The slice

[lyonfilms]

The poster says it:

http://lyonfilms.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/the-slice-poster-small5.jpg

Fun LINK (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=201395) to all the other movie posters from this festival.

[Ben Sliker]

hello again.

[ZazaCast]

Take two... they're small!
Looks like another good one...

[Rodney V. Smith]

welcome back.... again

[lyonfilms]

Thanks :)

We shot this on Tuesday and Jason Ptaszek is showing us a rough edit today. This one is a little different - but we had fun shooting it. Kevin may post a few BTS pics today...

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Very cool! Good luck, guys.

MAH

[lyonfilms]

Honestly, this is either going to SUCK BIG TIME or work. LOL, literally no in-between me thinky...

[ptaszekj]

Oh It'll work :)

[Kevin E. Curry]

Piece is reminding me a lot of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

[Kevin E. Curry]

http://lyonfilms.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/the-slice-11-300x200.jpg

Devon directs the crew on the next shot.

[Kevin E. Curry]

http://lyonfilms.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/the-slice-8-300x200.jpg

Gratuitous pie shot.

[jasonthewho]

Piece is reminding me a lot of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.


I hope this entry doesn't have male nudity... but I'm thinking it does.

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

I hope this entry doesn't have male nudity... but I'm thinking it does.

If there's going to be male nudity, Devon Lyon is going to bring it :D

[lyonfilms]

If there's going to be male nudity, Devon Lyon is going to bring it :D

This isn't Horror Fest...

[Kevin E. Curry]

Whew! Uploading in T minus 60 minutes and counting...

[Rodney V. Smith]

At least you;re not "slicing" it close.


Okay, I admit, that was bad. That was really really bad...

[lyonfilms]

Uploaded. This should be interesting.

[Kevin E. Curry]

Sweet, quick approval!

[Mike@AF]

Hmmm... food fight? You really got me wondering so I'm gonna have to watch it. Good luck with the fest!

[Ryan E. Walters]

Congrats on making the deadline- I'm looking forward to seeing what you're serving up. ;)

[Tim Joy]

This one is gonna make me hungry... or will it? Look forward to it regardless.

[totitefilms]

the poster looks yummy :D

[Chris Messineo]

Great poster - looking forward to the film.

[fixitinpost]

Can't wait to see how this one turned out... heh heh... :happy:

[Alan H. Chang]

Puppets ROCK!

[Gohanto]

Awesome film. Nice work.

[Ryan E. Walters]

LOL! nice work- I'm glad to see that the puppets are being put to use. Great work on the puppet vomiting- too funny. :)

[Richard J. Johnson]

Epic! That was just amazing. great job!




and yes puppets do indeed rock.

[lyonfilms]

They may rock - but man, they very, very hard little bastards to work with.

But man the downloads are slow at the moment. I have yet to watch a flick as I am waiting...waiting...waiting...

[Chris_Keaton]

Spoilers!




F-ing hell! A freaking puppet movie! Nice revenge story, he did warn them. I laughed, puppet vomit, awesome. I did expect to see little wads of foam in the puke though. :)

[lyonfilms]

Spoilers!




F-ing hell! A freaking puppet movie! Nice revenge story, he did warn them. I laughed, puppet vomit, awesome. I did expect to see little wads of foam in the puke though. :)


Darn - that is a great idea! Foam!!! How did we overlook that detail??

[Kevin E. Curry]

Foam. Great idea.

Woulda been cleaner, too. ;-)

[ZazaCast]

Puppets...who'd have thunk! A very silly and enjoyable little ditty.
Rock on puppets, rock on.

[Ben Sliker]

and the award for creative vision goes to ...

seriously, i loved the tone and comedic pacing of this movie. It was very reminiscent of THE Muppets. you know, the one from the 70s when they still made dirty jokes... :)

Very enjoyable, worth watching over and over.

[ptaszekj]

seriously, i loved the tone and comedic pacing of this movie. It was very reminiscent of THE Muppets. you know, the one from the 70s when they still made dirty jokes... :)

Thanks! The whole time I was editing it, I kept thinking What would Jim Henson do?

[Tim Joy]

You guys on the opposite side of the country are always doing something creative. Rock on! Enjoyed it very much.

I loved the idea and the reveal. I was waiting for a little more 'stuff ' to happen. It seemed a little thin in some parts. Maybe more sound design or something.

