S i m i l o

[macgregor]

Now at www.mysimilo.com

Much better quality there. Quicktime 7 required guys....
http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/Image4.jpg

Definately it ooks like Mordor... more pics inside...

[MojoTrancer]

I have to say that Visual 3D effects have being re-designed after submission.

We just had to uploaded as it was at that time, but we were not happy at all.
No it is much better. It is a pity i cannot change the file.

Always the perfectionist, MacGregor.

Loved your film. Great story. Beautiful cinematography. My only complaint would be that it was hard to see his robot-innards in the road scene.

[OLBoy]

Easily my favorite Sci-Fest film so far. Great story, acting, score, and excellent use of the G35. Damn good work Macgregor.

[dberton]

I do not think the effects in the film detracted at all from its high overall quality. I am interested to know how you achieved such a 'sharp' look. Did you have some specific settings in-camera, or was this done in post? You film has a nice sharp contrast which really sets it apart.

[Kaz]

Beautiful!
35mm adapter AND naked breasts...how can we compete?

Very poetic. Easily my favorite so far. BRAVO!

[Shaun Patrick]

maybe you could talk a little about your lighting/color correction process?

[EyeBite]

Awesome job!

[KOVAROVA]

poo pooing fantastic. want to know all about this macgreor? brillant job. lush. MAC tell us all about it and post your credits please.

[macgregor]

Do you guys watch the shortilm like running at 12fps? I think it wasnt enconde right or maybe it is my player, but i see all the shortfilm perfectly, and mine runs badly.

I PM Jarred in case he can fix the problem.

[J.R. Hudson]

Yours is running baddass.

[KOVAROVA]

worked fine for me.

i think 'baddass' should be macgregor's custom name.

[Blaine]

This was a gorgeous movie. The acting kept up with the look, too. Well, told story. When it was over, I wanted more. http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

[spidey]

Perfecto. Man you europeans can get good locations.

[macgregor]

Jarred is re-compressing the file, because it was at 15 fps. Strange that you guys didnt notice it! :]

[Brandon Rice]

Wow, this all this raving, I gotta see this thing! It'll be the first one I download when I get to VA! Looking forward to seeing it.

[KOVAROVA]

i thought WMV alwaws looked that way.

[natdizzle]

Great movie...I Love the shot when the camera dollys slightly around the girls, left side with the sun in the back... Very Nice looking film and the story, pace and acting Was great also...
Nice location also inside the house...the all White ha,, interesting house.
all Round great film , Congratulations....!!!

[KevinPeeples]

looks like THX vacationed to the island. Great Job.

[Jernee]

A quick google search revealed the following, but I couldn't find any information on how the shots were so crisp!

www.mysimilo.com
www.neotokio.org

[BrianV]

all i can do is...

*thunderous applause*

[Steve Strickland]

Astounding! I don't remember ever seeing the DVX look that good. Your work is one of my main influences on getting a G35. A great short film. Bravo.

[Norm Sanders]

Is this no longer on the server to DL? I can't see it among the list ... am I missing something, is it under a different name, what?

[MojoTrancer]

I think they were re-compressing it. Hope its back up again soon. I'm getting ready to head home for the day and I wanna watch it again.

[macgregor]

Since the credits are only 1 frame each and i have to thanks some people, I find the necesity of showing the credits here. Thanks to all the people that helped:

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/s001.jpg

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/s002.jpg

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/s003.jpg

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/s004.jpg

[macgregor]

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/s005.jpg

[Jared Meyer]

Macgregor-
I watched the Similo teaser when you posted it on cinemek a couple months back. Glad to see the final product - looks great!

[KOVAROVA]

your team did a great job. it really shows that you had a production designer and a good one at that. can you tell us a bit about the car scene and what was involved? i dont see a credit for costume/wardrobe and i thought there were some exelent choices with this.. who was responsible? also, is this a team of people you regulary work with?

[Filmjunkie677]

How'd you get your hands on a g35?

[macgregor]

Ok, i will try to summarize some of the contributors here.

Zacha is the "gay" friend co-director, which worked a lot in the script. It took him 9 version until we were happy.

David Loher did an amazing job designing the similo/robot. You can see his wonderfull website here:
www.scienceunderfire.com


http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/similo.jpg


We have the Hebe´s voice over done by Sarah Jarman, which i don´t know her personally. She was recorded by the sound guys and directed by Mr. Kassana in London, and they did a pretty good job.

JL. Legarraga is credited as coproducer since he put the money to buy a €4,000 DLP projector used for the car scenes (and it was later refund, lol).

Original music for the film was composed by this four guys. They really gave all their help after reading a post on a forum. I couldnt have done anything without music. The problem is that we run out of time, so there is not all the music that we would have liked to have.

Cyros Hogg made by himself the complicated CGI shot of the laying man on the road. Quite a challenge.
As i said, what you see here is not the final result, and he made a much better animation and render one day after deadline. You will be able to see it on the website once the film fest is finished.

Helena trapero helped me to find sound libraries and i finished the job editing the audio and musics.

The Cinemek team provided the G35 beta adapter.
I used a 50mm nikon f1.8 and a nikon 24mm (only in 2 shots) since i do not have more nikon lenses.
There is a scene that was done without the G35 because i forgot it on my car. It is easy to discover which one it is.
Camera was on thin mode (except for those in interlaced mode), since it is better for me when going to 16:9 and SFX are created better.

If you have any other question i will be happy to try to answer them. :]

[spidey]

Macgregor-
I watched the Similo teaser when you posted it on cinemek a couple months back. Glad to see the final product - looks great!


huh? confused.

[spidey]

also why can't i get my images to work right?

[macgregor]

your team did a great job. it really shows that you had a production designer and a good one at that. can you tell us a bit about the car scene and what was involved? i dont see a credit for costume/wardrobe and i thought there were some exelent choices with this.. who was responsible? also, is this a team of people you regulary work with?


mmmm....

I will talk about the car scene later, when more people watch the shortilm.

We picked the clothes at a snowboard store. I had in mind the colors that i wanted to play along.
She in white, so the contrast in the dark landscape looks nice. With some orange and black, which go together very well.
She is in white in the outhside, but she wears black underwear in the white indoors, just to make some more contrast between inside and outside.

He is wearing an orange coat as a combination of her orange details (in her boots and some parts of the coat) beacuse he belongs to her. And orange goes well with black of the road and landscape.
But he is wearing a white shirt in the end, because he is new.
And she is wearing a black shirt at the end, because he went white (when she was happy) to black.

Sorry for the long explanation. Clothes were quite expensive too but we return them all to the store. This is how we make movies in spain. LOL.


About the team...
Well the production team is a formidable crew consisting in TWO guys. Zacha and me, as you can see us here:

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/IMG_2994.jpg

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/IMG_3000.jpg

[FabioRafael]

Beautiful! Can you tell us what were the two shots you used the nikon 24mm? Is it easy to work with the adapter? what were your difficulties if you had any? CC ?

[Weston]

That was amazing. Everything was perfect.

[spidey]

hmmm. so now this is getting more confusing.

[J.R. Hudson]

Can we not taint this thread with questions nor accusations of rule violations ? Take it up via PM or contact Barry S wit hyour concerns please. These threads are purely for discussion on the film itslef and its artistic merits.

Please do not drag it down; especially a film of this caliber.

[spidey]

johns right.

[J.R. Hudson]

Tks Spiderman.

[spidey]

fo' shizzle huddy buddy :)

[FabioRafael]

Can we not taint this thread with questions nor accusations of rule violations ? Take it up via PM or contact Barry S wit hyour concerns please. These threads are purely for discussion on the film itslef and its artistic merits.

Please do not drag it down; especially a film of this caliber.


In my opinion the guy was not accusing anyone he was just worried about rules and helping to fix it by explaining it to mcgregor. The movie is really great and something like this could not drag it down at all.

[mikkowilson]

Mac,

Visual beauty. I have nothing else to say. I see no other coment that could have any effect. I just can't find any one of the thousand words to match your piece.


Someone give this guy an Oscar.

- Mikko

[THX-1138]

Great work!

Remined me alot of Solaris (New Version)...probably because of the female VO with an accent...also the gradient. Loved that you took me away from the typical DVX out of the box look and went for a very stylized film look.

Also I felt you patience in the storytelling reminded me of a Tarkovsky film.

Well done.

[KOVAROVA]

glad you said it JH.

[Daniel Skubal]

Man Mac. This was beautiful and I think anyone doubting the ability of the G35 after this baby should be bludgeoned.

I love the opening shot of the woman running at the camera. I don't think you could have had a better sunset or location to film.

I felt the car scene was a bit dark, but that's understandable when filming in alaska.
Very visually appealing, and I must congratulate you on the film.

Very entertaining and I loved watching it!

[Slimothy]

This one was obviously a standout in pretty much every area. Won't be suprised if it takes first. I thought it ran on a bit long, but that could be my only nitpick. Great job.

[Ralph Oshiro]

HOLY POO POO, MACGREGOR! Beautiful work. Excellent execution of a simple, elegant concept. Best cinematography I've seen in a long time. I mean, really, really, gorgeous cinematography. Shallow depth-of-field really is nice, isn't it? AND you have a naked chick in your short! You rock, man!

Aha, now I've read the entire thread--I was going to comment on the terrific production design as well! Beautifully written. Authentically acted. Wonderful score. You didn't miss a single f-----g beat on this one, man! I haven't seen a short of this technical/aesthetic/content quality in quite some time. You and your team really pulled it off. I also thought of Solaris while watching your short (I LOVED Solaris). I think your short is going to make me mark my ballot sheet all '11s'!!!

[HagerNYC]

WOW. I nearly pooped my pants on the first shot. I thought it was a Nike commercial! So well done. Yes it reminded me of the George Cloony Solaris film too in it's visual style. Beautiful, and SHARP! Did the sharpness come from the lens or was it part of your post process?

[Luis Caffesse]

What can I say?

Awesome.
Simply awesome.

I could say everything that's been said about the camera work, the look, the lenses, the feel... etc. etc. etc.

Bottom line for me?
I cared.
You got me to care about the characters - and in 6 minutes time that's badass.

As always - you rock MacGregor.

[Beat Takeshi]

Hey man, that rocked. You can tell a professional team worked on this joint. (Jdanstan-see, I used it again :) )
The first thing I thought of when I saw the white was the Chris Cunningham music video for the pixie looking girl with the 2 robots kissing... I forget her name now. I have not seen the new Solaris. One question i had was the delicate balance of the whites and blacks in the bedroom scenes. Even though the whites were blown out it sure didnt feel like it. How did you control them?
I guess I am waiting for the G35 because i didnt see any light loss issues or focus issues and if there were any, they were very well hidden.
Great freaking job to you and your "Team" <--- i have to get one of these...

[Kaz]

Just have to add that I LOVE the ending of this.

"Do you remember me?"
And he just gives her that slight, oblivious smile.

Perfect.

[Curugon]

I'm just starting to work through these, but I had to comment on this - I'm just blown away. Really great work man. I hate to be repetetive with previous posts, but yeah I loved Solaris and this had a very similar vibe.

Dying to see that full res on the DVD.

[Thomas J. O'Hara]

very inspiring!
macgregor is my hero

[Shawn Murphy]

Those opening scenes had me thinking I accidentally opened a trailer for a feature length film, I was in awe, and the quality never stopped, amazing!

The acting was great and I am incredibly happy to see somebody who truly cares about set design, sound, wardrobe, etc, etc, etc, attention to details...

This was a pleasure and an inspiration to watch.


I agree with the Tarkovsky comparison/compliment!

[dvxnerd]

Truely amazing film, Mac...from start to finish. Beautifully executed.

[Norm Sanders]

FINALLY, I got to see this ... and it was worth it. I think the version that's online is still playing at lesser FPS, as it seemed jittery/choppy at first, but I grew accustomed to it quicly.

Loved the VO of the actress ... great voice. The story was beautifully done as well, though I'm confused about one thing. This replacement replaced the REAL him right? Then what were all those spare parts in the middle of the road when she was holding the REAL him? Or was that just a robot as well, and this new one is a replacment of the other robot?

