Rootclip

Finally, not just more running and chasing. I really like the direction you guys took the story. Those were some great shots too. Did you guys use a redrock?

@fiercedeityys I couldn't DISagree more. Yes, the other 2 characters are integral to the story, but just like in most movies or shows, every character is not is every single scene.

Introducing new characters could be interesting and is definitely not against any rules that I can see.

Way to go, killerrobotninja! The camera work was fantastic and I love the possibilities of where this could go!!

Pretty good, the production quality is good like the other submission. It looks like you got Neil Patrick Harris there to act for you!

But I would agree with fiercedeityys against adding the extra (BIG) characters. It now being the midpoint in the story and a "HUGE" character being introduced could make it a little disarming. However you did a great job with the camera work and got pretty good actors.

Both videos for this chapter are much better than the previous!

I appreciate the input on the addition of new characters. Try to remember that new characters don't necessarily mean it will take longer to resolve the story. In this case, it just means Tony has a partner, an interesting one IMHO.

We're here to be creative. If more characters seems like a problem to you, solve the problem creatively. I personally have some great ideas about the future of Tony an Joe.

Nice work Les and company. I really like it.

What's interesting to me is that 3 of the 4 submissions has introduced new characters.

Does Joe Votero remind anyone else of Curly from the 3 Stooges? N'yuk n'yuk!

This was awesome, I really like the whole walking Scene, and the way the whole film looks like a vintage movie. Even the score was really good! As for the extra characters. Why Not? keeps the storyline fresh, and we do not get bored with the old characters. Partnering up Tony with Joe will make for some interesting dialogue and keep the story moving forward. Looking forward to the next installment

Thanks Superspawn! That long pull shot that reveals Tony with the woosh sound was actually shot on a greenscreen and composited on footage of the warehouse. A fairly involved shot that showed up for about 1 second. Haha!

yeah Joe has a Curly persona going for him.... Adds some humor to the clip. Great job guys! Can't wait to see what happens next

Oh sweet! My first behind the scenes vignette! :)

nice job, some real film work

Awesome work. I can see the point about not introducing a new major character, but this sidekick isn't necessarily a major character yet. If this clip wins the next clip could just kill him off quickly.

It's like the redshirts in Star Trek. Phaser fodder.

I think this one has my vote so far! I love the graffiti on the wall in the opening shot...nice touch. Also, Sonny's nephew's laugh cracked me up!

This is the first time Joe (Joe) or Rob (Sonny) have ever acted. They did such an awesome job! I'm so glad they were willing to give it a shot. Joe's character cracks me up too, haha.

Padrino! This is an excellent submission. The acting and production are great.

Why kill him off? I think it would be interesting to see where killerrobotninja is taking this storyline. I think the character was pretty funny and I would like to see the partnership

I didnt care for this one as much as some of the others, but putting curly in it was pretty ingenious!!!!!!!

Wasn't the first rootclip kind of mob-esque do we really won't to have to deal with that again?

wasn't the first one some convoluted spy stuff? I never really understood what they were trying to do.

and yes, I do want to go there.

No more Padrino. I changed the soundtrack to some royalty free tunes. Note to other participants: Don't use sweet old school Smashmouth songs or you could possibly be disqualified. Thanks RC admin for the head's up.

Basically the entire Fush Yu Mang album is off limits, if I understand correctly. :)

AWESOME JOB!!! I am super impressed. Didn't know you could act... and Joe, LOL! Can't stop LOL'ing!

I though adding new characters was great. I was sick of seeing those guys running all over the place. Hate to say it, but I'm glad you didn't win last time because you never would have given us this for chapter 3... Love it!

Yeah Genie lamp was a bit of a stretch, I've got some awesome ideas if we win this round!

This is pretty good, but not nearly as good as the circus of horrors. I mean yeah, the production quality is a bit better, but not everybody can afford great production quality. People need to switch their votes from this to Circus of Horrors, for creativity sake

I agree with MountainDewMan, people are just being fooled by high production quality, and this is turning into a constest of who can afford the best stuff. Circus of Horrors takes the story in a new direction, giving new character development of our existing characters (not newly added ones). I will be very angry at the world we live in if this video steals Circus of Horror's glory

MountainDewMan... Are you freakin' kidding!!!!! Take votes away from killerrobotninja because you THINK they could afford great production quality. First of all... This guy is a wiz on computers. Second, this is much better than Circus of Horrors! You must be the guy smoking the pipe in the end!

