"The Perfect Fit" - a film by AJ Brooks

[AJ Brooks]

THE PERFECT FIT - by AJ BROOKS

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/37163/1235088432.jpg

"Everything was fine, until she lost the ring."

A romantic comedy with dramatic consequences.

[AJ Brooks]

For those interested in the dialog version of the film:

A Perfect Fit: The One Where They Talk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GaEkHefO20)

Thanks.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Damn, I wanted to rant about Taylor Swift. Guess I'll just welcome you instead. Welcome.

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

rock on! glad to see you here AJ

[preston]

[Reserved for rants about Taylor Swift]

haha nice. good luck with the film. :thumbup:

[stinkpot]

Welcome to the fest!

:beer:

[FDL film music composer]

Hi Aj,
Goodluck for your new entry...

[vnguyen972]

I like this one... your actress is very pretty!

The music isn't match the mood, but maybe that was just me... over all, great job!

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

Bold choices here AJ :-)

The choice to go without dialogue worked except...I could not figure out what that letter had to do with anything.

The cc/grade choice, didn't work for me. I think you shot it well and it would have been served better by a real grade!

Nice choice o music too. Solid direction, the acting felt natural and good.

[Postmaster]

What Shawn said.

The 2 color effect would be better to get with traditional lighting than - sorry, no offence here - half whit FX.

Otherwhise nice job.

Frank

[armisiano]

I agree with some of the above mentioned technical notes. Aside from that I really liked this one. I'm a real sucker for sweet stories (maybe because I don't know how to make one myself). And the girl was very pretty as well, what can I say? I'm also a sucker for brunettes.

Anyhow, nice direction. Simple, personal, sincere. Good work.

[warau]

Interesting color choice, really liked the first song. I had a little trouble following the story, but that might be just my lack of attention to detail.

[Richard J. Johnson]

I thought the color choices were great. I liked how the lights looked. The music is not my cup of tea but it worked for the story. Good job.

[Kegan]

I enjoyed it and got the story for the most part, but wasn't sure what the letter had to do with anything either. The CC in my opinion worked, as I can't really think of what other grade would have captured the mood.

Well done,

Kegan

[ramsaur]

Enjoyed the film. The lighting kinda knocked me off with the red bright lights then grading it down to night time. Didn't really understand much of the letter but good film.

[AJ Brooks]

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah the letter bit was confusing, it got passed by real quick in the beginning when the guy reaches for it.
Basically he wrote it to her as all the things he wanted to tell her, but would feel too cheesy saying them out loud.


***The ORIGINAL version of the film had dialog and a standard color grade. But due to certain issues (mostly time), I made a version using only the non-speaking parts and tried to tell a story that way. I added the heavily stylized color grade because I thought it would fit the non-realistic/surreal tone of the film.

This was a good learning experience for me and an amazing reminder of the power of editing. I often forget how powerful images and editing are in telling the story, rather than relying on dialog. You can tell much more than you think with just the images.

[Noel Evans]

Well this played a silent film, and I thought it was pretty well done in that respect. People covered the letter. For me the grading wasnt the best choice, but thats my opinion, black and white would have served better for me. Regardless of the grading used that bedroom lamp was just too hot in exposure.

And some people will like it Im sure, but that opening track did nothing for me.

As I said I thought it was pretty well done overall. I like what you captured and where able to portray in your images.

[Rodney V. Smith]

This one didn't do very much for me, even on the second viewing. It felt like a music video that didn't quite match what was happening on screen. I was almost expecting the fist song to fade right out into dialog so we could pick up the heart of the story, but it just faded into more music and while that song worked better I just felt like there was so much more we were missing out on. Silent films really don't do much for me unless told superbly and while you had good visuals on screen, the cinematography needed to be stronger. Song choice would have helped as well, something that REALLY matched what was going on in your head and on screen.

I liked the color grading and some of the artistic choices you made, but storywise just needed a little bit more to present better.

Hope this has been helpful.