I can hear the edit in your opening song, and it jumps the beat a little, but otherwise it was cool... umm except for the toilet scene. That left a bad taste in my mouth. :) Way to go Grandpa!
I admit it, puppets rock.
Cheers!

[lyonfilms]

You guys on the opposite side of the country are always doing something creative. Rock on! Enjoyed it very much.

I loved the idea and the reveal. I was waiting for a little more 'stuff ' to happen. It seemed a little thin in some parts. Maybe more sound design or something.
Cheers!

Yeah, a bit thin mainly because we wanted it to be short and silly but also because operating and filming puppets is really hard.

[Ryan E. Walters]

... operating and filming puppets is really hard.

Yeah, no kidding- extra props to you and the crew for that - you did well and I know what a workout that is form the tests we did last year.

BTW- I loved the "Psycho" reference with both the knife and the cutting style. Very fun- nice work on the edit Ptaszek.

[ptaszekj]

BTW- I loved the "Psycho" reference with both the knife and the cutting style. Very fun- nice work on the edit Ptaszek.

Thanks Ryan! I must have watched the famous shower scene on youtube a handful of times to get the timing down for that.

[Nemesis TS]

Thank you for making a puppet movie. My wife and I got a real kick out of it. I may make a video response to this one.

Awesome.

[Luis_]

was not expecting this at all...
this was great!!!

[RodThompson]

WTF did I just watch?

LMAO!

Awesomeness! That's what!

[Mike@AF]

What a pleasant surprise with the puppets. And then I was grossed out. Awesome! Good work!

[Bigmagic]

I enjoyed this one. Its so close to what I almost shot for this fest. All I can say is well done easy to view and I shall show this one to the family. Very well done.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Story: Fun stuff. The ending caught me off guard as well. I wasn't expecting this and it was a joy to watch.

Acting: Ummm...... the puppets were awesome. :)

Technical: Great stuff! Nice camera movement throughout. Sound coming in and out could be cleaned up just a bit. Very nice work though.

Nice going with this one. It was a lot of fun.

MAH

[vnguyen972]

A fun little film, I wasn't a fan of puppets show but still fun to watch. Great job man!

[killacam]

haha this was great. gotta love puppets

[namelok]

Fun movie! I only wished they had some cartoonish voices/dialogs.
And singing! :)

[lyonfilms]

WTF did I just watch?

LMAO!

Awesomeness! That's what!

Thanks for making me laugh out loud. That's pull quote worthy!

We appreciate all the comments. As we've mentioned earlier in the string, we would have loved to flesh this out more but seriously folks, if you haven't ever done it, try operating and shooting puppets. Crazy hard. It makes kids and animals look easy :)

I just started watching the films and will begin posting comments soon.

[MSpencer]

i loved this. puppets..awesome... i love shooting with puppets it's hard but fun at the same time. the ending was something i wasn't expecting.. i knew they'd fall for it but i was like wait... he sooo go them.. well done.. over all camera work and everything was great...

[pborghee]

Holy shit man this rocks. I never saw the puppets or the ipecac. You rocked this fest and you were on another level. two words: GOLD MEDAL! congrats and i cant say shit about this being bad.

[Kevin E. Curry]

I have to give big props to our sound designer, Matt Tibbs, for his work on this. Matt did the sound design on our last two entries as well, Tarts Fools and the G-Men and The Tell. On this one, ALL the sound is his creation. We used no sound from the actual shoot.

Regarding the decision to not have any dialogue, that was made for two distinct reasons. First, previous puppet shoot tests indicated that it is very challenging to have dialogue in the first place. If you capture it live, then the puppeteer has to be the same person doing the voice. If you add it later in ADR, then the person has to match the performance of the puppeteer which leaves little room for interpretation (or you record it in advance and have the opposite issue). That drove us to create a short with no dialogue, which has its own story telling challenges.

So the second reason their is no dialogue is by design. We wrote it that way. And, frankly, looking back on it I don't know that this story needs dialogue at all. I don't see any place where it could be added and improve the story in any way.

Kevin

[teresadecher]

Oh my god your film was so much fun! I was totally not expecting puppets, but I got really excited when I saw them. What an original and creative idea. Your film was short and to the point, but totally held my attention. Props!

And ps- the barf was totally disgusting. Unfortunately, I was eating when I was watching that. Somehow I suddenly lost my appetite...