That left me confused, but otherwise, everything else was very well done. I'm surprised how many people have gone with hand held camera work, which I believe this one is entire hand held, but I again grew accustomed to it, and I'm realizing that during some shots when nothing much is happening, the sublte camera movement/shake adds character to the moment, which can be beneficial and rewarding.

Loved the music & overall romantic, loving feeling of this piece. Well done.

[janzie]

i loved the look...the story didn´t really get me, but i watched the whole thing, fascinated by the wonderful look...congrats

[gumonstro]

I guess Panasonic guys, when they created the DVX100, couldn´t believe it would be possible to achieve such a beautiful result with this little thing. Waiting for your explanation about how you lit the her room. And congratulations for making clipped highlights look superb.

[macgregor]

I felt the car scene was a bit dark, but that's understandable when filming in alaska.



Still the wmv is running at 15fps and it is appearing with much more contrast than it is in reality. The car scene is about 1 stop down. The robot last scene hardly shows what is going on, since the road is completely dark, and this shouldnt be as that. I hate compression and it hurts to see your "child" in not so good condition. The mpeg DVD will look 10 times better, i can assure you.

Am i allowed to put a couple grabs here to show the real colors?

[macgregor]

Someone asked about light settings. I will explain better with grabs. As you see, thin detail+Vegas sharpening filter give good results in terms of resolution. Also have in mind we are using a PAL camera. The bad thing is that at PAL DVD, there is more noise in dark areas than i would like to.


http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/grabs/Image1.jpg

This shots were done during the magic hour. With the sea at the left, and volcanic desert at the right. We only had a 20 minute chance to shoot this scene. A white reflector is on the right, to create that mistery light (michael Bay style).



http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/grabs/Image2.jpg

The car scene. We wanted to shoot this at dusk. They are in the Antartic, so dusks take a lot of time there. Also the landscape needed that dark atmosphere. They are in a new Merc SLK. And it was shooting on the director´s garage.




http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/grabs/Image0.jpg

The white set. 1000W X2 reflected in the ceiling. That is all. Naked girls do the rest.



http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/grabs/Image3.jpg

Back to location again. We were running out of light here, so silver reflector was used to lit them from the dark and contrasted scene.



Color correction was done but not too much. The interiors needed a bit more, trying not to blow away the white and still have color skins.
The wonderfull G35 helps to create that crisp look. Exposure was important too, as well as WB.
BTW, no one asked about flares and red and blue intrusve lights...
We are glad you liked this project. It took us some time, and everyone likes to hear good comments. I apreciate it a lot. Thanks guys!

[macgregor]

FINALLY, I got to see this ... and it was worth it. I think the version that's online is still playing at lesser FPS, as it seemed jittery/choppy at first, but I grew accustomed to it quicly.

Loved the VO of the actress ... great voice. The story was beautifully done as well, though I'm confused about one thing. This replacement replaced the REAL him right? Then what were all those spare parts in the middle of the road when she was holding the REAL him? Or was that just a robot as well, and this new one is a replacment of the other robot?

That left me confused, but otherwise, everything else was very well done. I'm surprised how many people have gone with hand held camera work, which I believe this one is entire hand held, but I again grew accustomed to it, and I'm realizing that during some shots when nothing much is happening, the sublte camera movement/shake adds character to the moment, which can be beneficial and rewarding.

Loved the music & overall romantic, loving feeling of this piece. Well done.




The story is quite simple.

We have a girl talking about his lost boyfriend. She looks like she loved him very much and so and so. In the end we discover that the loning boyfriend was in truth artificial. So we think, wait a second, all this tears for a washing machine?

But then, in the last phrase, she reveals that she has just bought a new one, the one Similo that is driving the car. So, were did all those emotions go? It is as easy as buying a new one to replace the old one. (Some girls do this with real human boyfriends, lol).

And all along she wonders where did all those feelings go. Think in this way. You have a girlfriend who is in love with you. She has an accident. She looses her memory. So she doesnt remember you. Will she still be in love with you? Where did all the feelings go?
This opens quite a lot philosophical discussions.
This is a not a new story or new aproach, of course. But you cannot tell a lot in 6 minutes, I guess.

[ProfD]

Amazing lighting and final product. The girl was great. I think her acting skills really made your film. The bedroom scene was nicely setup.

However, the scene with the girl in the road holding her robot-mate was difficult to makeout at first...not sure if it was the compression issue you described here in the post, or if it was just too dark. It's like the blacks in the road overtook the details. In the still pics you posted here, that scene was understandable...just didn't see it in the clip and therefore didn't get the entire concept on the first run.

I love seeing something original, but, this storyline was not original for me. I've seen a few features and shorts with the robot-mate concept. It is an appealing and interesting concept for sure as evidenced by how many similar films are out there, just wished it were more original.

It did feel like a promo for a robot-mate feature on Sci-Fi....which is a great thing. I like the sci fi channel..heh.

But, I would love to learn your secrets for obtaining that level of finish...geez...amazing. Looked like a lot of fun to shoot too!

[macgregor]

It did feel like a promo for a robot-mate feature on Sci-Fi....which is a great thing. I like the sci fi channel..heh.


Now is when i should say this started as the promo of a 25 minutes shortfilm...

[Brandon Rice]

Hey, I finally got to sit down and watch it. I absolutely LOVED the look! It reminded me of "The Island". Excellent lighting and cinematography. What I did not like about the film was the content. It was really lacking in the story department. It felt very slow moving, but I think you were going for that. It did feel like a trailer for a larger film. All that being said, I will once again reiterate that this was by far the most beautifully shot piece I've seen. Absolutely incredible. Great work!

[krestofre]

I absolutely loved it. Beautiful, beautiful film.

But one thing bugged me: With the "Antarctica. Summer. The Future" at the beginning that really geared me up for a post-apocalyptic-ice-caps have melted story. I had to shift gears when I figured out that wasn't what I was getting. For this story, setting and timeframe have little meaning (speaking from my own opinion, of course). So this caused me some confusion. Just something to think about.

Great job!

[MojoTrancer]

Now is when i should say this started as the promo of a 25 minutes shortfilm...

Does that mean we get more? Please say yes!

And thank you for the images and the descriptions of how you did things. Your film makes for gorgeous stillls as well.

Maybe you should make a little coffee table book (with companion DVD of course) showing stills from the film and the design drawings too. Whatever you got. Give it to us! :)

[notwithstanding]

Okay, just another Macgregor fan here. What a simply beautiful film. I've been shooting with my regular ol' DVX100A only dreaming of getting pictures like Similo. Are there any good online articles on the G35? I can only imagine the thing (with lenses) costs a fortune. G35 info is very limited at the manufacturer's homepage: http://www.cinemek.com/

Anyway, I just think great films are about great choices...every moment is a choice: in light, color, mood, sound, music. And the filmmakers involved with Similo clearly have great taste! Certainly gets my vote.

[ProfD]

Man..I just love those stills. Especially the first one. Damn, I wish your story had been more original though. Makes me wonder how amazing your talent and product would be if turned loose on an original concept. Hopefully you will respond to some of the other films as well. Some of us are nervously putting out our first efforts and would welcome constructive and hopefully positive feedback as well.

Thanks,
ProfD

[MsManhattan]

Yeah, this was really well done. Felicidades!

[KOVAROVA]

MAC: "BTW, no one asked about flares and red and blue intrusve lights..."

OK.. so tell us about the lush red and blue flares.. please?

[Dahopafilms]

This was the short I showed to my wife.

Her response was "Oh, wow".

She then whacked me over the head with a spatula and demanded to know why I wasn't making films like this.

I loved your short. Even though it made my head hurt.

Thank you.

[EJ Pennypacker]

A very nice production all round.

EJ

[mrpunch]

Macgregor - you mentioned "Thin Mode" - did you shoot this using Squeeze Mode for widescreen? Any issues with the G35 if that's the case?

[mrpunch]

OK - before I'm corrected - thin mode refers to the Detail setting - Oops

So, did you shoot in a widescreen mode?

[KOVAROVA]

how did you keep the whites from blowing out in the room?

no matte box/filteration?

[macgregor]

Ok guys. Jarred fixed the problem, so the wmv that is online is fixed and looks a lot better. I would recommend to download it instead of watching the old one.

[Yas Kassana]

Great work!

Remined me alot of Solaris (New Version)...probably because of the female VO with an accent...also the gradient. Loved that you took me away from the typical DVX out of the box look and went for a very stylized film look.

Also I felt you patience in the storytelling reminded me of a Tarkovsky film.

Well done.

Glad you liked it. Yes, the voiceover was done by Sarah Jarman, an actress I know who has a great voice, i thought she suited Hebes' character after reading the script from Mac. It was like done a day before with so much pressure, on top of that I only had the recording studio for an hour. So, macgregor had to rely on me in London, whilst he is in Spain to get it right! So, due to my genius way and charm and big penis, we got it right. We tried many variations slower and faster and then we did the VO..haha..no seriously, there was one instance where the sound engineers became so enamoured by it that they had tears in their eyes. No joke. So, it was a great pleasure to work on this project with the kilt wearing spaniard. I am now off to beat some midgets.

[KOVAROVA]

YAS your work on this was top notch. really. congradulations.

what did your 'big' penis have to do with it?

[spidey]

lol lol big penis.

[macgregor]

I didn´t know 2,5 inches meant BIG...

[KOVAROVA]

ya those Brits are allways bragging about their 2.5s

;)

[Yas Kassana]

It was very cold that day.

[xl70e3]

lol lol big penis.

no, no, no don't cut off the quote there, include this:


We tried many variations slower and faster and then we did the VO

ROFL

Great job with the VO, Yas.

And, of course, great job, McGregor. Loved the movie, one of the Top 3 for me and the best one visually. A bit slow for my liking (and I don't like either Solaris adaptations), but beatiful and moving nonetheless. Totally looked like The Island which, no matter what everyone says about Bay, is great, because that was one of the most visually impressive pictures of the late.

[gumonstro]

Macgregor, tell us about the flares and about that shot with the Plasma TV on it. It has some blue rays coming from the window, which gives the actors -- more than in other scenes -- a bluish skin tone. I noticed the other windows have blue light coming from them, a strange light. Is it god´s light or plug-in light?

I loved the screenplay and the fact that the film is slow. The best robot movie IMO is half action/half slow: Blade Runner. Code 46, which is a FANTASTIC sci-fi movie doesn´t have big explosions. (Don´t get me wrong, I like Michael Bay).

The lines are very good too. I can remember a very simple and sweet one: "In the end, you are not him. You... are new...". Great acting at this moment, because she stops a little. You can understand it´s bizarre to replace the man she loves, yet she did it, though the reasons are not so clear. I may seem simple to achieve, but is not. The screenwriter prefered to make her confused than to put a philosophical explanation coming from her mouth.

Two curious things:
1- I noticed the robot never closes his eyes, never sleeps. It´s a clue you guys, I think, wanted to leave in the middle of the story. There´s a scene of her sleeping on his chest. He´s looking strange, as he´s a robot on stand-by mode
2- I noticed accidentaly that the guy kissing the girl is not the same actor that plays the robot. Am I right?

[macgregor]

Gumonstro, you are absolutely right in everthing!

At last someone understands the plot and the confusing minds of girls, at last someone see the flares(lol), you cought our stunt double too, and the fact that the SIMILO is in stand by mode in bed without closing his eyes.

[hemophilia]

macgreggy--

Jaw dropping photography.

Would you mind putting up a couple stills pre/post color-correction? I'm just curious as to the comparison of in camera vs. CC... and what the raw highlights from those blown-own scenes looked like prior to your aforementioned tweaking.

Kick-ass.

[macgregor]

macgreggy--

Jaw dropping photography.

Would you mind putting up a couple stills pre/post color-correction? I'm just curious as to the comparison of in camera vs. CC... and what the raw highlights from those blown-own scenes looked like prior to your aforementioned tweaking.

