Deceivers

[Mike@AF]

Download link: http://www.dvxfest.com/betrayalfest/index.php?id=3900697


ASCENTIA FILMS

presents a

SATELLITE PICTURES

production of

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2732

written & directed by Michael Halper



We also have another film in BetrayalFest: myPhone (http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?p=1908784)

[Mike@AF]

THE "DECEIVERS" CAST


http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2733
Jessica Houghton www.jessicahoughton.com (http://www.jessicahoughton.com) IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2565981/)


http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2735
John Hermann www.johnhermann.com (http://www.johnhermann.com) IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2819589/)


http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2736
Jonathan Cahill


http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2734
Caroline Buss IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2819435/)

[Mike@AF]

THE "DECEIVERS" CREW (it's small)


written, directed, shot, and edited by
MICHAEL HALPER

music composed by
HOONGBEE

produced by
MICHAEL HALPER
JOHN HERMANN

sound design & color grading
MICHAEL HALPER

visual effects
NATHANIEL CAAUWE
MICHAEL HALPER

makeup artist and special fx makeup
CAROLINE BUSS

[Mike@AF]

Production Log

1/10/10 1st draft of script completed

1/11/10 2nd draft of script completed

1/14/10 3rd draft of script completed

1/15/10 4th draft of script completed

1/16/10 Auditions

1/17/10 Audtions

1/18/10 Lighting tests

1/22/10 Wardrobe shopping day

1/23/10 More wardrobe shopping

1/25/10 Final day of wardrobe shopping

1/26/10 Prop, practical lights, and crafty shopping day. Made fake blood. Performed lighting tests. All shooting will be done with practical lights only.

1/27/10 Rehearsals, 5th draft of script completed

1/28/10 Rehearsals, 6th draft of script completed

1/30/10 7th draft of script completed, becomes shooting script. Shot list completed.

1/31/10 Principle Photography day #1
The shoot went long, but extremely well. We saved all of the special fx makeup shots for another day of shooting.

2/1/10 Rough cut #1 completed with most visual fx
Completed a full rough cut of the film with a running time of just under 6 minutes, including placeholders for missing shots. Added some of the visual fx to make sure the existing shots would work. Added new shots to the original shot list for some new ideas for the film.

2/2/10 Principle photography day #2
This was supposed to be a shoot lasting only 4-6 hours. But instead my lame ass formatted the SD card by mistake instead of just deleting a single shot. I blame it on my lack of sleep from being up all night editing the rough cut. It cost us 2 hours while we recovered erased files from the SD card and used various software to convert and combine the pieces of the shots because the footage was acting really weird once recovered. Then I had to watch all the footage very slowly to determine which shots needed to be shot again because some of the footage was corrupted. Tip to all, don't do what I did. Formatting the SD card is not a good idea. Other than that, the shoot went really well.

2/3/10 Rough cut #2 completed
After shooting all the additional footage the night before the initial cut of the film was 8 mins 30 secs. This was promptly cut down to get it within the 6 minutes.

2/4/10 Pickups
Needed to reshoot and replace a shot that was corrupted in the fiasco described above. Also added a new shot

2/5/10 Picture lock

2/9/10 ADR session and foley session
Every sound effect (whether foley or hard effects) was done in post. The only production sound in the film is dialog.

2/10/10 Sound editing and sound design day

2/11/10 ADR session

2/16/10 Sound design completed incorporating the final bit of ADR.

2/19/10 Visual fx completed
Thank you Nate! If you need great VFX, check out natecow.com. He's real good!

2/24/10 Film sent to music composer

2/25/10 Received music from composer

2/26/10 Received more music from composer

2/26/10 Color grading completed

2/27/10 Score revised and in good enough shape for festival submission. More revisions to come.

3/3/10 Received more score revisions. Half the score is finalized and locked. The rest will be done tomorrow morning (most likely).

3/4/10 Music is all finalized and locked. Did some final mixing and adjustments. Film is completely finished. Now encoding to get it to fall under the 60MB mark. Update: Uploaded and approved. WOOHOO!!!

[Mike@AF]

BEHIND THE SCENES

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2888
The Slate. 'Nuff said.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2881
Notice the actor carrying the slate. This is how we rolled on this production. Besides, John "Slatemaster" Hermann probably wouldn't have given up the slate anyways.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2882

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2883
This means there's some behind the scenes video somewhere. Hmmm.....

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2884
Makeup on the hand holding the gun please!

