"Bloody Mary: A nightmare Collaboration by Mark Harris and Timur Civan"

Guys. BRAVO!!!!! I have only watched a few, but I don't see how this won't end up in my top 3.

Sound and Score could not have been any better. Shots were all great. On the Mark editing. I'll be watching it again... and will be coming back with some questions.

So impressed.
 
The score reminded me of Predator 2. - which is by all accounts a classic motion picture that all should reference from.
 
Always love the dark side of life. Loved the progression of abuse leads to....
type thing. I, personally, think if the movie were more compressed timewise it would of made a bigger imapact, at least on me. Hard to shorten those great scenes in edit though. Just my op. Otherwise, LOVE this stuff. Loved the look and feel. Hope I'm welcome back for maybe in depth chat later on. (Would love to chat about H addictions, and how to film it ???( Maybe that's a seperate thread.) Good stuff, I was entertained and moved to thought. Thanks for your clip. -gordo
 
Acting: Solid throughout, great lead.
Script: Fantastic, a real horror from start to end.
Direction: Nice shot choice, blocking.
Music: Superb!
Editing: Really nicely paced.
Lighting: Solid throughout, loved the greenish shot’s.
Loved: The concept, Bloody Mary, The girls, Bloody Mary’s Hair, That stairs shot WOW, crying statue, low angle shot’s, speeded up beating, “I WILL kill you”-Class, The Bath shots ACE!
Hated: I didn’t hate them but I didn’t like the soft focus dreamlike shot’s, the “No, ooo, ooo, arr” at the end wanted a man scream.
Overall: One of my fav’s. Bloody Mary would kick Candyman’s arse!

I loved this film, fantastic job in giving us a tight story and overall great project.
Beer's all round.

+Thanks for your kind word's about mine.
Jp
 
jpbankesmercer said:
...the “No, ooo, ooo, arr” at the end wanted a man scream.
Overall: One of my fav’s...
Jp
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been back and forth trying to decide whether to replace those screams. They should be better, but we ran out of time to re-record the actor for the fest. But the fault there was not the actor's, but the crappy direction I gave him...something along the lines of: "sound like a little girl!"
 
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I'm posting as I go through alpha. Great work on this one - as has been stated - top notch through all departments. Story is King.

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Great acting. I loved the sleepover girls, and your lead actors were all great. The framing of the three friends was great - they looked like the three wicked stepsisters. I think this was an early inquiry, but not sure if you responded - I'm confused about what she was doing with the three of them. They all seemed a little too old for a sleepover, but nothing really indicated it was a college dorm or something. Overall, the relationships among the characters were a little fuzzy and I would've liked to see that all fleshed out a bit.

Superb editing.

Lighting was great, especially in the bedoom scenes and in that second bathroom scene. Loved the slight shadow over the male actor's face when he's at the top of the stairs.

Music was great - was a very subtle score that didn't distract from the story.

Very scary dead lady, and the killing scene (man killing mom, girl screaming in foreground) was chilling.

Costuming - this is the first time I think I've commented on (or even noticed!) this. Costumes were great. Especially liked seeing mom and girl both in white.

Good work!
 
Lingothree said:
Great acting. I loved the sleepover girls, and your lead actors were all great. The framing of the three friends was great - they looked like the three wicked stepsisters. I think this was an early inquiry, but not sure if you responded - I'm confused about what she was doing with the three of them. They all seemed a little too old for a sleepover, but nothing really indicated it was a college dorm or something. Overall, the relationships among the characters were a little fuzzy and I would've liked to see that all fleshed out a bit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is what my writing teacher and partner calls: "A fart too big for that asshole." In the feature version, the girls will be like 12. But I had absolutely no confidence in getting that kind of performance out of a kid. So I opted for Leah, older and made it a semi-highschool boarding school type deal. They should have been in school uniforms, but I ALSO wanted the three harpies to have more specific costumes. so what you got were college aged girls having a sleep-over.

She is there - BUT SHE'S IN THE CORNER! Aha! Well yeah, okay.

But basically, I was trying to cram some ideas from the feature into the short in a condensed manner, and it might have been a bit too much fart for the asshole.

That the relationships with the mother and step-father are fuzzy is pretty intentional.

