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

Bloody Mary is by far my favorite. It totally captured my attention with the pacing and clean editing. Great work!
 
Brandon Rice said:
um yeah.... if you want to get rid of your DVX, just let me know, haha, lol :)
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Hah!

hang on to your NAsa DVX Brandon! you dont need no HVX, youre rocking Space program!
 
snodart said:
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.
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Wow man thank you. Its great knowing that all you guys whom i talk with almost eveyday really like our work. :) makes me super happy!


Aram Bauman said:
You guys did an excellent job on this. One of my top picks fo' sho'
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I am arams paduan learner. he is my Gaffing Jedi. I learn much from him.... Thank you master.



msconce said:
Everything about this blew me away. From Start to finish absolutely brilliant! The acting at the end was amazing!
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Dude. lemmetell you. Stricken was GORGEOuS. I watched it with a dumb grin on my face, i LOVE that glowy look. We need totalk. lol One DP to another.
Thank you for the comments... :D



jpbankesmercer said:
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!

+Thanks for your kind word's about mine.
Jp
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Bloody mary will kick Candy mans ass. Ive seen it happen...... Hairy stuff and Scary stuff were there too. they can attest. :)

Thanks for the kind owrds yourself!

Lingothree said:
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!
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Yea i got goosebumps alot watching the monitor while for that scene too. Sarah ( who playedthe mother) and Gofrey ( the step dad) are very good friends. and the killing scene really shook her up. she almsot cried in the end of every take. we did 5, and she gave 110% EVERYtime. no matter how much it disturbed her.
she is a trooper.

The costumes were Nina Pinchin's responsibilty. Our AD. She is a theatre director and definintly knows what will look nice where. Thakns for leaving comments!



Jack Daniel Stanley said:
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.
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Thanks for a good critique jack!

Thoes are definitly the halmarks of a theatre guy.. TExture TExture Texture.... You toally see it in Rekindled. You added a patina to almost ever surface in your living room. Really transformed the space nicely.
I did it with gels and light instea of paint. i dont think mark wantedto have to repaint every room in everyones house...... lol
I though it made sense that only MAry could Summon Bloody Mary. thereby not needing to explain why the ghost can travel. Oh well we have the luxury of reading the script.... lol



sean90291 said:
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.
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Yea its visually an art film.... as muh as i tried to make it. I went out of my way to create disorienting compositions and ighting schemes to help deliver a psychologicall tension. I did my best. The strory is based on Hamlet. and that was a quite fractured story actually now that i thnk about it. So yea. ITs like that. :) thanks for the kind owrds man.!

penfever said:
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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LMFAO
This was the best post of the year...... Any post that ends with "When the asshole widens. by all means let me know, i'll watch" when refering ot our work..... MY lord.. haha.

When this gets made in to a Feature you can test screen it... if you let us use your redcamera ? :D !!!!!! Thank you forthe constructive input. Next time it will be perfect!


rich_s said:
I've watched about 80% of the shorts and Bloody Mary is the best one I've seen so far. You've got a distinct style here that you were able to retain through out. You did a great job of incorporating a lot of "horror" elements while not giving in to the Micheal Bay editing style. You respected your story and actors and let the story speak for itself.

One of the moments that stick out in my mind is when the mother is holding the girl and blood starts dripping on her face. Rather than throwing in a flash frame and some over the top effects you let that moment play out which really drew me in and gave me a WTF feeling.

REALLY dug the father. That guy creeped me the eff out. Loved the moment when he turns to the camera while sitting at the desk. Again, I really loved that you let these little moments play out.

Great job man! This is a solid piece of work!
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Rich! thank you for noticing the fine little detials mark and i left in. it sfunny. many poeple feel the pace needed to be quicker. whe i saw the first rough cut, i freaked because i felt the movie was so rushed!!! i wanted long slow tesnion building shots.

i love moviesthat scare you with space, pace, and sound, way before they get you with a monster or gore. ( i dont think Gore is scary though just cool to lok at. haha)
 
Great work guys.

My initial impression of Bloody Mary is that it looks great - very stylized and there are a lot of scary images. It sounded great, too. This is one piece that really shows how much a good score can add to a film.