Kick-ass.


Hahaha, I do mind. Dont ask the photographer to show his negative contacts. :]

[Norm Sanders]

..... huh? .....

[Matthew Bennett]

I just wanted to chime in...

Nice job MacGregor ... I saw the raw footage, a rough cut, and the finished piece. I've seen all the progressions ... and really enjoyed watching it every time.

Definitely the best photography in the lot, great setting, really good voice work (and processing), all around so good. Oh, the edit too, great timing.

If I could change one thing, I would make the death of the robot more grotesque .. think 'aliens' when the milky blood substance is spitting out of the android's mouth. Something like that would have made it perfect for me, more sad.

It seems like it will just keep going, like it will segue into a really good, emotional movie about the future.

It's all about "Loving the tin man"

Loved it.

[macgregor]

If I could change one thing, I would make the death of the robot more grotesque .. think 'aliens' when the milky blood substance is spitting out of the android's mouth. Something like that would have made it perfect for me, more sad.

It seems like it will just keep going, like it will segue into a really good, emotional movie about the future.

It's all about "Loving the tin man"

Loved it.


The 25 minute version has as impressive slow motion truck accident secuence that makes the titanium inner body came out the skin breaking the similo in 10,000 pieces that collapse on the road.

[macgregor]

We took this feedback form, in case you are bored at home and can help us to improve results next time.


CHARACTERS
1. are the emotions drawn out correctly? Is there enough emotional impact?
Can you see him as a SIMILO?
Are the emotions well seen?
Is their relationship believeable?
Could she be another similo? (watch her closing her eyes at the end... a robot owning a robot?)

STORY
What is the most remarkable moment?
Is it easy to understand the story?
is it boring at some point or does the pace slow down?
Is the plot interesting?
What part would you remove?
What part would you add (dont ask for explicit sex scenes here...)?

MUSIC
Does it play well with the film?
Is it in the same mood?
Do you miss something?

PRODUCTION
how would you rate the recreation of the future?
Do you think the sets/environments are well picked?
Do you think the production element. i,e. set, clothing, design, hairstyle (padawan style, lol) are suited to the time and place?
What do you think of the VFX?

PHOTOGRAPHY
...

[zacharias]

Gumonstro says: "The lines are very good too. I can remember a very simple and sweet one: "In the end, you are not him. You... are new...".

Hello, I am the codirector.

(Sorry if my english is not as well).

I’m very pleased Gumonstro.

You've talked about other great films wich has been in our minds during we were making this short film. But now the reason why I write this is because you've talked about the screenplay. It has been dificult to condense a feeling of melancholic, a feeling of something that you miss it.

You’ve adviced several things. I like so much that you came into details, speaking about sentences and other things that, of course, we thougth about that.

Thanks.

[D_and_G]

Well, after 50 something posts this'll probably sound repetitive but...

Wonderful film !

It was both aesthetically pleasing and engaging. I'm sure you will get great marks across the board.

Particular standouts, for me, was the score (a Sigur Ros type inspiring) and the voice over - so much of this piece is conveyed with that lovely voice...the inflections, the clear emotion...it was lovely. And obviously the cinematography was pitch perfect.

The only minor things I can think of to critique are -
- the play fighting in the bedroom was a wee bit cliche'.
- the final look that Similo gives her doesn't have that emotional hook. It was good, but not great. I've watched the film 3 times, and I just can't explain why it wasn't forceful. Did the actor need to be better looking ? Make a subtle smile ? I don't know. However, it is a very minor quibble.
- I felt the story needed another element to spice it up... maybe it's in the short film ?

I'm sure you guys should feel very very proud of having this on your reel. I know I would be ecstatic to have such a near perfect work on mine, especially considering the limitations (not super35mm :) )

Please, also convey to your lead actress, how fantastic I thought she was. Acting without the crutch of dialogue is one of the hardest things to accomplish, and she did so with aplomb. She seemed to have the charm of Jean Seborg, while making her contemplative scenes dramatically believable.

This film will definitely go in the "keep" file. Thoroughly enjoyable. And the next time someone talks smack about so called "pro-sumer cameras", we can say "BS, did you see Similo "?:beer:




PS - I would take out the - Antarctica. Summer -, graphics. I don't think it really contributed anything, and actually reduced the "reveal" on Similo in the road. I feel it would be stronger to let the visuals carry the environs of the fututre, with the definitive result being the road shot. Especially, for other festivals, the sci-fi element is better alluded to until the road, IMO.

Double Cheers.

[EditPhish]

Mac,

Okay, so we're up to so many replies that another glowing praise probably doesn't matter all that much, but I'm going to share my notes with you anyway :)

Your film was just amazing all around -- it was beautifully shot, wonderfully edited, the sound crisp and professional, and the music was amazing -- as if another character in the story.

Love the opening shot where she runs into focus. Also love the shot where she's standing on the road, looking at the aftermath of the accident.

The story was very touching, and the love-making scene beautiful... I really liked how you tied that in with the flashback... with her kissing his broken body on the road... how it all played off the tragedy and brought you into her memories.

You had me wrapped up in her character... the story drew me in.

My only criticism is your use of phrasing / pronouns. She starts off talking to HIM, then switches to talking to us... then she's goes back and forth after the halfway mark, and then she's talking to him again. I think she needs to stay in one place -- either talking to him, or talking to us, throughout the film... and personally, I think it should be talking to him.

I love how she transitions from thought to outloud words right at the end. Wonderful.

You're at the top of the list, clearly Mac. Thanks so much for sharing your film... I know JTyner and I can aspire to create such beauty one day.

[Jimmy John Worley]

I really liked your film. It reminded me of Solaris and Code 46. Great Scifi. And really well shot.

[angrynerdrock07]

I'm not going to say too much because I feel like so much has already been said. This is an absolutely gorgeous film. Mac, you make me (and I think all of us collectively) want to strive to be a better filmmaker. Keep posting and I'll keep watching.

[zacharias]

The only minor things I can think of to critique are -
- the play fighting in the bedroom was a wee bit cliche'.



Of course! We kept that in mind. But sometimes, when you have few shots and less time to make the audience undertand something, you need this type of shots that all people know.
We used the "cliché" as a tool to express something easy, something quickly, in few seconds. Anyway I suppose that there will be better ways of doing it.

Thanks a lot for your comentaries.

Note: sorry if my english is not as well

[zacharias]

My only criticism is your use of phrasing / pronouns. She starts off talking to HIM, then switches to talking to us... then she's goes back and forth after the halfway mark, and then she's talking to him again. I think she needs to stay in one place -- either talking to him, or talking to us, throughout the film... and personally, I think it should be talking to him.

True! You've made a good remark! We had a misunderstanding with the translation of the screenplay from spanish to english. In spanish version we kept the right logic of pronouns that you coment. Probably, the wrong use of pronouns might confuse more of one guy.

I'm glad that you like SIMILO.

BZ

[Yas Kassana]

Yeah, blame me for that...actually no don't. I think it worked. I fart in your general direction.

[darkfader]

You had a lot of resources for this and it shows.

Darkfader

[pabloabad]

My favourite, no doubt.
The look for perfection makes movies like that.
Well, if you ever need someone in Madrid to help you in any production, count on me, I'd be happy to learn from you, guys.
Pablo

[macgregor]

Well, if you ever need someone in Madrid to help you in any production, count on me, I'd be happy to learn from you, guys.
Pablo

Ok, if you use msn, add me to talk.

[abraham]

hey macgregor -- everyone's telling you this: it's a beautiful looking film. You can't argue with that. I really really was astounded by that attachment -- and there's nothing like magic hour, and then to contrast it: a white room with a beautiful girl with no clothes on.

Someone mentioned the lack of originality: I think that's because about a quarter of these films are about falling in love with and/or banging robots...what that says, I ain't too sure. But there's no doubt that yours take the cake as far as robot sex goes!

My only qualm is what so many people have been loving, which is the voiceover. Sure the girl has a pretty voice. But just about ALL of these films are relying on this to do anything. I would've loved to see your characters interact a bit more, and then I would've been more attached. I was ALMOST there because she has such a stunning face there at magic hour -- but you didn't put me over the edge. It went to the devastation a bit too fast.

I'm also with ProfD (i think it was?) about the antartica thing.

Amazing looking movie man. I want more!

--evan

[macgregor]

Well, she talks in the end. Do you want more? ;]

[conrad_johnson]

The only thing that I have a problem with is similo dosen't seem to be written for a 6 minute short film. It kinda looks like a trailer for some other movie. But of course just like all the other geeks on this website, im impressed with pretty pictures. So Good job man.

[JimtheJib]

i really liked the style mac. nice job technically. however story wise and shot wise i felt as is i had seen it before. im not trying to be rude but the it felt cliche inthose areas.

[zacharias]

i really liked the style mac. nice job technically. however story wise and shot wise i felt as is i had seen it before. im not trying to be rude but the it felt cliche inthose areas.

Could you tell us what films have you seen the same story before?

[JimtheJib]

i didn;t mean to bash his film. i thought it was great. i didn't mean specific films but here are the films it reminded me of:
simone
solaris.
there are more which aren't coming to mind...

the sex scene's shots are similar to many films. the always seem to be those types of shots.

[KOVAROVA]

CLICHE CLICHE CLICHE! you guys suck! ;)

no seriously, im surprised to hear this comment about your film and would like to know why some thought so.

personally i like the antartica. future. graphic. it placed me in our world, in the future where most of the ice has melted.

please comment on the red an blue flares and the reasons why you used them?

and a congradulations to you Zacharias as well. welcome to the dvxuser forum. i think many of us here will be inspired by this film.

[JimtheJib]

i thought we were supposed to give our honest opinions...

[Blaine]

personally i like the antartica. future. graphic. it placed me in our world, in the future where most of the ice has melted.
I agree that I got the same feeling that in the future the ice had melted. After watching this for the umpteenth time, I still love the way this is paced and the fact that you allow it to unfold before our eyes without rushing it. The ONLY thing I can find to nitpick is the amount of daylight in Antartica. Summer. The Future. it looked too much like a night shot when it should be light at that time of year shouldn't it? Doesn't really matter to me, though, if that is the ONLY thing I can even come close to a negative comment about. And I don't really feel THAT rates a negative.

[KOVAROVA]

i thought we were supposed to give our honest opinions...

hopefully there are only honest opinions about all the films.

to say a film is cliche is a pretty tough crtique. it would be nice if you had elaborated on it more in your first post so we readers could know where you are coming from.

[macgregor]

i thought we were supposed to give our honest opinions...

Absolutely.
I think the only thing in common with Solaris is the nice framing, the rithm, superb photography and love scene in the future. The plot is completely different.
Soderberg´s film is one of my favorites BTW.

I dont find the Simone similarities, here, since Simone is a comedy about a virtual character...

Code46 would be a real inspiration, and that film is closer than any other.
Terminator2 has a lot of things in common to, except that is action and this is drama.
Bicenntenial Man...

For sure at this point in history it is difficult to make new things.


The "Antarctica, summer, future" graphic was designed to add some background to the story. I could talk 20 minutes about this future i have in mind. The ice caps do not longer have ice during summer, and people have come to this areas since the old big cities were abandoned due to the desertization of the planet (as it is happening now).

During the last days of summer in the Antarctic, still the sun does not go completely under the horizon (you know they have 24 hours sun) but creates this dusk light for ours. That is the reason why the landscape is dark but it is not night, and the reason to shot at magic hour, because there, Magic hour can last "much more than 1 hour".

[JimtheJib]

alright. as i mentioned before i didn't think the whole film was cliche just some aspects.
the shots in scene where the two main characters were having sex and the ones leading up to that seemed to be used frequently.
some of the shots or scenes could have been shot differently to show their emotions.
another aspect which i would like to comment on was the car scene. it always seems to be used when a character is thinking or reflecting upon some problems.
i'm not sure what an alternatvie could be but ive just seen those ones before.


but great job. you pulled it off very effectively

[zacharias]

i thought we were supposed to give our honest opinions...

no, no, no IT'S RIGHT!! the honest opinions are welcome!

