POST JULY ENTRIES HERE DV X-FEST 3

[J.R. Hudson]

First entry:

http://alex.activdns.com/~maxlite9/rwarren/Ever%20Wonder%3f6.mov

Second entry:

http://lostpilgrim.com/Films/Love%20of%20Country%204.mov

[monte]

Love of Country was, pure pwnage

[ecoloco]

I'm sorry, what do you mean with the word Pewnage?


Eco

[J.R. Hudson]

Whats pwnage?

By the way, this will stay open until Sunday evening around midnight PDT (San Diego Time)

[kitsu]

I'm trying to DL the 2 files with Download Accelerator Plus (dialup is no fun). But, I can't get the first one. Says file not found?

~Andrew

[J.R. Hudson]

Latest upgrades? Yeah, dial up is wrong. I still het surprised that people use dial up :-/

[J.R. Hudson]

Keep voting people! 27 cast so far! Our biggest turnout yet!

[PC]

I saw "EVER WONDER". I ;like the look and feel. But does it make u WONDER? I doubt it.
For "Love of Country" Still downloading another 2Hrs to go.

[J.R. Hudson]

2 Hours! :o Man. :( Thanks for hanging in there.

[PC]

Twice I tried to download "Love of Country" and it didnt download fully :'(

[theos]

I just logged on . . man this voting should not happen over a weekend. It should close like on the first Tue or Wed of the month . . . like the weekends I personaly do take some time off from the machine and would hate to miss the boat. I am downloading now . . . . ::)

[theos]

Ok great job bothaya . . . voted . . . peace man!

[taubkin]

Ok, voted. I'm not sure, should we discuss the films here or not?

[J.R. Hudson]

Sure! Lets start discussing them. I was really torn betwen the two films as they were obvioulsy 2 different styles; one narrative and the other documentary.

EVER WONDER

I loved the overall LOOK of this one; very filmic, subtle. The Title Cards made me wonder "Is something going to happen?". Of course nothing did. I felt it was a great choice of COMPS and COLOR and PACING. It was very well done and very professional.

On the other hand, I felt the 2nd entry FOR LOVE OF COUNTRY was a basic IN YOUR FACE illustration of what people think about the subject matter. I actually found it fascinating to listen to the sometimes simple explanations and the next passionate response. When the older man started in with the DDAY comment and then ENDING with the ISRAELI and PALENSTINE debate I felt right in the middle of it. The tension must have been insane at that moment. As much as I really loved EVER WONDER (It had a very filmic feel and sensibility) I ended going with the DOCUMENTARY style purely for the END debate.

I have to emphasize, I was really really torn on which one to go with and the 2 styles didnt help my decision as I usually prefer a FILMIC oriented piece. I guess I felt more intimate with the DOCUMENTARY? Only 2 submissoins this month but I felt that the quality and thought put into them were better than what we have so far seen.

[theos]

I agree with you John, great jump in quality and a great effort. Thanks for the shows guys, was hard choosing!

[J.R. Hudson]

What time is it there Matthew? Aren't you supposed to be in bed? *:D

[speedbump]

Hey folks, nice work.

While I liked both, I thought EVER WONDER showed the capabilities of the DVX better, and that is what tipped the scales for me.

But LOVE OF COUNTRY had jewels too. Ending with the Israelis and Palestinians talking was a good editing decision. It reminded me how good things are in my own country.

[taubkin]

Yes John, and not only the different styles, but the films had also pretty opposite points of view on the subject. That was hard to put aside, while voting for one of them. But for me, I guess that although the documentary is quite well done and that the ending is very precious, I felt it wasn't very much well done in terms of filmaking. I tought the camera work was not very nice, although it was incredibly steady, and that the comments were too basic and never actually got close on the subjects. It was more like television news to me. So I voted for the fiction piece since I felt there was more filmaking involved on that (even though the story was basically told by text). I felt the images, sound, of ever wonder conveyed more in its subtext so I chose it. I have to say I felt politically inclined too, since it was a view much colser to mine, but as I said, I tried to disregard all that.

