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

I took my time getting to my review of this. Mainly because I didnt give it a fair run on first viewing. I'd seen about 20 films in a row and was all horrored out! I decided to give it a break and see more in the morning.

I watched it again today and it is certainaly one of the best of the fest, without question.

While I will be honest and say it didn't scare me, it did have all the other ingredients. Great lighting, camerawork, a nice condensed story that didn't feel too big for it's run time. Just very nicely put together. I dug the Candyman and Ring influences, but in a good way. My favourite shot is when she is stood in the doorway ushering with her finger that was actually quite creepy... :-)


Well done to all of you, a lot of work has gone into this and I think you or Jack will end up with the HVX, which is only fitting. congrats guys!
 
John_Hudson said:
This was one of my favorties. Top 5 for sure. I loved the taking of an urban legend and turning into something that was real. I think you did a great job.

It starts off and feels familiar; 3 chicks having a slumber party .. good times.

Scary, well planned and executed!

My only serious reservation was the performance ofthe lead firl; one second she seems like the tough girl , the next she is terified ... it didnt seem consistent with the stoy.

Other than tha, great job!
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Yeah, you nailed one more thing about trying to cram too much fart out the asshole. There is SOOOOO much more I want to do with exactly that transition in her performance. And I wished I would have kept some more toughness throughout. But I was juggling that, madness, etc. She did what I directed her to do, but I was simply trying to do too much for 6 min. So that change comes off abrupt to me as well.

Thanks for watching! I appreaciate you taking the time!
 
Darkline said:
I took my time getting to my review of this. Mainly because I didnt give it a fair run on first viewing. I'd seen about 20 films in a row and was all horrored out! I decided to give it a break and see more in the morning.

I watched it again today and it is certainaly one of the best of the fest, without question.

While I will be honest and say it didn't scare me, it did have all the other ingredients. Great lighting, camerawork, a nice condensed story that didn't feel too big for it's run time. Just very nicely put together. I dug the Candyman and Ring influences, but in a good way. My favourite shot is when she is stood in the doorway ushering with her finger that was actually quite creepy... :-)


Well done to all of you, a lot of work has gone into this and I think you or Jack will end up with the HVX, which is only fitting. congrats guys!
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I know how you feel. I have sooooo many to get to a first time, or get BACK to with detailed comments. I've very happy that everyone in the fest seems to be taking a lot of time to detail their thoughts on these. It's so cool that everyone is super involved.

But if this doesn't scare you, I do have some footage of Timur naked...
 
yeh its really dififcult to watch all these movies and stay concentrated. at the end of the night it all seems like a bit of a blur - and i felt i should go back rewatch this one. glad I did!

Is Timur your cat? :-)
 
Darkline said:
yeh its really dififcult to watch all these movies and stay concentrated. at the end of the night it all seems like a bit of a blur - and i felt i should go back rewatch this one. glad I did!

Is Timur your cat? :-)
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Timur's the DP who did this movie with me. :)
 
I know :-) I just think if I had a cat I'd call it Timur.....

tell him he's a good DP (then give him some milk)

waaaa, Ive spent too much time infront of the monitor...
 
Hey I read in another thread that you go to the NYC horror fest each year. If you go this year please, please, check out my film 'Eddie Loves You' and let me know if you thought it was dog turd or not!

Id love to go to New York myself to see it, but Im not sure I'll have the finances to do so.

As a matter of interest what is it like? is it a big film fest? worth the trip from the UK?

sorry I dont want to hijack the thread! BLODDY MARY IS ACE BY THE WAY :-)!
 
I like milk...... :)

And the sight of me naked has sent women screaming out of the room....... ITs a blessing ... its a curse.... lol
 
John_Hudson said:
This was one of my favorties. Top 5 for sure. I loved the taking of an urban legend and turning into something that was real. I think you did a great job.

It starts off and feels familiar; 3 chicks having a slumber party .. good times.

Scary, well planned and executed!

My only serious reservation was the performance ofthe lead firl; one second she seems like the tough girl , the next she is terified ... it didnt seem consistent with the stoy.

Other than tha, great job!
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Yea the adapteation of the legend is what attracted me ot this project. MArk did a great job combining Shakespere with an urban myth.

