"THE TRADE" a Flyin' Monkey Films Production

[Rodney V. Smith]

View the Movie here: http://www.dvxfest.com/twilightfest/index.php?id=1400229

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/THETRADE-POSTER.jpg

Starring:
Evie Kopp
Mario Rigby
Shawn Hook-Carleton

Produced by:
Jake Vincent
Rodney Smith

Written by:
Rodney Smith and Andrew Stoute

Original Music by:
Justin R Durban

Director of Photography/Director/Editor:
Rodney Smith

Gaffer:
Jake Vincent

Status: IN PRODUCTION
Camera: HVX200 with Brevis 35 Flip, Canon Lenses, 50mm 1.8, 135mm 2.8

[Rodney V. Smith]

Reserved for actors and crew

http://flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/Bad.bmp
Evie Koop

http://flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/mario.jpg
Mario Rigby

http://flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/Dan2.jpg
Dan Mendelsohn

[Rodney V. Smith]

Screenshots:

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/theTrade-1.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/theTrade-2.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/theTrade-3.jpg

http://www.flyinmonkey.com/TheTrade/theTrade-4.jpg

[Rodney V. Smith]

10.07.2008 - Came up with concept for script. Spoke to Jake about getting Stephanie Cima to star in this one. I'd met Stephanie on a music video shoot last weekend and wanted to work with her again, so suggested that there was a short that was planning. The original idea was to use her as one of the vampire chicks in "Blood and Coffee" but schedules didn't mesh... so I came up with the concept and started on the script.

10.08.2008 - Jake nails down Mario for the lead male "the Spectre". The script is finished but has a few problems... problems that Andrew immediately pokes holes through. We spend the rest of the day fixing it. A few problems pop up with getting my actors in. Stephanie can no longer make it, due to family obligations and my guitar player is MIA. So Craigslist to the rescue. I advertised for a guitar player and immediately went through my list of actors who had submitted headshots. Evie popped out and I gave her a call based on her broad experience in theater: she can learn lines quickly. So she agrees to do it and I call Jake and confirm the shoot time.

7:00PM - Met Evie at the Fairview Mall and after a brief coffee conversation, we headed off to the set. i was glad she wasn't a prima donna (or I would have cancelled the shoot.... possibly) and she was glad i wasn't a psycho. Drive to Jake's house to meet Jake and Mario and get set up.

8:00PM setting up in Jake's basement. We don't have production lights, just a hodge-podge of lights that Jake has been using rather effectively. I had known this going in, so the whole concept was based around the lack of light and how we could make it work effectively. There was definitely a fill light for Evie, and in the background we had a couple of blue flourescent lights that gave off an excellent spread. With a fill light at the side and the fog swirling, it simply looked awesome.

9:00PM rehearsals are done and we're ready for the first shot.

11:20PM we've wrapped the "Lair" scenes and are ready for day 2 with the Guitar Player. That's scheduled to shoot next tuesday.

10.14.2008 We had picture lock yesterday and with my original composer not being able to commit, I contacted Justin R. Durban about scoring the movie. He seems to have liked what he has seen, since he has committed to scoring. I've added him to the poster and I'm now fooling around with Color Correction. Pacing is good, the ball is in and I'm feeling really good about this film.

[Robbie Comeau]

Cute!

[ZazaCast]

Welcome...again! What happened to Blood & Coffee? (I'm still looking forward to that one too) Love all your posters.

[Rodney V. Smith]

"Blood and Coffee" is still definitely on. This was just one of those really cool stories that I HAD to go shoot, right there, right then.... putting it together happened pretty quickly and much easier than I had anticipated, but we really pushed to get this thing written and prepped and shot in all of three days.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Cute!

Cute? We kill penguins in this one and you call it cute? (kidding about the penguins)

[Rodney V. Smith]

Welcome...again! Love all you posters.

Thanks and thanks.

[ZazaCast]

Great grabs!!!

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Love this script! Can't wait to see this baby!

Rogan

ps. I endorse any movie that kills penguins

[Rodney V. Smith]

Again I state: no penguins were killed in this film.... well... if Nick comes on over for the last day of the shoot, I'm sure we can work something out. MUAHAHAHAHA

I should do a movie and call it "Day of the Penguin" where Nick has his revenge on all of us...

[Dustin R. Rogan]

shh don't give away tdrp 3!!

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

oops. you know.. we could shoot them back to back.... complete the trilogy...