[Will Clegg]

My take on the color grade: I really like the duotone with the blue cast, but the reds just really distracted me. If you could make it all blue and white, I think that would be interesting.

This might work better as a slightly shorter silent film. Some of the stuff in the kitchen and with the letter just didnt seem to add to it. I still enjoyed it though, and I thought the actors did a great job.

[Brian Parker]

Hey AJ. I liked the work you did on this film and was intrigued by some of the choices you made. The color grading was an interesting choice and I liked it some most of the shots, i.e. when she was first in the bathroom. The red lights did throw me a little but I have to commend you on the boldness to do so.

The actors did a good job and did very well at expressing their emotions without seeming too affected which is a risk you run making a silent film. I liked your cinematography and felt that it was a sweet and simple (in a good way) piece. Nice job man.

[ZazaCast]

Interesting film and interpretation of the theme. Have to agree that the CC worked on the blue side, but the red was over the top. Played more like a music video...and then there was the letter thing.

Enjoyable film & kudos for trying something different.

[John LaBonney]

I've just completed my second viewing of this film. My conclusion: a third viewing is necessary. Stand-by.

Okay, I've just completed my third viewing of this movie. I'm going to watch it for a fourth time. No, I'm not kidding. What is it about this film that's got me watching it repeatedly?

[John LaBonney]

I surrender. I'm going to have to come back and comment on this one later, it's got me all twisted up.

[AJ Brooks]

lol

[Geoff_R]

I liked that you just had music playing... treating this more like a visual montage.. that we didn't hear the dialogue and just had to interpret visually mostly. It's simple and wonderful in that regard. I like the film but did feel that it suffers from length.

It's short... but I think it could be even shorter... it feels like one of those sweet moments of time... I know how hard it is to cut and lop off huge sections of a movie. I can't do it myself.. but I feel this would seriously be more impactful running at 2:30 or so... because you have a lot of good material here... good beats... some strong intimate moments but they are too spread out.. too thin. If they hit more in succession, I think I'd get more from it. You could also keep the music more consistent then and not change it up into a sad tone. I think it'd totally work with a subtle shift in tone, but right now, the musical shift is a little forced IMO.

This reminds me of those not too long ago kodak commercials about capturing moments... I forget the name of the run but they highlighted the idea of preciousness in a moment and preserving it... this piece feels like an extended version of that and compliments the notion well. Nice work overall and thanks for sharing!

[orchidsofwrath]

cool. Didn't understand it the note. Some nice shots. Music choice was dubious imo, especially when it just cross faded to a different song made it seem like some musical compilation thing instead of a narrative.

[Dalton Boettcher]

Very nice! I liked this one quite a bit. As others have said, the color grade didn't work the greatest for me; would have preferred black & white or all blue tones with no red.

I liked your choice to cut the dialog and make it a silent flick. I have mixed feelings on the music. At times I thought it worked, sometimes I didn't.

Finally, I thought the acting, direction, and editing was really well done!

[Chris Messineo]

I liked this.

I thought the actors were great and had a wonderful chemistry together.

I was also a little confused by the note, but overall, I thought this was very sweet and it worked for me.

Best of luck in the fest.

[AJ Brooks]

Yeah Geoff R, I agree I could have made it quite a bit shorter. I think a lot of the "visual exchanges" between the two characters were unclear, so I could have tightened it up there.

The note was tough because I never planned on doing a version without dialog, so I didn't cover the letter very much since he had a V.O. where he explains why he is writing it.

The music does feel incongruous at times. One of those things that sounds good at looks right at 1am, but when you look at it later it doesn't work. :)

Thanks again everyone.

[Lawsuit_Boy]

Hi AJ. Just saw A Perfect Fit.

First off, I was a little concerned about the secondary color adjustments and general grading, but because it was consistent, it really helped to build the film's identity, and it worked very well in that case.

I thought it was fantastic that you tackled a project with no dialogue. I did something similar with my film (only for half of it) but took it in a different direction. I always appreciate those who can genuinely tell a story visually, and you pulled it off. The story was endearing, warm (despite the cold aesthetic), and pleasing.