Really, is a praise when you compare us with other great films.

Like I said in response to Gumonstro, there are great films that has been in our minds during we were making this short film.

Thanks

note: sorry by my english

[Kaz]

For sure at this point in history it is difficult to make new things.

I feel for you, macgregor. If I hear one more reference to War of the Worlds, I'm gonna scream!

Anyway, the reason I came here...

I noticed you said you used Vegas sharpening. Can I conclude that you used Vegas for CC as well? And could you grant me the small favor of posting a raw still so I can see how far you had to go to acheive your look?

Thanks, and good luck (though I don't think you'll need it)!

[macgregor]

Kaz, did I tell you that your film reminds me a lot the War of the Worlds? ;]

No, the good thing about yours is this: I get no feelings from Spielberg´s film. All you see is people running. But in 6 minutes you gave much more ideas, the idea of freedom and fighting for it (aliens vs human), the lost love of the wife, the lost of you own son... man you have a lot more feelings there than Mr. Spielberg in 2 hours.

I will post you something better than a raw grab:

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/vegas.jpg

[zacharias]

the shots in scene where the two main characters were having sex and the ones leading up to that seemed to be used frequently.



We have another shots of they having sex... hard sex... but finally we decided not to include it...

[KOVAROVA]

We have another shots of they having sex... hard sex... but finally we decided not to include it...

you should cut another version right away!

[Kaz]

I will post you something better than a raw grab:

Thank you! That's all I needed to see.
Color curves is a plugin I use far too rarely.

[macgregor]

We have another shots of they having sex... hard sex... but finally we decided not to include it...


If the sex scene looks cliche is because one reason:
People usually makes love in the same way. hahaha.

But i dont think it was filmed in the same way as standard films. Watcht the last shot as an example, the camera is there with them, moving, out of focus, like it is part of the action. Or the first kiss. I dont remember watching any hollywood movie that starts in that same way.

BTW, the original scene was twice that long but we had to cut a lot for you, american audiences that cannot see naked people around... ;]

[macgregor]

Thank you! That's all I needed to see.
Color curves is a plugin I use far too rarely.

What do you use then?

[KOVAROVA]

If the sex scene looks cliche is because one reason:
People usually makes love in the same way.
hahaha.

damn now every time im doing it im going to have to try someting new or i will hear mac in my ear wisperinig cliche, cliche,cliche... ;)


BTW, the original scene was twice that long but we had to cut a lot for you, american audiences that cannot see naked people around... ;]

hahahah.. you naked Euros love to swing it in the wind dont you> :)

[Kaz]

What do you use then?

Everything you have in that screen shot, plus maybe a touch of "color balance". Color curves for whatever reason, I seem to forget about. You let me know how valuable it can be and I plan on CC'ing my film again to see what happens.

Thanks again.

[Matthew Bennett]

The 25 minute version has as impressive slow motion truck accident secuence that makes the titanium inner body came out the skin breaking the similo in 10,000 pieces that collapse on the road.

25 minutes! - That's twenty -five minutes of joy!

Can't wait to see it. You're probably going to win, by the way. What are you going to do with the camera??

[D_and_G]

Just to elaborate on my one comment about the play fighting being a wee bit cliche - I felt I've seen that device in a lot of other movies (to highlight their relationship). Did it bother me ? Not one bit. Was it effective and useful as a transition ? Absolutley.

I was merely pointing out that a different scene may have served the same purpose. I know it's darn near impossible to come up with something completely new. An example that struck me as very well done was in "The Celebration" (if I'm remembering correctly) they show a scene of the guys dead wife blowing out her birthday candles. They expressed so much in that scene, and yet it is not a common one to see. Obviously, that wouldn't have worked in your scene, but it was just something to think about.

Other than that, I didn't think your film was cliche' at all (including the lovely sex scene :) ). There are certain tropes involved in these kind of sci-fi things, so your bound to tread some of the same ground.

BTW, let me give you props on the narration. It is reminiscent of a Wong Kar Wai film. The words seem so simple, but you make good use of subtext with them...Very poetic.

Also, the reason I think the Antarctica line is unnecessary is because I feel it would be more effective to let the viewer slowly come to the realization that this is in the future, on his/her own. It adds another element to "when" they know for sure, when they see the android in the road. However, that is a subjective judgement call. It's something to ponder though, if you are going out to other festivals, which I hope you do.
Brilliant stuff, regardless. :beer:

Cheers.

PS - How do i get in touch with the composers for your score ? Did you purchase some songs from them (maybe record label) or have it scored to your film ? I would be interested in putting them in my Rolodex.

[Matthew B. Moore]

A wonderful blend of all of the things that make a movie work. I really like your choice of shots. The edit was well paced and the music worked well. Kick ass stuff! I want to see the 25 min. version.

[macgregor]

D&G, I asked for music to 4 composers until i got more or less what i wanted, so what you hear was originally done for the shortfilm.

I liked Sigur Ros, Free Association, Cliff Martinez.

This song didn´t make the final cut:
http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/secede.intheroom.mp3

This is the saddest song i had ever listened:
http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/kettel.pianootjesinjuni.mp3

This is the sex scene track:
http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/SIMILO.pianoleeg.mp3

And the ending song:
http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/SIMILO.starlightweepingguitar.mp3


This guys have their record label, and can be find here: www.kettel.nl

[macgregor]

I want to see the 25 min. version.

We just need the €95,000 that we are missing right now...

[D_and_G]

Muchos Gracias !! :)

Looks like we have similar tastes in music. And did anyone ever tell you, your avatar (I'm assuming it's you) kinda looks like Craig Ferguson ? (the t.v talk show host). It was driving me nuts, until I recognized the similarity :)


As to your funding for the 25 minutes short ? I think you've got a great investor calling card there ... :beer:


Cheers.

[macgregor]

As to your funding for the 25 minutes short ? I think you've got a great investor calling card there ... :beer:




hehehe. My english is not that good, man. Could you translate to simple english for me, please?

[D_and_G]

Calling card = something to show a person or production company so they know what you are capable of, and then they can decide whether to invest (give you $) or not.

When the people with $ see that you can create such a high quality project, with the limited resources you have, they feel more comfortable about giving you money.

I don't know what it is like in Spain, but is there any government funding or grants ? What about people looking for tax reductions ?

Maybe you should move to Canada ? Your films blow away almost all of the crap our government funds here :)

And your English is really great. Just try to talk to me in Spanish :wink: (kidding)

Cheers.

[greg121]

Beautiful.

[BrianV]

Hey macgregor...

Just curious (sorry if this has been dealt with... there are 14 pages of stuff to go through), but are you yourself a fan of THX-1138? (the film, not the DVXUSER.com member... unless both answers are the same ;) )

I know many aren't. Some are, though.

[macgregor]

Hey macgregor...

Just curious (sorry if this has been dealt with... there are 14 pages of stuff to go through), but are you yourself a fan of THX-1138? (the film, not the DVXUSER.com member... unless both answers are the same ;) )

I know many aren't. Some are, though.


Blade Runner
THX1138

Those are my 2 favorite moves ever.

[macgregor]

When the people with $ see that you can create such a high quality project, with the limited resources you have, they feel more comfortable about giving you money.

I don't know what it is like in Spain, but is there any government funding or grants ? What about people looking for tax reductions ?


That is what we are trying to do.

But even people with $ dont give away their money for a shortfilm.
And government aids are usually given to:
- films with social and boring stories
- cheaper ideas
- people with contacts

So we are alone in a world full of people.

[BrianV]

Blade Runner
THX1138

Those are my 2 favorite moves ever.

Sweet! *high five*

[zacharias]

And did anyone ever tell you, your avatar (I'm assuming it's you) kinda looks like Craig Ferguson ? (the t.v talk show host). It was driving me nuts, until I recognized the similarity :)


To be quite honest, in that picture macgregor looks like a NERD...

[macgregor]

The guy in my avatar is a nerd, but it is not me, fortunately!

[Norm Sanders]

That is what we are trying to do.

But even people with $ dont give away their money for a shortfilm.
And government aids are usually given to:
- films with social and boring stories
- cheaper ideas
- people with contacts

So we are alone in a world full of people.

Throw together an LLC, or the equivalent in Spain, put together a PPM (private placement memorandum) and decide how small of shares you'll offer in exchange for X number of dollars. In otherwords, a bunch of people with smaller amounts of funds can put together enough capital to do what you need.

I have no idea how much money you spent on our short, but ours cost about $350 hard costs out of pocket, $250 of which was food to feed everyone VERY well for the 2 1/2 days we shot over the weekend. I'm assuming you kept your cost low as well, since you've said you returned product/props after using them.

With deferred contracts (people will be willing, I'm sure, to work on that caliber of production with deferred pay), and following the same low budget indie way of doing things that you did on this, there's no reason you can't make a full length feature for an insanely low price.

All that, in conjunction with a solid business plan/proposal on how you hope to make money back on it, over what period of time, what markets/venues for sale, etc. (all covered in a solid PPM) should help you to establish your goal in raising funds AND seeing a profit.

[macgregor]

Throw together an LLC, or the equivalent in Spain, put together a PPM (private placement memorandum) and decide how small of shares you'll offer in exchange for X number of dollars. In otherwords, a bunch of people with smaller amounts of funds can put together enough capital to do what you need.

I have no idea how much money you spent on our short, but ours cost about $350 hard costs out of pocket, $250 of which was food to feed everyone VERY well for the 2 1/2 days we shot over the weekend. I'm assuming you kept your cost low as well, since you've said you returned product/props after using them.

With deferred contracts (people will be willing, I'm sure, to work on that caliber of production with deferred pay), and following the same low budget indie way of doing things that you did on this, there's no reason you can't make a full length feature for an insanely low price.

All that, in conjunction with a solid business plan/proposal on how you hope to make money back on it, over what period of time, what markets/venues for sale, etc. (all covered in a solid PPM) should help you to establish your goal in raising funds AND seeing a profit.


Yes, yes. You are completely right if we wanted to make a 2 hour film shot in DV and deliver it in DVD. SIMILO was quite cheap because we need no equipment.

But I want to make a shortfilm, not a film. I want to be able to distribute it in international film festivals (so a copy in 35mm is necessary). And since i want to go to the big screen i want to shot super35mm.

We could shoot a 25min shortfilm for around €30,000.

But add some heavy SFX.
Add a real running futuristic car that needs to be there (25-30k more).
Add a trip for 10 people to shooting locations.

And we are on €90k.

And a €90K shortfilm will hardly make that money back in festivals or TV channels, so i don´t know how we can find any producer (or producers) that could be interested in the project.

It will definately be a very very good product. But we are not able to sell it right now.

We spent 2 months writing a 80 pages dossier with detailed info about the production, a complete budget, a wonderfull script that really worked, we went to locations, we even had props and concept designs by David Loher (we even had designer Sead Mead involved in the project).

And there it is. We dont know how to move it on.

[Norm Sanders]

Well, it sounds like you've already defeated yourself. You know what they say, "If you believe you can't, then you're right".

Forget the rules of what people say. Blaze the trail and FORCE it to happen. I couldn't disagree with you more than you can't shoot this on DV for theatrical release. It DOES happen, if it's good enough (check out PIECES OF APRIL and other films that were shot on Sony, Panasonic, and other DV cameras).

Besides, if shooting in thin mode, I'd imagine that the DVX (or whatever camera you use) should blow up nicely for theatrical/35mm release, if done correctly.

As far as FX go, check out http://www.preyalone.com/

You may still be able to see the entire 15 minute short film at http://www.jonny3d.com/html/__main.htm

One of our own DVXuser members produced this, and it's AMAZING what they were able to do. Sure, they almost killed themselves in the process because of all the work & pain that goes into making it as well as they did for next to nothing, but that's what sweat equity is for ... make something with little to no money.

Buyers are few & far in between that would look at a finished product, be AMAZED at it, and then ask if it was shot on 35mm, find out it wasn't, and pass simply for that reason. The ones who do are the ones that miss out.

