"GeekED" - a mentatDUKE joint [Archive] - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking

mentatDUKE

02-12-2008, 12:00 PM

"The Facts" - GeekED Promo #1
http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/The%20Facts.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3mVD3cYF4o)
Quicktime Version (Right-Click and Save As) (http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/The%20Facts.mov)
YouTube Version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3mVD3cYF4o)

"An Alpha Male's Guide" - GeekED Promo #2
http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/An%20Alpha%20Male's%20Guide.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTlLtgY0osQ)
Quicktime Version (Right-Click and Save As) (http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/An%20Alpha%20Male's%20Guide.mov)
YouTube Version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTlLtgY0osQ)

"Caught" - GeekED Promo #3
http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/Caught.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmGv6c_-IQ)
Quicktime Version (Right-Click and Save As) (http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/Caught.mov)
YouTube Version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmGv6c_-IQ)

"Marriage" - GeekED Promo #4
http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/Marriage.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_4szADO3pU)
Quicktime Version (Right-Click and Save As) (http://www.mentatduke.com/movies/geeked/Marriage.mov)
YouTube Version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_4szADO3pU)

Matty_g

02-12-2008, 12:00 PM

Another NC?

mentatDUKE

02-13-2008, 03:46 PM

BTS:

Below are the sides we used to audition the actors.
During production, we decided to have the actors perform them again while in character for the promo spots.

The actual promo spots will be posted later tonight. In the meantime, if you like reading scripts....

Ed Wilkerson - "The Facts" (http://www.mentatduke.com/sides/geeked/thefacts.pdf)

Demetrius Fontaine - "Caught" (http://www.mentatduke.com/sides/geeked/caught.pdf)

Madeline Peters - "Marriage" (http://www.mentatduke.com/sides/geeked/marriage.pdf)

Jodie McCabe - "Kindergarten" (http://www.mentatduke.com/sides/geeked/kindergarten.pdf)

dvpixl

02-13-2008, 06:16 PM

what for real? those grabs look great! you got one in! and I'm about to watch it....

Ted Arabian

02-13-2008, 06:26 PM

mentatDuke! I am stoked to see another of your films!!! I still have your horrorfest entry in my head.

Congrats and good luck!

I'll be watching.

best,
Ted

mentatDUKE

02-13-2008, 07:33 PM

Thanks dvpixl and Ted. Hope you enjoy! Looking forward to your films also. Now to go download all of them....

smashedburrito

02-13-2008, 08:02 PM

Hey I just watched this one and I really enjoyed it. I thought you had a good grasp on the story, and it felt like a Kevin Smith flick to me, (a good one, not Jersey Girl).

I think the main thing that would have helped your film is sound. It peaked a couple times and some of the cuts were made noticeable with the sound. A little more attention and I think it would have felt a lot smoother.

Also I think it would have been nice to have one more dirty line from the friend. He had about one and a half, and I think one more occurrence at the end would have followed the rules of threes a little better.

Otherwise I dug this one. Keep up the good work.

Ted Arabian

02-14-2008, 09:16 AM

"So this is how White People live" HAHAHA!!! LMAO!

I always love your work, mentatDUKE!

Your films are quirky and fun.

I really loved some of your camera here. And that edit of the luggage handle extending. Brilliant cut. The dolly out on "One Month Later..." Perfect!

The actors did a fine job. Nothing too stand-out but nothing bad. I loved the girl at the bar.

Speaking of the girl at the bar, I didn't agree with the framing on her reverses. I felt that you were trying to include those pretty little lights to her right (camera left) but was putting her out of frame to do so. Maybe I am wrong... maybe there was another argument in this choice. Just sharing my thoughts.

The audio in the living room is weird. Echo-y. Don't know what you had going on there. And the guys voice in the Kitchen is just wrong! Sounds like he is in some sound vortex or something!

The music is perfect. It just compliments the quick, witty style of the film.

I thought that you could have cut some of the dialogue between the three guys in the in living room a bit. Didn't need it and it slowed down the pace for me.

Overall, I enjoyed your film. The girl at the bar was the cutest!

Congrats, man!

-Ted

mentatDUKE

02-14-2008, 10:12 AM

Thanks for the feedback smashedburrito and Ted. The Kevin Smith things is a huge compliment. I really dig the guy's work. Flawed often, but has a lot of heart.

Regarding the framing of the girl at the bar, I wanted her to seem awkward and alone. Regarding the sound, there was some noise and I had to rush the sound mix. I'll remix it due to the feedback on this.