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2885
Ouch!

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2886
"You want the gun to bounce here?" "Yes. And then over there out of view."

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2887
Wassup!?

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2889
That vase cost $6. Mike enjoyed taking the hammer to it. John was happy it was a hammer and not actually his head.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2890
"I need the blood to ooze out more."

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2891
Mike with the camera rig.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2892
Mike still with the camera rig. It wasn't necessary to show two of these, but the one above is probably better, except for that fact that there's a Mountain Dew can in this one.

Of course, there's many many more BTS shots, but showing them would ruin the movie. So, they'll stay behind lock and key.


FRAME GRABS

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2855 http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2852

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2853 http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2854

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2858 http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/picture.php?albumid=414&pictureid=2856

[Mike@AF]

Okay, we're in. First film I'm directing for a DVXuser fest. The film is actually already shot and edited. We're just waiting on music for the final sound mix and some color grading touch-ups.

Glad to be a part of this one!

[Rodney V. Smith]

welcome in Mike.

[Marlon Ladd]

Welcome, Mike!

[ZazaCast]

Welcome!

[Mike@AF]

Thanks all!

[ramsaur]

Awesome! Good luck!

[Hermn8r]

This is gonna be good!! I'm happy to be acting in my first dvxuser film since Spyfest in '07!!

And the first dvxuser film I've been a Producer on! Woo-hoo!!

[Mike@AF]

Added production log up top.

[Mike@AF]

Added frame grabs. BTS stills coming up in a bit.

[vnguyen972]

Awesome grabs... can't wait to see this one!

[Richard J. Johnson]

Great looking grabs. Anything with pretty ladies and guns....you can count me in.

[Mike@AF]

Thanks guys!

[jasonthewho]

Those are some sweet grabs!

[Chris Messineo]

Cool stills. I'm looking forward to the film.

[pborghee]

Damn you got blood on the money, now they aint gonna take it at the bank. Good luck man!

[Mike@AF]

Thanks guys! Yeah, blood money is something you can't really undo.

BTS stills added up above.

REVIEWS AND DISCUSSION STARTS HERE

[Richard J. Johnson]

Great film!! Acting was stellar on all parts. Blood and muzzle flash was spot on. Man, I can't say anything bad at all. Great job. wow.

[Mike@AF]

Thanks Richard! Glad you enjoyed the film!

[RodThompson]

MUCHO GUSTO GNARLY ESPRESSO!!!

Good film, and awesome use of DoF in certain parts. Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

[Homunculus]

this was pretty good. the acting was slightly on the campier side but the edits and directing was very good as were the special effects

[MrSeth]

My critique for Deceivers
The story:
Very very good.. so much betrayal... i love it! The ending was a nice touch

The acting:
Everyone's acting was believable. I liked the lead actress... very pretty and her acting shined :)

The camerawork:
The tight shots really helped make it very suspenseful. I liked how you started from the tights, gave us some wides in the middle but went back to the tights.. Great angle choices!

The editing:
Loved the beginning touch with the sound effects before we cut to the story. You introduced us into the action well. Editing was at the perfect pace.

The sound and music:
Music was amazing! No complaints... it helped tell the story. The dialogue was very crisp clear.

Overall impression:
I was glued in from the first minute. Thank you for showing us this film - amazing!

My favorite shot:
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/1594/screenshot20100307at918.png

[Bigmagic]

This piece was really well done, not much to criticize well acted, well shot, well done.

[MrFluffy]

Excellent work. Well done.

[LinB]

I completely adored this. High drama! Fabulous little plot and the acting was very well done. You should be delighted with this short - I know I was. Great work!

[pborghee]

Very nice! I love the twist and to be honest didnt even see it coming. The only thing i can complain about and it may not be big for anyone else, i thought the shots were alittle too close and tight. I saw no depth and it just felt like there wasnt much room. But just my thought and other then that i loved the speical effects and loevd the acting. Plus the main chick is quite easy to watch haha. Good job man congrats.

[Mike@AF]

Thanks for the comments everyone. Glad you liked it.

[hoz]

good film!

really liked your lead actress. saw the ending coming but still liked how you got there. good use of the one location. nicely done!

[Chris_Keaton]

Nice Film! I'm starting to think that my twist within a twist isn't going to be so unique. Well these are all betrayals, so we can kinda see them coming.

