The Door Between - a story about life and death

We live and learn, brother... live and learn.

LOL!


We are doing this to get better. And better we shall!

I forgot to mention above, that I really liked the "vignetting" in the house. I imagine that was done on purpose.

Just another element that you put in that make your film stand out!
 
Yep, the vignetting was done on purpose. I actually thought of doing the 'house' sequence in B&W to give it a more old silent movies feel that I wanted with the small frame rate and the scratches...but I wanted that warm colours in....who knows...
 
Yep! Came across. I liked it. I may have re-thought the scratches. I was going to mention it, but I liked them at first. Then they became a focal point and I kept watching them. Not a good thing! :)

But the color and vignetting were awesome touches!
 
Acting: I couldn’t see them enough but solid in some areas!
Script: WTF! Don’t ask me.
Direction: Interesting.
Music: I almost wet myself when that music kicked in, total 70’s zombie flick. :)
Editing: Original ideas here, slow-mo. It threw me a good thing!
Lighting: Just too plain dark.
Loved: Moons shots (hard shot did you use a tele?), lightning to blood fade, sunset shot (ACE). That it’s a world-cinema entry.
Hated: Titles font, old movie preset/ filter/ M.B. preset/ filter (Just made it too soft for me.)
Overall: I’m stunned. I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong. It's just I didn't expect it to be so different. Well done on making something original. Argento feel for me. Top job.

J.P.

Your throwing in some really interesting work around here. I admire you for it.
 
Hey John - I've enjoyed watching both of your movies in the fest. They are really different from all the other stuff. Way to be innovative.

Your other one was poetic. This one was trippy. Wooo-ooohhhh...trippy vampires. Very neat. I liked your vampire vision. I have to agree with a previous post that I'm not a big fan of the film scratches added in post. If you really like them, I would suggest at least making them a little more subtle. Or how about experimenting with sound to make it seem old...I'm imagining very quiet in the background, the scratchy sound a record makes when it's at the end of a side, and the needle just floats on the empty space...or something like that.

Fun stuff. Good work, and glad to hear you're submitting it to some film fests. Good luck!
 
John, sorry it took me so long to see both your movies.
Both because I didn't want to leave you hanging.
AND because I really liked them.
NICE change of pace.

I really liked the opening, but I'm pissed that Darkline already compared it to Argento because that's what I was gonna say! But very Argento feel and even very Goblinesque music - mad props to your bro.

So I think originality has been mentioned here before but at the risk of being unoriginal I mention it again. Props. I think you are a ways off from refining a viable style that will knock people's socks off but I think its in you. Keep working and exploring.

I said in your other thread that you have the soul of a poet. Well clearly you have the soul of a Philosopher as well. I like films that make me think and explore a theme.

I also liked the freeze frame violence, but be careful of this effect, it only goes so far and would be better in an actual action sequence where it highlights moments in a regularly coreographed constantly moving fight. It would be kind of a 70's action movie effect but it could be cool.

You get some good looks with your CC but I encourage you to try and do more in camera and with lights.

The CC behind the film striping didn't seem to match for me, the lines looked very laid on and the CC looked like a vintage feel but not actually aged film.

Next step for you is lights and actors I think.

I enjoyed this and I hope you have other offerings for us in future fests.

Congrats.

Jack
 
To Jack:

Jack thank you for taking the time to post this comment! It was again a really really really helpful comment that means the world to me. I was discussing this yesterday with my brother and his wife, that I have received comments that went beyond the 'loved it' or 'didnt work for me' theme. Seeing as how people explained what they liked, why they liked it and how some things were off and gave me some things to explore further and improve is SO important coz I can really feel that I did a nice job overall and that I can improve.

For your comments, I know that the scratches and CC behind it were kinda off and seeing in Rekindled your version of 'old-film' style made me realize that I need to put more thought into some ideas and not just go ahead and integrate them in my movies without checking twice.
Lights, lights, lights...:) I know man....I'm working on it. I was drained in all ways with the CC and filters and and and....to make the images look brighter....there were clips in my timeline that had 5 or 6 MB filters...
I am definitely sticking around and I will be sharing my future projects with this community, so we ll see if progress is something that can be added to my agenda :)

To Jean-Paul:

Because I dont want to be misunderstood and because I thought that people would realise it (but it seems not) ALL THE SHOTS WITH THE MOONS AND THE SUNS ARE STOCK FOOTAGE FROM DIGITAL JUICE. I dont want to take credit for things that had nothing to do with me, maybe the edit worked or they fit the context but I DIDNT SHOOT THOSE :) In both intro and end credits I clearly stated that stock footage was from Digital Juice. I am not THAT good.

Thanx AGAIN EVERYBODY!!!!
 
All right, coming back to review, but I have to tell you, it didn't FEEL twice as long as the others. So good job so far!!!!
 
I'm posting some random shots from shooting The Door Between:

Picture1: ok..you can all spot the lovely couple top-right corner....guess what...we did that again - duh!-

PassersBy.bmp


Picture2: this is a very creppy ashtray skull I picked up from London last June, you push a button at the bottom and the eyes flash like that while you can hear a very very eerie sound playing...we thought about putting this in the movie but decided not to, maybe in comedy fest....

skull1.bmp


Picture3: ok...this is what happens with non-actors....guess what he's reading now....:Drogar-Smoke(DBG):

StratosReading1.bmp
 
All right, I have watched this 5 times and each time meant to come comment, and each time got sucked into something else. Until now.

First off, I pat myself on the back for being able to understand about 80% of the movie with the subtitles blocked. Haven't lost ALL my Greek, but sometimes I need you to go a little more siga siga to understand, if you get my drift.