But I am usually soooo focused on story structure, that this time I wanted to relax that a bit to focus on the individual moments, pacing in the editing, etc.

thanks!
 
Yeah, I'm coming back to different threads as I wait for downloads to continue so I can watch and review:

Great set dressing and costuming, guys. The coordination between locks was nice.
 
Yes, I thought the art direction and wardrobe were great. It didn't feel like it was crammed with information to me. It felt very methodical and well paced.
 
great work guys.
nice seeing you step out of the manhole episodic comedy thing and make a MOVIE
really great work
looked great
great acting
only dings are
  1. white walls -- personal pet peeve I know, but dress them out with pictures or something if you can, you know my rant: white walls the hallmark of the indie film with no art direction, this is a very small ding.
  2. Other ding would be that I was a bit confused at times as to the direction of the story. An Exterior with a sign that said CHapman Academy for girls would have gone a long way - could be under the bloody mary lines at the top. Some how knowing she was coming home from school would have been nice too. As it stood I wasn't sure who the characters were or where we were in th first scene, so when she comes home, to more white walls, wasn't sure about the story progression. Would have had time for the ext. girls college or prep school shot, might not have had time but would have been nice to show her get off a bus or something - her suitcases didn't really read in that shot and they are an important plot point. Seems odd to me that she would discover or conjure BM at school, which is presumably some distance from home and then carry that haunting or possession to another locale ... which was a another bit of confusion. So as you have it, it would be good to clarify "at boarding school" and "at home" and maybe toss us a cookie as to how this haunting or possession or whatever would stay with her or motivate her to go home. As a revision, I would have tried to tie the discovery of BM to her home in some way i.e., she wouldn't do it at school, but reads something in a chat room or overhears something on the phone that the other girls say calling her a wuss or something that motivates her to try the ritual at home where the actual or imagined violence to mom happened. Not that that's a great suggestion, just an idea of what I mean about tying the discovery to the place of violence, betrayal, where she carries this out, etc., as again that beat of leaving the conjure place to go to another place to carry this out seems disjointed to me.
but it takes a paragraph to explain all that and that's just my opinion, and the paragraph shouldn't overshadow the great professional work here which only takes a few sentences to sum up.
 
Yeah, guilty on all counts. Maybe I will re-cut it after with some exteriors to clarify some of those things. Also I have a closer shot of the suitcase I may cut to.

As I said though, one of my goals in this project was to focus on individual moments, pacing of moments, and the like. And I learned a ton in that process. Also, I was going for some nightmare logic to a degree.
 
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yea we were pressed for time too. FArt... asshole... manhole... somerthign.. i dunno..... lol I PRomise i will write responses i got into helping someone test somethign out. Will respond to you all VERY VERY soon!
 
Superb work. Great performances. Loved the lighting and cinematography and effects. Oh, and the music was damn good too. I was let down by the incoherent story, however. You had everything else in spades. Some of the best filmmaking of the fest as far as I can see. But the story was so random and fractured to me, even for an "art film," that I just didn't get into it. I was captivated by the look and tone, though. Dude's got talent.
 
Now this one was interesting -
if there's going to be a longer version of this film made, then PLEASE put me on the mailing list. I want to see more of this story.
The father looked like Lawrence Fishburne. Just had to say that. But how exactly is he her father? I know, I know, unnecessary question, but it troubled me.
Putting the title after the opening scene - not a technique that I favor in a five minute film. I just don't think it quite...works. It feels like it bisects the film into these two sections, that don't have any relationship to each other. Part A = girls at a sleepover. Part B = Girl blames father for death of mother, goes mad. The only connection is the Bloody Mary routine. Also, a minor quibble, but that girl doesn't really look like she was forced into the bathroom. She waits a nice long time till they close the door then she runs up and bangs on it. Just something that didn't click for me.
Lead actress has balls of steel. In fact, the acting throughout was a highlight, and it makes me very happy to be able to say that. I haven't seen much directing that focused on acting yet in this fest, so it was nice to see that.
But that's leading me away from the raw excitement of this film, which is in the cutting. The use of cutting here is very bold indeed, and it heightens performance immensely. The only 'moment' that's a trifle indulgent is the last shot. She's good, but not that good.
When the 'asshole' widens, by all means, let me know. I'll watch it.
-Ben
 
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