Thanks for watching Ted and smashed! I plan on watching yours later today. Same to you dvpixl. Matt, I've already watched yours, liked it a lot and will leave feedback soon.

MDCFILMS

02-14-2008, 10:15 AM

from two viewers,

Sound could be improved.
Story just didn't go. sorry
Take it or leave it.

Ted Arabian

02-14-2008, 10:15 AM

Regarding the framing of the girl at the bar, I wanted her to seem awkward and alone.
Thanks mentatDUKE for explaining that. I always love to know why a director does something that catches my eye.

mentatDUKE

02-14-2008, 10:28 AM

Thanks for watching, MDC. Appreciate the feedback.

Slimothy

02-14-2008, 10:32 AM

“I kinda liked Masturbating”- had me rollin. Where’d you get the bar? It looked really good and it seems like I’m always looking for a bar to shoot!

wartez

02-14-2008, 10:39 AM

i really like your work mentatDUKE. 'how to get away with murder' had me in stitches.

some really hilarious moments in this one and some beautiful shots. definitely was one of my more anticipated entries in lovefest. more thorough review upon 2nd viewing.

mentatDUKE

02-14-2008, 10:44 AM

Thanks Slim and Wartez.

We shot this in Austin, TX. A pretty film-friendly town. The bars we used were Joe's and JBlack's. You're in Cali, are the mom and pop businesses there cool to filmmakers or are they kinda jaded by now?

Thanks again.

Michael Anthony Horrigan

02-14-2008, 10:57 AM

The sound was very tin can sounding but that can be forgiven.
I also thought the cut between when she was leaving with the teddy bear and when he came to take it back seemed awkward. Almost in the wrong direction.

Now the good... the acting and writing was very well done. I was entertained throughout. Loved the ending!

The music was also perfect.

Cheers!

Blaine

02-14-2008, 02:35 PM

DUKE! Very funny stuff here. I got caught up in this one.

My only real complaint would be with the sound. Quite hollow and hot.

wcs

02-14-2008, 07:02 PM

I thought this one was pretty funny. I liked the dynamic between the three main characters. Some clever bits of dialogue.

I'd say my dissapointment was that you pulled the 'and then random girl sits next to lead character and... magic happens'. It was for a good cause (so you could have the ending 'ohh, this is a cycle of madness!' moment), and you certainly gave it some time to developer so it wasn't too smack-the-head, but it'd be the weak point in the story. I agree with the previous comments on audio, but I didn't find it distracting enough to pull me out of the story (except for the opening phone call).

Much like 6" 45RPM you didn't bother trying to change the world, just just said "hey, let's tell a quirky story with funny characters". I can dig it.

Gohanto

02-14-2008, 08:29 PM

I liked this quite a bit. Professional lighting and comps, sound was a little iffy but not too distracting. One thing I noticed is during the couch scene at the beginning the camera didn't move at all for the characters close-ups which I found a little bit boring. Rotating the camera around to show a little more of the face would've been better imo.

Another thing I noticed is that when he's getting dumped with the Teddy bear, his close-up has a nice looking rim light in it, but then in the two-shot its missing and it looks a little flat as a result to me.

The bar looked good, and the girl at the end seemed like she actually knew what she was talking about. I've seen it happen all too often where dumb as nails actresses delivery "nerdy" lines like that and you can just tell they have no clue what they're talking about. Thank you very much for avoiding that pitfall.

Overall very nice work with fun characters.

mentatDUKE

02-14-2008, 10:06 PM

Micheal, thanks for the feedback. I'm going to do a remix on the sound if it kills me... :(
Im glad you liked the acting and writing. I think we got really lucky with casting. Also glad you liked the music. Our composer, Steve is really talented, so we got lucky there also.

Blaine, glad you liked it. I know you're a tough date, so thanks for letting us get to 1st base. Zing. :D

wcs, thanks for the feedback. Are you telling me you've never had a life-chaning encounter with a random girl!? Yeah... me neither. :)

Gohanto, glad you liked it. I agree with your comments on the coverage for the couch scene. Same for the rim light for the two-shot. Will definitely step the game up in the future.
Glad you liked the bar. You wouldn't believe the stories we have about fighting to get the bar. It was worth it though.
Thanks for the kudos regarding the actress playing the talky nerdy chick at the end. I was really nervous about that potential pitfall. She did outstanding. The entire film would have fallen apart if she didn't nail the scene. She's really great if I may say.

artofsuntzu

02-14-2008, 10:17 PM

That pheromone-sack friend had all the best lines. For me, he kept stealing the scene. I'd like to see his character play a larger part in a subsequent short. Funny stuff.