Anyway, I'm off topic. If you believe you can't do it without the big dollars, then I believe you as well, because you'll have already given up on doing it without.

[gumonstro]

If the sex scene looks cliche is because one reason:
People usually makes love in the same way. hahaha.

LOL! You should think about doing a comedy show for DV aficionados. The other answers were very funny too. A stand-up comedy show, doing jokes about HDV artifacts and the lack of robot fluid spilling from the robot´s mouth when he was dying.

[gumonstro]

Hello, I am the codirector.

I’m very pleased Gumonstro.

Thanks.

You´re welcome!

This film is surely an inspiration for us because you guys proved that some time spent on writing a good story, thinking carefully about your shots and ALL sort of film production issues CAN make you achieve a real professional look.

[zacharias]

You´re welcome!


MUITO OBRIGADO

[gumonstro]

de nada! hehehehe

[Pesie]

Hi MacGregor,

Your movie really touched me, great work in all respects!

Any chance you're creating a full packaged special edition dvd? I will buy it immediately, not only to support your efforts but also to learn from it (as I am also a DVX100 PAL user, shooting 'different' movies).

All the best,

[kyledroid]

Great stuff Mac! I know there were a few more people than Mac who contributed to this film, so I congratulate them as well. Also, it's great to see what a 35mm adapter like the g35 can do! I know that there was some controversy surrounding the "promotion" of the film on other boards, and Im glad to see this film is still up and running in the contest.

[lookatmeimbender]

I liked this movie. near perfection.

The one thing I wish I could have is seeing what happend to him. I think if I saw what happen to him this movie would be perfect. But since that im like, "Aw I want to see how it happen or what might have happened."

Great job though. in the top three for me.

[Norm Sanders]

I know that there was some controversy surrounding the "promotion" of the film on other boards, and Im glad to see this film is still up and running in the contest.

Interestingly, the main thread you're speaking of on the other forum has now been completely deleted.

[John C Lyons]

Beautiful.

I had no trouble understanding the compressed storyline. Worked well for me. 'Antarctica. summer. future." titles did a lot with very little. good costuming. VO work was top notch, good actor choice. gorgeous short film.

negatives: I think the sex scene felt slightly gratuitous and the music rang extremely familiar to me.

congrats to you and your team!

[delaro]

similo is just fantastic! macgregor you've got liquid cinematography in your veins .....
so, what is the scene without the g35? :)
how did you make those red and blue flares?
it's so refreshing to see you backstage on the stills with just a dvx100, handheld. people are always posting backstage stills with tons of cables plugged into the cam (i sometimes think they are adding some fake ones) , monitors, mics, lights, matte, dolly, kind of "look how big is my tool"...... and most of the time it's not half as good as your work

[EJ Pennypacker]

"The car scene. We wanted to shoot this at dusk. They are in the Antartic, so dusks take a lot of time there. Also the landscape needed that dark atmosphere. They are in a new Merc SLK. And it was shooting on the director´s garage."

I was going to ask how this effect was done. The "in car" scene. Any chance of some production stills of this? Those car interiors looked very lush.

EJ

[kyledroid]

Interestingly, the main thread you're speaking of on the other forum has now been completely deleted.

Yea, that is interesting. I guess Jarred Land gave Mac another chance on the condition of that thread being deleted; however, that is only speculation on my part. Im not saying there is favoritism on Jarred's part, BTW; I'm just saying that Jarred is a nice guy for letting it slide. BTW, I wonder who the "sweat guy" was? Pm me if someone knows, lol?

[Norm Sanders]

Don't think it matters who that guy was ... least not now. No offense, Kyle, but I can't imagine your speculation being right.

K, 'nough of that. Back to the topic of this being a beautiful film, which it is.

[kyledroid]

Don't think it matters who that guy was ... least not now. No offense, Kyle, but I can't imagine your speculation being right.

K, 'nough of that. Back to the topic of this being a beautiful film, which it is.

No offense taken. You're right...let the past be the past. Great film. Kinda pretentious , but that's what makes it charming. The slow motion/ movement-of-the-characters made the film seem much longer than its running time. The voice over/ internal monologue seemed top notch as well. the visuals were amazing. There is no doubt, in my mind, what 35mm adapters bring to the table.

[macgregor]

I was going to ask how this effect was done. The "in car" scene. Any chance of some production stills of this? Those car interiors looked very lush.

EJ


I´m afraid we have no pictures. I wish we had.

We had no money to rent a camara car. Also the light we wanted was almost imposible to achieve in the real world. So we used a back projection at home.
This is how we did it:
- I shot the landscape backgrounds on location.
- Once we were back at home, I made a 60 seconds loop and color corrected to give that dusk feeling.
- Then we moved to a garage, where we placed the car and put the actors inside.
- I set a very complex light scheme as well as i could but ended pretty well. It was a hard task since digital projector are never bright enough, but the G35 needed a lot of light. Also the sun light on her face could not reflect in the projector screen, otherwise it looses contrast.
- And then we asked the actors to feel like they were driving, and i tried to simulate hand helding on a driving car, so it would feel like the car was actually moving on a road.
- Also for his shots, whe had to turn the car 180º and place the backprojection in mirror mode.

And that is all i think.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/m.jpg
The set.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/ellos.jpg
One of the many missing scenes.

[J.R. Hudson]

A digital projector ? Really? Rear screen .............? Or Front ?

(I knew it was a composite of sorts and think it looks better as oppossed to actually shooting on location)

[macgregor]

The DLP projector was in the same room we were, so i guess that is called front projection. Maybe i am wrong, I dont know.

BYW, how did you get to write 14,000 post? Have you ever considered to be a novelist? :]

[spidey]

i thought it felt projected :-p because it was floaty out side the car.

[EditPhish]

I'm really impressed because you had me completely convinced they were REALLY driving in the car!

[gumonstro]

Macgregor, could you describe better how you shot the scene in that picture (girl on the bed) and how you made the flares?

[macgregor]

Macgregor, could you describe better how you shot the scene in this picture above and how you made the flares?

what picture?

[KOVAROVA]

ya... what about the flares Mac? :)

[gumonstro]

what picture?

All the room sequence.

[macgregor]

Flares like these are created inside the vegas project.
You start with a simple square, you apply some gaussian filter, color correction, and multiply the layer. Hard to explain, easy to do once you know how. You have to track the image also.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/flare01.jpg
I am obssesed with flares this year.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/flare02.jpg
Blue ones from interior.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/flare03.jpg
Red ones for the exterior. In this case the flare allready existed but it was enhanced. The flares helped to lighten up a bit their kiss, otherwise it would be in backlight and we would have seen less.

[macgregor]

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/noflare03.jpg

I usually do not show raw images...

[gumonstro]

About the room, I guess I unterstand now. Being a white room is what provides such a beatiful uniform light. As you said before, you pointed the 2 x 1000w to the ceiling and the white walls and sheets made the rest of the job.

other good example of beautiful flares: http://www.bubble-squeak.com/site03/mo_dealership.html (I think you guys know it, but I´ll remember anyway)

Thanks for the info, macgregor!

[Blaine]

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/noflare03.jpg

I usually do not show raw images...
Wow. That even makes the finished work that much more impressive. You (that's the universal you) go out, shoot a movie and bring it to life in post.http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/images/smilies/beer.gif

[macgregor]

About the room, I guess I unterstand now. Being a white room is what provides such a beatiful uniform light. As you said before, you pointed the 2 x 1000w to the ceiling and the white walls and sheets made the rest of the job.

other good example of beautiful flares: http://www.bubble-squeak.com/site03/mo_dealership.html (I think you guys know it, but I´ll remember anyway)

Thanks for the info, macgregor!



Mmm, not really, if you have a completely white environmente, for some reason, faces end dark always, so you have to tweak the light and create a source light, which was the x2 1000W coming from one of the walls.
My first shortfilm was done in a compeletely white room and ended not as good as i wanted becasue this fact.

Here i leave you some more missing scenes that did not make the final cut. Lots of flares, too.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/mis01.jpg
Quite a futuristic room.

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/mis02.jpg
Sony VAIO product placement, lol.


http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/mis03.jpg
Wonderfull post processed eyes...

[Kaz]

Hey macgregor, if you don't mind me asking...(forgive me if it's been covered)

Do you change your detail settings in the DVX based on the scene your shooting or do you have a default setting you like to keep it on?


And I'd like you to know that, for me, each time I watch this, it inspires in me an urge to go out and try making something equally as beautiful. I think that is Similo's greatest strength and is one of the highest compliments I can give any film.

[D_and_G]

Where did you find that room.?

Very bau-haus. :beer:



Cheers.

[pabloabad]

Kaz, the same happens to me.
Each time I watch SIMILO, I have 3 thoughts:
- I wish I had took care for details in my short
- I have to try and do something like that one of these days
- I have sooo much to learn...

I guess we all have the inner feeling that we are able to achieve a result at least near to SIMILO but... then I watch my footage and I know there's still something that I'm missing. SIMILO looks Pro and mine looks amateur. Maybe next one...

Pablo

[Beat Takeshi]

Yeah i was wondering about the location too. It looks like a real place and I thought who the hell wants to sit in all that white all the time. Looks cool for a few minutes in a short but living in it? HELL NOOOOOO!!!

I think thats cool that you posted the raw and the curves you use.
Thats one of my secrets to getting what im after also and if you guys(DVXusers) noticed...the raw image is shot with low contrast and looks milky but this is key to extracting nice colors out of the raw. I do the same and it gives you more room to work with when using curves and contrast.
Usually starting with a simple S curve in the tangents will do wonders. Just have to make sure not to go overboard or else it starts to look muddy.
One raw I would like to see is in the white room. Im trying to imagine it and then imagine it in post but the skin detail is throwing me.

[mochouinard]

I like the script, before we know that he is a machine, she says those keywords :
did not erase everything
made for me
never failed me
by my side = It took a while to really catch the feeling of that one : "Her pet".

Just ennuf to not know he is a machine, but ennuf to make a reference once we discover.

I loved your work. I can only wish to see the full-res output.

[zacharias]

Yeah i was wondering about the location too. It looks like a real place and I thought who the hell wants to sit in all that white all the time. Looks cool for a few minutes in a short but living in it? HELL NOOOOOO!!!



I going to tell you a secret... I spent one night in that location with my girlfriend... It was a really very bad experience... several reasons:
1. All the room was built with smooth surfaces. No cornes. It was something like a cave.
2. White. All white. Pretty colour for few hours. But at the end you lose the orientation.
1+2= Because all was white and the light was everywhere (no shadows), one couldn’t see where a wall was, a “curve corner” or a low roof. That night I banged my head everywhere. A dark cave where you can’t see anything is so dangerous as a white room like that...
3. The furnitures. The same thing as the room. Smooth and curved furnitures. When you put something over a table, for example, that thing fell to the floor. And it happen too when you sat on a chair...

Note: sorry if my english is not very good.

[zacharias]

I like the script, before we know that he is a machine, she says those keywords :
did not erase everything
made for me
never failed me
by my side = It took a while to really catch the feeling of that one : "Her pet".




Yeah! There are a lot of girls in the world that think her boyfriend is a pet. We always had in mind this...

[macgregor]

Hey macgregor, if you don't mind me asking...(forgive me if it's been covered)

Do you change your detail settings in the DVX based on the scene your shooting or do you have a default setting you like to keep it on?



Definataly, each scene has its own settings. Usually two stored settings in F5 and F6 dial (F6 for progresive and F5 for interlaced).

[macgregor]

Smooth and curved furnitures. When you put something over a table, for example, that thing fell to the floor. And it happen too when you sat on a chair...




I remember placing the nikon lenses when i was swapping them in the G35, and after leaving them on the "table" i watched how it slowly started to slide and fall. Then you go, pick up the lense from the floor, and place it in the "table" again. But it slowly slides down again.

