EDUCATED MOUSE TRAP: WEBCAM VERSION - Hawk Teflon / Chris_Keaton

[Hawk Teflon]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on the responses here. My parents came into town for a week to meet their first granddaughter, and I had no access to a computer. I tried replying some on my phone, but it was hard to remember what I was replying to...

I liked this one, I got the ending, but I can easily see how it could be missed. For a one angle shoot it kept my interest all the way through, and never got boring. That is not an easy feat to overcome, very good job on that. The actor was good, and I liked how the makeup and sound intensified as the film progressed. I don't mind that it wasn't pixellated and choppy as a web cam might be, something like that may draw attention to it and take away from what is going on.

The only nitpicking suggestion I would have would be the look/lighting, even though it looked like a natural webcam setup, if was lit from a floor lamp and a desk lamp to add some natural contrast to the scene it would have made it pop just that more, and still look like a genuine webcam setup.

I agree. If I've learned one thing from this fest, it's that I need to work on my lighting. Oddly enough, I think some scenes from Jenny had better lighting, but this was the short where we actually HAD lights to work with. Thanks!

Neat short, well done for a single location. Your make-up was fantastic, I really liked how he got all banged up. That said, I didn't really buy the fact this guy just found an inter-dimensional portal. While he was jumping around, he didn't seem as excited as I would expect once he figured out what it was. And while I get he was trying to go back to the healing location, I don't believe he would keep going on that thing until it killed him, at least with very human looking wounds. If you gave him some weird crazy paranormal extra-dimensional s*%t, then I'd believe he needed to get back to be cured. Good effects, and nice edits between the webcam shots.

The original script called for vines growing out of him, but I couldn't figure out how to do that without it looking really cheesy and fake. That's when I opted for the sickness. That was something I could do in after effects and have it semi-believable. So that call was mine, and it might have been a bad one. There's no way I could get the plants growing / tracked. Thanks for checking it out!

Another good film! Your effects were excellent as well as the makeup. The actor could have turned it up a notch, but he did a good job all the same. I think a slightly pixelated image with a few frames skipped here and there would put the audience in the postion of really believing that they are watching this live as opposed to watching something pre-recorded that already happened. It might be cool to do a camerashake when he vamps and comes back too. Just thought of that. Anyway, I love what you did with your effects, especially the light on the porthole thing. That was bigtime! Nice job and again congrats for getting two done. Ya' got skillz!

Thanks man. Yeah, I hadn't even thought of frames skipping or anything. That definitely would have helped I think.

I think this might have been my favorite in the fest. You got my vote.

Wow! Thanks a lot! I know the voting is all said and done now, but that means a lot! Thank you!

Well done. I really like this one.

Thank you very much! I appreciate it!

This is one of my favorites as well, great job to the Teflon Don. And solid script Keaton!

Thanks! Ha! The entire time, I was HOPING I was doing Chris' script some justice. I'd never shot anything where the writer wasn't with us during the shoot. A bit daunting!

The footage looks a bit red for me. Maybe it's web cam effect? Anyway, the story is cool. I like it.

No, it's the CCing. I think I cranked it a bit much. I never checked it on any other machine / tv. Thanks for watching it!

I love what you did with this. I read an earlier version of the script and this update and the use of the webcam is a really great angle.
Excellent work.

I appreciate it!

Loved the story here. Pure imagination. We see a fair share of one room stories. This is about as cool as they get. The acting was stellar in some places and nervous in others, but overall was good. The villain didn't seem convincing to me in his performance. My biggest suggestion would be to have shot this through a webcam and to light it more dramatic. I think the dirty video and audio glitches of a webcam would have sold this better. I think the tech could have been either more modern or ancient, it wasn't very convincing. The smoke and jumps worked for me. The make up transformation was a nice touch. A very inventive and imaginative short. Great work.

Thank you! Yeah, I wish we'd worked a little more on the lighting now that I look back. We were trying to fill the room how an average room might be light in a house.

I may need to revisit this with some audio and video lags / glitches.

This was fun. But more than that, a film which shows anyone on these boards that there really is no excuse not to get out there and make a film. Using a single, very modest location and 1 camera set-up is actually inspiring and should show many film-makers that all you need is a good idea.

While I could nit pick about some of the acting or logic, I'd rather say bravo for making one of the most entertaining shorts this fest. So bravo.

Thank you very much! Chris definitely deserves that credit! My mind couldn't think up something like this! He did a great job!

[Hawk Teflon]

//removed to eliminate double posting ... now posted in the t2i section...