[uhrgl]

Tough to choose. Apples and oranges being what they are.

I went with For Love of Country because it was filmed in my backyard.

[Arcburn]

I thought both were good but so different. It made it very hard to choose.

I liked the style and shooting on Ever Wonder. But I felt let down by the end. Not that I wanted anyone's family or friends hurt or killed in this kind of tragedy. But I thought the film was some kind catharsis for the maker. As it turned out it wasn't. Still it looked very professional and was well edited.

I thought For love of Country could have benefited from a strong editing structure. But it got the point across that there are lots of points of views and that the words mean something different to every person.

So in my opinion the first film although better on a technical level lost out to the second which achieved a more satisfying result. Both excellent though.

good job guys

[J.R. Hudson]

Exactly I how I feel Arc. :)

[HansK]

I think this was one of the harder contests to cast a vote. Both films are very good. Each has a unique feel and style.

"Ever Wonder"
I enjoyed this short since it made me think about and question the actions of others. As I watched the film I thought about what was being told to me through the titles. But the imagery also told a story and I found myself guessing the direction the film might take. The story told through the titling was timed well but I wanted more of the story told through the visuals. Adding shots that tied Sergio closer into the story would help. Maybe a shot of him viewing a photo of his sister just before we learn that she was riding the train. Otherwise, the technicals were done well. As this is a DVX contest, I focused on the use of the camera. Here I found a nice selection of shots that were framed and lit well, and had that desired "film effect".

"Love of Country"
This short grabbed my attention through my want of hearing the thoughts of others. The editing and cuts between interviews were well done and kept the interest. The mix of people selected also helped. As for camera work, almost all the shots were composed well. A few looked a little soft, possibly out of focus. I'm not sure if it's my monitor, but most of the short has a yellowish tint to it.


Again, I would like to add "well done" to both the film makers.

[disjecta]

John,

I'd like to make a suggestion...why don't you put a sticky with a link to this area of the board in the News section? I think part of the problem is it gets lost because you have to scroll way down to even get there. I swear that half the board don't even know it exists...it took me a month to get here...

I think it will boost the number of votes in the future.

[J.R. Hudson]

I couldnt agree any less; Jarred however is the masta of the site and does all of the coding (I just hang out alot). I would really like to see this little DVX-Fest thing take off and become a showcase of sorts.

[disjecta]

I couldnt agree any less;



Does that mean you agree with me or you don't? :D

[Phil]

Good job guys.

[J.R. Hudson]

Does that mean you agree with me or you don't? * :D


I do I do! Sorry, I was watching Boondock Saints :P

[bubblesh20]

I enjoyed hearing the different views in Love of Country and enjoyed seeing the different monuments around DC. I used to think Love of Country just meant baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, ..... Thanks for opening my eyes. I had a hard time downloading the other film. Will try again tomorrow. I look forward to more seeing more films by both submitters. ;)

[Zoomforce]

yeah I definately agree we gotta organize this better.. I will add it to the list :)

[theos]

What time is it there Matthew? Aren't you supposed to be in bed? *:D

you will never know what it takes to keep up with you boys! Late nights . . . early mornings! :o

[Young-H._Lee]

I liked the first one better, but I'm biased towards the things that look more filmic. The second one was interesting, it reminded me of a 'documentary' I did when I was at this big christian conference of 20,000 college students, I went around and asked random people questions about their religion, you can actually see it here:

http://www.glue.umd.edu/~younglee/iv/movie_index.htm

Click on "Interviews: the mind of the young christian"

[Neil Rowe]

i voted for the "love of country" one simply because i couldnt see the other one. the firewall here blocks it as a restrictd site, and there is no direct file link. good job though , i did like the documentary approach. it was very interesting, most times im biased towards more cinematic content, but i do alot of PBS watching too ;).

[Chris Messineo]

I read all the comments before I saw the films and I thought, how hard can it really be to choose.