;]

[Mike McNeese]

Mac, just wanted to say 'thanks' for paying attention to the posts here on the forum. The how-to's of your film are very interesting to read, not because every DVX'r is gonna go out and steal your methods, but because it helps to see that it takes thought and vision to produce something like this. I can tell that you had some ideas of how you wanted this to look when finished, and you thought through and executed the steps to make that happen. It's just a little different from the 'guerilla style' of production that so many of us are used to.

[HagerNYC]

Exactly! This is why I hate getting hired to shoot "guerilla style" lol. I hope other indie directors are watching this! :mad: :)

[macgregor]

It's just a little different from the 'guerilla style' of production that so many of us are used to.


Well, i dont know if that is good or bad. I assure you shot without crew or expensive equipment. No matte boxes, no sound, no tripods, almost no nothing. I had never worked this way before, i think it was my first guerilla style work. ;]

[TimothyJinx]

There is nothing new I can add here. All I can say is fantastic job.

[Kaz]

Definataly, each scene has its own settings. Usually two stored settings in F5 and F6 dial (F6 for progresive and F5 for interlaced).

To clarify, I was speaking of only the "detail" and "detail coring" settings.
If you already knew that, then apologies!

[darkfader]

Well, i dont know if that is good or bad. I assure you shot without crew or expensive equipment. No matte boxes, no sound, no tripods, no nothing. I had never worked this way before, i think it was my first guerilla style work. ;]

I thought you used the G35 adaptor? I tried to look one up to buy but it's like $8,000 for the g35. Did you find one used or is that the one you have? I gotta have one of those, it makes your film look beautiful. There not even selling them yet. Are you a beta tester.

Darkfader

[delaro]

I thought you used the G35 adaptor? I tried to look one up to buy but it's like $8,000 for the g35 mine. Did you find one used or is that the one you have? I gotta have one of those, it makes your film look beautiful. There not even selling them yet. Are you a beta tester.

Darkfader

he used the g35, and it's not 8000$ but 1300$ with lens mounts. macgregor is a betatester. the preorders began 3 weeks ago and people who preordered are waiting for the shipping now

[MojoTrancer]

Someone asked about light settings. I will explain better with grabs. As you see, thin detail+Vegas sharpening filter give good results in terms of resolution. Also have in mind we are using a PAL camera. The bad thing is that at PAL DVD, there is more noise in dark areas than i would like to.


I was going back through the thread and that caught my eye. So am i to understand that you have a little bit more resolution to work with because you shot PAL? Can you explain a little bit more?

[THX-1138]

I was going back through the thread and that caught my eye. So am i to understand that you have a little bit more resolution to work with because you shot PAL? Can you explain a little bit more?

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-ntsc-and-pal.htm

That link explaines it all.

[macgregor]

I was going back through the thread and that caught my eye. So am i to understand that you have a little bit more resolution to work with because you shot PAL? Can you explain a little bit more?


PAL is 720x576 pixels.

[thartley]

Macgregor, you have left me breathless.

And I thank you...

[shableep]

my god. i love the mood. i love the colors and the lighting. the story is good. but what caught me the most is how warm the film felt and the emotion. i could watch movies like this all day.

oh and by the way... i thought the music was perfect. it had the same tone as everything else in the movie. it's pacing was right with the movie.

[johannes@eppmaria.ee]

Hi Macgregor, this was the most inspiring movie i've seen for years!!! Just amazing!
Anyway, now to my point: How much of it was shot interlaced and how much progressive? I reckon it's easier to make slow motion if it's interlaced, and most of Similo is in slight slow motion.

[macgregor]

Hi Macgregor, this was the most inspiring movie i've seen for years!!! Just amazing!
Anyway, now to my point: How much of it was shot interlaced and how much progressive? I reckon it's easier to make slow motion if it's interlaced, and most of Similo is in slight slow motion.


Well, not that much.
I think the only interlaced parts are the fighting scene and a couple shots on the road.
The car, the landscapes, she looking the horizon, the last kiss in the road... all that is progressive.

[zacharias]

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/THE-DIRECTORS-OF-SIMILO(1).jpg

'THE DIRECTORS OF SIMILO'

[sd006]

Awesome!!


CHARACTERS
1. are the emotions drawn out correctly? Is there enough emotional impact?

- when she's on the highway, her face is obscured by the light, I think I'd rather see more of her face there. But that last scene in the car is great.

Can you see him as a SIMILO?

- yes!

Could she be another similo? (watch her closing her eyes at the end... a robot owning a robot?)

- I didn't catch that, but at least the movie leaves it open for interpretation.


STORY
What is the most remarkable moment?

- the robot innards scene on the highway

Is it easy to understand the story?

- yes

is it boring at some point or does the pace slow down?

- never boring. The actress is really watchable. Reminds me of that sci-fi film with Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.

Is the plot interesting?

- yes



MUSIC
Does it play well with the film?

- yes!!


PRODUCTION
how would you rate the recreation of the future?

- the landscape whizzing by, behind the car window. The desolate highway. The bright-white interior room. Great!!


Do you think the sets/environments are well picked?

- yes

Do you think the production element. i,e. set, clothing, design, hairstyle (padawan style, lol) are suited to the time and place?

- loved the clothing choice, the jogging suit and trainers. Hairstyle, great!



PHOTOGRAPHY

- fantastic!

[Rich Lee]

eh...i think this sucks.










j/k...well done!!!!

[Aaron Marshall]

This was excellent. I think out of all movies this had the most emotional resonance. It just didn't feel complete. It felt more like a superb ad than a solid film. What you did was wonderful. To me; it's the best looking with the best set design, and best acting. The music was good, but not as good in comparison to your other elements.

If your film wins, which it probably will, I will not be upset at all. It's so close in my personal taste between this and The Sequence. It's just when I snapped into super analytical mode, I had to go with what I thought was the best film.

I think I still liked "The Sequence" better overall if I were forced to pick a top contender. The value of each of your parts are top notch, but for some reason they fall short, as a package, once they're combined. If I had to pick apart "The Sequence" the parts would not be as good as yours, but it obtains some sort of magic once it's combined that exceeds its parts. That is what film is about.

[zacharias]

Awesome!!


CHARACTERS
- when she's on the highway, her face is obscured by the light, I think I'd rather see more of her face there. But that last scene in the car is great.

- yes!

- I didn't catch that, but at least the movie leaves it open for interpretation.

STORY
- the robot innards scene on the highway

- yes

- never boring. The actress is really watchable. Reminds me of that sci-fi film with Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.

- yes

MUSIC
- yes!!

PRODUCTION
- the landscape whizzing by, behind the car window. The desolate highway. The bright-white interior room. Great!!

- yes

- loved the clothing choice, the jogging suit and trainers. Hairstyle, great!

PHOTOGRAPHY
- fantastic!

Thanks a lot for your time and your comments. They are very useful for us.

[gumonstro]

I agree with you, sd006. It´s not boring at all, it´s a sensorial film.

The only thing I didn´t like a lot was one line, when the girl said: "that´s why I bought you". "Bought you" is so... "direct" that it contrasts to the poetic approach of the script, in my opinion -- though I understand that when the girl says "bought you" is the key moment to make the fact the guy is a SIMILO clear to everyone.

[mrpunch]

OK - there seems to be a lot of analysis going on - so I'll give you my greatest impression - one that is still haunting my thoughts almost a week after seeing this: The theme for me is that our memories are only subjective. When someone is gone from our lives, we might remember every detail about them - but that is only half of the memory. The other half is their memory of us. By placing this theme with one character as a Similo, we are moved to think about what it is that we actually share with another person. Can a Similo, by recording an event, actually 'share' a memory? Are feelings related to sensory memory?

Macgregor, you asked if 'she' could have been a Similo as well? I like thinking that she is definitely not - because it strengthens the theme that I take from this. Of course, if she was, it would make for another interesting set of questions about sensory memory and what makes us feel what we do.

As it stands, me being human and all - this film brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.

The V.O. doesn't bother me as a device. I think it actually strengthens what I get from the film. V.O. means that we are inside her head - just where I think the theme is. In a much longer version - I would want to see their interaction first. I think it is strong to think that he is just another guy as long as we can - because when we find out he's not - that's when I can't stop thinking about what makes for a great memory in our little human brains!

By the way - this film makes for a great memory! Thanks! Great memories are hard to come by!

<< I also haven't seen an answer to what form of widescreen mode you used >>

[zacharias]

The only thing I didn´t like a lot was one line, when the girl said: "that´s why I bought you". "Bought you" is so... "direct" that it contrasts to the poetic approach of the script, in my opinion -- though I understand that when the girl says "bought you" is the key moment to make the fact the guy is a SIMILO clear to everyone.

Of course Gumonstro! You have done a good observation again.

But there is another thing why we used this expresion “That’s why I bought you”.
She was in love with the old SIMILO, wasn't it?
She was living in a bubble of love, saying pretty words like “You will always be there, he is still here, always was, always will be..at my side”.
Too much wonderful to be real...
We wanted to make a high contrast between the love fantasy world in where she lived and the reality... the cruel and material reality. And then, we used that "ugly" sentence: “That’s why I bought you”.
Literally her love was “broken”. Because at the end, she was in love with a wash machine!

We live years with a great consumerism. Today we can buy everything. We spend our lifes buying things to feel us better, to feel us more comfortable.The next step: when we could buy the love. A “clean” love, a “comfortable” love, without pain...

[Kholi]

High holy shnikes...

Nothiing that can be added to this.

I set that opening wideshot to my desktop. I can't believe that came from a DVX and ANY adapter. That was absolutely AWESOME.

That's what I call a short film.

By the way-- You guys need to treat the writer to a huge steak dinner. That was outstanding. I would love to read every draft if you have them.

[somewestfilms]

Absolutely the highest rated film that we judged! BEAUTIFUL!!!! I loved it!

[zacharias]

You guys need to treat the writer to a huge steak dinner. That was outstanding. I would love to read every draft if you have them.


“a huge steak dinner”… or other things… Thanks a lot for your comment!

As you will know, screenplays aren’t written; screenplays are rewritten. And of course, this screenplay has a lot of drafts. We have lived completely obsessed with the details.

By the way, we also have a SIMILO screenplay of 25 minutes. Okay... maybe too large for a shortfilm, but is a challenge. A challenge to keep the anxiety and the drama of a plot well built. And I’m certain of we have achieved it.

[Kholi]

“a huge steak dinner”… or other things… Thanks a lot for your comment!

As you will know, screenplays aren’t written; screenplays are rewritten. And of course, this screenplay has a lot of drafts. We have lived completely obsessed with the details.

By the way, we also have a SIMILO screenplay of 25 minutes. Okay... maybe too large for a shortfilm, but is a challenge. A challenge to keep the anxiety and the drama of a plot well built. And I’m certain of we have achieved it.


That's absolutely correct. They're re-written, and re-written, shredded and re-written some more. I can tell there's a serious writer backing this piece, it's all in her voice.

It's really a challenge to write for such a short scope of time. I have yet to do it, I may not be able to, but I do know that it takes a tremendous effort to pull off a REAL short script; not a twist-and-shock, punchline deal. I'm actually jealous that I haven't been able to do such an outstanding job. Hats off.

If you ever want to humble me, please do send me something to read.

[conrad_johnson]

http://personales.ya.com/elfabrica/THE-DIRECTORS-OF-SIMILO(1).jpg

'THE DIRECTORS OF SIMILO'
WoW! the Bjork robots directed this! That must of cost some dough!

[Jorg3]

I downloaded the zip files with a bunch of movies in each, and (no offense) I was watching them back to back without any wow moment...and suddenly I came across this... Oh man! Thanks a lot for making the statement (with your awsome work) that this can be made by real people and not ultra expensive studios. For that, thanks a lot.

I am more of a musician that I am as a filmmaker, so I came across this feeling: Watching this film is like hearing the demo tape of some guys with nothing but a cheap audio-interface and a so-so microphone that twitch the hair in your arms with their brought up emotions. They always beat up the azz of Mr. I have an Apogee D/A converter, Pristine Preamps, Neve console, 1940's Neumann microphone with working capsule, Korg Oasys, etc.

Thanks a lot, this type of things make me want to get better everyday.

