"The Smile Search" by Sean Uyeoka

[sean156]

Hey all,

After posting a few of my shorts in the user films section (and some generous encouragement by Mr. Mike Horrigan), I decided to enter my first fest. A simple and light short that I just wanted to share with everyone. Shot w/ a Canon HV30. Some screen grabs and behind the scenes pics coming soon!

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Sk09s6l7sGI/AAAAAAAAADo/sAHKOaWQJS8/smile_poster.jpg

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Good stuff! Glad to see you entering.

Good luck! :beer:

MAH

[Rodney V. Smith]

welcome!

[AmyO]

Welcome. Always nice to see new people in these fests. Mix it up a bit. Looking forward to it! :)

[ZazaCast]

Welcome to the fest! Looking forward to your entry.

[sean156]

Thanks for the warm welcomes! This one is gonna be pretty short and simple (just a tad over two minutes). Here's a few screengrabs I just took from Final Cut, followed by two behind the scenes shots:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Skl492c9RYI/AAAAAAAAADM/6YLXfWrflQs/s800/screen-capture.png

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Skl4-To-ADI/AAAAAAAAADU/2sGAJBDckcg/s800/screen-capture-2.png

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Skl4-u-WhhI/AAAAAAAAADY/cVZpkKDS8Z0/s800/screen-capture-3.png

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Skl4-7V-PkI/AAAAAAAAADc/FcbDye4RMmU/s800/IMG_1751.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_CdntTJOc5vQ/Skl5XF60upI/AAAAAAAAADk/yAr2hqdYdfk/s720/IMG_1788.jpg

[Girgej]

A short short... will definitely watch... Good Luck

[sean156]

A short short... will definitely watch... Good Luck

Thanks a bunch! Looking forward to watching yours and the rest. Can't wait for the shorts to go up.

[Tim Joy]

Love shorty's. Looking forward to it!

[armisiano]

Wow, he totally swings both ways. How open minded of you. :)

Seriously though, this was very cute. Almost Chaplinesque in it's storyline (and I'm a huge Chaplin fan, so that's a definite compliment).

[ramsaur]

He's on a quest to get his smile back? ehh not my cup of tea.

[sean156]

Seriously though, this was very cute. Almost Chaplinesque in it's storyline (and I'm a huge Chaplin fan, so that's a definite compliment).

Thanks for the compliment! I didn't really think about it as being Chaplinesque but now that you mention it, I can definitely see it.

[Zak Forsman]

this was heartfelt and sincere. i dug it.

[sean156]

this was heartfelt and sincere. i dug it.

Thanks for the kind words, Zak.

[Rodney V. Smith]

This was a sweet story of people reaching out to each other. It made me smile when the girl showed up with the picture and his reaction was spot on. Seeing the other dude hiding like that was also smile inspiring, so maybe you were going on a different kind of quest here. By finding his smile you found ours too.

Some of the lighting could use work, even on the outdoor shots. I could see you struggling with the autofocus on the exterior shots, especially when the girl walks up to read the poster. By the way, the girl confused me. Had she been stood up for a date or something? The shot with the basket and the food signified something else going on, but that was never made clear and at first I thought she was waiting for him.

I liked the use of wide vistas to let your characters travel across them. Good visual there. Your transitions were a little distracting with the wipe, but you didn;t over use it and it always served to introduce a new character.

All of your characters are extremely lonely people and they seem like they've all lost their smiles. We just don't know the why of it and maybe it's not important.

In any case I did enjoy the movie. Thanks for the smile!

[Noel Evans]

Small comment from me. A very sweet little tale, with a nice happy ending. :thumbup:

[sean156]

This was a sweet story of people reaching out to each other. It made me smile when the girl showed up with the picture and his reaction was spot on. Seeing the other dude hiding like that was also smile inspiring, so maybe you were going on a different kind of quest here. By finding his smile you found ours too.

Some of the lighting could use work, even on the outdoor shots. I could see you struggling with the autofocus on the exterior shots, especially when the girl walks up to read the poster. By the way, the girl confused me. Had she been stood up for a date or something? The shot with the basket and the food signified something else going on, but that was never made clear and at first I thought she was waiting for him.

I liked the use of wide vistas to let your characters travel across them. Good visual there. Your transitions were a little distracting with the wipe, but you didn;t over use it and it always served to introduce a new character.

All of your characters are extremely lonely people and they seem like they've all lost their smiles. We just don't know the why of it and maybe it's not important.

In any case I did enjoy the movie. Thanks for the smile!