I do think that it pushes on sentimentality just a hair, but not too much in a negative manner. I guess after doing films like this yourself (ring loss, two young lovers in the throws of love, etc), and seeing it done more times, it gets a little worn and jaded. But you kept it interesting, kept the drama and soft, subtle humor heightened, so nice job there!

The music was comforting, but at times distracting. It might have been the vocals of the song, but on a second viewing, it's not nearly as distracting for me. It really does play out like a modern silent film but without title cards of dialogue.

The actors did a fine job. I could critique a couple of things, but that's simply critiquing just to have something to pick at. No more nit-picking.

You made a pleasant film and I enjoyed it. :beer:

[John LaBonney]

Okay, so what was it that grabbed me about this movie? I think it was the emotion in it, and it reminded me a lot of IFHY, for that reason and also because of the choice of color cast. After debating about it back and forth for a while, I think that when all is said and done, I really like the blues, but the red highlights didn't strike me as nicely; they're just distracting in my opinion. And this was a film where I really wanted to concentrate on the characters.

But what's really curious is the fact that the film was originally planned to have a standard colorization and dialog and was intended to be told in a more traditional way, and I think when I read that I was really twisted up and didn't know what to think about the movie. I thought, wow, here's something really creative, this really took some deep thinking to produce something like this, way beyond my ability and skill-level, okay, it didn't flow together 100% perfectly, it was more like 90%, but still, that's pretty amazing, and then I was like, wait a second, okay, he didn't plan it this way, but this is what he came up with using the material he had on hand, that's pretty amazing on it's own. So what reaction is he going for here? But what if he had told it more traditionally with dialog and a more standard color choice, what would the film be then? It would certainly be something completely different...so was this the right choice? Or was it the only choice because of the footage and time available? Or what if there was a combination between the two vehicles? Would that even be possible, and if so, how would that turn out. Or am I completely out of line by even be asking this questions as a mere observer, or am I simply going for LossFest's most rambling post here? Hmmmm....Did any of what I'm saying here make any sense at all?

I really liked the film and I think if I was a short film festival programmer that this would be one that I would like to put into a schedule for people to see and I think it would prompt some interesting discussions. I thought the acting was well done and that the film could have been cut down in length some. But I'm big on getting human emotion expressed well in film, especially if it makes me a little uneasy in my chair.

[AJ Brooks]

Hey John, thanks for the comments.

Actually, I am working on the "dialog included" version of the film to give the actors, since I feel I owe them that version.

The ultimate reason for the no-dialog cut was because I did not get what I wanted/needed from the actors during the shoot. This was due to my poor direction and casting decisions.

My vision for the film was to incorporate a really dark subtext layer that happened underneath the domestic problem of a couple looking for a ring and bickering. It was a romantic-comedy for the first half, then this dark layer comes out.

Again, this dark layer is all in the subtext, and would be conveyed by the actors experiencing tremendous pain of their past. However, I was not able to effectively communicate that to the actors and get them to that place during the shoot.

If you are interested I can let you know about that version when I finish it.

btw, I really enjoyed Barn Dance.

[SMarston]

very cute story

[John LaBonney]

Again, this dark layer is all in the subtext, and would be conveyed by the actors experiencing tremendous pain of their past. However, I was not able to effectively communicate that to the actors and get them to that place during the shoot.

I agree that expressing the vision I have in my head of what the film should be to others is a difficult task, one I still need a lot of work on. I've found that actors are totally willing to follow my direction, but it's my direction that's lacking more than their ability or willingness.


If you are interested I can let you know about that version when I finish it.Most definitely, I would be interested in seeing it.


btw, I really enjoyed Barn Dance.Thanks, I appreciate that. I think Saint Anthony was a step backwards from Barn Dance for me in some ways, but I learned some important filmmaking and life lessons from it and I'll keep on making films and try to get better.

[alex whitmer]

Pardon any rehashing ...

There is an old challenge/adage amongst writers to tell a complete story with just actions, characters, and environments, and once complete, only go back to add words/dialogue if any one element needs further explanation.