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Hope Nick can come to Waco in a few weeks, if thats the case...and I'd better get to writting...lol

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

If I can go to Waco, Nick (and his mom of course) can go to Waco. Now the trick is to get you up here Dustin... Coulda used you as the guitar player....

[Simon Höfer]

Whoa! Hey Rodney, cools to see another entry from you! Really looking forward to this film :) And nice grabs!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Whoa! Hey Rodney, cools to see another entry from you! Really looking forward to this film :) And nice grabs!


surprise!

[miamivideo]

Nice grabs, I like the last one it has good composition and lighting. Good luck!

[pauly_the_hitman]

Cool I love multiple entries we shall dominate the competition...

[Rodney V. Smith]

Okay boys and girls: looks like we're going full-tilt-boogie on this baby as of tomorrow. I'll be flying back into Atlanta next wednesday for some paying work, so we're wrapping this baby up in a bow and getting it done over the weekend. Plan is to have Jake start on post-sound by monday so we can get it mastered sometime around wednesday-friday.

Replacing the guitar player, but he's gonna write us some music for the film and the replacement actor is just gonna have to fake the song... however we can do that. I might even have to write some lyrics...

Oh well. Time to get my last phonecalls in so we can make sure we have the alley locked down and actors set.

Update: alley is locked and we're good to go.

[Rodney V. Smith]

So we wrapped today. More grabs to come. Then I'll see how many pickup shots we'll need and if we'll need to reshoot. jake just opened up sunday for a shooting day, so if anything needs to be redone, sunday is the day....

[Maximus]

Nice poster! :beer:

[Rodney V. Smith]

we have picture lock. Going out today for the composer to come up with something funky fresh.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Justin R Duban has just committed to scoring the project for us, so I'm really excited about what he's bringing to the table. Busy guy.

Prepping to fly to Atlanta this morning for the "Blood &Ccoffee" shoot. Looks like "The Trade" will be wrapped up just in time for me to start production on "B&C". I can only hopel that production goes as smoothly as it did for "The Trade"

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Congrats Rod! Hopefully in the next few days Sleep Walk will be locked too.

Rogan

[Rodney V. Smith]

"The Trade" is locked and ready for upload. Amazing: I actually finished a film early and way before the deadline.... pity about "Blood & Coffee" but I'm in. Yay and hurray.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

"The Trade" is locked and ready for upload. Amazing: I actually finished a film early and way before the deadline.... pity about "Blood & Coffee" but I'm in. Yay and hurray.Hey, you finished one film. Yah, it's too bad about B&C but you're good to go! That's all that matters.

Cheers,

Mike

[Rodney V. Smith]

It's an example of how one bad actor can bring down a whole production. It was an actor who I had never worked with before but he came recommended from a friend... he could act but his attitude sucked and then when after shooting for an hour he decided that he wanted to renegotiate his contract... in other words he wanted to be paid when it was made clear from the outset that it was a free gig. Accusations were made that I was going to go off an made a ton of money on the internet from this movie and... well it was getting ugly at that point, so I kicked him off the set and then had to have a bit of a cooling-off period.

Still pissed me off to think about it. And he was the least experienced of the actors, 2 of whom are working professionals.

Anyway, that's over with and we'll have to schedule another round of production. We've already invested a good change, so there's no way we're going to not finish.

Anyway, thanks for the good thoughts. You guys should get a kick out of "The Trade" and just have to watch B&C after the fest...

[ZazaCast]

Wow... isn't that a pisser. Actors; can't live with'em, can't fit more than two of'em in the trunk!

Looking forward to both films!

[Rodney V. Smith]

and we're uploaded.

[Dustin R. Rogan]

Gratz mang!

Rogan

[Marlon Ladd]

Where have I been and why have I missed this one??? That poster is sweeeeeet.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Just wanted to add..... Cool grabs!! :thumbsup:

[Rodney V. Smith]

thanks guys. hope you get a kick out of it.

[MOVIE MASTER]

Looks like a hell of a ride!

[Tim Joy]

Love the lighting. Looks spooky.

[Simon Höfer]

Congratz Rodney! You are da man! really looking forward to this one :)

[gabrielflorit]

Oh wow! How did I miss this thread? Beautiful grabs. Aren't fog machines the best? Good looking cast - they all look like pros.

[Zim]

Good job on your film. Actors were really good. It had a nice Twilight Zone feel to it.

[MrKilloran]

I liked the contrasting lighting between characters, good actors and sweet story. Nice work.

[disjecta]

My favorite shot in the film is the first shot of the girl. There is a great atmosphere to it.

