A Christmas Short

[Josh C. Jones]

Any and all comments welcomed about this short film myself and a few friends shot in January of 2008.


A Christmas Short from Daniel on Vimeo.
Thank you for your time and comments.

---Josh

[locards principle]

good work. tell us about the production, budget, locations, camera type, equipment etc.

the only thing that i was left wanting to see happen is for santa's bag to light up or some type of visual or sfx of 'magic' when the kid pulls the coal out.

[Josh C. Jones]

Thank you for the comment and good word, especially the sfx idea. We never thought about that.

The production consisted of about two months of pre-production, two days of practice with the crew (5 of us), two full evenings of shooting and a very patient cast and crew. Our budget was $1,000; of which we had to buy the costume, props, most of the set dressings, the tapes, food, etc.

There was only one location and that was at the DP's house. The camera we used was the HV20. Our lights were probably the least looking professional things we had. They consist of a mix of pars, fresnels, fluorescents, photography umbrella lights, and a mismatch of stands with tape holding some things together.

The production itself was tough, as is any production. The first day of shooting was postponed because it was scheduled during the big ice storm of last December. Also, as is with most productions, some of the shots were changed at the last minute do to time and spatial constraints. Example: the opening shot was supposed to be a pan over the Christmas tree with the title as well as the actors name's appearing on the ornaments in CU, but due to loss of time (mostly due to the ice storm) that was cut and we decided to go with the opening you saw.

[Hardric Demsley]

You might consider these lights for your next production:

http://www.interfitphotographic.com/Lighitng/Product%20Pages/Super%...

They're pretty inexpensive (around $100) and put out 600 watts (equiv) daylight balanced. We used 2 and sometimes 3 of them to shoot our feature film, It Came From Over Yonder. I was very pleased with their performance, particularly for the money. They are quiet, cool and you just set the white balance on your cams to daylight and shoot away.

[Josh C. Jones]

Awesome. Thank you. I will check those lights out.