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There's Something You Should Know...
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4 votes)
Six Finger Fist's approach to producing comedy is to do it often and do it fast -- specifically, "it" is a new 48-hour shoot every month. In the week leading up to production, website visitors vote to select one of several prospective titles, and then Saturday morning the team (which consists of Rick Castaneda, Lawrence Everson, Dwayne Bartholomew, Samira Izadifar, Zach Turner, and Arian Saleh) begins the collaborative writing, shooting, and editing process, culminating in an explosion of video comedy Monday morning. When faced with the title for their June short, There's Something You Should Know, Castaneda observed that "Any time someone tells you 'there's something you should know,' it's usually bad. I was trying to think of who the funniest person to break up with might be, and so I asked what if your reflection just decided to break up with you one day, because you were a loser?"
The majority of the mirror effects were created via split-screening, although some rotoscoping was required for a few moments, such as when the man in the mirror (played by Turner) touches the mirror's surface. According to Turner, "It was important for my body not to overlap the reflection, or vice versa, since we only had 48 hours to do it, and that would've made keying A LOT harder." After Effects was key for rotoscoping and color correction.
Technically impressive for a simple concept, Something You Should Know's sound design is particularly strong, especially given the time constraints. Lawrence Everson, who handles the sound for all of Six Finger Fist's shorts, took advantage of the good sound conditions to do a flawless stereo mix that convincingly sells the idea of someone talking to his own reflection. "I always mix stereo, or try to as much as possible," Everson says, "Even though I know sometimes people won't get the effect (especially since with much online media it's being watched through tiny computer speakers), it gives you more room to be creative or expressive." The bulk of the mixing was done in Final Cut Pro, with some use of Pro Tools for fixes and sound effects.
Overall, the biggest challenge was acting against one's own reflection. Said Castaneda: "That's why I'm squinting so much -- because looking at myself was very off-putting."
One man fights to keep his sanity when the laws of physics turn out to be complete jerks.
Comedy
4:27
Los Angeles, CA
The Man in the Mirror : Zach Turner
Girl on Date : Julie Funk
New Man in Mirror : Rick Castaneda
Cool Guy in Club : Lawrence Everson
Six Finger Fist
Six Finger Fist
Rick Castaneda
Rick Castaneda & Lawrence Everson
Sound Design : Lawrence Everson
Titles : Zach Turner
Music : Arian Saleh
Compositing : Rick Castaneda
Mirrors provided by Psychic Bunny.
d. bart
