As mentioned in the 'About Us' section, we are interested in showcasing 3-minute movies (among other things) authored by visitors of the site. What got us started with this idea is a contest we entered in 2001. It was the "I see scary movies" contest held by ABC's "Good Morning America". We worked hard on a movie, and after finishing it, we decided that it just wasn't right.  So, we came up with an all new idea, and quickly got to work on that. Although a bit "cheesy", we were happy with it (it had some neat visual and audio effects). We sent in the video and waited for Halloween to come, which was when the winners were to be announced. Due to the unfortunate events of September 11th, ABC decided to cancel the contest. This was understandable.  However, this year (2002) I e-mailed them to ask if they were still going to have the contest. I got a reply stating that they were NOT going to have the contest. When I asked "Why not?", I didn't hear back from them.

     So, it looks like we went through all of that work for nothing, and we are convinced that they will never have another contest again, for what ever reason. Which is why we thought that perhaps we could post movies to the website, and allow visitors to share their own movies.  Below, you can see our movie, and we will add other peoples’ movies as we get them.

     If you or someone you know is into making short movies, please send us an e-mail! We'd love to hear from you. Movies can be sent via e-mail (if they are in "Real Video" format and are reasonably small), or can be snail-mailed on a video tape, CD, or DVD, and I can change the format for you. If you do submit a movie, please also include a story on how/ why you made it!

     Feel free to send comments or ask questions about these movies, but please, if you only want to share your opinion of how cheesy or cheap it is, don’t bother.... we already know!

     NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, you will need the free RealOne Player (or an older version of Real Player) to view these movies.  Note that they have two versions.  One is free, the other is not.  Look for the FREE “Basic” player.

Running Time: 1m 50s

Notes: This movie was made for the 2001 GMA “I See Scary Movies” contest.  At the time, we were not married yet (hence, in the credits, we see Kris has a different last name!).  It was supposed to be a “3-minute movie”, but when we edited it the first time, it was around 5 minutes.  We took some things out, and it ended up being only about 2 minutes.  Rather than trying to add stuff back in, we left it alone.  Though a bit cheesy, we were happy with some of the audio & visual effects in it. We used Adobe Premiere to edit the movie, and Sound Forge to do the audio effects. I put a nice “preverb” on her ghost’s voice, giving it an eerie sound. For visual effects, we have her appearing & disappearing, as well as a picture shattering, a window shade moving down by itself, a lamp turning off by itself, and a couch cushion that sinks down with nobody there.  Some of these effects are self-explanatory, but for those who might be interested, I listed the effects below.

Funny Goof: At the end, when Kris is holding the knife and turning it, you can see my reflection in it. You may expect me to be in terror, given the circumstances, but instead I can be seen laying there casually with my arms crossed over my knee.  (We thought her turning the knife would look cool, but didn’t expect to see my reflection in it).  Also, although she is supposed to be a ghost, she sort of looks like an alien. Probably a combination of her “dead person” makeup, the way she smiled, and the fact that she is upside down, but still kind of strange.

Audio Effect on Kris’s voice (“preverb”): This trick has been used in a number of songs, and in the music business is often called “preverb”.  The process is simple.  1)  Record someone speaking.  2)  In the audio editor, reverse the sound clip so it plays backwards.   3)  Add some dead space at the end of the reversed sound clip to make room for the reverb.  4)  Add reverb to the entire clip. 5) Reverse the sound clip again.  Presto! You can also experiment with echo and other types of reverb.

Audio Effect on Kris’s voice (“multiple layers & pitch”): Near the end of the movie, Kris says, “Yes I am dead.  Won’t you join me?” For the last sentence, I wanted to achieve a sound effect that I had heard in several movies.  It is the effect of multiple voices coming from one source simultaneously. I believe we only did two layers, but you could add more if you want.  All you do is record a sentence as a wav file, then make a duplicate of it. With the second copy, adjust the pitch to a lower setting. Make sure you adjust the pitch, and not the speed! Sometimes adjusting the pitch will slightly alter the speed. If so, just adjust the speed to get it back to normal.  You will have to play with the pitch setting to find something you like.  Not too much lower than the original, but somewhere in the middle. Once you’ve adjusted the pitch and made sure the speed is correct, simply combine the two wavs into one new wav. You will then have a multi-layered, multi-pitched, voice.

Kris fading in/out: A simple trick using a typical fade. Set the camera on a tripod and shoot an empty chair for about 10 seconds.  Without moving the tripod, have someone sit down, and shoot for another 10 seconds. In your video editor, fade one clip into the other. Depending on which clip is first, and which is second, the person will either fade in or out.

Shattering Picture: Ultimately, this turned out pretty easy to do. However, we first went through HOURS of experimenting with a different way. We wanted to pan the camera past the picture sitting on a table, and have it shatter (her ghost “punching it”).  We spent hours (literally) trying to break that picture from the back, first with a mouse trap attached to the back, then a rat trap. The traps had a spike which got pressed into the glass when the trap was sprung (by pulling a string). We cut a hole into the cardboard backing for the spike, but the glass WOULD NOT break!  We finally got it to break only after scoring the glass first with a glass cutter.  When it came down to filming it, we had problems with the trap not firing immediately, and the picture frame moving from pulling on the string. At the time, I was doing construction in my basement, and had an unfinished, framed wall in the middle of the room.  What we ended up doing was attaching the picture frame to the studs, fitting the entire picture into the camera’s frame, then I went around back and whacked it with a hammer. The result is what is in our movie, and although we didn’t get to achieve the effect of her ghost “punching it”, it did turn out to be a sort of metaphor of our “marriage” being broken (murdering your wife would do that). Although it wasn’t how we envisioned it, it worked out okay. And kids, don’t try that at home!  Two years later, and we still find an occasional sliver of glass in the basement.

Window Shade: We attached a string to the shade and ran it along the window frame using eye hooks to guide it.  I laid down in the corner and pulled the string to close the shade as Kris recorded it.

Lamp: We had an extension cord with a switch built into it.  Simple enough!

Couch Cushion: We had an old couch that we planned to replace soon, so we decided to use that.  Basically, we took the cover off of the cushion and cut a huge hole (the size of a “butt”) in the foam. Next, Kris sewed some thin rope to the top center of the cover. We replaced the cover, then ran the rope through eye hooks attached to the couch.  I laid behind the couch as Kris filmed. As she rolled the tape, I pulled on the rope.  We were quite impressed with ourselves over this one. Not that it is anything dazzling, but the effect looked quite nice.  I hope it is noticable in the streaming video, as the quality is considerably lower than that of the original movie.  The cushion effect, coupled with the fade-in of Kris’s ghost, looked pretty cool when we were finished.

Running Time: 26s

From the author: My name is Dylan. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with my girlfriend Joelle. The "short" I'm submitting is my first attempt at any kind of film work. Now it's REALLY short (about 30s) but everyone I've shown it to has told me it shows promise.

I made this film out of my distain for the TV in my house... quite the sensory trap! The movie is composed of only one photograph (edited twice) and three different frames of text, I feel it's simplicity is it's most impacting quality.

Although not hosted on this site, a talented person by the name of Kevin Karstens has created many parody or phony movie trailers and other short works. You can see them at his website, www.karcreat.com.