Chris Messineo

02-15-2008, 06:41 PM

This was interesting. I thought both the actresses were very good.

Technically, a lot of the shots were nice, but the sound was very echo-ey throughout.

I love the name "Mr. Muggles".

Mark Harris

02-15-2008, 09:54 PM

This film is 99.95% to awesome. I really love your comedy(the girl breaking the guy's neck is priceless), and your actors seemed loose enough with each other so as to appear like real friends.

The only real complaint is the audio, which felt over-noise-reduced. Often that's what produces that tin-can echo sound.

And at times, the image looked pretty adapter-y. I tend to lean toward naked lens on comedies.

But great work and fun fun stuff.

KenV

02-16-2008, 07:17 AM

. . ., . . .what, and I'm a geek, . . . , nvm, . . . , . . ., what, . . , sorry this reminds of the fakeness of a "He went to jared commercial"

Maximus

02-16-2008, 07:55 AM

To be honest, this one didn't really grab me... and I take no pleasure in saying that. Your HallowsFest entry was in my top three, so I had high expectations. There was nothing really wrong with it, it just left me feeling... ambivalent. :undecided

Having said that, I'm still really looking forward to your next film!

BTW, your composer rocks! I love his scores.

mentatDUKE

02-16-2008, 10:57 AM

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Appreciate your watching.

Promo spots now added. Thanks again.

mentatDUKE

02-16-2008, 10:57 AM

Marlon Ladd

02-17-2008, 11:34 AM

I like the story. I think the acting was not strong for the most part. I didn’t believe some of the characters. The girlfriend in the beginning was good and the girl at the bar at the end was as well, but for everybody else the acting seemed a little inconsistent. It was good in spots. Like I said, the story was good, there were good shots and there was some funny stuff in here. If the acting was more consistent it would have brought the story out a little better.

mentatDUKE

02-17-2008, 11:44 AM

Thanks for the feedback, Marlon.

Brian Parker

02-17-2008, 09:35 PM

Really enjoyed your film Duke. It rolled along at a good pace, had good writing and characters as well as casting and just felt right. Any technical issues, of which there weren't many, have already been adressed so that's all I got. Great job man.

Jason Adams

02-17-2008, 10:04 PM

Did you use an adapter...What adapter and lenses?

Looked good.

Danielleus

02-17-2008, 10:31 PM

Hey, just caught it. Really enjoyed it. Really quite funny, which is a testament to the actors and the script. Looked fantastic (good light and camera). The colors were just phenomenal so I applaud the set design/decorator/direction. Thought the ending lacked a little of the strength of the beginning. Didn't really enjoy the bar scene or the last scene too much because the beginning was so strong. But overall, really enjoyed. Can't wait to see more from you.

KenV

02-18-2008, 03:55 AM

Well it seems to me others have mentioned sound, but I argue for your cause that all you had was production sound which had alot of natural reverb. And ultimately there is no cure for unwanted production reverb, it's just undesired production sound. So I'll let that slide.

But yeah, I have a cousin who falls into this catagory. =)

mentatDUKE

02-18-2008, 06:49 PM

Hey Champloo, glad you enjoyed it. I appreciate your thoughts on the casting. It was a tough process, so I'm glad the ensemble we assembled worked for you.

Jason we used the Redrock M2 adapter with Nikon lenses + the DVX100A. Glad you liked the look.

Danielleus, thanks for the kind words and critical feedback.

Ken, thanks again for your comments. Do you feel ADR is pretty typical for a project such as this? I may have to consider budgeting some days for looping on my future projects. Do Hollywood films loop every bit of dialogue during post just in case?
Also, are you saying your cousin goes through an endless cycle of romantic fiascos? Yeah... that's a shame. :)

Anthony Pierce

02-18-2008, 07:41 PM

Duke

My friend was over and he loved this, Watched it twice. I thought it was a very funny movie also, probably the funniest of the fest. It was shot nice and the actors did a nice job. I haven’t seen anything else you’ve done but you might have found your niche. Well done.

mentatDUKE

02-19-2008, 12:40 PM

Thanks for the kind words Anthony. You guys watched it twice? I'm humbled. Appreciate it.

Shawn Philip Nelson

02-19-2008, 09:59 PM

lol! Nice!! This was funny dude, I really enjoyed it. Biggest problem was technical, the audio sucked. But hey, good to have tech problems and not creative ones! "Facebook bitches!" Lol, good one. Also loved the plan at the bar, adoption and tours in iraq, nice!

I'd love to see more from ya!