[4100xpb]

Very well done, particularly for a single location piece. I think you packed the most betrayal into 6 minutes out of all the films I’ve seen:). I really liked the intro, hearing the struggle without seeing anything. Definitely builds the tension well.


At the end, I felt the final twist with Michelle was unneeded, a little over the top. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it would have worked just as well without that line. While I appreciate the colouring, and think it was well done, it didn’t really suit me for this film. It seemed to bright for a rather dark piece. The acting felt a little weak in the first part, but seemed to get better as it went on.

Overall, I felt it was a good story packed into a tight location. Only shooting in the apartment really added to the claustrophobia of the film. I also liked the music, it worked very well. Thanks for putting this up.

[Christopher Blake]

Twists and turns galore! I must be getting slow cause I didn't see some of them coming.

The only thing, and is minor, that took me out of the film was the blood squirt when the wifey bought it. But only because I knew what to look for.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Great work!

[John LaBonney]

I liked this film a lot.

One thing that really grabbed me was the sounds of the struggle at the beginning. And finally the gunshot. I was drawn in right away.

When Michelle knocks on the door, I feel there's a shot missing--I think that the sequence should end with a shot of her looking at the door as it closes, with a quizzical or semi-frustrated look on her face.

I like the betrayal in this film, and didn't see it coming at all. Good acting, good cinematography, and a good score.

Julie died well. I liked it along with the wimper from the guy.

I agree that the last twist with Michelle probably wasn't necessary.

Good job!

[Chris Messineo]

Great looking film. I really dug the way you opened with the sounds of struggle and a gun shot - it pulled me right into the world. You packed a lot of story into six minutes - lots of twists - this was a lot of fun. Well done.

[Tunnelmen]

I too liked the audio lead in. I thought that the IPhone App was kinda funny for transferring the money. Turns out that there is an "App for that". I thought that it was well done overall but I think the theme really bottlenecks a lot storys into being double\triple crossed lovers and one shooting another and so on. Having said that, doing it for the money (esp the IPHONE app) made it different from others. Good Job

[stinkpot]

Way to go Mike! I like your film. Really good use of the time... pacing wasn't too rushed and you told a lot in 6 minutes (something I had trouble with this time around). Your audio worked well... especially like the intro audio transitions.

I would have liked to have seen a few more master/wider shots in there for orientation of scene but not a big deal. The staging was a little cramped for my taste and I think it take the advantage away from the GH1 since you don't have much background field to blur out. Color was a little too vibrant for me in this one as well.

Overall, great short film man! Good twists and the actors did a fine job. Congrats to you and your team.

[Mike@AF]

good film!

really liked your lead actress. saw the ending coming but still liked how you got there. good use of the one location. nicely done!

Thanks! Yes, she's a great actress. Third time working with her and hope it won't be the last. She's a keeper.


Nice Film! I'm starting to think that my twist within a twist isn't going to be so unique. Well these are all betrayals, so we can kinda see them coming.

Thanks... glad you liked it still even with the expected twists.


Very well done, particularly for a single location piece. I think you packed the most betrayal into 6 minutes out of all the films I’ve seen:). I really liked the intro, hearing the struggle without seeing anything. Definitely builds the tension well.


At the end, I felt the final twist with Michelle was unneeded, a little over the top. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think it would have worked just as well without that line. While I appreciate the colouring, and think it was well done, it didn’t really suit me for this film. It seemed to bright for a rather dark piece. The acting felt a little weak in the first part, but seemed to get better as it went on.

Overall, I felt it was a good story packed into a tight location. Only shooting in the apartment really added to the claustrophobia of the film. I also liked the music, it worked very well. Thanks for putting this up.

Thanks! Interesting thought on Michelle not coming back. Originally she wasn't going to, but the actress (EDIT: her name is Caroline Buss) suggested she come back. I thought about it and made it an even bigger role with her being involved with Brandon. I really liked the extra twist because I thought it would be more unexpected and work well for this fest particularly.



Twists and turns galore! I must be getting slow cause I didn't see some of them coming.

The only thing, and is minor, that took me out of the film was the blood squirt when the wifey bought it. But only because I knew what to look for.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Great work!

Thanks! Yeah, it was done digitally in post and very quickly with short turnaround by Nate Caauwe. natecow.com He does really good work. If you need vfx check out his reel.


I liked this film a lot.

One thing that really grabbed me was the sounds of the struggle at the beginning. And finally the gunshot. I was drawn in right away.

