correction in Color.

MUSIC:

Kyrie by Piotr Pawlowski (Some Rights Reserved)
Artist link: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/16649
License link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b…

Dr.Keith J.Salmon – Saint Saens: Carnival of the Animals
Elliot Simons – Enchanted Treasure
Dimitris Plagiannis – The Magical Adventure
Pierre Gerwig Langer – Little Ones

The last four were bought from Shockwave-sound.com.

CREW:

Tuva Gaarder Nordlie – Producer

Espen Hobbesland – Editor

Gudrun Tokle Grene – Sound

Ingrid Tangstad – Cinematographer

Stian Hafstad – Writer/Director

Pernille Rivedal Hellevik – Costume/make-up

Morten Forland – Production Assistant

Christer Larsen – Production Assistant

7 Great Websites For Amateur Filmmakers

16mm "S.O.S" Video Shoot | @ the Overlynn Mansion by "The Get Up Kid"

If you’re no stranger to the internet, then you’ve probably heard of these websites before, but they are such great tools for improving your amateur film that I just wanted to share them. What they have in common is that they are all places where you can find Creative Commons-licensed material, or free use material.

If you know of any other great sites like these please let me know in the comment section.

Music:

http://jamendo.com/

A great site for finding music for your project. Not all of it can be used, but quite  alot of it is licensed in a way that lets you put it in your film. On every album there is a “your rights on this album”-section on the right side of the page.

http://www.incompetech.com

A much smaller site than Jamendo, but I had to include it because of the quality. The site features the music of the talented Kevin MacLeod. The music is licensed under a creative commons attribution 3.0 unported liscense. If you like it, it is possible make a donation through Paypal.

http://www.mobygratis.com/

Have you ever wanted to have a million-selling artist on your soundtrack? Well, Moby has set up a website where you can download some of his music for non-commerical use. You have to register  before you can start downloading.

Sound Effects:

http://www.freesound.org/

This site is absolutely brilliant. Just search for the sound you want and there is huge possibility that it is there. Everything is licensed under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License.

Video:

I haven’t been able to find a good site for Creative Commons licensed video yet, so hopefully one of you can send me a link if you know of any? Stock footage of everything from sunsets to city exteriors could come in handy on different projects, so it would be nice to have a site like Jamendo for it. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.

http://cc.aljazeera.net/

The Arabic news channel Al Jazeera has released som footage from Gaza under a Creative Commons license. If you’re making a documentary of some sorts, that might be useful.

http://www.archive.org/index.php

The American Library of Congress has the rights to a lot of old footage and has decided to release it into the public domain. If you spend some time searching the site you’ll most likely find great things to use, like if you need a speech made by Kennedy or some old propaganda movies for your project.

Still Images:

http://www.flickr.com/

Not everything here is Creative Commons licensed, but you can find high quality photos that are. Go to the advanced search options and you can choose the option to only search within Creative Commons-material and material to adapt or build upon.

And that is all that I have to share for now. If you know of any other sites like these, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.