Marlon Ladd

02-20-2008, 05:38 AM

mentatDUKE, I watched your film again and had a different reaction this time. It wasn't so much the acting as I'm thinking it was the audio in some spots. (Or maybe it was just my download). It sounded far away and digital in a couple of spots. Oh, I forgot to mention before that I really like some of the shots in the bar, especially when the guy and the girl are sitting there talking. Did you have a lens adapter? Again, a funny movie.

mentatDUKE

02-21-2008, 11:30 AM

Shawn, thanks for the feedback. Glad some of the comedy worked for you. Looking forward to that project you're working on with the Red by the way.

Marlon, thanks for the update. We used the Redrock M2 adapter.

Regarding the sound, I think I'll have remix done by this weekend.

Thanks again.

Marlon Ladd

02-22-2008, 01:43 PM

Cool. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can get to your other film.

Marlon Ladd

02-22-2008, 01:44 PM

Cool. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can get to your other film.

jojopop

02-22-2008, 02:10 PM

I had a blast watching this one. I think all your actors did a great job -- the film was quick, funny and smart. I think there was a comparison to Kevin Smith and I can see why. The potato sack getup is classic.

The sound, however, is what bothered me the most -- sounds like a lot of noise reduction was done? In any case it pulled me away from the film a bit, but overall good job here, lots of fun. Good times!

Jack Daniel Stanley

02-22-2008, 02:47 PM

Heheh, solid entry. Pretty funny with some great writing.

Here’s some thoughts as I watch it a second time.

Nice opening.

Liked the specificity of the list of things she’s giving back to him. Got a real sense of character.

Your Noise Reduction is a bit heavy, sounds phased.

The black guy has some GREAT lines.

“why I always gotta be the vulnerable bitch”
“because you got soft facial features and pretty dough eyes. Know your role” great writing.

LOL, that girl is sooooo Blonde and then she busts with all that astrophysics talk.

Nice entry!

mentatDUKE

02-23-2008, 12:57 AM

jojopop and Jack, thanks for the feedback. Glad the film worked for you guys for the most part. The sound is killing us on this one...

Thanks again.

Bryce A

02-23-2008, 10:31 PM

Hey, yep. bummer with the sound. But, otherwise, it's great to see a comedy with high production values. It can be easy to ignore the technical aspects and throw a laughfest in the can (assuming it is great just cause of the jokes). I'm glad that wasn't the case of geekED.

Scriptwise, I wasn't so sure about it until the end. Funny, but wasn't quite me. But when the ending kicked in and we saw that all the story did nothing for the character but stick him back on the couch... that's when I knew the film was on a higher plain. Took a while to get there, but loved it when it did.

Keep it up!

RyanT

02-24-2008, 09:06 PM

Would have loved to see you end it a little bit earlier than you did. Just cut out that montage and then cut to him "One Month Later". Maybe give it a shot?

The black guy definitely had some awesome lines. I watched it a few hours ago, so I can't remember anything word for word, but I remember laughing at the line about facebook.

I would have loved to see the look on your poster carry through to the film, but I don't know how well that would have worked. Maybe you gave it a shot and know more than I do.

Anyways, more films to watch. Good job on this man, I enjoyed it. Haha, especially the girl cracking that one guys neck. Priceless.

mentatDUKE

02-24-2008, 10:33 PM

Thanks for the feedback Bryce and Ryan.

Bryce, glad you liked the ending and held on to see things play out.

Ryan, glad you liked the neck-break, but if I cut out the montage, won't it disappear? :)

RyanT

02-24-2008, 11:33 PM

MentatDuke. True that. True that.

You have quite the perdicament on your hands. I'll leave you to sort it out. ;)

Arrik

02-25-2008, 08:55 AM

Yo MentatDuke. I know voting is over but I watched the rest of the entries last night just before voting closed. Just wanted to stop and say great job, man.

I liked your cast. The trio played off one another well. Had some funny lines. The cuties in your short certainly helped out. I liked the bar location. I thought the blonde girl did a great job at being chatty and then played (initially). Great job creating that initial akwardness.

I liked the ending back on the couch in the sack.

Enjoyed it. Good luck, man.

mentatDUKE

02-25-2008, 09:24 AM

Thanks for the feedback Arrik. It's invaluable. Take care.

tmnt

03-01-2008, 08:59 AM

I liked it. You had some good moments and some good writing, I think it needed more polish but it oozed potential. The bar desperately needed some extras too. All the actors did well, the blonde girl at the end looks like she wouldn't be out of place in an American Pie movie (number 1 or 2 - that's a compliment). The black dude was really good too, maybe put those two as the leads and see what happens.

Great work!