I thought this was a pretty complex plot and not pulled off as well as it could have been. Maybe it had more to do with the limited time you had to convey the story, I'm not sure. I'll give it another viewing. Regardless, it made my "A" list.

[Marlon Ladd]

Okay, man, this film was FREAKY!! Good job on the rack focuses. I really liked the shot of her when she was talking to the guy and how he was out of focus. They only thing I noticed about that whole thing was the sound of the fog machine sprouting fog ever so often. Probably most people wouldn't know what that sound was, so probably isn't a big deal. I love the part where he says, "I stole it from a man." Very cool. The rack focus shot of the two of them was so good, I almost didn't want to ever see him at all, because it really played crazy things on my mind imagining who or what that person actually was. I mean, I was trying to make that shot focus so I could see, but it was more frightening that I couldn't. Nice and creative, Rodney.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks guys. And thanks Marlon for outing me on the fog machine sound. I kept it in there cuz I thought it sounded kind of creepy, but now the whole board knows. :grin:

Glad you guys all liked it. Keep em coming! Now, where's Kholi?

[stinkpot]

The story was great and very much "Twilight Zone". You imagery was cool but the size of your .mp4 output was big and a bit jittery on my screen. Overall cool though.

:beer:

[ZazaCast]

I liked this film! Really good score, interesting shots all around (especially when she was talking to the devilman). Had a cool dark, artsy feel to it. The format did seem a bit big & played back funky for me too (and I have a really fast machine?).

Overall...great film & enjoyable to watch...other than the fog machine!! LOL!

[Brian Parker]

I have to concur with the others here. Her conversation with the guy was really freaky, especially because he kept moving around and you couldn't exactly make out what he was or what he was doing. Like disjecta said I also like that first shot of her. Actors did a good job. Liked your composition. Glad to see another person in Atlanta on here. Great job man.

[darkrequiem1134]

love the farcry title font

[Richard J. Johnson]

I enjoyed it. I think you didn't need to show the devilman in full focus. It was way creepier when I could not make out what it was. Fantastic score. Good job. When she couldn't speak it was driving me crazy. It felt like drowning or something. real tense. It worked.

[heccky]

I looked at the video ... I like it

[galbach]

Looking forward to watching! Need 50 posts to vote...

[galbach]

Cant wait to watch this one...

[gabrielflorit]

Really moody lighting, I dug that. You used a fog machine I take it? Put to good use.

The acting was rather weak in my opinion, I think better actors would have made this a stronger piece. Especially the devil character, his continuous squirming made me think he got his inspiration from Gollum. Yes, devils squirm, but they do so menacingly. He was funny. Also, why make him wear jeans? Completely naked would have been a better stylistic choice.

[Simon Höfer]

Whoa, very well done Rodney!

Love the beginning of the movie! I immediately knew this going to be a good one! The titles were really nice as well. The scene with the devil in the blurred out background was cool. Really liked the red light into her face near the end.

Now the nitpicking:
Her voice sounded dull when talking to the devil. And the devils voice was peaking when he got loud.

I would have preferred as well to not show the devil. He looked too human and his acting was not so strong so that could have been hidden as well. He looked akward with the jeans.

The knife choice was a bit odd in my eyes. Thats not a knife to stab someone.

Overall really great short! Very well executed and an intriguing story as well! Nice work my friend :)

[Rodney V. Smith]

I usually don't try to defend my choices, so take this more as an explanation than anything else:

We kind of struggled with the choice of knife there since it didn't make sense for her to carry around a switchblade, so we asked ourselves: what kind of knife would some one who feels vulnerable carry around that offers some sense of security? Used properly, a box opener can be a formidable tool: look how effectively it was used during the 911 attacks on the planes.

Thanks for the review Simon. I'll fix the edit with the devil man and use the original shot. Maybe there I should have used some type of VFX,but had nothing really planned. Oh well: check out the Director's Cut and hopefully I'll get a chance to fix that issue. Damn jeans and freezing actors...

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Interesting story. I liked it.
I kind of wanted to see more shot selection. No need for so many rack focus shots either.
The audio was a little mixed but not bad.

The story is what really did it for me.
Nice job!

Mike

[pauly_the_hitman]

I liked the cinematography but would have to agree with MAH not so many rack focuses for the sake of doing a rack focus. The story was compelling. The only thing that threw me off was we could hear her crying and making noises and such vocally, but if her vocal abilities were removed no sound would occur there, was it for effect or just an oops? I did like the whole feel of the movie and the titles rocked.
Pauly

[Rodney V. Smith]

Mutes can still make noise, just not use their vocal cords. You can hear discernible grunts and other noises from them.