When Michelle knocks on the door, I feel there's a shot missing--I think that the sequence should end with a shot of her looking at the door as it closes, with a quizzical or semi-frustrated look on her face.

I like the betrayal in this film, and didn't see it coming at all. Good acting, good cinematography, and a good score.

Julie died well. I liked it along with the wimper from the guy.

I agree that the last twist with Michelle probably wasn't necessary.

Good job!

I thought about that when writing it, but I didn't want to get away from Julie. It would have made it difficult for her to be surprised by Brandon when she closes the door. It may have also made Michelle coming back at the end more predictable if more focus was put on her earlier on. So instead I had her slightly frantic and trying to get a look at what was going on inside. She's supposed to be worried about Brandon, but I directed her to still play it mostly like a concerned neighbor so as to make the ending more unpredictable.


Great looking film. I really dug the way you opened with the sounds of struggle and a gun shot - it pulled me right into the world. You packed a lot of story into six minutes - lots of twists - this was a lot of fun. Well done.

Thanks! Glad you all like the opening. I love doing stuff like that. Sound is such an important part of films.


I too liked the audio lead in. I thought that the IPhone App was kinda funny for transferring the money. Turns out that there is an "App for that". I thought that it was well done overall but I think the theme really bottlenecks a lot storys into being double\triple crossed lovers and one shooting another and so on. Having said that, doing it for the money (esp the IPHONE app) made it different from others. Good Job

My original thought was to have a computer. But that would have been too big and difficult to use and shoot. So I opted for the phone. And yes, there are apps that banks have on the iPhone. Looks like we have a trend going with the "app for that" on our two films in this fest. :)


Way to go Mike! I like your film. Really good use of the time... pacing wasn't too rushed and you told a lot in 6 minutes (something I had trouble with this time around). Your audio worked well... especially like the intro audio transitions.

I would have liked to have seen a few more master/wider shots in there for orientation of scene but not a big deal. The staging was a little cramped for my taste and I think it take the advantage away from the GH1 since you don't have much background field to blur out. Color was a little too vibrant for me in this one as well.

Overall, great short film man! Good twists and the actors did a fine job. Congrats to you and your team.

Thanks.

I stayed away from wide shots for a few reasons.
1) I typically don't like real wide shots. I know I'm different on this than others.
2) My apartment isn't the best location for shooting. It's small and bland with white walls. The kitchen measures something like 5ft by 3ft. Super small and cramped, so difficult to get far enough back for wide shots. We even did cheat some of them to get as wide as I did.
3) My widest angle lens at the moment is only 35mm. I've got a 28mm on the way and looking for a good deal on the 21mm. Hopefully I'll have them for the next film.

Thanks everyone for watching the film and for your comments and feedback.

[totitefilms]

Nice film! I like the story. It is a little bit similar to mine :D The acting is great! I enjoyed watching it.

[Mike@AF]

Yep, the triple betrayal and twists. :thumbsup:

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Story: Loads of Betrayal in this one. :)

Acting: The acting was pretty good. Nothing bad.

Technical: Nicely shot. I wanted a bit more coverage with the odd wide angle. Everything was very tight. The gunshots were cool, as were their results. Sounds pretty good as well. I liked the score too.

Nice work.

MAH

[Mike@AF]

Thanks MAH.

[Hermn8r]

Thanks for all your comments on this film everyone!! It's great to see such positive reviews overall. Mike has done a great job responding to all of your comments, so no need for me to add anything else here. The story is wonderful, with a lot of unexpected and engaging twists!! Mike did a phenomenal job with the story, the directing AND the cinematography!! Makes all us measly actors look good!!! ;)

[Charli]

I did find the ending predictable, I did find the acting believable to point,
but I did not find that this story was engaging that I would want to see more.
You had the betrayals down but I am not sure they were intriguing enough.

[Ben Sliker]

holy cow, betrayals upon twists upon betrayals!

This was a big story fit into a small environment, but it worked. It almost had a 'whodunnit' feel to it because of the constant changes. I can imagine that acting 'while shot' is fairly difficult but Jonathan did a serviceable job at it. Kudos.

The iphone app kinda made me giggle. It seemed very pop culture reference to me and a little distracting because of it. I think some other generic looking smart phone would have been better, just cause we KNOW it's an iphone.

Other than that, some solid work here, for some reason i really like the exchange between the females in the hallway, it just worked. Now on to watching your other film! (btw you deserve mad props for entering two, i couldn't imagine finishing two films.)