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

lol, yes!! Puppets do rock!! Haha, this is awesome, big score coming from me.

[lyonfilms]

Decher and Nelson - Thanks you two. I think you got our approach. Have some fun, play with puppets.

[hoz]

you are out of your mind!

awesome job!!


i don't know what to say. i knew it was going to be disgusting, how could it not be? that pie just looked.... disgusting.

but then these puppets showed up! ha!!! and then they threw up. oooh.

great idea!
congrats on your film!

[Norm Sanders]

Cinematically, LOVED the opening shots, the editing, etc... just felt big in produciton value, although they were all ECU's ... then ... we see the puppet. Perhaps there's just something right up there with clowns for me, not sure, but it took me out. I went ahead & continued along for the ride, thinking perhaps I'd get to see the grandpa mutilate one of the other puppets, and then came the knife. Nope. :)

All in all, I think you did well considering first use of puppets, etc., and there's high marks on this from me for overall production value, etc. The ending was cute too, seeing that he got them in the end, but the story itself didn't grab me so much, and again, it could simply be because I had a tough time getting into the puppets.

All that said, I'm confident this will be a finalist. :beer:

[Charli]

OUT OF THE FREAKING BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely hilarious, absolutely entertaining, and absolutely memorable, and will probably be one of the most memorable entries of all time! great job!

[ChrisHurn]

Hell yeah! One of my favourites. This was refreshing, very clever and funny. Loved it.
Some very nice shots, lighting, really fun stuff. I loved the puppet work, and really awesome music, suited the film very well.

Nice sound work, some really interesting growling going on there, haha. Loved that moon shot.

Memorable Moment
The shadow at 2:22 – had me on the edge of my seat. This was just too much fun.
Great final shot, what a betrayal! Loved the flames.

Great work to all involved. Congratulations. Can’t think of anything bad to say about this, or even anything I didn’t like. I really, honestly loved this.

[Chris Messineo]

Puppets do rock. Especially angry puppets.

Seriously, I did not expect that at all and it was a great surprise. What a fun twist, especially in a festival where so many films can begin to blur together.

Very well done.

[lyonfilms]

Puppets do rock. Especially angry puppets.

Seriously, I did not expect that at all and it was a great surprise. What a fun twist, especially in a festival where so many films can begin to blur together.

Very well done.

Thanks Chris - Kevin and I both read your comment and agreed, "Chris got it." :)

[Vince K]

Puppet rule...That was hilarious! Well done!

[mentatDUKE]

Wow. Nicely done. It's amazing how disturbing things can feel when puppets are involved.

[SonicStates]

Devon, I loved your short! Loved it! To be honest when I started watching, I thought we were going to be in for something predictable but then when your puppets appeared something very magical happened! The ending was awesome! Love the 'descriptive' visuals too! That was the thing that had me laughing hard!
Perhaps the only other comment I could make, was that I really wanted to hear grandpa say something (coming from the guy with no dialogue in his film it's pretty rich, I know).
Top job and very refreshing!!!!
Thank you!
Sam.

[Blaine]

I LOVED THIS! When I saw your DVXUser leader, I knew it was going to be funny. Puppets! Took me by surprise. The Tell took me by surprise. I have no idea what to expect from you but I know whatever it is, it's going to be freaking amazing. I can't wait to see what you come up with next.

[Brandon Rice]

Hah! Nice work! I only wish the puppets would have had some dialogue :)

[MrFluffy]

What can I say, Puppets Rock.

The only thing I missed was a scream when the guy turned round to see the girl with the knife. A good girley scream would have been perfect.

[Marlon Ladd]

Very refreshing film! Didn't see that it was going to be puppets. Great!! Very funny.

[MrSeth]

My critique for The Slice
The story:
Sweet and simple! Loved the touch with the puppets - Never tried it but it seems pretty hard. You did it very effectively!

The acting:
Puppets acted great haha

The camerawork:
Loved the colors and the camera angles all worked for the story

The editing:
Excellent editing job. Loved the tight shots in the beginning.

The sound and music:
Music was awesome.

Overall impression:
Puppets all look great. Enjoyable and funny. Good job

My favorite shot:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1982/screenshot20100310at731.png

[Waycrow]

Very enjoyable, looked very good. Sound was enjoyable, fit in well.

End was a little gross! :-) And why did Grandpa put the stuff in there, I think for kicks cause he couldn't eat it then! Enjoyed it. Slup! Blahhhtt.