As for the rack focuses, some people just hate a rack focus whether it is used to further the story or if it's just there as a tool. It's up to you to decide if the rack focus does the job it was intended to do.

Thanks for the review and glad you liked the movie.

[Susanne G.]

Very dramatic and intriguing story. Extremly beautiful the cinematography and the score was fantastic. Very well done - Compliments! :thumbup:

Susanne

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Mutes can still make noise, just not use their vocal cords. You can hear discernible grunts and other noises from them.

As for the rack focuses, some people just hate a rack focus whether it is used to further the story or if it's just there as a tool. It's up to you to decide if the rack focus does the job it was intended to do.

Thanks for the review and glad you liked the movie.I liked the rack focuses! :thumbup:
I just thought maybe a few were unwarranted.

As I said, I really liked the story. The girl and devil both came off very well.

[Rodney V. Smith]

thanks guys. Justin R Durban did a FANTASTIC job with the score and it's incredible all of the quality work he's pulled off for those who used him on their films.

I took it easy on the rack focuses this time around since I wanted to focus primarily on the actors performances and the use of the lighting to make the scene more tense. Glad it was an effective tool and that you enjoyed it so much.

Remember to vote!

[John LaBonney]

Ah, another sell your soul to the devil film in this fest. It was especially interesting for me in that regard to see how our two devils compared.

This story reminded me of The Little Mermaid, when Ariel sells her voice to Ursula. It's not really established in Trade why the woman's voice is so important to her...is she a singer, a broadcaster, a lecturer? I think if we knew then it would add to the drama---her fear and apprehension. The scream blew my eardrums off.

All-in-all it's well shot and presented. Nice job!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Devil? Souls? No souls for sale here that I can see. :) I don't really count myself in the selling of souls category... more in the lines of immoral acts of trading...

SPOILER
I guess I many be missing a bit of clarity and it was one of those on the spot decisions to not have her speak at all, but the premise was to have her have already lost her hearing to a trade 10 years ago... and now she's trading her voice as well, so while she couldn't hear for 10 years, now she's being doomed to having both speech and hearing lost to her... horrifying aspect for anyone I think.
END SPOILER

Sorry about the scream... was going more for effect there. I think we almost got the cops called on us for that one. I'm very glad this film is being so well received. Thank you for all of your critiques.

Keep them coming please.

[John LaBonney]

Well, perhaps I should have said "deal with the devil."

[Ben Sliker]

Carrying on the tradition from Timefest, the AIM sessions have returned, a live stream of whatever may come out of our heads as we watch your films. Here are Ben Sliker, Brad Mate, and Justin Kuhn's thoughts on "THE TRADE."

Since for some reason, since we couldn't get Adium, AIM and iChat to all agree with each in one chat room, we had to go to an online chat room for the 3-person chats. After almost being molested by a forty year old man in a chat room for "privates" (ben read private chat), we managed to hop on to the chatzy client, which worked well. Note: Never search "free chat" in google and expect what you are looking for.