[Mike@AF]

I did find the ending predictable, I did find the acting believable to point,
but I did not find that this story was engaging that I would want to see more.
You had the betrayals down but I am not sure they were intriguing enough.

Thanks for watching the film. Sorry you didn't enjoy it. Maybe our next one will work better for you. Glad you enjoyed "myPhone" as much as you did!

[Mike@AF]

holy cow, betrayals upon twists upon betrayals!

This was a big story fit into a small environment, but it worked. It almost had a 'whodunnit' feel to it because of the constant changes. I can imagine that acting 'while shot' is fairly difficult but Jonathan did a serviceable job at it. Kudos.

The iphone app kinda made me giggle. It seemed very pop culture reference to me and a little distracting because of it. I think some other generic looking smart phone would have been better, just cause we KNOW it's an iphone.

Other than that, some solid work here, for some reason i really like the exchange between the females in the hallway, it just worked. Now on to watching your other film! (btw you deserve mad props for entering two, i couldn't imagine finishing two films.)

Hey Ben, thanks so much for the great comments! Glad you liked the film!

I wasn't worried about it being an iPhone or people knowing it's an iPhone. There's so many of them out there anyways I don't think most would really care what kind of phone it was unless it was something they'd never ever seen before, like some new prototype model, which we certainly don't have access to or the resources to make a special prop just for this film. Thanks for the insight on it though. Something to think about for next time.

Yes, 2 films was quite a bit of work, especially the week of the deadline. It was fun and worth it though. I'm not sure Jonathan has been checking on the thread, but I'll be sure to let him know about your praise. Thanks!

[Nemesis TS]

Good job guys, another well done film. Some things that really stood out for me were the camera movements were well executed , with the sped up moves. Worked well. It may be my monitor but the image seemed a bit hot in spots. The color grade was that of cheeky or comedy, but it was a more serious story this time. I was a little unsure if you were going for more of a light hearted feel. If not and you wanted a more serious movie then you need a different color grade to achieve that.

The acting was great. The guy, John, I didn't realize it was the same guy from myphone right off. The whole cast worked great and they all did an excellent job. You guys have these six minute shorts down to a science. I expected the girl to turn on her guy, cause that's just how these are all going but I liked that he took the bullets out of the gun. I half expected the second woman to kill the guy, and I'm glad she didn't that would have been over kill.

[jasonthewho]

Wow, this is like the ultimate betrayal movie! :)

Perfectly directed, acted, and edited. It's supposed to be slightly tongue in cheek though right? I'm not misinterpreting it am I?

Definitely keeps you guessing, on your toes. Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be another betrayal!

I really have nothing negative to say. For what you were trying to do, you totally nailed it.

[Chris_Marrs_Piliero]

hey dude, ok so i thought you did a great job with the cinematography and overall directing of this sucker... the pacing is solid and the score is great... i thought the acting was good, though i wasn't too much a fan of the main dude who is shot from the beginning... unfortunately i just didn't believe he was just shot and bleeding to death... the bad guy and the main chick were solid, though...

when filming guns i would suggest next time to have more body movement when the trigger is pulled... when you fire a gun, your hand and arm don't just sit there... trust me, i've killed several people...

also the blood could have been more realistic... and the freeze frame (that's what it looked like to me) when that one chick died was a little off-putting... and if you have the opportunity, I would give it an improved ending as right now i felt like the laugh and abrupt kiss and fade to black was a rushed ending for timing issues?

i enjoyed your directing and overall filmmaking more than the story... but yeah... great job, buddy...

[Mike@AF]

Chris, thanks for watching the film and for your compliments on the cinematography and directing.

The ending was scripted that way and nothing was done to rush the film to a close due to timing. The running time without the ending credits is only 5:45. There's just nothing else left to show and sometimes there's more that could be said for a sudden ending than one that's drawn out. With this film we get out of it almost as quickly and abruptly as we got in.

Again, thanks for the feedback and comments.

[Mike@AF]

Jason, thanks for the compliments and feedback. Glad you enjoyed he film. It's not supposed to really be tongue-in-cheek, but some of the discussion during development and preproduction involved Mr and Mrs Smith so I'm not surprised you're asking about it. I'm okay with the interpretation. Thanks for watching the film!

[Mike@AF]

Nemesis, thanks for watching this one too. Glad you like the film and found some of it to surprise you.