Yea mark talked about how much more involved he wanted the performance to be. i have a strong feeling that the feature version of this will have very minimal "scary stuff" and be more about the leads emotional/mental imbalance surrounding her mother and step dad.
 
macintosh said:
CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Wow, great work. You guys did a great job of really utilizing the 35mm adapter and not just throwing it on to get extremely shallow depth of field. Great job keeping focus especially on the dolly shots. I really like the shot of the three girls moving forward on the couch telling the other girl that she's going to hell. I also like the shot of the man looking down the stairs. The lighting was also very nice, the shadows were nicely put.
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Yea i treat the 35 adapter as a different camera. not just as a DOF filter. I use what ever the scene calls for to get the shot. The beauty of it is you can now CHOOSE what you want and where you want it. in combination with blocking and movment it makes for more compelling images.


macintosh said:
ACTING:

All of your actors did a great job. The three teenage girls on the couch played their parts very well, and the main girl did an awesome job. She was very good at playing different emotions and was very convincing. Major props for her sitting in the tub with all of that "blood" on her. I would think that doing that would be so difficult, and her performance during that part was awesome.

Overall I thought that this was a very good film. It had great cinematography, editing, acting, directing, audio. Everything really meshed together well. Seeing the girl with all that blood on in the end was a little disturbing, but I think thats something you guys were going for.
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Yea i love the Harpies. they made such a great introducion and helped build just a little bit of charachter development to Mary, while ushering the story along.
 
Darkline said:
I took my time getting to my review of this. Mainly because I didnt give it a fair run on first viewing. I'd seen about 20 films in a row and was all horrored out! I decided to give it a break and see more in the morning.

I watched it again today and it is certainaly one of the best of the fest, without question.

While I will be honest and say it didn't scare me, it did have all the other ingredients. Great lighting, camerawork, a nice condensed story that didn't feel too big for it's run time. Just very nicely put together. I dug the Candyman and Ring influences, but in a good way. My favourite shot is when she is stood in the doorway ushering with her finger that was actually quite creepy... :-)


Well done to all of you, a lot of work has gone into this and I think you or Jack will end up with the HVX, which is only fitting. congrats guys!
Click to expand...

i think we were going for creepy, instead of pure MOVIE MASTER style terror. If Bloody mary scared you, all the better, but to a degree i almost wanted the bloody mary charachter to have a sympathetic quality. fearsome looking, but vulnerable somehow. she never really attacks mary. only shows her truth.

Too bad the mask didint show. she was all slashed and burned up. alot of the great detials i built into the mask never got seen cause of how long the hair was.

Thats ok though. i did design her that way.
 
TimurCivan said:
i think we were going for creepy, instead of pure MOVIE MASTER style terror. If Bloody mary scared you, all the better, but to a degree i almost wanted the bloody mary charachter to have a sympathetic quality. fearsome looking, but vulnerable somehow. she never really attacks mary. only shows her truth.
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I just noticed this comment and wanted to say that I think you nail this aspect.

P.S. you had better make sure your system can handle HD!
 
One of the reasons I rate it at the top is because it found that combination between running time and story complexity - without pushing it to an MTV style pop video. It's a tricky combintation which I think you nailed.

Hear what you say about the mask, but maybe it's a good thing. I certainly think not seeing her face made it more creepy for me. I havent read all the posts here but I liked the ending because even I wasnt sure whether she had been tricked by the ghost, and we dont get to find out.
 
Darkline said:
...I havent read all the posts here but I liked the ending because even I wasnt sure whether she had been tricked by the ghost, and we dont get to find out.
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Hurray!!!!!!! You just made me the happiest man of Sunday.
 
Hey guys! Just wanted to pop in and tell you guys that I think that your film is one of the best in this festival!

Absolutely Top 3!

I would go "all the way" and say it is the best, but I don't go all the way on the first date! :grin:

You guys assembled a film here that you should be very proud of. I have seen it several times and each time I am just mesmerized at your work.

I have to get back to viewing other films but I wanted to just pass that on. You deserve the accolades you are receiving!!!

Ted
 
TheatreGuy said:
Hey guys! Just wanted to pop in and tell you guys that I think that your film is one of the best in this festival!

Absolutely Top 3!

I would go "all the way" and say it is the best, but I don't go all the way on the first date! :grin:

You guys assembled a film here that you should be very proud of. I have seen it several times and each time I am just mesmerized at your work.

I have to get back to viewing other films but I wanted to just pass that on. You deserve the accolades you are receiving!!!

Ted
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Thanks guys!

I just worked AC with a REAL DP today on a short called "Chords". I learned so much today, its crazy. I hope to apply all this to the next film i shoot. It means alot to me that som any of you thought enough of our work to say the nice thigns you did!!!

I am sorry i havent been able to write indepth reviews for everyone yet, but ive been swamped with work, this past week. But i promise i will get there !!!!

Thank you!
 
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