Ben from x.x.x.104 started chat and sent out 2 invitation(s)
Ben: test
Jebus from x.x.x.250 joined the chat 11 seconds ago
Jebus: hola
Ben: heyo
Ben: tick tick tick justin
Kuhn from x.x.x.122 joined the chat
Kuhn: ok
Ben: HEYO
Ben: alright
Ben: "the trade"
Ben: everybody ready?
Kuhn: ok
Jebus: rdy
Ben: 3
Ben: 2
Ben: 1
Ben: go
Ben: this guy has some pretty serious life goeals
Jebus: i like how he circles it...like his gonna forget that day
Ben: requests? umm ... stop playing music?
Ben: CAMERA WOBBLE!
Ben: what's with these kids and the satan movies?
Jebus: she must have been in a wheelchair in the prequel
Ben: LOL
Jebus: and she wanted to dance in barns
Ben: this lighting makes her look like a piggy.
Kuhn: you can tell he's satan by how noisy his section of the picture is
Kuhn: because Satan made the "gain" button.
Jebus: this online chat makes me nauseous.
Ben: lol, you should have seen the first on i tried to use
Ben: a 40 YO man tried to molest me
Kuhn: this shot is going on way too long
Jebus: YOU MUST EAT...THE BROODWICH
Ben: lol ... worst scene ever. THE BROOD - PLACENTA EATING ... look it up. (here ... i did it for you ... CLICK HERE (http://plasmapool.50webs.com/covers/the_brood-back.jpg))
Ben: was the shot change really necessary?
Jebus: box cutter!? shes a terrorist!!
Kuhn: she's trying to hijack her way out of this film
Ben: seriously ... they haven't used box cutters since 01
Ben: ooo ... wait ... too soon?
Jebus: why does satan have to be black huh?!1
Ben: i hate it when naked black men show up in my blue misty room. There is a sign that distinctly says "No naked black men" I don't see how it can be misinterpreted.
Ben: someone needs to take the colored gels away from this guy.
Jebus: might not want to help the crazy lady
Jebus: 100 years? what was her first deal? shes a horrible bargainer
Ben: 500. ok ... 100. SOLD .... sh*t.
Kuhn: i love to twiddle the focus
Ben: thoughts?
Kuhn: I just don't feel like I've mastered it yet...
Jebus: i get to live slightly past the average lifespan of a human!! sweet here's my soul!!
Ben: i'm going to live til im 101
Ben: just out of spite for the number 100
Jebus: lol
Kuhn: not terribly well acted
Kuhn: the resolution/compression choice didn't help.
Ben: btw brad, for some reason justin and i's names are green and yours is pink on my screen.
Kuhn: but this filmmaker could totally get better and kick ass
Jebus: i didnt get the guys motivation. when someone is freaking out and tries to cut you and is running into walls, you dont normally stand there and still try to help
Kuhn: the same color here
Kuhn: he's a sensitive man
Jebus: yeah, i chose a different color...
Ben: ok then
Jebus: when you do a short that is basically one long convo you want to make it more interesting than one shot. i suggest the clean slate strategy of an assload of dolly shots.
Ben: lol, next sauce?

puck, this was weird. regardless of what i said in the session, you used color very effectively here, although know that reds and blues like that are very susceptible to blockies in compression. I felt like the piece as a whole could have used more shot selection. Perhaps even have the devil control her movements a bit. that would have been creep-sauce. I think if you tighten down a couple loose screws, your production value and story could be off the hook.

Glad to see a finished puck film, but miss the willy wonka glasses. :beer:

[hoz]

good movie.

spoiler


to show the "devil" or not to show the devil character... i liked it better when you showed him. i'd have liked it even more if he got into her face and confronted her even more. make it real ugly and uncomfortable. really liked the tension your film brought as it is, you got quite the vehicle here to go even further with that feeling if you go for broke ( my two cents!) . loved the daylight shots you got, liked the night shots too. liked the music a lot as well. you got the best titles i've seen so far too.

i thought she acted very well. the devil wasn't shown enough for me to judge, for what i saw i think he did fine. the musician was okay.

cool film!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks Hoz. I kind of tried to walk the fine line of revealing too mch. It was actually a really difficult decision to decide on doing the rack focus that clearly shows the "Spectre" (as he was called in the script) or not to show him, but in the end I thought the reveal built to the tension and pushed the story along further... maybe a bit more makeup next time and get him naked regardless of if he's cold or not..either that or get a space heater. If it's Tom Marshall, then definitely not space heater: you know actors.

As for the actors i did have... well they did exactly as I requested and made adjustments accordingly. If anyone finds fault with my actors then you can blame me, cuz they gave exactly the performance I was asking for. They are terrific actors and you'll be seeing them in more of my Toronto based work.

keep the reviews coming!

[Rodney V. Smith]

So I can't get Kholi, but instead Kholi 2.0. Thanks for the review Ben (and company) broke my heart listening to you guys rip my film to shreds.... mainly because you were voicing a lot of the concerns I had with the edit (damn you all to the deepest layers of HECK!).

Glad you found it freaky in the end.. well wierd. I have an alternate edit all lined up based on your reviews (and a few others) so we'll just have to watch for the DC after the fest is over.

Oh and the Willy Wonka glasses havent't gone away. The re-edit/re-shoot of Act 2 is almost done.. waiting for foley and score now and I'll post a link when that's up.

Thanks dude(s).

[Horncastle]

I enjoyed this. It had a good story, nice cinematography, a great score and good acting by the devil - he was very Puckish/Shakespearean. I imagine your name "Puckthemad" has some reasoning behind it?
A very solid entry, thanks.
Jason

[Dick Campbell]

the beginning was confusing to me - missed the calendar reference first time around. The photography was great, loved the contrasts and the colors. good actress

[Rodney V. Smith]

Guess you must have blinked Dick. ANd I tried so hard to hold the shot for the right amount of time.... Glad that you dug the film. We had a hell of a time setting up the lighting and gels for the main set piece... think we took about 4-5 hours (great rehearsal time) and then spent about 20 minutes shooting, but it was totally worth it.