[Chantellyssa]

Very cute, Devon. And I have such a weakness for puppets!!! They do indeed rock.

Well, the throwing up was seriously disgusting but it fit and obviously the ending depended on it :) Loved the character of the grandpa. Nice twist at the end. Not so sure how I felt about some of the music but it's all good.

Overall, great film and I gave it a great rating.

[Noel Evans]

What I love about you guys is that every fest you enter, youre off on a totally different direction to what you last produced. Well done guys.

[lyonfilms]

What I love about you guys is that every fest you enter, youre off on a totally different direction to what you last produced. Well done guys.

Thanks Noel ;) We try and have fun.

[Tom Shortridge]

Holy crap, how can people not love this? I grew up on the Muppets, so to see a darker take on a puppet world is awesome. I know a ton of work had to go into both the production and the puppeteering of those guys. And the vomit? Gross, but truly effective.

One of my favorites of the fest.

[Tunnelmen]

I couldn't wait to rate this bad boy once I saw the muppets/puppets puking....very original and entertaining.....which I'm pretty sure is the point of film. I loved the grandpa rocking the usmc shirt and the dark circles under his eys. Fantastic Job!

[lyonfilms]

I couldn't wait to rate this bad boy once I saw the muppets/puppets puking....very original and entertaining.....which I'm pretty sure is the point of film. I loved the grandpa rocking the usmc shirt and the dark circles under his eys. Fantastic Job!


Glad you liked it ;) As we've mentioned earlier in the post, we were having fun with puppets and thought a simple "domestic" case of betrayal could be fun. We kept it short and simple because puppets (operating and filming) is very difficult to say the least. The reactions have been great and we are glad people get it :)

[Jaime V]

Hehehe I love muppets. And I love pie. This was a wonderful marriage of the two :)

I thought it was well done and very fun to watch!

[Zim]

Very good! But to much detail in the puke!! LOL. I think that was the first time I've seen puppets throwing up.

[Stephen Mick]

I just re-watched this one, and I can sum it up in one word… fun.

http://www.filmeveryday.com/2010/03/14/the-slice-a-dvxuser-betrayal-fest-film/

[Rodney V. Smith]

Dammit Stephen: that was going to be my review!

[Stephen Mick]

What can I say, great minds drink alike.

[Rodney V. Smith]

:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:

now I'll have to try harder and actually write more than one word. Dammit.

[lyonfilms]

I just re-watched this one, and I can sum it up in one word… fun.

http://www.filmeveryday.com/2010/03/14/the-slice-a-dvxuser-betrayal-fest-film/

DUDE! You're cracking me up. Thanks for the sweet review. Just a blast to read everyone's thoughts on this thread and then really fun to go and read another one. LOL. You're right - we try and have fun. :)

[jared.c.rogers]

Well done Lyon Films! Good to see you on the list!

[lyonfilms]

Well done Lyon Films! Good to see you on the list!

Thanks Jared :) And thanks to all those who liked our little puppet romp enough to push us into round 2. Cheers.

[Ben Sliker]

It's not everyday you see a well-made puppet film in a dvxuser fest ... wait ... you NEVER see that. Congrats guys!

[Norm Sanders]

Congrats, Devon & team! :beer:

[Marlon Ladd]

Good job, guys! Excellent film.

[Chris_Keaton]

Congrats! Next time you need advice on how to make puppets more appropriately disgusting keep me in mind.

[namelok]

Congratsssss!!!

[Tim Joy]

Puppets are people too! Congrats on a job well done!

[Susanne G.]

Love this film. Very entertained and clever story. Nice sound effects. Absolut my favorite film of this fest. Compliments!

Susanne

[lyonfilms]

Love this film. Very entertained and clever story. Nice sound effects. Absolut my favorite film of this fest. Compliments!

Susanne

Thanks Susanne! Puppets are crazy little things.

[dre83]

I haven' seen the start of the film yet and I'm already having fun with the "dvx intro" logo moving thing. I'm watching it for the 3th time now :-p

- the puppets are cool...to bad you see some small sticks sometimes

- the sniffing around 1:47 and the other "mmm" sounds from the right only...

- wolf sound could be much louder "awooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

- I think the voice from that one guy.. I think you forgot to put it in the middle ?
Dialogues are always recorded mono by the way.

I loved to watch it. It was funny. Although maybe sometimes to much close ups ?

