"This Is Death, Your Captain Speaking" a Horror entry by Phillip George/Shawn Chittle

Congrats! Looking forward to seeing yours too! I just like watching ANY movie that has airplanes in it! Love the cockpit audio clip--awesome stuff! Lookin' forward to a fun ride on your "in-flight" movie!
 
I just helped these boys shoot their last scenes.

let me tell you. pilots have the most uncomfortable working conditions inthe world.

The cockpit is TINY!!!!!!! i was like on the dashboard getting reversals......
 
So we're all done. Phillip had to bail early due to a movie he's shooting in Michigan, so I was left holding the bag. What a bag. We ran out of time, but it came out OK all things considered.

Here is one TRIVIA question for those TV land people out there.

What TV show does the guitar riff from the soundtrack remind you of?
(Hint, we shot the scene in question on the roof of one of the cast members of that TV show).
 
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Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.

Great Locations and footage going on in this one. Concept was straight forward. Source material is astounding.

Script - Humm it's hard to know how to approach this. It seemed like a long bad nightmare for the guy. I wasn't sure if things were happening in real time or in his sleep. I can tell by the end of the movie that he was in a plane crash, which is miraculous all in it's own that he survived. Your basis for it is great, I just can't really feel for the guy like I should. And then the ending wasn't my type of twist.

Direction - All those guages. There was a lot of focus on them, which is good. You covered a lot of angles in the pit from both pilots, I liked that. I wouldn't have known how to deal with such a thing so good job. The news broadcast footage was actually pretty believable.

Acting - I saw pilots. Then again I don't know how a real pilot would conduct himself when he's about to crash. So I can't say too much. Your worst actor was Death. Why was he so stiff? And your best actor was probably your news caster.

Cine/Lighting - A lot of dark areas. Muddy, and Maybe it's my screen but it looked like you had to back down in post off of blown out portions. It's probably my Cinema Dispaly or something. I found myself squinting both viewing times, looking at the guages and such.

Editing - Straight forward. The dream to reality cuts were a bit confusing, though.

Sound - I think compression might've killed your sound. I could barely hear stuff at one point, when the next things were really loud. Was it like that in the original?

Special Effects - Worst was Death. He just looked dead to me. And I think the best was the news cast. That might sound bad, but it looked like a real newscast to me.

Scariest Moments - The real plane crash footage. That looked horrible.

Overall consensus - Great concept. Presentation seemed to faulter in states, writing could've been tightened a bit. Maybe just needed more time to spend with it? Good going. Thanks for entering and giving me something to watch!
 
Thanks for that outstanding review!

Kholi said:
Worst was Death. He just looked dead to me. Why was he so stiff?
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That's going on my list of top lines of Horrorfest.

The newscast stuff I worked really hard on to make look real. Thanks! I even put scanlines in there to "fake" the TV look. And she was a real TV newscaster at one point so she just acted like herself.

Kholi said:
I wasn't sure if things were happening in real time or in his sleep.
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After he wakes up its all real, right? But before he's having a nightmare about a real event.

My question: did you expect the ending? If not, I did my job.
 
just got done watching the film.

Some SPOILERS

i enjoyed it overall, a lot of great shots, loved the plane crash shot a lot, one thing i noticed though was when the reverse shots are shown (IE the copilot and the gauges) the gauge that indicates the plane being level shows the plane sideways (before the plane starts to go down), that was really my only complaint. i liked how it ended. i kinda got the impression the first crash was being told in flashbacks and not in dreams (but it could be seen either way), the acting was pretty good as well, and my cameo in it was phenomenal! it was great to work with you guys! ;) good luck on everything!
 
Airplanes, explosions lighting, skeleton err Death.. what more could you ask for:) wait how bout a nastier looking skeleton with bits of flesh hanging off.. ewww thank you sir enjoyed your film
 
I've told you what I think while you were editing.

but to me the biggest problem is the sound. Now I am like a sound Nazi, since I had Herman do sound design. I think for the screenings and DVD, that's what I would focus on, if I were in your shoes.

But like I said, I think you were right about the Death thing. I said it would be cheesy, but it fit nicely into the story you told.
 
ravinesedge said:
(IE the copilot and the gauges) the gauge that indicates the plane being level shows the plane sideways (before the plane starts to go down), that was really my only complaint.
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Wow that's about the only complaint?!?! Awesome. I figured you'd use your imagination and assume they went into a spiral dive or something. The aircraft was not cooperating and our "pilots" did a pretty good job faking flying the thing.

While I am not making "excuses" I ran out of time pure and simple on this! But pointing out the problems beforehand just makes you look for them, so if you see them, I already know. LOL.

For the screening Oct 10/Oct 30, I improved the film by:

1. Color correcting (what you see now is 100% camera)
2. New scene of pilots arriving to work 2nd day
3. Sweeting of audio
4. Added Captain audio to the Flight Attendant phone call
5. Full soundtrack (I did the one on there in 18 minutes including recording it)

desperatecomfort said:
but to me the biggest problem is the sound. Now I am like a sound Nazi, since I had Herman do sound design. I think for the screenings and DVD, that's what I would focus on, if I were in your shoes.
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Thanks man. Well said on the sound stuff, because sound is more important than visuals typically (especially dialog sound). I need to amp it up no doubt. But think about it, little things I made time for that made a big difference:

1. 100% authentic flight deck audio, warning sirens, sounds, ATC
2. 100% authentic flight deck script, those lines could be spoken in real life and they would be accurate (Hollywood can rarely say that)
3. When the thunder cracks outside, it muffles when we cut to the indoors shots.

That's good sound design IMHO. But it can be a lot better and will be! :beer:
 
That "amateur video" plane crash footage--AWESOME! Are you willing to share some of the "secrets" here as to how you produced that shot? GREAT TV lower-thirds graphics too--good job on that--very "broadcast" looking! Loved the raster lines too. Good authentic flight deck dialogue and super-cool authentic cockpit audio! LOVED that you were able to shoot in a real plane! Lots of cool gauges! I thought your lead did a great job, too. A fun ride!

And no, the ending was a surprise!
 
Rezfactor said:
That "amateur video" plane crash footage--AWESOME! Are you willing to share some of the "secrets" here as to how you produced that shot? GREAT TV lower-thirds graphics too--good job on that--very "broadcast" looking! Loved the raster lines too. Good authentic flight deck dialogue and super-cool authentic cockpit audio! LOVED that you were able to shoot in a real plane! Lots of cool gauges! I thought your lead did a great job, too. A fun ride!

And no, the ending was a surprise!
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A lot of old public domain crash footage is out there. Just gotta find it. Thank goodness for the Web. Before it was really hard to get anything like that.

I was hoping to keep the horror stuff until the very end, making you wonder, WHERE IS THIS GOING? When can I see the blood and guts? Haha.

Thanks man! I have some questions about Runway I'll ask in your thread.
 
ravinesedge said:
and my cameo in it was phenomenal! it was great to work with you guys! ;) good luck on everything!
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When I saw your post in my thread a ways back I was nervous, for obvious reasons! Didn't want anyone to know you were starring in my film. That was the big surprise!

You did a great job, and thanks for the cameo. We all were pretty freaked out when you walked on set.

Thanks for leaving the scythe at home this time.
 
Shawn baby.... you know whats up...? :)

DEath..... Gotcha Mother POOpooer.

You know i love this movie to death....
 
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