"You Killed Powerman" By Untsikka

[Untsikka]

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Duration: 6 minutes
Camera: DVX100

Sä Tapoit Voimamiehen - You Killed Powerman

Directed by: Sami Häkkinen
Written by: Jason Tudor
Cinematography by: Sami Häkkinen
Edited by: Tuomas Peltonen
Sound Design: Iiro Soikkeli
Un-original Music by: Matti Paalanen

Cast

Pastor: Sami Häkkinen
Mayor: Olli Valkama
Powerful Guy: Janne Hostikka
Twineman: Iiro Soikkeli
Powerman: Sami Häkkinen
Boss: Iiro Soikkeli
Baddy 1: Sami Häkkinen
Baddy 2: Tuomas Peltonen
The Fan: Essi Laukkanen


Thanks to all those who involved making this short film... and of course www.DVXuser.com

[Edgen]

I'm a little torn on this one. I think I'll give my "Thoughts" after watching it again.

my only crit right now is that the subtitles got in the way of the movie and half the time you couldn't read them.

more to come...

/j

[Untsikka]

the compression is real bad, I think we should try to do it again...

[Edgen]

I would. re-compress, upload and just link a new link from your site. That will help. (just don't change the film itself)

/j

[DarrenRyan]

Seems like this has a great look to it, but hard to tell with the compression. The sound design is great, but I agree about the subtitles. I will watch again. Nice work.

[Dahopafilms]

Oh, FINALLY! A thread to comment on this film.

This one had me laughing out loud.

Comments (good stuff first):

1. The humour is precisely to my taste. Dry. Some really funny lines ("... saddled with 27 law suits ..."; "I can lift a Mini Cooper ..."; "He had nice wavy hair ..."; "...I haven't touched drugs in like two years ..."; "lukewarm vision"; "I'd love a Doctor Pepper ..."; etc.). Funny stuff.
2. I liked the down-ressed black and white. Really worked for me in the context of the piece.
3. I had no issue with reading subtitles (although I agree that some of them get lost in the white titles on white background shots. Perhaps just bring them down into the black bands area at the bottom?).
4. I liked setting up the backstory through the opening credits. That worked for me.
5. Good score. Well selected.
6. I liked the reactive expressions on the priest. Over the top. Funny (but see comments below re the actors generally).

The stuff that struck me:

• Your principal actors were just too young. Maybe just the priest and the mayor. They did a really good job, but I never really bought into that these guys were a priest and a mayor. Maybe an alter boy and an office boy, but not the head honchos themselves ...
• I found the ending inconsistent and very different in tone from the rest of the piece. The girl taking the urn and then laughing seemed more like an out-take than an ending. Sorry.
• I'm REALLY nit-picking here, but the great line "I haven't done drugs in like 2 years" was lessened by the theatrical sniff right after delivering the line. The sniff was a good idea, but why not put several in earlier to make it less "on-the-nose"? (sorry) Sue them as the set-up and then go for the payoff later.
• The priest knocked over the urn at the end, and I didn't really understand why. Here he was reacting with shock to all that was being said about the deceased during the ceremony, and then he just joins in with a final insult. Why?

So the thing that stands out for me most in this piece is the writing. Good, dry, funny lines. Nice job.

Thank you very much for doing this and thanks for giving us the opportunity to comment.

[MsManhattan]

I though this was funny, and a good way to make a superhero film without a lot of fX, time or money (which I am assuming was the case since it was with most of us). I loved the black-and-white and, as mentioned by others here, very funny dialogue. The only thing I didn't get was the ending -- at first I thought the rain was going to re-animate his ashes or something. But then the girl just picks up the urn and takes it with her -- what did I miss? Not a criticism -- an honest question. All-in-all, nice job.

BTW, I haven't watched this full-screen yet -- I just did a quick viewing from within my browser, so viewing it full-screen may clear up my question... ;)

[Beat Takeshi]

Hello. i thought this looked great and it seemed like there was good acting but i think all foreign films seem to have good acting since im reading at the same time. This had me laughing with the lines you had the wannabe super hero say. The drugs line had me on the floor. The shots were highly compressed and I couldnt tell if it was really raining or there were just the sound of rain. The first guys speech sounded like it was done well but again since i cant hear it in my native tongue Im just guessing from what I experienced.

[Untsikka]

Okay, first of all. Thanks for watching and thanks for the comments.
The compression sucks, and the subtitles could be better, but it was done in a hurry and I really don't know why the compression is so bad. Compering to the other films it must be the worst.
About the ending, it was supposed to be a bit different, a different feel to it. But in the edit, when we saw that this doesn't work. We couldn't come up with anything else, so we decided to keep it there anyway. A bad excuse I know :S
The conditions in which this was shot were awful, really bad weather, and it changed every day. The recorded sounds were poo-poo. And we really had to work in the edit. Also our first shooting day was a week before the soft deadline
The girl in the end, was shot in 10 minutes, just before a test in school.
The worst thing was when we had to cut 1,5minutes from the film, including 1 charecter. The we used all sorts of tricks to cut the lenght. The second baddy you hear in the beginning talking about powerman, we speeded up his voice just to cut down the length
Okay, more to come...

Sami Häkkinen, Silent Paprika Films

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

quick note on teh subtitles -- you gott do yellow if you are gonn have em on a white background no way around it. I could read em OK everywhere except in front of where they were speaking by the urn.

OK I liked this and thought it was funny. Very dry. The priests reactions were a but over the top with to much mugging. This was not consistent with teh rest of the piece which was played pretty straight. I thinnk a good axiom is the more outrageous teh comedy the straighter it should be played. We could have gotten what he was going through with much more subtelty.

But I thought it had a great look. I think the poor compression helps in a way to give it a a kind of weathered 16mm look. I liked the concept and teh acting.

Loved the poetic touch at the end where someone still believed in him. The film kind of lifted off the ground and flew for me right there.

thanks!

Jack