Evie Koop (funny, I never realized her name was one letter way from "evil" until i just misspelled it) was a great find. I actually found her on the Toronto craigslist, and she had just the right look I needed for this film. Great experience working with her too.

[Darkline]

Hi puck

Just watched this and thought it was a fun flick.

Oh, I just got the calender shot after reading the post above.... Not to spoon feed the audience but maybe if you had her circling the new date at the end of the short it might have clarified that and also clarified that she had done the trade once before. The way it was edited made you think it was the guy that had circled it at the time (which is good) but I didn't leave the short going 'ooohhh it was her', if you get me. (But I am thick!) EDIT: Ignore that, how would she get hold of a calender for 100 years in the future! lol - maybe a computer screen then. doh)

I liked your compositions and I liked the story. Did he give her hearing back at the end? She seemed to be talking and listening to the devil in the alleyway and my thought was that her betrayal gave her another 100 years with all her senses back? Am I close?

Liked the lighting and colours, you created a nice mood. I prefered it more when you didn't see the devil. I thought he worked better out of focus and I liked what you were doing with that because most people who 'show' the devil can ultimately dissapoint the audience. Unfort for me, the same happened here. I prefered him as a misty figure, and when he was revealed I just didnt find him alluring or threatening anymore. Having said that I think nailing a devil is really hard as everyone has different views on how it should be portrayed.

I thought the start of your short was very cinematic. You created sympathy, and told the story, purely visualy with no dialogue. Totally dug it.... from them on it became more of a conversation piece and I thought some of the visuals lost their power.

Still I enjoyed it a lot and it shows a lot of potential for future work. Nice idea, well executed.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks Darkline. Yes she did have her full hearing and voice back at the end. You got the gist of it right off the bat.

We were definitely going more for the tension and let things be revealed. We actually re-wrote the dialog several times so there was no fluff, just points that continued to drive the story forward and set up character at the same time. Spoonfeeding the audience isn;t out thing, but giving little clues along the way... seems to work for some.

Glad you liked the cinematic elements of my story telling. I've been trying very hard to develop a style and tone for my work and I think I'm definitely getting there, especially effectively using lighting and colors as well as blocking to make a more cohesive onscreen image.

I'll definitely have to address the "conversation piece" angle and the next cut after Twilightfest (the DC) should address the long piece with no cuts. I thought I had designed the shot to be interesting enough for a long take, but need to work on that a little more.

Thanks for your input and glad you liked the story.

Keep em coming guys.

[jojopop]

This one was very atomospheric and featured some really cool lighting.

Personally I loved the interaction with the 'devil' character, even moreso as soon as he actually appeared onscreen. My initial impression when it was just the voice was that it was bordering on melodrama, but as soon as he materialized I thought it worked damn well. His presence really sold the interaction.

Nice work -- I'm definitely looking forward to more from you!

[Rodney V. Smith]

Thanks for the critque and glad you enjoyed the story, both visually and narratively.

Mario will be pleased that you liked his work on this. I'll pass on the compliment.

Side note for everyone who has viewed and critiqued: the spectre is not the devil per se. He's just another demo who has services to offer for the right price, and definitely has no interest in souls. There's a line we cut that I had fought to keep, but it was one of the fluff lines that didn't advance the storyline, so it got cut early in the rewrite.



Gaby: I could offer you my soul.
Spectre: (scoffs) What would I do with a soul? You don't even use yours and would hardly miss it. No. Give me something... something of great value to you...


Maybe I should have kept that line instead of ruthlessly excising it. Oh well. Too late now.

[Bryce A]

Award for best version of Satan goes to you. Mario Rigby was great! Loved it when he was just some creepy out of focus shape in the background. Kind of a frightening lingering retinal burn of a pretense. Oh and with a voice like rusted nails. It worked to even greater effect when we saw him. Great job creating that character.

The film worked for me as a 'deal with the devil' tale. I'm not sure all of what you were going for with the audio levels worked for me. Not really enough for me to say good nor bad. But a gutsy move to do it.

Really liked the film and looking forward to more.

[SparkyZa]

Devil was great. the look and fog and stuff worked here. thanks.