[Matthew Tibbs]

- the sniffing around 1:47 and the other "mmm" sounds from the right only...

- wolf sound could be much louder "awooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

- I think the voice from that one guy.. I think you forgot to put it in the middle ?
Dialogues are always recorded mono by the way.


Yeah, without being too much of an apologist, I had two evenings available to crank out the sound design, and conversation with the guys had been spare, so I shot them over an OMF to work any notes they wanted to before uploading. Some stuff got panned in the OMF conversion that wasn't caught, and I'm sure it didn't help that I delivered to them the last day possible...

When I downloaded it online, I was like, "shoot! there are a few rough edges!" I'm actually surprised it took 'til page 10 for someone to mention it, but thanks for your ears and your feedback. It doesn't seem to be obscuring people from enjoying it, which I'm pleased about.

P.S. The Lyon Films guys are awesome to design for. They always provide space for a sound designer and facilitate some really unique content...much love.
________________________

Matt Tibbs
www.matthewtibbs.com (http://www.matthewtibbs.com)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3528749/

Sound Designer: The Slice - BetrayalFest 2010
Sound Designer: The Tell - MonsterFest 2009
Sound Designer: Tarts Fools & the G-Men - QuestFest 2009

[lyonfilms]

P.S. The Lyon Films guys are awesome to design for. They always provide space for a sound designer and facilitate some really unique content...much love.
________________________

Matt Tibbs
www.matthewtibbs.com (http://www.matthewtibbs.com)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3528749/

Sound Designer: The Slice - BetrayalFest 2010
Sound Designer: The Tell - MonsterFest 2009
Sound Designer: Tarts Fools & the G-Men - QuestFest 2009


Thanks Matt - To everyone on this board - hire Tibbs - he is really good when given proper time (sorry Matt for giving you not proper time. LOL). Seriously though, the guy is a joy to work with and a true pro. Hire him!

[DC Ninjas]

Congrats on making it to the final round!

[MattinSTL]

I've always considered puppets or animation for a fest entry because I knew it would stand out from the crowd... and it does. When each new fest is announced the FIRST thing that comes to mind (before I even begin the procrastination process that leads all the way up to the deadline... is "what could I do that would be different then what a lot of other people will do?)

Congratulations on successfully taking a totally different approach then everybody else in the fest.

I think you have an effective story here... and I enjoyed seeing something unique. Your entry has two "highlights" for me... the first is the opening... the actual making of the pie... and the second is the moment when I thought the story would take a different direction with the knife... I even enjoyed the classic misdirection moment as it comes back together in a "plan" to split the last slice.

I will say that I knew something like this was coming... only because of the grandpa's very clear anger about the near-misses of losing his pie slice... I would have liked to see something more subtle worked into the script... instead of the grandpa actually witnessing the intentions of the other characters... who were clearly prepared to ignore the note.

The only other thing I'd like to offer my thoughts on... is I may have considered having the puppets puking up stuffing... or strips of fabric... or even chunks of fake cherry pie... just something that you could make from stuff at a craft store... that would clearly represent cherry pie... but also represent the puppet world... so to speak. I can see how you could easily debate this idea... since it's the actual cherry pie that's being taken, eaten, and thrown up... but I think it would have been an additional bit of "humor"(?) to make the puked up cherry pie "of the puppet world" and even show it clearly coming from their mouths... (some real crumbs around the mouth while puking red puff-ball cherries or something like that).

So my only real "critique" of the story is that I'd have liked foreshadowing of the coming "retribution" to be more subtle... and the consequence (puking) to be LESS subtle, but also less graphic, i.e. more fun.

Anyway... I hope you can appreciate my "real" critique... I made a decision that I'll only post to a thread if I feel I have something real to input... and can be 100% honest about it.

I am impressed with the conception and execution of your entry. It's very well done.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Puppets!

Who doesn't like 'em? :)

I thought the puppets were pretty cool and I can imagine how tough this would be to pull off. So big kudos there! This looked pretty good and it was shot nicely, some good movement. Lighting was nice as well.
Loved the scene in the dark. Very good stuff.

My biggest gripe on this one is sound. Not only the sound design but the canned music as well. I recognized a lot of it. The hissing in and out was also bothersome for me. It's an easy fix though.

Overall though you guys made this work and it really stood out on its own.

Nice work and best of luck in the finals.

MAH