I'm glad it made you smile! I'll pass on your comment about The Guy's reaction @ the end to Edwin (the main actor). I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

I did come up w/ backstories regarding why the people lost their smiles, but decided early on that it wasn't essential to telling the story, especially since I was trying to make it quick and simple. But one backstory that did make it into short is the girl w/ the picnic basket. You were right in your assumption that she was stood up for a date.

The wide shots were really important to me, so I'm happy that you liked it as well. I can see the problems w/ lighting & focus you're referring to. This was actually shot in a few hours on a single afternoon, run and gun style. All natural lighting. I'm happy with the results, but always looking to improve! Hopefully next time I'll give myself more time to shoot and really try to work on lighting! Thanks again.



Small comment from me. A very sweet little tale, with a nice happy ending. :thumbup:

Thanks, Noel. I tried to just tell a small, simple story that would be entertaining and uplifting.

[Erik Olson]

From a filmmaking perspective, there doesn't seem to be a lot here if you look at it from the craft side, but the story is fun and it really drew me in. At the end, I knew others were coming and that made me happy. Simple and effective.

[AmyO]

This is the kind of storytelling I'm trying to teach to my students this summer. Simple, clear, and visual. You really let this unfold at a nice pace - but not to the point where it stalled. I like the ending of leaving the door open - literally and figuratively. Very nice work.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Very nice, man.

I actually enjoyed this quite a bit. Very touching story that made me smile in the end.
I liked the opening as well. Lots of different scenes, good coverage.

I'm glad that you finally decided to enter. Keep at it and you will do very well in these festivals.

Cheers,

MAH

[Susanne G.]

I loved this short movie. The acting was exeptional and so important, because they didn't speak. I like the idea of the film and the mood was very sensitive. I enjoyed it very much. Compliments!

Susanne

[ZazaCast]

This was a very nice film with a positive message. There are so many people in the world that have lost their smiles for different reasons. Short & sweet. Good acting and camera work, although I'd like to see a little more movement in your shots and a nice sound track.

Great job!

[sean156]

Thanks for all the feedback so far, everyone! For some reason I've been unable to access dvxuser for the past few days (I'm at my girlfriend's house right now) so I haven't read the comments until now.

The nicest compliment is that the film made people smile, which is the best possible reaction I could have hoped for. I had a good time putting this short together and can't wait for future fests.

[ZazaCast]

(I'm at my girlfriend's house right now)

...so I assume you found YOUR smile? :happy:

[Girgej]

Hey ... Beautiful / Cute / Sweet film .... keep it up ...

[Brian Parker]

Really liked the simplicity of this one. Didn't need words because it already has the charm in place. Liked the shot composition and the image was crisp with nice color. No complaints. Great work.

[Geoff_R]

Enjoyed this film. It grew on me as it developed and the ending clinched it. Nice, warm message at the end. Thanks for sharing.

[sean156]

After a few days away, I finally got access back to the site. Thanks to Mike Horrigan and Jason Ramsey for their help. Now I've gotta catch up on watching the rest of the fest!


Hey ... Beautiful / Cute / Sweet film .... keep it up ...

Thanks Girej! Appreciate it.


Really liked the simplicity of this one. Didn't need words because it already has the charm in place. Liked the shot composition and the image was crisp with nice color. No complaints. Great work.

I'm glad that you appreciated the lack of dialogue. I really wanted to tell the story as simply as possible and thought one way to do this would be to keep it silent. I'm happy you enjoyed it :)


Enjoyed this film. It grew on me as it developed and the ending clinched it. Nice, warm message at the end. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for watching! Hope it made you smile.

[sschedra]

I found my smile too! I think charming or endearing is the way I would describe this movie. I am not a film guy (yet) so I only take it as a whole unless something stands out (for better or worse). I noticed the music and found it perfect for the movie. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Congratulations,
Stephen

[kurtmo]

I enjoyed this short. Simple concept well executed makes for a nice film. Without dialog pacing can be trickier, but you kept things moving. Good job!

[sean156]

I found my smile too! I think charming or endearing is the way I would describe this movie. I am not a film guy (yet) so I only take it as a whole unless something stands out (for better or worse). I noticed the music and found it perfect for the movie. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Congratulations,
Stephen

Thanks Stephen. I agree that movies should generally be taken in as a whole as well. Happy that you found your smile :)


I enjoyed this short. Simple concept well executed makes for a nice film. Without dialog pacing can be trickier, but you kept things moving. Good job!

Much appreciated, kurtmo! I've actually tried using minimal/no dialogue in a lot of my shorts to force me to be visual. Challenging, but a very good exercise.