Saludos desde Mexico

Jorge

pd. Kudos to the musicians... Lanzarote esta cerca de Canarias verdad?

[zacharias]

Lanzarote esta cerca de Canarias verdad?

Lanzarote, where was filmed SIMILO, is a Canary Island. A volcanic island. It's amazing, when you are there you feel you are in another world... it hapens too with other Canary Island like Fuerteventura.

By the way, in Mexico you have a great screenplayer, Guillermo Arriaga, haven’t you?

Gracias por tus comentarios. Mexico is a amazing place too!

[delaro]

WoW! the Bjork robots directed this! That must of cost some dough!

maybe the daft punks ......

[J.R. Hudson]

This ranked as a top contender for me but after the initial hype I find myself coming down and realizing it doesn't have a lasting impression. It's not sitting with me like some of the others have and I find as the time for our ballots gets reduced so does my score for this film.

I found it gorgeously photographed. The coloring, the flares, the depth of field all cater towards a wonderful image but with this initial eye-candy I feel the composition's and framing a bit rudimentary.

I found the Score a nice accompaniment but predictable and lacking any real dramatic punch or cues.

The talent are pretty and seem capable enough but without ever saying anything or doing anything other than driving a car or frolicking in the bedroom it's hard to form any opinion of them good or bad; they are just there.

Scenes such as the payoff where the young woman cradles the droid in her arms could have had more impact and climax with zero score and actual acting (Crying or panic and distress) from the young lady, but instead it is executed without any real punch or impact because it is the same monotone narration and same repetitive score and shots over and over. It lacks any decresc/crescendo

The payoff is great; but I found a similar payoff in Hiro's Synthetic Love had more impact and weight due to the emotions that were built up and invested.

I want to say that technically this is a very well done film but from an artistic and creative standpoint it doesn't too much for me; pretty people and pretty imagery wrapped up in a montage set to monotone narration and repetitive music.

At first look, the beauty of the 35mm Adapter and wonderful grading had me swooning but like the best looking girl in the bar, at the end of the night it's the cute brunette with the curious flaws that end's up having my attention.

I gave this an overall: 7.3

and on a Hudson Scale of 3 of 5 Stars

[xl70e3]

At first look, the beauty of the 35mm Adapter and wonderful grading had me swooning but like the best looking girl in the bar, at the end of the night it's the cute brunette with the curious flaws that end's up having my attention.


Man, you sure have patience... I usuallly find myself trying to remember the name of that first one as I wake up by her side in the morning... without ever getting to the "cute brunette" part :(

Oh dang, sorry, forgot you're married :D


However, I agree about Similo. Absolutely gorgeous visually, but that's pretty much it.

[Brandon Rice]

I agree with both Vic and John. Gorgeous film without a lot of substance IMO.

[zacharias]

The other day mi brother told me a story.

He is 25 years old. When he was 21 he deeply fell in love with a girl. His first love.
That was 3 years ago. It is finished now.

Now he tell me he doesn’t think about her, he almost doesn’t remember her. But there isn’t a moment where he doesn’t have the feeling that he is missing something.

Is it posible? Can you miss someone that you don´t remember?

John Hudson, Briceman could you answer this question?

We not. Sincerely, we don’t know the answer. That is why we shot this short film.

We are very pleased that a lot of people can be deeply impressed for this short film.
And they have understood what the short film is really about. beacause this shows that we finally have achieved our target.

[an angry actress]

Hello, I am Magda, the actress of Similo.

You opinion is respectable and has also made me think about it and realize that maybe i am not good enough to work in films.

For the next festival i will leave the stage and i will watch the shortfilms. Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone in order to give the impression that I know about cinema.

Kisses to all from the blonde girl! ;)

[MattC]

LAMO!!!

Sweetie, I loved the film, and especially you. Tell you what, sit with me and I'll buy the popcorn!

Seriously, I was having a conversation about this film off line. I just loved it. But it is definitely a European film, which of course is why I love it. Many Americans may find it less than satisfying.

I think you guys did a fantastic job, it looks great and it told a great story both literally and metaphorically.

Bravo!

[Brandon Rice]

Is it posible? Can you miss someone that you don´t remember?


I don't think anyone ever really forgets someone. I only forget people when I want to, but their memory is always there in my mind.

[Brandon Rice]

Hello, I am Magda, the actress of Similo.

You opinion is respectable and has also made me think about it and realize that maybe i am not good enough to work in films.

For the next festival i will leave the stage and i will watch the shortfilms. Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone in order to give the impression that I know about cinema.

Kisses to all from the blonde girl! ;)

Welcome to the forums. You did a fine job acting, I just found the story a bit shallow. I think you're totally good enough to work in films. Good job!

[MattC]

I don't know Briceman...

I was married when I was very young. It's hard for me to remember her really. I mean I do remember but it doesn't seem real... It's like I'm remembering a movie I saw or a dream I had. I don't FEEL like I was EVER married, but I know that I was. I definitely missed her without realizing it for a long time. Did I miss her? Did I miss our marriage? Did I miss just being married but maybe not her??

All good questions... What does it mean to love? Science is telling us now that it's a chemical reaction in our brains. Is that really all it is? Nature's inducement to get us to reproduce? Or is it something more? Maybe we just need to believe that it's something more to give ourselves hope, to give our lives meaning? Or maybe there is something more....

If love is unrequited, is it still love?

[zacharias]

I don't think anyone ever really forgets someone. I only forget people when I want to, but their memory is always there in my mind.


Ok. What happen when a person have a really bad experience? A traumatic experience?
What happen when this person unconsciously repress some thoughts? He can´t remember it, can he?
Nevertheless , this thoughts are inside of him, very deep.

Probably, it would be too hard for him if this thoughts come back...

Thanks to talk about this theme, Briceman.

[Brandon Rice]

Ok. What happen when a person have a really bad experience? A traumatic experience?
What happen when this person unconsciously repress some thoughts? He can´t remember it, can he?
Nevertheless , this thoughts are inside of him, very deep.

Probably, it would be too hard for him if this thoughts come back...

Thanks to talk about this theme, Briceman.

Repressing thoughts do not constitute forgetting them. I have heard of people who even after having amnesia remembering things and experiences as they live life again. It is hard for these people to deal with these thoughts I am sure. But, they never really have forgotten anything. It's always there, just not at the forefront of their mind.

Why was this question brought forth? I don't mind talking about it, but I don't see its relivance.

[MattC]

Because it's the subtext of the film, no?

[conrad_johnson]

Hello, I am Magda, the actress of Similo.

You opinion is respectable and has also made me think about it and realize that maybe i am not good enough to work in films.

For the next festival i will leave the stage and i will watch the shortfilms. Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone in order to give the impression that I know about cinema.

Kisses to all from the blonde girl! ;)
This is very clever.....

[delaro]

Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone

the guy joined this website in sept 2003, 30 monthes ago, 900 days. 14,900 posts. more than 16 posts per day since 2003. he trained a lot to find those words.

[zacharias]

It is hard for these people to deal with these thoughts I am sure. But, they never really have forgotten anything. It's always there, just not at the forefront of their mind.


I'm agree with you, Briceman.



Why was this question brought forth? I don't mind talking about it, but I don't see its relivance


Maybe for you this question won't have relivance (I start to understand why you don't like this short film), but for the main character girl this is very important: she is asking herself if her boyfriend can remember her... this is her drama.

[TheMacB]

whoa... is she dissing Hudson? i hope not.

[MattC]

LOL! John's a big boy, he can take a poke in the ribs.

[abraham]

I remember reading there was a longer version of this movie? Macgregor, you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong. But man, I would LOVE to see more. And I think that would stifle some of these comments.

And hey, Angry Actress! just because there isn't much interaction doesn't mean you didn't nail what is there. Man, that gaze to the camera you give outside on the road...





(gimmeyourG35)

[Shaun Patrick]

Maybe for you this question won't have relivance (I start to understand why you don't like this short film), but for the main character girl this is very important: she is asking herself if her boyfriend can remember her... this is her drama.

Honestly, I think the plot and point of your film is pretty clear. Where the film fails, in my opinion, is on a visual storytelling level. Yes, the images are beautiful (amongst the best I've seen from a DVX) but they overshadow the emotional resonance of the story. Personally, I find it hard to empathize with characters in a film that looks like a slick NIKE commercial. I just think it's impossible. The images and the story should work in concert with eachother and I find it hard to care for a character when the look of the film is so slick-- I just feel the visuals do little justice to a story you were attempting to ground in realistic emotions.

I also think this thread over the last dozen posts gives an interesting look at the spectrum of constructive criticism on this board. Hudson did a good job of summing up what he liked and did not like about the film by giving concrete examples. The concrete examples are something the filmmakers can respond to--hopefully a civil/productive discussion follows. But Briceman (and I've seen you do this several times on the other films) you gave a one to two sentence response: (paraphrasing) SIMILO is substance over style. Feedback like that fuels arguments and not discussions. It fuels attacks and is not productive.

Part of good constructive criticism is playing devil's advocate. You want to put the filmmaker in a position where they're responding to your critique and in turn defending their decisions. Finally, though, part of giving good constructive criticism is defending your critique. Anyway, just my two cents.

[xl70e3]

No need to overreact, Zach and Magda.

There will always be people who will not like your work as much as the rest. That's just how it is and you either learn to accept critics or forget about doing any sort of work to be viewed by public.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it: visually this film is the best of the fest, the acting is solid and basically all the aspects of the production are top-notch. However, it's just not my cup of tea. Like many said it's very similar in the feel and pacing to Solaris and I happen not to be a fan of that one. That's it, sue me, I'm guilty...

About not getting the theme... Believe me, it strikes maybe even too close to home for me. Since none of my rl friends read visit these forums, I'm not afraid to say this. I've loved once. It was a long while ago, it never really worked out and I've met lots of girls since, but there is hardly a day that I don't think about it. Not so much about that one girl, but about all the feelings, all the good and not so good moments I've gone through, all the stuff that I haven't been able to experience since. No matter how it hurt in the end, it probably made me feel alive more than anything else.
So this is not about not getting the message of your film or not appreciating all the effort put into it. Just a matter of taste and you know how subjective that is.

[D_and_G]

For me, this film is heads and tails above the rest. It definitely holds its power.

The words are simple, but there is a world of meaning behind them. Hiro's film was pretty much "on the nose",
and almost no subtext. I guess it's a matter of styles, in a way.

And even though I'm sure it's some jokester posting as the actress (and funny if it is ), but in the 1% chance it's her - you were fantastic. It takes way more chops to convey all you did without dialogue, then spout cheezy one liners with cutaways. And the narration was not even in the ballpark of monotone. Not even in the same parking lot of the ballpark.

Like I said - Jean Sebourg...'nuff said. BTW - I've watched your film 7 times. It's peachy.

I hope to see a high rez clip. That's what makes DVX user so unique. Same film, two different takes :)


Cheers.

[seejay1031]

The talent are pretty and seem capable enough but without ever saying anything or doing anything other than driving a car or frolicking in the bedroom it's hard to form any opinion of them good or bad; they are just there.

Scenes such as the payoff where the young woman cradles the droid in her arms could have had more impact and climax with zero score and actual acting (Crying or panic and distress) from the young lady,

Of course you are aloud your own opinion, yadda yadda yadda, as am I.

But dude- step back a second and watch the film again. These actors STOMPED 95% of the actors in the other films. True- they didn't speak. That means nothing. Do you think that love scenes are easy for actors? And she most certainly did show deep emotion (crying, although not over the top) in the scene with her injured Similo. The fact that you don't know that, shows that you didn't rewatch the film critically before posting but rather relied on your memory of the film.

From my perspective this film has cemented its place as the top film of the contest and is now facing the inevitable backlash that popularity always brings. People are saying crazy things like the film has "no substance". Whatever.

Bravo to the actors and the film as a whole. And to anyone who thinks the actress can't call out John for his critique of her art, merely because he has the most posts is crazy. He was dead wrong about her performance. If I lived in Spain I would be begging her to be in my next film as I'm sure most of us would.

