PANDORA - Presented by Envision and Waltind

[Norm Sanders]

Temporary link to WMV file of the film (will have the perm. QT and/or WMV links up soon at www.eefilm.com/pandora - please right click and save this file to your desktop to view): www.eefilm.com/test/pandora-final.wmv




Thank you for your comments & great feedback, and hope you enjoy the film!!


Special thank you to all the cast & crew that helped make this happen! We hope they've enjoyed the experience,
and would look forward to the opportunity to work with any/all of them again!

When the festival judging has closed, I'll update this front page with a link to the final, full cut of
PANDORA: The Awakening (8.5 minutes).

PLEASE NOTE: I want to be clear that Ryan Walters (waltind) was a significant partner in this production. The cat is
VERY organized & professional in his interaction with others, and was the DP on this, in charge of both A & B cameras.
I think we made a pretty good team, and want to stress the word TEAM on that. He'd be responding more, but he's
neck deep in a paying gig in Germany right now, and won't be back 'till next week.

Also, Chris Rojas, of RMI Studios, put out some great results with the score, as well as did the final stereo mix for us
clear on the other side of the country at his NYC based studio.

Some low res. screen grabs for before/after examples ....

[Brandon Rice]

One of the best films I have seen so far! I thought the acting was real good overall. The only thing I felt was the ending left me hangin' too much. Fuller review later, my time on this internet terminal is running out!!! GOOD JOB!

[Norm Sanders]

Thanks Brandon, glad you liked it ... especially the part about the acting, as that's the part I'm most nervous about ... at least with regards to my own performance. Not sure I'll ever try to tackle THAT again; being the lead while trying to direct/co-direct.

It's supposed to leave you hanging to a degree, yet still have some resolution with regards to questions UP TO that point. Kind of a stair step progression of questions until the flash back sequence in the warehouse, where hopefully most of the viewers questions are answered (i.e. Who's Nikki? What happened to her? What are these guys working on and what happened?, etc.).

Ideally, it's either a compressed first act of a longer feature film, or the first of 2-3 shorts that act as sequels to this. As such, we're titling the DVD version (8.5 min cut with two additional scenes) PANDORA: The Awakening.

Look forward to a fuller review when you have time, and hope you have a safe flight!

[Blaine]

You guys had a good offering. The sound and music played well with the pictures and I thought you guys had some good effects. I thought the acting was pretty good, too. The only quibbles I had were: 1) if I was Dan, she would be dead (but I'm not Dan ) and 2) I thought it was a little too easy for her to take Dan down, he just stood there and waited. Minor quibbles for a good project.

[Norm Sanders]

Thanks, Blaine. I can see why those would stand out. Ideally, it was to come across that this is a group of people that had worked very closely together for weeks if not months prior to things unfolding. Dan, being the oldest, has a natural paternal character to him, and Kelly's become like a daughter to him up to this point ... things that can't be fleshed out appropriately in 6 minutes while fitting everything else in.

Not disagreeing with what you said, as I'm sure others may question the same thing ... but there's some very quick backstory for hindsight purposes. Wish we'd had the time to go into the relationships more, as this was intended to be more of a character driven piece.

Again, thanks for the feedback. It's greatly valued.

[Kaz]

Yep, some good acting in there. Looked and felt very professional.
If I had to quibble over something it would be the "Sci-Fi channel Movie-of-the-week" vibe I got when the girl touched that gizmo.

Overall though, it was cool!

[Blaine]

Originally Posted by Envision

Thanks, Blaine. I can see why those would stand out. Ideally, it was to come across that this is a group of people that had worked very closely together for weeks if not months prior to things unfolding. Dan, being the oldest, has a natural paternal character to him, and Kelly's become like a daughter to him up to this point ... things that can't be fleshed out appropriately in 6 minutes while fitting everything else in.

Not disagreeing with what you said, as I'm sure others may question the same thing ... but there's some very quick backstory for hindsight purposes. Wish we'd had the time to go into the relationships more, as this was intended to be more of a character driven piece.

Again, thanks for the feedback. It's greatly valued.

I understand, thanks for the clarification.

[ZombieSquid]

I liked the performances and the DPing was nice, but to me the music just TRAMPLED all over the film! A good score should essentially go unnoticed.

[Norm Sanders]

Trampled as in too loud compared to dialogue/SFX levels? Could you explain further? Thanks in advance for the time, ZombieSquid, as well as making the initial post in the first place.

[Ben Sliker]

high production value, way to go. Could def be on the sci-fi channel (take that as you may).

I think the sound problem is the volume, it takes away times becaus it is too loud. I really liked it, but crank down the track a little. Certain points border on comical or soap opera-ish instead of dramatic because of the volume.

Loved the line "Just Do it" good energy, well placed.

Good acting on the overall, the beginning was a little rough for me, but I think that it was because this is part of a larger piece. I'm guessing that a lot of dialogue had to be cut, and the lines you did choose were essential to understanding the story, therefore a little trite and less engaging than a full conversation, which is a shame that the full thing isn't here.

Nice job on the director/actor work, it's hard to do both.

Overall nice work, one of the better half up so far.