No thanks, I'll keep my vote here. I can't wait to see where the storyline is going. Great job!

the two previous comments are so true. Circus of Horrors is clearly the best and edgiest of all the submissions. I am sure the guys who made this are low on money, thus the cheaper production quality. If we are going to scold people for not having enough money and give the prize to people who seem to already have enough, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the contest?

haha... did this just turn into a discussion about who makes more money? maybe you should spend less on your "tobacco smoking paraphernalia". I'm not sure what better framing and storytelling have to do with money?

dogfan1... I will be very angry at the world we live in if a clip with a guy lighting up wins!

Nice work

Circus was kind of Confusing and too long. Plus the whole smoking thing was horrible. No for me. Good Job Robot!! You have my vote

killerrobotninja for the win!

Look at me! I was one of the people who made Circus of Horrors, vote for it, not this!

Kidding! This is really some great work killerrobotninja. I am from one of the other groups and the quality on this blows me away. The acting is superb and the camerawork is great overall. Nice job!

Les is developing a fine cinema style versus a TV-style. And it makes all the difference in the world. And there is a difference.

Byron Gray

It's no secret who has the most friends... muah muah muah

By far the best! I am a little biased though. However, the acting was superb. Great job, guys.

CSI watch out

yes blockindabak, heaven forbid a contest actually be judged and voted on fairly by the members of the actual site and filmmaking community, and not by a massive gathering of someone's friends

I can see a few others competing with "Underworld", but "Circus of Horrors"? C'mon.

A couple of guys run through a circus house and have a poorly acted fight. That's hardly edgy or advancing the story.

Of course with 41 votes already and the next video having 9, I'd say this competition is all but over.

Outstanding!! Can't wait to see the next one, this is very catching....You got my vote!

Fantastic editing. I'm inpressed.

way to put in two generic mob characters ive never seen an older mob boss and his bumbling nephew again....geez how many relative did this guy get to vote for him... but the camera work is pretty good...still can't vote for him because he used generic characters with fancy editing

This clip was AWESOME!! Nice job KRN. I particularly enjoyed the acting (great costume design, btw) The setting & lighting were perfect. Camera movements were on point. Very good production overall. Nice touch on the graffiti too ;)

the graffiti was tricky. Flynn surprised me with his spraycan skillz, but he spelled it wrong the first time. We had to repaint the door and start over. Public property, Shmublic propety.

the graffiti definitely looks like After Effects. The only slight problem with this one is how come Tony is being punished for something that was obviously the brown jacket's (Robert Applecroft) fault. The guy in the brown jacket is nowhere to be found yet Tony is getting blamed for this mishap. He seems to be cut out of the story altogether.

As much as everyone would love to disregard the winner of the 2nd chapter, the two don't really fit.

But keep up the good work, this was well done.

Can Sonny walk through walls? Where was he headed in the final seconds? Hahah!!

Seriously, though, this is my fav of all 8 submissions. It was humorous, but still serious and continued the story. Also, it was just beautiful to watch. I love some of the camera shots (specifically at 0:26 and 0:29).

I hope this wins because I know somebody is gonna have a field day with the new character, Joe...or should I say "Curly". LOL!!

@charliechaplin

Glad you asked. The way I see it, Tony is for hire, he's not part of the family and he was paid to deliver the case (Sonny might not even know where it came from, and probably doesn't care). When Tony shows up without it, with excuses, Sonny is not happy, and he doesn't want a refund.

But don't worry, Tony didn't forget who's mistake it was.

not a fan of the new music you chose. doesn't fit the piece, in my opinion.

Wow, I've been watching this sight since the first rootclip and I have to say I am impressed with this video. If I remember right you won a round in the last one but the clip wasn't that great. Your animated clip for last round was funny, but didn't do much for the story. This one though is really good. I have to say, out of all the films I have seen so far in both rootclips, my faves are "Revelation" (Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibe) from the first one (didn't win), this clip is second or maybe actually tied (they were both really good), "The Meeting" (with the split screen) from the first rootclip and the ones with the earthquake scene and the nighttime car chase from the first one as well.

Good job... this one is hands down the best of either round in this rootclip so far.

Thanks, Shark. That's very kind of you.

I agree that this one doesn't fit, i think u guys could have pulled it off a hell of a lot better, sorry!

The video quality is technically good, but I have to agree with the story direction comment made earlier. It seems like there are WAY too many characters introduced this late in the game, and you wouldn't be able to develop their characters in such a short period of time. The problem with that is the viewer may not be able connect with the characters therefore losing interest in what happens to them. Plus we have lost a sense of who the main character is.