This didn't. The acting pulled off the needed 'dialogue'.


Well done.


aw

[Norm Sanders]

Hey AJ, for not having any words, this was a cool little stylized little film. Interesting cc choice that at first really stood out, but then I got used to it & it flowed.

I enjoyed the song you had with it, as well as the facial expressions on the talent, and their chemistry/love they had on screen.

My only quip would be that it seemed to drag a bit in the middle, and I didn't know what he was referring to with the brushing his teeth move, especially since neither of them really seemed to act on that (i.e. looking down sink drain, etc.).

LOVED the shot at him staring at something with foreboding, only to see it was the toilet. Priceless. :)

[abraham]

Hey AJ , some pretty good stuff.
While I will say that the CC choice was interesting -- it definitely had me distracted for the first half. By the middle, I was used to it -- but still wishing it wasn't there.
I'm sure you've addressed this already, and to each his own.
A story well told, and a cute couple of actors.
She has a great smile,
he has a good frown.

Cheers.

[Brandon Rice]

Cute short. I thought some of the acting came off a LITTLE "pantomimeish" is that makes sense lol. But, it was supposed to be that way, so in that sense it worked.

This one fit the theme very well, and was cute to boot.

[Sprocketboy]

Good work. It had the makings of a music video. Music with lyrics. Stylized look. No sync sound. Yet, it felt better. I also like the music. Excellent.

[Nick_Lee]

Nice. Did feel like a music video but I think it worked well for the theme. I loved the red things behind them. Nice touch for sure. Good song also. Tell the artists!

[Drew Ott]

Favorite part: I like the pacing of the very beginning and how it was shot.

What would have made me like the film more: It seemed to drag on a bit before they find the ring again.

Favorite shot: 3:08 with the male standing against the wall.

Overall I liked the film. I liked the tone but I didn't feel very scared that anything bad would happen because they lost the ring in that room.

[hoz]

good film! it really grew on me and i think it was because your female lead was very good. she really got a chance to shine once she started to read the letter. i didn't like the way you used black and white and colored the lights with a reddish pink but as it went on, it worked. good music too!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

This said a lot without actually saying anything. :)
Good acting and some interesting shots carried this film along nicely. Nice music/song.

My only gripe would be that I wasn't a huge fan of the grading. A minor nitpick.

Sorry I don't have much more to say.

MAH

[MrKilloran]

Not a fan of the thermal vision grade. I do like the jump cuts and good visual storytelling, your actors really sell it. Music fits well too.

[eustace]

I liked that you told a story (and a pretty decent one) without having to use dialogue.

It was well shot and I liked your editing choices: The jump cuts in the opening scene grabbed me. However, I feel the pacing was a bit off through most of the film. Things seemed to linger longer than they needed to.

I thought the grading was going to work for me for the first couple shots, but then it just became too distracting and didn't really add anything to the story. I do think this short needed a unique look in terms of grading, but, in my opinion, this wasn't it.

The music is pretty good and fits the mood well, but for my taste it's a little too repetitive and not very interesting.

Overall, it's not my favorite, but it was definitely a solid, well-done short.

[Austinv]

I enjoyed it, the colour grading was unique and will help you stand out IMO. I would have personally went for a warmer look with nice mellow earthy tones, either way good job.

[AJ Brooks]

I just finished the version with dialog.

See it on the youtube: A Perfect Fit: The One Where They Talk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GaEkHefO20)

Thanks for the comments everyone. I look forward to next fest and the winners of this one!

[John LaBonney]

AJ:

The dialog version is certainly different, and it was really interesting to satisfy my curiosity about how it would have turned out. I think that the acting was pretty good and I'm not sure that this wouldn't have been the version to submit, time allowing. Enjoyed the outtakes as well.

All-in-all though, it's hard to compare the two, having seen both versions. But they are really different movies. Now that I know what they were saying and talking about, I wonder if that detracts from my interest in the original version. But it was a very interesting experiment for me as a viewer.

Thanks AJ for the new version.