Storywise, the first scene was the most interesting to me, because it had the most character development. Unfortunately, it kind of ended there. If more would have been developed with her mother, the scary stuff near the end would have been even scarier. I also didn't really understand the main character's relationship to the black guy which made that scene where they first meet sort of strange to me.

The acting, especially the main girl, was very good. The well-recorded sound and score also added to the overall acting performance.

The cinematography was very good. Interesting angles and selective focus really helped me get into the film. I also liked the lighting, it really added to the overall creepy atmosphere of the film - my only slight issue with the lighting is that it wasn't very consistent. At times the inconsistency really paid off, like when you go from the softly lit white shot of the main character and her mother holding hands to the scary green shot. In the first scene, though, the inconsistency was distracting like when the friends crowd around the main character before pushing her into the bathroom the lighting is dark and almost pink, but when you cut to the shot of her grasping the virgin mary statue the lighting is totally different - it sort of took me out of the story.

I also like that you got the camera moving - it was very effective at certain times - like when you push into the bathroom door when the first girl is doing the bloody mary thing. At other times, it seemed superfluous to the story, but it definitely added to the production value of the piece.

My favorite part of the whole thing is the shot after we see the blood dripping on her face - when the main character falls and you reveal the scary looking girl. Great work. I also like the last shot in the tub - it's a great image to leave the audience with.
 
thanks luster for the detailed comments! Making my way to yours too!

Yeah, the story definitely has issues. About 50% of the people get it and 50% don't. So after the fest, I may go back to the cutting room to see what I can do to bring in the other 50% with some changes, maybe some slight additions.

Might be cool to have an after-horrorfest director's cut thread...
 
TIMUR.

I have to agree that the ENTITY is by far one of the best psychological-horror films. Period. The tension in the shots is amazing and you guys hit that many times with Bloody Mary.

There are some great films so far, but BM seems to hit so many of the right chords with me.
 
TimurCivan said:
Thanks Kholi! I love the "lemme brush her nappy hair part.. lol. if you saw poor rachel, she needed a bit of kindness on set. she was miserable. that costume while looking awesome was apparently
terribly uncomfortable.

Lemme ask you though? you said we could chop it down to five minutes. Do you mean by removing the opening scene or just with quicker cutting???? Acually this should be
directed to mark as he is the Editor. but im just curious what youre thinking? Thanks for watching hope we made you crap you pants.

Getting to the rest in a few minutes!
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I've had plenty o'experience with Nappy hair. It sucks!

And yeah, I meant by chopping out the beginning. But, I've read discussion from Mark that he might add in establishing shots for another version, which would actually make that opening scene a LOT better.

A bit more sweetening and you dudes are well on your way to getting feature funding. You're already in line for an HVX200, there's your HD camera right there.

You dudes did an awesome job. I want some BTS NOW!
 
Hey Jack,

can I call my all girls' school the "Jack Daniel Stanley School for the Development of Young Ladies?" Will you play a Nun?
 
yes, which reminds me of the groucho line

"then we took some pictures of the native girls ... but they were underdeveloped so we're going back in two weeks"

part of the Animal Cracker's speech at the piano
 
desperatecomfort & Tim,

I've seen the usual suspects of films so far, but this one stands out for me.

As a directors showcase of their directing skills, this should land you a feature gig somewhere down the line.

The acting, which often scuppers entries, was spot-on.

There's something I can't put my finger on that I like so much about this film...

... Either way, congrats. And thanks for making this short.

EJ
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
yes, which reminds me of the groucho line

"then we took some pictures of the native girls ... but they were underdeveloped so we're going back in two weeks"

part of the Animal Cracker's speech at the piano
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Awesome!!!! HA
 
desperatecomfort said:
thanks luster for the detailed comments! Making my way to yours too!

Yeah, the story definitely has issues. About 50% of the people get it and 50% don't. So after the fest, I may go back to the cutting room to see what I can do to bring in the other 50% with some changes, maybe some slight additions.

Might be cool to have an after-horrorfest director's cut thread...
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voice over? i know some people think it's sacrilege. but in a short, with so little time to develop a bigger story, it might be just the ticket!
 
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