There Goes The Neighborhood

conrad_johnson

conrad_johnson

Well-known member
Hello hello hello -

Directed by a girl. Photographed by a boy.

We filmed this on an HVX.
We borrowed a bunch of lights from our friends.
We rented flags n scrims from a rental house.
We lost a bunch of footage and so we had to beg the rental house to lend us the HVX again. They cheerfully obliged.
We lost some pieces of our crane down an elevator shaft.
We made costumes out of boys' and girls' undies.
If you look carefully at the side of the blue passat, maybe you can see where our director/editor threw up all over the side of her car the night before. Hangovers during shoots are a bad thing. A very bad thing. Don't mix fruity rum drinks with beer, my friends.
Filmed on location in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Apple Valley, Minnesota.

Okay, and for the geeks, here's the relevant stuff:
edited on final cut pro
composites completed in adobe after effects
color correction completed in final cut pro
kino-flos and arri fresnels and chimeras
lions and tigers and bears
dolly was made with loving care by our carpenter friend, who moonlights as a real estate agent in the film. We wanted to ask our real-life realtor to act in the film, but ran out of time. Here's his website - he's awesome. http://www.realtorbobwilliams.com/

Okay, that's it. See ya.
 
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Acting was GREAT!!! I smiled the whole way through. Very simple (good in a 5:00 movie)...well executed.
 
Great Acting!

Great Visuals ( I smell HVX here. Am I wrong?) Particularly the first shot of the empty house. I liked that, it looked very spacious.

Great/Funny costumes.

Story was "hmm" but I liked the overall. Good job, Conrad.
 
Oh man! I was rolling on the floor when those do gooders were at door. The way they were laughing and acting so fake! I loved the actors. I know people that act like them. They were like door to door cult member recruiters or something. It reminded me of "Strangers with Candy".

Excellent!
 
Thanks so much guys. yeah, we shot this one on the HVX, a very nice camera indeed. We had a lot of fun, I'm glad you enjoyed it.
 
That was pretty good. Those people irked the crap out of me. I would kill them too if i had to live next to them. American action squad... ASSEMBLE! My kids were dying on that one. My daughter was like why does he have a garbage can lid if hes a super hero. The funny, consistant acting was great. It was almost like a kids show like power rangers but in a good way. Good job.
 
People need to be talking about this more. This was well-executed in every category. I will question you on the CC at the scene where Mr. and Mrs. Powers discover that Tom's been captured...everything looked like it had a green CC tint.

Can't critique you on anything else, though. Like I said before, the acting is very strong, very fitting. Good choice of music. The lighting is top-notch...it looks so appropriate, a lot of people are gonna overlook it.

Well done...this is one of the most entertaining!
 
I was drawn to this, particularly because I live in Minneapolis and I went to high school in Apple Valley. I actually live less than a mile from Realtor Bob Williams!

Awesome film. The acting was perfect, which is about the last thing that most indie filmmakers concern themselves with. I loved the evil lair, the props were right on. Could have used a few more dutch angles, but it was fine without them. ;-)

My only concern was that the "reveal" wasn't paced quite right. I knew it was him before the music and reaction confirmed it for me, that shot just dragged on. And then then post-action scene seemed a bit too long also. Otherwise, the pacing and editing were fantastic!
 
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:)

"American action sQuad.. AssemblE!! "
Was Great!

My Thoughts:
Over the top, quirky, great acting.
Sound was great for the most of the movie. Did you ADR or was it the original?
Only sound I didn't like was the BBQ outside.
The FX work here was great with the fire.
When the realtor hands him the keys the expression on the main guys' face is friggin' hilarious! It set itself up to be a quirky movie right off the bat. Like a really bad commercial in happyville or something.
I think some of the scenes were perhaps a little over exposed? but, it was consistent.
I think the film paced well and the acting was entertaining enough to keep my attention.
I agree about the end reveal. I would have liked to see his face first. I wasn't quite sure if that was actually him or not. Instead he comes in looking right at the ground. Not really an establishing angle that we've been used to. You don't really see it until he cocks his head and walks off camera. I would have liked to see that earlier to establish that was him.
I think if the entire sidewalk was filled with for sale signs that would have REALLY made the movie great and just really hammers home in that the neighborhood is indeed... funct.

Great short, great comedy. I had fun watching it.

/j
 
I loved this. Very well done and written. I loved the costumes. I want to dress up like that with some friends next halloween. Thanks for making me laugh.
 