I must say, this is an excellent video, but I don't exactly agree with the direction it's going in. Now isn't the time to introduce more characters, but rather to further develop those already existing.

Keep this up though; I look forward to another entry, because the quality is remarkable.

Broke the 180 degree line 3 times! hm?

Also, I miss the old music :(

Well, FungusRidden, the story didn't "jar to a halt", but you can justify your silly earnings however you'd like. I've been watching your voting "trends" and they defy any normal online voting habits, not to mention time zones. Unless of course you have sent your video to asia along with some roofies to make people make bad decisions and vote for mediocre crap.

Voting definitely a little suspect. I also noticed the 180 degree rule being broken too. A little distracting. Unfortunately voting like this could deter future entrants knowing that they can basically put out a black screen and get all their buddies to vote for them. Something needs to be tweaked in that department.

In my honest opinion, this video was shot very well. I didnt even mind the mob portion of it. What got me however was that at the end of chapter 2 (And no, I didnt really like chapter 2), it seemed like Tony saw him enter the building, and then the start of this chapter he's back saying he lost him. But, regardless of who wins this chapter, im sort of excited for chapter 4 now.

I honestly thought my 180 degree liberties would squeak by unnoticed, but this community has a good sense I see. Good to know. :)

i'm not sure if that voting remark was aimed at me charliechaplin, but I assure you all of the votes for this clip are legitimate. Lots of friends and family, yes, but legitimate.

No, it wasn't aimed at you. I could figure out that many of your votes were from friends and family by the comments and that's fine, why not get them to vote?. I'm just concerned that I could potentially put out a video next week and put some good work into it and see it get trumped by kids getting together and just running around their house.

It's all in the game though.. But you know hungrymother is loving this. Competing against two videos rather than 8.

real quick, reading through the other comments. Root, so you know, technically none of these votes defy time zones as you say. For example if someone is on the east coast, im currently on the west coast.thats 3 hours difference. So if I go to bed at 3am, thats 6am on the east which is also a time that normal working people tend to wake up at. I know on work days I get up at 5 am, check my emails, do my internet things and go to work at 6:30. so it doesnt really defy time zones as you say. and, who knows. Maybe some people are viewing from as far away as Iraq? I know When I was in Iraq I still got on the internet often. Thats an 8 hour difference to the east coast. see what Im saying? and just as I told a lot of my friends about this site here, I would have done the same thing in Iraq so lots of votes overnight would have happened.

Loved it!!!! Great laugh, Dirtbag !!!

As a filmmaker myself I can tell you that rules were made to be broken and the 180 rule is one of them. This movie broke the rule, but it was in an interesting way that didn't confuse the viewer which is the whole point of the rule to begin with. Judge the content and creativity, not just the rules. Watch films by great directors and you will see the 180 rule broken often. It is actually quite professional to do so.

you my boy shark!

Here's a little behind the scenes action. The making of the warehouse tracking shot in "Underworld".

Tutorial - Long tracking shot in "Underworld" from Les Lanphere on Vimeo.

nice! I believe this will be on the blog as well... if anyone else has any cool production stuff, let the site peeps know. :)

Thats an awesome breakdown on how that works. Very well done

great job Les

Les (I believe your name is) I would like to take this time to say, after watching the last winning rootclip. I really do enjoy your filming techniques. And I was curious, do you have any other short story videos youve made? If so Id be very interested in seeing them.

I am noticing you do a website for Scripps. I am a film professor that was trying this out to recommend this site to students. Are you in on all of this as well?

I work for a Scripps Newspaper in south florida. Rootclip appears to be based in knoxville, TN and is under the Scripps Entrepreneurial Ventures. I have no advantage. This fact displays itself nicely in the upper right hand corner where I sit mediocrely in 3rd place (i'm no film professor but i'd hope you would agree that we should have done better).

I like film and happen to work for a large corporation, and have no unfair connection to rootclip.

You definately did a good job! What length to go for wide shot. I would've just used manual zoom and done a fast pull. But it prob. wouldn't have looked as good.

For what it's worth, you had my vote. I thought this was an excellent submission and I'm looking forward to seeing next week's!

Sorry BK and any other fans we may have accrued. I'm taking a siesta. This last round was a good indication of what I can do visually, and friend-spamming wise. My crew and family sacrificed themselves too much for me to do it again when we have no chance of winning.

Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

For the record, I have a lot of faith in this site.

I'm there with you KRN. You don't want to put that much effort into it with no chance.