I just finished watching both films and I can definitely say, it is really hard.

As a few people have mentioned it does feel like an apples and oranges kind of choice.

In the end though, based on this being a Panasonic DVX community, I was more drawn to the filmic qualities and craftsmanshio of "Ever Wonder".

While I did enjoy "Love of Country" I felt it could have been shot on any camera and still had the same effect.

Chris

[eqwalker]

Like stated by the others, both films had their interests that pulls you to each one. Looking at the technical side I had to choose Ever Wonder. It seemed to look better to me as in camera work. Looking at Love Of Country I seen (at least on my monitor here) that the sky was always washed out. I don't know if they were using ND filtering or not but it seem way too hot. Did anybody else notice that?

[Michael Summers]

i think Ever Wonder was kind of exploiting the deaths of those people to win a contest. sure, it would be nice if it wasn't entered into the contest, but using the deaths of those people to win something? fuck that. i wont support it, even if you didn't mean to, it's still in very poor taste.

[Bsmith]

well I liked the first one more for one simple reason...it was a little shorter and it held my attention...the doc jsut seemed to go on and on with the same old thing (asking what people think love for the country is)..and half way through it I just kinda zoned out and didn't really care anymore. The doc was good tho...just couldn't been shortened a little thats all.

[Barry_Green]

The doc did seem long. I didn't time it, but we have basically a two-minute limit for the contest, right? I know extensions have been allowed, but entrants should try to stay at or under two minutes if possible.

[Elvis]

So who won?

[Wtemitim]

I chose ever wonder because it was more of a film to me. I liked the look and sound. Love of country made me feel like i was in a michael moore film (i love michael moore) but I had to give it to ever wonder for having a different look and sound.

[J.R. Hudson]

Sorry for the delay guys; I.T. issues :-/

[Arcburn]

Good Job

I liked both films so I was happy to see either win although I thought the voting would be closer.

Any great films from both entrants. Lets see what the August comp will be.

[ecoloco]

Thanks everyone for all your input, good or bad. I entered "Ever Wonder?". "Love of country" was a great flick, especially at the end, because you could actually feel the tension, congratulations Barry, very gripping. Hopefully next month there will be more entries. What I can tell is that each month the bar is raised and the quality of work has improved. Let's continue to make movies!

Thanks again and god bless
Ecoloco

[J.R. Hudson]

I truley was torn. I really felt EVER WONDER was a better piece in terms of 'Cinema' or 'filmmaking'. I felt you really took great care to compose and correct and it really felt meaningful. It was the TENSION in the end that hit me in the other flick and the fact is was captured was great stufff.

I told Barry I need to see the entire debate on those people. Honestly, I was torn and it was not easy. Im not a big fan of docs anyway (I like then for learning ala Discovery).

[Arcburn]

It does seem sad though that we have 2500 + registered users and we only had 78 votes.

I love the idea of the monthly competition and truly appreciate all the guys that enable it.

I would hope more of the DVXuser community would join in.

[Michael Summers]

Was ever wonder shot on the El (the L?)

[Barry_Green]

I told Barry I need to see the entire debate on those people. *Honestly, I was torn and it was not easy. *Im not a big fan of docs anyway (I like then for learning ala Discovery).
Wait -- did I miss something? Did one of the Barry's enter "Love of Country"? I saw where Ecoloco did the Ever Wonder short... who did the other one?

[J.R. Hudson]

Yeah. Sorry about my BOLD PRINT RANT but you are correct. I know many more saw them or saw the thread and were like "Whateva!"

We do need to make this more readily viewable on the Front though.

Jarred!

[Barry_S]

Ecoloco--Congratulations and great film--I enjoyed it and it was definitely "cinematic". I'm looking forward to your topic for August's contest--hopefully a broad theme to get a lot of participation. I'll definitely admit my piece was more of an ENG/DOC thing--which is more of my background. I'll go for something more "filmic" next time ;D

John--fantastic job on rounding up the votes--78 entries! Wow. It would definitely be nice to see more entries this month. And thanks to everyone for voting.

