Forget About Everything for Awhile - a quarantine feature film
Added 2020-04-08 17:26:25 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
I am super excited to share this project with you all.
Mason and I spent a week quarantined at his family's place in South Carolina and shot a feature length movie in six days. Completed from conception to final cut in just two weeks. Here is Forget About Everything for Awhile free for all to watch!
I hope this film can inspire people to create in these uncertain times. Hollywood and the industry at large is on shutdown, no one is filming and release dates are being pushed back, but this kind of filmmaking is invincible. Barebones, no bullshit, grab a camera and make a movie filmmaking is invincible. From production to release we can still make movies, this is how we win! We've essentially been given 3+ months to prove ourselves and convince the world they don't need corporations to sell them art and entertainment.
I wish you all the best, thank you so much for the continued support.
Love, Joel Haver
Comments
Joel I have to say this movie floored me. I haven't seen or read anything that's hit me as hard as this. I feel like you and Mason made something that made the world better as a whole and I wish I had the words to describe how deeply and heavily this hit my heart (in a good way :) ). Thank you for this.
Joe Will
2021-02-26 11:14:01 +0000 UTCI think it's awesome getting your kids involved in every step of the process. Giving them the feeling that they're helping create a movie is a powerful thing. I'm happy to hear you watched it again! That means a lot. We don't use any sort of remote trigger, we just leave the camera recording until the scene is complete. The amount of takes vary wildly (on average I'd say 3-5, some took upwards of 12). The scene always formulates over the course of several takes, but we make sure to always change it up and try new things out. For a scene or two I think I wound up going with the first take, but more times than not the first is a little rough because we're still feeling things out. Happy to answer any questions!
Joel Haver
2020-04-16 20:53:32 +0000 UTC(not sure why, but Patreon wasn't letting me add this comment as a reply within the thread we had going.) It ended up being camera sound because I had some problems with an external recorder, but you're correct I attempted to fix it in post but it probably did make it more noticeable. For the final scene/shot we actually ADRed the lines and I think they match/sound well. I may take out the audio alterations I made for the beginning and extend the piece a little bit. We made it for a 1 minute film challenge, but now that that's over I see no reason not to make it exactly how I like. Thanks for the tip on improvising. We'll probably end up with some mix of improvised/written in the end. My goal is for the acting to be natural and luckily I think my kids are pretty good at it. There was one take in "On Pause" where my son had improv'd a line at the end and I liked it and put it in a cut. When I watched it with him he said he didn't like it that way and preferred the other way. It made me feel good having him giving me his opinion on it and being in the "editing room" with me. I think he made the right choice. I'm thoroughly impressed by your improv approach yielding such high quality results. I was telling my wife about 'Forget About Everything for Awhile' and then decided that we should just watch it so I watched it a second time last night. She really liked it a lot and I enjoyed it even more the second time. Do you use some kind of remote trigger for things like they kayaking shot and outside the window fight? or are you pressing record, and running the camera until you get where you need to be? Also, I was curious as to how many takes of a scene do you do on average? Are you nailing these on first take? Does the improv evolve over multiple takes? I hope you don't mind all the questions, but it's really interesting stuff to me. Thanks.
John Lagerholm
2020-04-15 21:11:21 +0000 UTCHey John, really nice short with some creative shots and sound usage conveying the bird without showing it. Yeah, the audio is a little rough, sounds like you might've done some work to fix it but ultimately made it more noticeable (I've done this many times). Was it camera audio or a separate microphone? A decent camera mounted microphone will often make a world of difference. I love the concept and love the idea of using your kids! I'm sure it will be a very fun process for the family. The one thing I can say about working with kids and other inexperienced actors, is that they're really good at improvising. People who haven't acted much get stressed out with remembering lines and it often makes the delivery feel unnatural. I'm not saying you have to improvise everything, but consider giving a rough idea of where the scene needs to go and letting them run wild for a few takes. See which you like more! My stuff is improvised in the latter sense, start at the beginning with no idea where it's going. Makes it exciting for me because everyday holds unexpected surprises. Existing as a character feels much more natural when you're not just building up to an expected climax. In 'Forget About Everything for Awhile', Mason and I had a lot of fun throwing each other curve balls that we had to naturally react to.
Joel Haver
2020-04-14 16:43:15 +0000 UTCthanks for the reply. I appreciate hearing about how you approach it. I think that's good advice about cutting out the stuff that makes the process a bore and using natural/available light. If you are interested, here is a short I shot recently with the osmo pocket. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsz24nn6T-M I like how it turned out but was a little disappointed with how some of the audio sounded. I've made about 20 short films in various roles and I'm thinking I will use my 5d Mark III if I give the feature an attempt. Right now, I'm just playing with the concept to figure out the beats of a feature. My plan is to use the same actors from that short (my kids) and tell a story about an alien that crash lands in a kids backyard, takes the form of a small boy and then befriends the kid who teaches him about earth from a childlike perspective. I don't think it will be improvised necessarily, but more written a couple of scenes at a time and fluid to ideas as filming progresses. I have a fairly large yard with lots of distinct areas so I imagine structuring it around that some what. If you don't mind some more questions, I was wondering about your writing process. I've seen your films referred to as "improvised features" and was curious about what that approach might be. Do you start with some kind of story outline and improvise each scene with those beats as guidance, or do you improv the entire thing starting at the beginning and not knowing the ending until you get to it naturally through the characters?
John Lagerholm
2020-04-14 14:35:57 +0000 UTCHey John! Thanks for checking out the channel, it means a lot. Happy to hear you've been enjoying the features, they're my most personal work and it warms my heart to hear that people are watching. As far as technical aspects go, I like to keep things as minimal as possible. For sound we just use two wireless lavs that we record into a Zoom H4n sound device. I shoot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and only have two lenses! A prime 35mm and a prime 14mm! I record onto the camera internally with no monitor or device. Color correction and film emulation is something I've gotten pretty quick at, after one pass I'm usually pretty happy, but will do some minor tweaks along the way. I also use FilmConvert grain emulation to help achieve a more filmic look. The only recommendation I'd make is just do it! And when it's done send it to me! If something makes the process a bore, get rid of it (that's why I only use natural and available light, lighting is such a process that it kills filmmaking for me, and why would I not want things to look the way they actually look?). But yeah, just have fun every step of the way, if you enjoy the process and are passionate about the film, it'll come across on screen. Thank you so much for the support!
Joel Haver
2020-04-13 15:27:49 +0000 UTCI'm a DIY filmmaker , I was wondering if I could ask a couple (semi) technical questions if you don't mind. First, I was wondering how you handle sound recording? I noticed that you and Mason were the only people that worked on the film and was curious if you had any tips on how to get high quality sound without a sound person. Are you recording directly to camera? Are you using lavs? shotguns? on camera mics? There are many wideshots and the exterior by the fire all seem like they might be challenging for quality sound, but I didn't hear anything that took me out of the film. Second, I'm curious about what camera you shot on and what kind of lenses you use most. I don't remember any zooms so I'm assuming you primarily shot on prime lenses? The cinematography was beautiful in many scenes. Do you record to the camera internally or record to something like an external monitor/device? How extensive is your color correction in post? Do you have any specific suggestions or recommendations for someone wanting to shoot a two person feature in their back yard?
John Lagerholm
2020-04-13 14:26:53 +0000 UTCI finished watching it last night. Very impressive. i only recently found your channel, but really enjoy it. Your productivity is incredible, your humor is distinct yet honest, and, with your features, it would appear as though you are truly making groundbreaking cinema. Congratulations. I wish you great success.
John Lagerholm
2020-04-13 14:08:25 +0000 UTC