EDIT: I know what you're referring to on the hotspots I believe. Part of the style I tend to go with: high contrast by boosting the highlights and crushing shadows and blacks. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. It might be getting hurt because of the white appliances in the kitchen? Not sure if that might be what you're referring to? I tried to add a vignette where I could without making it too obvious.

Thanks for watching both films and for your compliments and feedback. Glad you liked them. I look forward to seeing what you make next yourself.

[Jaime V]

Nice film I liked it. In a fest where everyone is expecting a betrayal, how do you surprise the audience? Cram in as many betrayals as possible! It's funny, I had a similar idea for a story (not the money, but a love triangle where everyone betrayed everyone) so I may be a little biased but I liked your story.

Technically everything seemed great too. There were only two things that stuck out to me a little bit, the gunshot wounds and the 2nd actress in the hall when she's asking about hearing the gunshots. But these were minor.

Good job man.

[Mike@AF]

Thanks Jaime. Glad you liked it.

[Tim Joy]

You kinda had me until the whole 'log in on the iphone bit', because:
A- This guy has money? Doesn't look like it.
B- Even in this technological time, I don't really buy it.

The ending came off kinda cheesy to me.

There were some nice shots, and it looked good overall, but I couldn't get into the characters or buy the story. I think it's too much packed into 6 min.
You did surprise me 3 times, so nice job!

[Mike@AF]

A - Why wouldn't he have money? Because he doesn't look like he has money? I've met young people and older people who you'd never think were rich because of the way they look, but that doesn't mean they don't have money.
B - Go onto the iTunes app store and search for "bank". You'll find a few bank apps there and they do allow transfer of funds. For example, look at the BofA app. Also, this is fictional. Just because you may not be able to do something now in the real world, doesn't mean you can't have it in a movie. Movies sometimes require imagination, otherwise most movies shouldn't be made.

Thanks for watching the film. Glad we were able to surprise you a few times.

[Tim Joy]

You're right that it's totally plausible, I'm just saying it took me out of the movie. I think it's more to do with the location, and not the way he looked. If I'm ever rich I will still look like a bum for sure. :)

last time I tried to wire 2.7 mil though, it wasn't that easy.

I know about suspension of disbelief too. Heck, I got two talking road cones!

[ZazaCast]

Good film with good acting...although it felt a little bit soapy to me. (might just be me)
It was well shoot and I liked the edit. Sound design and score worked well.
All in all a very solid film...congratulations!

Oh...and you did a get job of getting a bucket-load of betrayal in there!

[Mike@AF]

You're right that it's totally plausible, I'm just saying it took me out of the movie. I think it's more to do with the location, and not the way he looked. If I'm ever rich I will still look like a bum for sure. :)

last time I tried to wire 2.7 mil though, it wasn't that easy.

I know about suspension of disbelief too. Heck, I got two talking road cones!

It wasn't Kevin's house. It was Brandon and Julie's. That's how Julie knows who Michelle is and says her name when she opens the door. Brandon and Julie are wearing rings and there are shots of their hands with the rings, as well as Brandon referring to Julie as his wife. Also, Michelle knows Brandon's name and expects that Brandon is there and that's why she worriedly asks if he (they) are okay. If it was Kevin's house she wouldn't have expected Brandon to be there, and Julie and Michelle probably wouldn't really know each other since Kevin and Julie are having an affair. If they did know each other, Julie most likely wouldn't be wearing her wedding ring when she was around other people with Kevin. I'm just thinking about it logically.

There's a lot that happens in this film in 6 minutes, and that could contribute to any confusion because there are so many details. It might require multiple viewings to get everything.

Millions of dollars, even billions, get transferred in movies all the time. So I honestly don't see what the issue is. I even considered making the amount of money considerably bigger when members of the cast suggested it. $2.3 million almost doesn't seem like enough money for someone to kill another person over these days. It had a nice ring to it for me so I left it. Oh well.

Yeah, your 2 talking cones... they're hilarious. Your film was good and funny.

[Mike@AF]

Zaza, thanks for watching the film and for the compliments. I appreciate your feedback.

[abdeziel]

I thought the shooting motions were a little hinky at first but then remember silencers and suppressors actually muffle recoil to a degree.

I wanted to smack the one lady for being annoying like SpongeBob when she comes to the door, until I see later why she was doing that.. made for something to think about after the film and I like that in a good short film or short story.

[Mike@AF]

I thought the shooting motions were a little hinky at first but then remember silencers and suppressors actually muffle recoil to a degree.