Anyway, dude, this is one of the most unique styles I've seen in the fest. It also hearkens to another style that I don't think any other filmmaker in the fest touched on: JOHN ****ING CARPENTER!!! The music was exactly like the music he would write for one of his movies!!! How did we get through this whole festival with only ONE nod to the Carp?

I dug the cc, though in my view, you can relax it a little. It sometimes gets in the way of your story. I like that you change up the colors in specific moments to indicate certain things happening. I did the same in BLOODY MARY. Used a color to indicate a mood, a time shift, a fantasy scene, whatever. But i think a lighter hand can get the job done a little better.

And for those reds, you can throw a chroma-blur on there to smooth out the blockiness. DV is TERRIBLE with red.

But like i said before, I guess the biggest compliment is that it did not feel twice as long as the other entries. The story kept moving.

I like how you did the fight scenes, actually. They looked like the kind of thing you might do if you don't have the resources to stage really cool fights. Or they looked like a very specific stylistic choice. Either way, I kind of dug them because they still communicated some of the energy of the fight. If I were you, I would keep playing with that technique and seeing how far you can take it. Like if you do it in your next movie, experiment with MORE shots to cut back and forth to, close-ups of punches being thrown, feet hitting the ground, etc. The style is very Anime though, and pretty cool.

Also, how did you do the Father's voice??????? I've heard that effect before, but have never really tried it. How? How?
 
desperatecomfort said:
First off, I pat myself on the back for being able to understand about 80% of the movie with the subtitles blocked. Haven't lost ALL my Greek, but sometimes I need you to go a little more siga siga to understand, if you get my drift.
Click to expand...

LOL! Man you rock! But when I read you understood I thought 'crap, he now knows....' :Drogar-Smoke(DBG):

desperatecomfort said:
Anyway, dude, this is one of the most unique styles I've seen in the fest.
Click to expand...

I've been getting comments or compliments like this one from others about both films and I must say that I am extremely flattered. Doing something different was not my intention since I didnt know what the others would do. Of course, doing this I knew that it didnt have a typical movie-like format....but still....I just did what I thought was nice, whatever worked, what I loved and mostly I did what I could do with the resources and experience at hand.


desperatecomfort said:
It also hearkens to another style that I don't think any other filmmaker in the fest touched on: JOHN poo pooING CARPENTER!!! The music was exactly like the music he would write for one of his movies!!! How did we get through this whole festival with only ONE nod to the Carp?
Click to expand...
Man my brother did an amazing job. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I love the songs he wrote and keep listening to them on and on. I love songs in movies. A score with some really nice chords,pianos etc is nice and works perfectly well but I love songs...so I wanted songs for this one.

desperatecomfort said:
I dug the cc, though in my view, you can relax it a little. It sometimes gets in the way of your story. I like that you change up the colors in specific moments to indicate certain things happening. I did the same in BLOODY MARY. Used a color to indicate a mood, a time shift, a fantasy scene, whatever. But i think a lighter hand can get the job done a little better.
Click to expand...

Well as I've said before, Eyes Wide Shut was a big school for me in terms of color choices and their meaning. I like doing stuff like colors or some filter that represents an emotion, a state of mind or something that is gonna happen and see if the viewer can pick it up. However, luck of lights and experience and stress made me overdo it...I am telling you dude, if you take a peek at my timeline in Premiere and see how many filters are applied you ll get mad!


desperatecomfort said:
And for those reds, you can throw a chroma-blur on there to smooth out the blockiness. DV is TERRIBLE with red.
Click to expand...
TELL ME ABOUT IT!!!!!


desperatecomfort said:
But like i said before, I guess the biggest compliment is that it did not feel twice as long as the other entries. The story kept moving.
Click to expand...

This is one of the things that we noticed from the first time we watched it complete! Actually its the only thing (along with music and sound) that I knew was working well before starting with the comments. Our very first short was 15' ....oh man it was dragging its feet like a prisoner who just got out of bed...
this one had so much life into it and it kept moving on and on and the pace ...


desperatecomfort said:
I like how you did the fight scenes, actually. They looked like the kind of thing you might do if you don't have the resources to stage really cool fights. Or they looked like a very specific stylistic choice. Either way, I kind of dug them because they still communicated some of the energy of the fight. If I were you, I would keep playing with that technique and seeing how far you can take it. Like if you do it in your next movie, experiment with MORE shots to cut back and forth to, close-ups of punches being thrown, feet hitting the ground, etc. The style is very Anime though, and pretty cool.
Click to expand...

I've talked about the fight scenes before. Yes, at first when we went to shoot on the rooftop and knew we wanted fight scenes, I told Stratos that we should just shoot in slow-mo or just shoot like frames and that I would pick the footage and make something sin-city like or whatever. Everybody loves those fights scenes but yeah they are overused. And sometimes the way I used the zoom in them meant something, like when the Father grabbed Stratos from behind and then he threw him away the zoom starts from Stratos' stomach where the seed of the Father lies, that was actually what gave him the strength at the moment.


desperatecomfort said:
Also, how did you do the Father's voice??????? I've heard that effect before, but have never really tried it. How? How?
Click to expand...

Hahahaha, its not that hard I think! We're moving into my brother's territory now however and I can't help you but I PROMISE I'll get back at you with this one or maybe include it in the DVD interview like a quick tutorial for DesperateComfort ;)

Thanx so much for the review!
Gia sou!
 
John, You should be very proud of what you've accomplished here.

I am very moved by your passion. It flows right through to your work.

I am delighted at the beginning of this friendship that is taking place between us and look forward to the many more stories and films we have ahead of us!

Great Work!

Congratulations and Best to you and Stratos!!!

Ted
 
As we ready ourselves to watch a few episodes of Little Britain and have a nice dinner, we thank your for your kind words!!!!
 
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