[Zab]

Congratulations for this amazing number of posts! Hollywood is waiting for you! We will miss you... ja, ja!

[Filmjunkie677]

Of course you are aloud your own opinion, yadda yadda yadda, as am I.

But dude- step back a second and watch the film again. These actors STOMPED 95% of the actors in the other films. True- they didn't speak. That means nothing. Do you think that love scenes are easy for actors? And she most certainly did show deep emotion (crying, although not over the top) in the scene with her injured Similo. The fact that you don't know that, shows that you didn't rewatch the film critically before posting but rather relied on your memory of the film.

From my perspective this film has cemented its place as the top film of the contest and is now facing the inevitable backlash that popularity always brings. People are saying crazy things like the film has "no substance". Whatever.

Bravo to the actors and the film as a whole. And to anyone who thinks the actress can't call out John for his critique of her art, merely because he has the most posts is crazy. He was dead wrong about her performance. If I lived in Spain I would be begging her to be in my next film as I'm sure most of us would.


Take a chill pill, jeeeeez.

John has his opinion and you have yours. No need to get all worked up about it. Relax.
It ain't the end of the world, DUDE.

[macgregor]

Take it easy all of you. ;P

[zacharias]

Feedback like that fuels arguments and not discussions. It fuels attacks and is not productive.
.

Shaun Patrick,

sorry if I don't understand you very well. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I think you said something like that "discussions without reasons fuels attacks and is not productive".

This is why I am agree with you.

I only speak in this threat if I know that my words can stimulate asks and doubts.
But I feel less interesting to me if people want to argue. Because there are less things to talk about.

xl70e3: do understand that if you didnt like Soderberg´s Solaris, you will not like this shortfilm either. Many people didnt like that movie beacuse it was too slow for a sci fi love story. So what.

[gumonstro]

Kisses to all from the blonde girl! ;)

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry macgregor and zacharias, but SHE is the most interesting thing in this thread until now!

Congratulations, GREAT performance! I can imagine how the SIMILO guys were pleased when they chose you and noticed you worked for the thing. To set a beautiful light is hard and require talent, but is possible. To find an actress that fits perfectly for a role in a low budget (if any) film is a matter of being lucky.

And I loved the fact you don´t cry or make tragic expressions along the film. That is so cool. Scarlett Johansson captivated me on the "The Man Who Wasn´t There" not doing these things too.

[J.R. Hudson]

Hello, I am Magda, the actress of Similo.
You opinion is respectable and has also made me think about it and realize that maybe i am not good enough to work in films.

For the next festival i will leave the stage and i will watch the shortfilms. Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone in order to give the impression that I know about cinema.

Kisses to all from the blonde girl!

This is a reply to the actress (Whose IP Address resides with Macgregor)

If you can't take any honest criticism then you are not good enough for film's lady. If you think using words like 'gorgeously and monotone' (I know they must seem big to you) is my way of giving an impression that I know anything about film then you probably aren't cut out for much of anything.

Next time, I can just say 'This film was cool!' (Is that better ?).

The film impressed me enough to stop and really think about what it was I felt and wanted to say about it. I am sorry you cannot take anything other than glowing praise which is typical of most actresses anyway.

Kisses right back at ya. Hey, you're cute. You look nice on camera but I need more than quick cut-aways and montage imagery to get involved.

And unfortunately zacharias, you probably won't talk me into changing my thoughts on the film although it is somewhat enlightening (oops, more than 2 sylables Magda) to hear your goals and approach to the story and subject matter. And that is what is wonderful about art, wouldn't you say ?

ANd thank you Shaun Patrick. That is all I was attempting to do. This film moved me enough to really feel it out. I tried to give you some substance in my critique other than 'OMG ! Rock on !'.

Now what is all this freaking out about post counts and join dates ? Come on. Don't be predictable. None of this is personal until you make it so.

Macgregor has the best take yet "Take it easy everyone". It's not like this is American Idol.

[gumonstro]

And about slow meaning bad... c´mon, everybody knows the answer is: it depends!

Sometimes the slowness of a film can kill it, sometimes it´s the reason that makes it so good. Some months ago I watched an asian movie called "Empty Houses". Almost NOTHING relevant happens -- and it´s sooooo slow -- but for me it was an awesome movie. It´s not a matter of how long the action takes to happen. It´s a matter of rythm. IMO SIMILO has it.

[Shaun Patrick]

Shaun Patrick,

sorry if I don't understand you very well. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But I think you said something like that "discussions without reasons fuels attacks and is not productive".

Basically I mean feedback like, "It was awful" or "Nothing much there" does little to initiate a productive discussion. It puts people on the defensive and usually leads to personal attacks. It just brings down the overall discussion.

[gumonstro]

I agree with macgregor and John: let´s slow down. These discussions are turning SIMILO into DVXUSER´s Brown Bunny. Macgregor, you can print on the DVD cover: "POLEMIC!"

[Shaun Patrick]

These discussions are turning SIMILO into DVXUSER´s Brown Bunny.

say what...

[Matt Sconce]

Hello, I am Magda, the actress of Similo.

You opinion is respectable and has also made me think about it and realize that maybe i am not good enough to work in films.

For the next festival i will leave the stage and i will watch the shortfilms. Then i will comment them and I will use words such as gorgeously and monotone in order to give the impression that I know about cinema.

Kisses to all from the blonde girl! ;)

I thought you were awesome! This was one of my favorite entries and I gave the acting a 10! Keep being in front of the camera! It is definitely where you belong!

[gumonstro]

say what...

Talkin´about the Vincent Gallo film, the polemic around it. Never watched it because they didn´t release on DVD here in Brazil. Lots of people said: "it´s the most boring film ever". That´s when I want to watch it!

[WilderWorks]

There's also an extremely sexually explicit scene in that movie, which it might be even more famous for.

[Shaun Patrick]

Talkin´about the Vincent Gallo film, the polemic around it. Never watched it because they didn´t release on DVD here in Brazil. Lots of people said: "it´s the most boring film ever". That´s when I want to watch it!

I've seen Brown Bunny...I just didn't think it was a very apt analogy considering what it's really famous for...

[Norm Sanders]

Wow, this thread got spicey over the past couple of pages. I'm not tipping my hat in one direction or the other, but I WILL say it was refreshing to see people give honest & specific feedback that states why the film may not have been at the top of their personal list, in stark contrast to others who are salivating & worshiping the very tape it was flimed on.

What's sad, however, is that when someone said anything short of "miraculous!", it seemed like a riot was starting to brew.

Art is VERY subjective. Period. I live in a VERY liberal and artistic area here in the Pacific NW ... there are lots of folks that could look at a 10-speed bicycle wheel nailed to the top of a bar stool with a mound of dog crap wrapped in shipping tape stapped to one of the spokes, and sit there & marvel over what the artist meant by it, and the brilliance of the person to be so creative, pushing the boundaries of acceptance (sticking it to the Man), etc. I, on the other hand, have ZERO desire to look at that kind of art.

Some love action flims, some hate 'em, some love romance films, others don't, etc. That's life.

And Seejay, to tell someone they're wrong about their OPINION, is just rediculous. If John says the sun has already set, when in fact it's noon and a FACT that it's still up ... great, he's wrong. But he, nor anyone else, can be wrong about an opinion about how they FELT about something.

But, please, feel free to let me know I'm wrong about that.

[J.R. Hudson]

Thanks Norm. It is just an opinion. It's not like it's the new Star Wars films.

Yes, please.

Let's step back and relax.

I don't mean anything personal in my critique and surely not in my reply to the angry actress. Magda, I am just giving you a taste of the same smack you ran at me. You had it coming.

If you feel offended that I chocked you up to scenery then I apologize for you feeling this way but my critique was more directed at the execution of the story and not at the actors involved. I am sure with a different approach you would have shone. But we don't know this do we ? (Imagery + Montage)

So pretty please. Can we move forward into a more positive direction than where this has gone ?

I intended to give back to the filmmakers and instead I have an angry actress, a guy from France and Zab from Spain accusing me of having posts counts and using words with more than 2 sylables as being a crime.

[235 Studios]

congrats Mac-
I am very impressed by this film. For me it was a mix when it came time to vote on it. I gave it very high scores in some areas- ie cinematography, and low scores in others- ie screenplay , score.

What I absolutely loved about this piece was the cinematography. Well shot, good use of light, composition was great, I like the color palet chosen. Overall it was well exicuted. This is the kind of visual quality I aspire too. Nice work.

What I did not like was the opening titles- Antartica ... As noted by someone else said it set me up expecting something else, and I did not feel that they added to the story. If they were to be removed from the sequence I do not think that the story would suffer, or lose anything. And if that is the case, then they are not needed.

While the dialogue was good, overall I think that the basic story was unimpressive/not unique. For me, when voting on the screen play originality was a big factor. (I did not vote very high on my own short in this area for the same reason.) And this theme of robot love, and memories was not added to, or shown in a new or unique way. Same story line, ideas as other movies- momento- where they get you to think about reality. (Don't get me wrong I love those movies, I was just looking for originality in the screen play - a new twist to the same old idea, or a new angle on the idea.)

Anyway, that's my thoughts on this film. Great Job Mac! I'm eating up all the tips you are sharing about the camera work- keep them coming, any tips on what you did, the thought process behind why you did it would be great. Keep up the good work. I hope to see the longer version of this short, if / when you have it.

oh, and extra kudo's to you for trying to work with a bigger idea then just robot love- I love how you are "talking" about memory and perception. :beer:

[235 Studios]

there are lots of folks that could look at a 10-speed bicycle wheel nailed to the top of a bar stool with a mound of dog crap wrapped in shipping tape stapped to one of the spokes, and sit there & marvel over what the artist meant by it, and the brilliance of the person to be so creative, pushing the boundaries of acceptance (sticking it to the Man), etc. I, on the other hand, have ZERO desire to look at that kind of art.

Hey, I resent that! Do you know how long I worked on that piece? That work represents my life work!:cheesy: :thumbsup:

[Z B Brox]

Heyo. Well, I have to say, I like many others am swept away by the sheer visual beauty of this flick. Really amazing looking stuff. On every technical level it's great. The actors come off real, and I think the pure imager softened me up enough emotionally that I instantly cared about what was going on. Funny, thing, that, but just how darned pretty those sunsets looked created a mood and tone that drew me in regardless of the characters themselves.

Now, the characters themselves...

I've said before, I'm a wannabe writer, and it tends to be that I put story, characters, dialogue first. In this case, well... The monologue was well done, I certianly have no complaints, and it was well performed. But I don't think it expresses what it's trying to convey as well as it could. I think it's a question that's asked, but not greatly explored.

So, the question for me is, does that relative simplicity hurt the film or not?

At the moment, I don't think it does. I think as an experience, this movie is almost in a class by itself. It's something that just plays over the senses like poetry instead of spinning a Dickensian parable for us to consider.

Of course, I'd argue the very best films probably do both.

But doing one of them really fucking well isn't a bad thing, either.

[Kholi]

LAMO!!!

Sweetie, I loved the film, and especially you. Tell you what, sit with me and I'll buy the popcorn!

Seriously, I was having a conversation about this film off line. I just loved it. But it is definitely a European film, which of course is why I love it. Many Americans may find it less than satisfying.

I think you guys did a fantastic job, it looks great and it told a great story both literally and metaphorically.

Bravo!

I find myself agreeing with MattC a LOT on these boards.

This was an excellent example of proper execution on all fronts. The actors didn't act enough? Whatever, it's a short film. It's not an excuse, it's fact. You can't cram seventy emotions into one short film and expect it to be watched... it doesn't work.

I don't know why anyone else wouldn't like it. The 35mm adapter is just extra topping. Could've been shot without it and still been as good.

I couldn't even watch more than sixty seconds of ninety percent of these films. I won't say which I watched and which ones I totally skipped through, but those I did had one thing in common: Good from the beginning.

Love this, showed it to people at work and they think it's fantastic. I only hope my efforts pay off like this in the future. =(