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haha good idea and nicely executed. i loved the scene in the beginning where the nieghbors meet
 
I enjoyed this -- I love the risk you took with the quirky acting style. It totally worked -- your cast really pulled it off. And, as a journalist, I appreciated the parody of the classic SuperHero front. Nice job!
 
This was really goofy...and I mean that in a good way. The first time I watched it, I was getting annoyed with the acting until I realized it was supposed to look like bad acting. After that, everything was fine. Nice comedic touches sprinkled throughout. Steve Burns lighting the bbq, of course.

Your costuming was priceless. I loved the dead bushes look at the end, it kind of gave a The 'burbs feel to the piece.

What I really liked about you short was the fact that it had a well executed story...beginning, middle and end.

I will say, though, I had a better time watching it the second time around...
 
This one was great. I really enjoyed it. The setting, story, and performances were incredible. Thanks for the entertainment. :)
 
Conrad,

Great, funny, entertaining film.

Some thoughts:
  1. Others have already commented, but the acting was perfect. Over-the-top saccharine. And I think I know a "Sandy Powers". Every one of the actors was perfect. Hats off to them, and to you for managing to find them.
  2. Between the oom-paa-paa/brass and the funkified guitar, the score was great.
  3. The costumes were funny-bad. Of course, the actors themselves carried them off perfectly. (Were the female heroes wearing Playtex gloves? LOL!)
  4. In the warehouse scene when they reached Dr. Toxic's lair, I have to admit that when I saw the pedestal-thingy in the middle of the frame I thought "Cool - what's that?" While I'm on the subject, what was it?
  5. The guy playing Dr. Toxic was awesome. And his facial expressions reminded me of my brother-in-law. So based on personal experience, it was all so very real ... believable.
  6. Maybe it's just me, but I like it when the good guys die in the end. Bwahahahahah ...
Just a few things that didn't come through so well for me:
  • The quick-mowing of the lawn effect was a little long for me and I would have liked a close-up on the lawn-mower (not the lawnmower) to introduce her as a character.
  • The "fixing-the-tire" scene. Was the husband supposed to be holding up the car for her? Or not? And if so, would he have been doing this on an open street? Hmmm.

I really enjoyed this one. If you have it, I really look forward to seeing a behind the scenes on the filming - I suspect/hope you guys had a blast making it. Thanks very much.
More, please.
 
Thanks everybody, the acting was my favorite part as well.

Dahopafilms:
1.Yeah, we lucked out on the actors and got some good ones. They were all feeding off of eachother and some of the outtakes are hillarious.

2.The score was written by a friend of mine. His name is Jeff Bailey and he's a local Jazz musician around Minneapolis here. I'm the cheif engineer at a recording studio around town so I know a lot of talent.

3. The costumes: the more rediculous the better.

4.That thing in the middle of the lair is a controller for a 32 track digital tape machine. As I said I'm a recording engineer so I had tons of stuff like that at my disposal.

5. Dan Hurlbert is the man.

6. Me too.

1. We did a mls of her as she waves to tom. Are you talking more than that or just a close-up instead of a mls.

2. Yeah, hes supposed to be holding up the car, i'm not sure why, but that didn't come off as well as I'd planned.
Thanks for the constructive comment, I can tell you really watch the fillms, thanks for that.
 
I need to watch this again. I'm really sorry, but it didn't do a lot for me when I saw it. This was one of the first, if not THEE first, movie that I watched, so maybe my mind frame was out of sorts. I'm going to watch it again and then I'll post more on it.

From what I can remember though, it did have some good camera quality and great use of color.
 
Miata, you do need to watch this again...this is one of the most entertaining movies in the fest. Have you ever seen 'A Clockwork Orange'? Where they pin the guy's eyes open...I'm gonna do that to you until you agree that I have good taste in short film.

BTW, people keep mentioning color, but I'm telling you people that the color pops because of proper lighting and iris management. Can we get some insight on what/if any CC was done?
 
Great camera work in the beginning part of the film. The lighting, colors, shot-choice, etc., were really nice.
The actors were great.

I think it's very solid until the ending. The secret lair bit needs some work in terms of shot choice and lighting--it becomes far less dynamic than the beginning had been.

You could have also done with a little more work on the script. The story seems to be about the weirdness and homogeny of small town-life, but that idea is dropped pretty quickly once we get to the lair. I'd suggest using that theme to infom the ending. It'll make for a tighter movie.
 
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