[ecoloco]

By the way, did I hear that the price was a copy of Vegas? Maybe I heard wrong, this was a long time ago. Whoever posted it, can you clarify?
Yes, the movie was shot on the "L" on the brown line to be exact. We were kicked out, but it was too late, everything was in the can. And Michael, I'm sorry you took it the wrong way. I would never do something to take advantage of the people who perished that horrible day. In fact, this was dedicated to all those people, because if I remember well, nobody even cared that this happened at least in this country. This is a true story and my friend's sister did get off the train before the bombings. This was just to make people think why do we humans do these terrible things. We are indeed the worst species of this planet, forget about the great white shark, at least they kill because they have to survive (no wonder they spit us out the minute they bite us, humans).

Again, thanks a lot for all the input.
Peace.
Ecoloco

[Michael Summers]

you also used the event to win a free copy of vegas. didn't you?

[ecoloco]

Not really, I don't even own an IBM computer. And I really don't USE events. I enter contests.

[monte]

PWNAGE = OWNAGE = BEATDOWN = GREAT = "Something of High quality"

[theos]

* I'll definitely admit my piece was more of an ENG/DOC thing--which is more of my background. * I'll go for something more "filmic" next time *;D


Barry I think that your clip film was great and valuble as a product as even though it was not filmic, it did tell a story very effectivley. We need these type of great productions too!

[Neil Rowe]

..hey eco i couldnt see yours.. :-/ any way you can post a direct link to the file?

[ecoloco]

I'll try, but I've been having problems uploading to my website.

[mrbimmer]

CLICK HERE FOR ECO'S (http://alex.activdns.com/~maxlite9/rwarren/Ever%20Wonder%3f6.mov)

[Neil Rowe]

still blocked.. it needs to be a link to the actual file.. not a web page with the file embedded. only issue is it can then be downloaded if you didnt want people to be able to download it for any reason.

[HansK]

... because if I remember well, nobody even cared that this happened at least in this country.

It's too bad you got that impression. Around here (San Francisco) I know what many people took note and expressed their outrage and concern.

I have been to Spain a couple of times and have always found the people and the country wonderful. So, that may also be why I favored your film and message more.

Keep up the good work!

[ecoloco]

OK iamloser, here is the direct link, I finally figured it out:
http://homepage.mac.com/ecoloco/iMovieTheater35.html
Enjoy.

[Phil]

Ecoloco good job, very filmic. I voted for ya!

[Isaac_Brody]

Damn..missed the voting period and only just caught both films. I liked both films but I found "For Love of Country" more captivating. I just think it was a more complex piece to think about. Not to knock Ever Wonder. It was definitely more cinematic. I didn't like the titles on black that much. I thought it would've been more effective to have titles over picture. Instead of a title about the sister you'd have the title with a reaction shot of the guy. That's one of the weaknesses I found with it. Thought it could've been a little tighter. Both pieces could've been tighter but I favored "For Love of Country" for its complexity. It poses and attempts to answer the question of what it means to have "for love of country." Both are good short films.

[Barry_Green]

What's the August theme/spec's?

[theos]

There is a new thread barry

[speedbump]

Eco-

Many Americans did feel great grief for that terrible crime.

[Bischofftep]

Many Americans did feel great grief for that terrible crime.

Strange, in a way, isn't it?

That the events of September 11 2001 may actually have caused more Americans to care more about what happens in other countries. Made us more sensitive to the world outside, and perhaps might've made some folks who think Spain is just where Antonio Banderas is from actually think "I'll say a prayer for those who lost someone on that train."

Nice work, both of you. Thought provoking, and a good use of the medium.

[Bill_Bolton]

I viewed both entries with an idea of "How would they look in the theater? The documentary For Love of Country felt as if it was a newsreel shown before the main attraction. The Ever Wonder short, that was good enough for the feature. GREAT WORK on both films!