aurora - by Connor Hair

[connorfilm]

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FILM (http://www.dvxfest.com/lovefest/loader.php?id=90026)
My LoveFest 2008 entry
http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/auroraposter.tiff

[connorfilm]

http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/aurora%201.png

http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/aurora%202.png

http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/aurora%203.png

http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/aurora%204.png

http://www.diamondedgeentertainment.com/aurora/aurora%205.png

[connorfilm]

reserved for misc.

[Matt Harris]

sci-fi? looks sci-fi. me likes.

[smashedburrito]

hey I just watched this one and it is one of my favorites so far. I really enjoyed the lighting, the cinematography, the way everything seemed to be slipping in and out of focus. My only bummer was actually seeing "it." otherwise you have a nice little entry here, I really loved it.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Nice work. I agree, I wouldn't have shown it but that's just me.
This movie was very good. I loved the voice as well, how did you pull that off?

Very grainy but it seemed to fit. Some nice framing of shots here as well. Very well done.

Cheers!

[connorfilm]

well thank you very much!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

well thank you very much!
No problem... so how did you do the voice? :)

[Kholi]

AURORA - THOUGHTS

Hey Connor. Just got a chance to check out your short. Some of the audio, even in headphones, was hard to hear and the sound overpowered important dialog. Since the piece is mostly dialog, that's something of a technical issue for the audience. I do like the imagery going on here, I think it didn't work for me personally because of the dialog itself.

There's some really nice lowlit footage and I don't mind the noise one bit. I think because it fits, perhaps. Lots of cool frames, focal points and defocus. The image didn't seem to be enough for me to really get into what they were talking about.

Almost felt like I was being preached at about love up until he reveals thoughts about himself. It's really hard to pull off an all dialog piece as a whole. You've done well visually, I'm not sure if the conversation is strong enough. Especially for a full five to six minutes.

I definitely didn't need to see the being, by the way. He could've stayed obscure, as a thought or imaginative thing personally.

Great imagery, I guess I just couldn't really find the actual story.

[Chris Messineo]

The alien voice and performance was great.

I thought the story idea was very interesting, but I never quite believed your lead actor. To be fair though, some of his lines were a little on the nose and hard to deliver.

Technically, I dug the lighting both in the shadow and when he was hit with the light.

[connorfilm]

Yeah I wasn't too happy with some of the dialog after he started reading it.
It wasn't his fault as much as mine because the main characters dialog was
kind of hard for me to write.

As for the lighting, the spark for the entire movie came from watching the suicide
blonde scene in "the number 23". I really just liked the look of that super
overexposed blinding white.

:laugh: ...and the alien voice was yours truely.


Thanks for the Feedback!

[connorfilm]

sorry. The voice was recorded on a zoom h4 and then messed with in garage band.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Cool! Thanks man.

Once again, nice work.

[Ted Arabian]

Hey Connor!

What an original entry you have here. I really enjoyed it.

I thought that you had a nice vision in shooting this that really worked. There are some terrific shots! The lighting and camera work are wonderful.

I do wish that the alien's voice was a bit clearer. Though I could understand it, it was difficult.

And I wish that we didn't see the alien. I don't think that it was necessary. It really took me out of the film as I saw what looked to be some warp-effects on a human. Didn't need it at all, in my opinion. BUT, I loved the hand-to-hand shot.

Very interesting and well done film.

Great job.

-Ted

[Brian Parker]

Nice short. Simple bu definately in a good way and a unique approach. Dark footage was cool but I really liked the way it look when the lights blew the room out. I agree with the others that I didn't have to see the alien but I can appreciate the way you made him. Good job.

[Matt Harris]

Good job, it won me over on the second viewing.
It has a nice Close Encounters vibe. And good ending, reaching for the phone.
Simple and to the point.

[connorfilm]

sweet. Thank you!



It seems the consensus is that I definitely shouldn't have shown the "it".
Was it because of the way it looked or was it because of the "less is more" factor?

[Matt Harris]

Showing the Alien was the right choice in my opinion.
The audience usually feels like they deserve some pay off,
you see the shark at the end of jaws, you see the aliens
at the end of The Abyss, you see Cloverfield at the end.
Etc.

I liked your pinched distortion effect on the alien face and thought it
was creepy and cool.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

sweet. Thank you!



It seems the consensus is that I definitely shouldn't have shown the "it".
Was it because of the way it looked or was it because of the "less is more" factor?
Hmmm.... a bit of both for me.

Great movie though! I also have to second the look he gave to the phone at the end. Really well stated without saying a word.

Cheers,

[Arrik]

There's a thread discussing the love fest theme, and the discussion has gone towards defining love. I was going to drop quotes from your movie and link to your page. Thought it wouldve made a good plug, but I wasnt gonna do it w/o permission :)

Good job, man. I enjoyed the film. I was cool w/o the seeing the alien, but i was still fine with him in.

[connorfilm]

yeah thats fine to quote and link to it.

[Bryce A]

Love the Sci-fi entries. I thought the lighting was a bit muddy in the first scene. It was a lso a difficult bit of scripting having the charater explain love in such a short amount of time. I really enjoyed the being that walked up to the window. Thought it was a nice "human" touch.

[KenV]

As much as I love the alien voice, I had to raise up my volume 3 db or so just so I could understand what was being said.

[mentatDUKE]

Connor, this was an interesting film. Well shot. Interesting genre choice. Not many chose sci-fi.

Cool film.