I wanted to smack the one lady for being annoying like SpongeBob when she comes to the door, until I see later why she was doing that.. made for something to think about after the film and I like that in a good short film or short story.

Haha, that's a funny analogy. Glad you understood by the end of the film. I wasn't actually aware that silencers do that. Thanks for the insight.

Thanks for watching the film and I'm glad you liked it and thought it was good.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Deceivers

Review: I watched this one three times before I wrote this review and just like the first time, I'm having trouble liking it. It's got a few technical/technique/style issues and it got a little bogged down with it's own cleverness.

Story: Pretty straightforward until it then becomes a double-double cross.. when the husbands puts a quick end to. And then the "ex-girlfriend" at the end who happened to be the neighbour and was banging the husband.... huh?? That convolution threw me off in a major way and it really wasn;t needed. The movie should have ended when he shot both of them. Period. That's a tight story right there, and a good comeuppance.

Technical: No wide shots or even OTS on the shot dude in the bathroom. At no point do we ever see anyone in the scene with him or see him in relation to anything else. There is no sense of the space and it feels completely claustrophobic. Your shot chices here were close up, close up and a slight medium. Your actress never even moved into his space, giving us a better sense of what's really happening. Your choice of lighting scheme also left a major hole wide open. This movie was so well lit it felt more like a commercial than a movie and it's the thing that's mainly off putting for me. It was simply the bad choice of lighting, best left to comedies and like I said, commercials. You did have some great composition and I particularly dug the angled shots and your inserts. Great use of inserts there. Coverage is somethign that a lot of us often forget all about until we're editing and it's much too late.

Acting: Your actors were competent actors. They displayed the right range of emotions and worked their asses off. But something wasn;t working for me. It may have been how it was edited that affected their performances, or how it was directed, but I can see their talent out there. I dunno what it is, so sorry Mike: I'm laying this one at your feet.

WrapUp: This was an ambitious film and you tried to create something stylistic here. It just didn't work for me. My dislikes over-ruled all of the cool stuff that I did like and that's a shame because I can see the talent behind this. Good luck in the fest.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Before you respond emotionally, read it again and think. Then read it again.

[Mike@AF]

No problem Rodney. I understand not everyone is going to like it. Thanks for watching it and giving your feedback.

[Mike@AF]

Rodney, just so you know, I hear you loud and clear. It's not my best cinematography. I chose to shoot it this way for a few reasons. Even color grading it proved to be a challenge. With some different lights, lenses, and a better location at my disposal... well you know. Now I know for next time. And a new lens is already on the way.

[Rodney V. Smith]

Ahh I was wondering if location was an issue and you were trying to shoot around it. Must have been a tight space.

What lens you getting?

[Mike@AF]

Yes, it's my apartment. The walls are white, I have things that I didn't want in the shots that I couldn't move (too big and heavy), and the kitchen (where the bulk of the film takes place) is like 5ft x 3ft. I even had to borrow wall decorations from one of the actresses just so there was some kind of set design to break up the white walls (or have huge movie posters all over the film). And because of the size of the kitchen I couldn't really get lights into it without burning myself or the actors, so I went with all practical lighting. When I thought of using all practicals I did some lighting tests, and it actually looked better than I thought it would. It wasn't perfect, but it was acceptable to me. So overall I'm pleased with the film and like any film I learned from making it, so there's a plus!

I have a Zeiss ZF set consisting of a 35, 50, and 85. The 28 is on the way and I'm still hunting down a 21 and 100 to complete the set I want to put together. I think the 21 is the one that would have really been needed, but it's difficult to find a good deal on it.

[Mike@AF]

I guess I spoke too soon. The rest of the lenses are on their way and will be here in a couple days. Finally found some really good deals. Makes me wish BetrayalFest came along a couple months later. Oh well. I have them for the next time.

[Mike@AF]

"Deceivers" is an Official Selection of the Valley Film Festival and will screen at the CAP Theatre in Sherman Oaks, CA on Friday, November 12th at 5:00pm. More info can be found at http://www.valleyfilmfest.com/valleyfilmfest/app/films/1307/. Tickets are supposed to go on sale very soon.

I forgot to post about it here before, but "Deceivers" was also an Official Selection of the LA Shorts Film Festival in July. LA Shorts is an Academy Awards qualifying film festival, and although we didn't win, it was an honor to be recognized and screen with that group of films.