Tangent: 5 minute short

MikeQuill

MikeQuill

Well-known member
Given a time restraint of one week, a group of 4 other college students and I made this short using my dvx100a. We won some "best of" awards at a Boston-wide movie festival. Let us know what you think.

tangent.jpg


http://www.jschunick.com/

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Mike Quill
 
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I'm confused. So, he pays the guy five dollars and than his gf gets hit by a car. Than we show a guy getting high drop the 5 dollars (presumbly the seller guy) so how does the 5 dollars end up back to the buyer if the movie was on a linear timeline? Maybe I'm over complicating it, or I'm to stupid to understand...so explain.
 
My favorite part is when it was over...yuck.

Just kidding, that was really gripping. I wanted to tell myself I was not in the mood for a long short but it got interesting quick and I was satisfied in the end. Good decision wins over evil.
 
hey directinglegend,

Well, it's just a movie that follows the path of a five dollar bill. It begins when the druggie hands over the 5 bucks to the drug dealer, who in turn goes back to his apartment and sets it on the table. The roommate takes the 5 and uses it to blow the coke. etc, etc. The money ultimately gets to the guy in the car, who runs over the girl. So, in effect, the guy who buys the drugs ultimately causes his girlfriend's death. However, this path turns out to be only a "tangent." In the end, the druggie decides not to buy the drugs, and he walks off with his gf happily ever after.

Thanks for the feedback. First time posting here.

Mike
 
So you're saying the five dollar bill was the portal and the car was the metal craft in which the driver was able to travel backwards through time to complete his murderous plan?
 
what kind of drugs does 5 dollars buy?

Originally I was gonna say something about it being, heavily influenced, by Requiem For A Dream. But I stopped myself because movies are our film school, and it would be a crime not to let yourself be influenced by popular works. If for no other reason, to see if you yourself can do it successfully...which you did. Good job, man (even the music gave Clint Mansell a run for his money). So my only critique is that it should have been a 20 dollar bill.
 
right. clearly we stole a few shots from Requiem. But I thought they just looked cool so we kept them. I think it's hard not to reference movies here and there because it's so tempting. Not sure who Clint Mansell is though??? Thanks for your input.
 
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Yeah immediately thought Requiem, more so because of the fast editing sequences mixed with a fast motion "getting things done" sequence. I think honestly if you crafted it in your own style then it wouldn't refrence it as strong. Second my big problem was, the whole re-cap...It's 5 minutes, did you actually think we'd forget the connection of the girl getting hit by the car. I dunno, i guess if you want to make your audience feel stupid then keep it in there, but i felt it was really unneccary. Too straight forward.
 
Clint was the mastermind behind the music of RFAD.

Great short by the way. i agree with the 20$ bill change though. Oh, and i loved your establishing shot. Crane?
 
Nice work Mike. Scoring and foley was impressive. Well edited, though the line cross in the car park put me off momentarily. As was said, nice use of crane. It does wonders for production value. As you start getting your work out there more, be sure to compress less.
 
i liked it a lot, yea it did remind me a bit of requiem and donnie. I liked how most of it didn't have dialogue either, just kept goin.
 
Well, i should also mention that the theme of the festival was "5." That's why we used the $5 dollar bill instead of more money. For the establishing shot we built a camera dolly/crane out of wood and steal.
 
By the way. I'm looking to build a 35mm lens adaptor for the dvx100a. I know there are links to the directions on this site, but they don't seem to work. Any ideas?
 
I liked it - loved that you had so many shots crammed into a short timeframe. One suggestion is to white balance the inside shots - they're really yellow. You can do that in post.
 
wow, really good stuff man.

was all the sound done in post? the dubbing was quite awful as it was not in sync and i could actually picture the actor sitting in a sound booth or room as the reverb and levels were off. But it didnt push me away from the story.

visually it was a blast, great colours, some of your shots wree extremely cinematic so congrats there! i loved your use of the crane in the intro shots but found it fell slightly downhill when you got the interior shots. Went from film feeling to home video feeling, but every shot now and then through me back in, as in the closeup of the chips falling on the table, brilliant!

Great work all together, but tighten up the sound, its quite off! Look forward to seeing some of your other stuff!
 
great film liked it matt, but im still not pleased with ending with the five dollar bill and the girl getting hit with the car , there no way he could get the five dollar bill anddrive drunk before it was givin to thedealer so no green light on me for that , eveything else i loved it was great and kept me watching just the ending made no sense, like to see a non compressed version to eveyone coudl down load would be great also, and i didnt think the interiors were videoish i like the wide shots with the drug dealer in his apt.

peace n luv

Mark Dog
 
good one

good one

I think its one of the rare good works that u get to watch it at dvxuser.com. I liked the shot compositions and editing. The performances were below average and so was the dubbing. I can see u guys doing good stuff in the future.

I wouldn't have rewound the story in the end to give audience a clue or clearer understanding of what was going on. Most times it's good to leave as is...
 
One question - How did u get the girl to get hit by the car???? It reminds me of Meet Joe Black. Good one guys.
 
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