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

steve2bees said:
The drift of the current thread over on 5b reminded me, Mark, that I was wondering whether you ever had any qualms about the possibility of offending anyone's sensibilities by mixing up the Virgin Mary -- as a quasi accomplice -- in your twisted tale?
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Not really worried about offending anyone, no. I mean, look who you're talking to.

Ever since I started thinking about this story, I liked the idea of confusing the mother, the Virgin, and this urban legend. The great thing about the Virgin is you have this holy, pure icon that the girl can confound with her mother, as if her mother can do no wrong in her eyes. She worships the mother as something holy and unsoiled. When we first see her, she is literally combining the mother and the Virgin in a picture she's drawing.

I had even toyed with the idea of including a hint to Queen Mary, the real Bloody Mary. Because I'd read that rumors swirled around her that she would kill virgins and bathe in their blood to stay young. Not sure exactly how that would fit in, but it seemed along the lines of the themes I wanted to deal with, especially since, in the longer version, the girl is actually about 12 or 13 and gets her first period. So I wanted these elements of worshiping the mother/loss of purity/life change/separation from the mother to play heavily on the girl's psychology.

So when Bloody Mary leads her on to the murder, I wanted the idea that this step-father spoiled her pure relationship with the mother, and that quite possibly could be what's playing all in her head and causing her to act out this way. I wanted the horror to reflect what might be a real psychological state. Because the real horror is living with an abusive parent or step-parent. I've said this many times before, but one reason I love The Shining so much is it's not about a haunted hotel at all. It's about a little boy growing up with an alcoholic dad. And nothing's scarier than that. The horror is just imagery depicting that.

There was even an alternate ending at one point where the mother calls her after the murder, and we do actually find out that it was all in her head. But ultimately, I prefer to leave something like that up to the viewer's imagination.
 
Weaving the Virgin Mary into this story was absolutely one of my favorite aspects. There's SO friggin much power wrapped up in religious icons and symbols and I love a filmmaker who plays with that. I just loved how your actress appears with her white hood up and blue top that so cleverly mirrors the statue of the blessed Virgin.
 
Mark Johnson said:
Weaving the Virgin Mary into this story was absolutely one of my favorite aspects. There's SO friggin much power wrapped up in religious icons and symbols and I love a filmmaker who plays with that. I just loved how your actress appears with her white hood up and blue top that so cleverly mirrors the statue of the blessed Virgin.
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YOU GET A COOKIE!!!!!!! That was one of my FAVORITE costume choices and so far no one else has commented on it!!!!! :):):)
 
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Beautiful, man. I gasped when I saw it.
 
I think you achieved each of the associations you tried to establish. I'm glad you chose the indeterminate ending instead of the tidy one; one of my favorite things about the piece is how it causes you to shift and reshift your point of view between the different plausible interpetations. It's like looking at one of those perspective illusions where a given corner of a box seems to be jutting into the foreground and then, when you blink, suddenly receding into the distance, back and forth everytime you shift your attention. It is, by design, at once frustrating and addictive. I love it.
 
Mark J.
Stop bumping their thread ... we talked about this ... they are the competition ... divide and conquer remember ... oh wait unless you are lulling them into a false sense of security before we black mail Mark H. into dropping out of the race via those photos of him with his star trek uniform half off and doing something unmentionable to a hamster ... in which case, carry on.
 
Actually -- I think no one is commenting on it because its either so good they are like "of course", and it seems so right and well done ...

or

because it is subtle ... it definitely resonated for me, and I suspected that was the reason why, but there was not a side by side comparison and at that point i wasn't sure what the statuette was wearing.

In eithercase its very powerful ... either we recognize it and are kind of blown away by the subtle yet apropos visual underscoring of this element, or it works on us subconciously ... GREAT directing Mark H.
 
I think you have just the right balance of subtlety -- you don't want it to stick out more ... you could perhaps give us a visual reminder of the statue that dissolves into her or somethingk, but like I said I think you have the right balance of subtlty.

Does anyone really notice that Mrs. Robinson ALWAYS wears animal prints in The Gradute? Prob not, but it works on us to underscore her predatory nature anyway, even if just subconciously, which is better and probably more poweful ... again great choice Mark and I think perfectly executed.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I think you have just the right balance of subtlety -- you don't want it to stick out more ... you could perhaps give us a visual reminder of the statue that dissolves into her or somethingk, but like I said I think you have the right balance of subtlty.

Does anyone really notice that Mrs. Robinson ALWAYS wears animal prints in The Gradute? Prob not, but it works on us to underscore her predatory nature anyway, even if just subconciously, which is better and probably more poweful ... again great choice Mark and I think perfectly executed.
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Yeah, well I've got the Virgin dissolving into Bloody Mary later on. Ooooo, the layers upon layers!!!
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Mark J.
Stop bumping their thread ... we talked about this ... they are the competition ... divide and conquer remember ... oh wait unless you are lulling them into a false sense of security before we black mail Mark H. into dropping out of the race via those photos of him with his star trek uniform half off and doing something unmentionable to a hamster ... in which case, carry on.
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Hey, we're all friends here. And for your information, it was a GERBAL.
 
Well I finally watched them all and sent in my ballots. I have not been posting too much on the boards of late as I am trying to get my sh!t together so I can make my next short, do a job for a client and get my business up and running. But you guys are the first to get my review because you are my top pick. Do you smell that? Seriously what is that smell? Smells like HVX to me.

First and foremost to me is always story. And your story was the strongest. I am not a big fan of slasher flicks, I'm more of a psychological drama man when it comes to horror and you guys delivered.

The acting in your short was very strong. You lead was excellent. Your supporting cast also delivered. How the hell do you get Samuel Jackson to be in your movies?

The lighting was seriously off the chizain. (yeah I keep it gangsta). Timur may very well have been sired by Cucolorus the lighting God. Love, love, love the lighting in this one.

The camera work and framing was also excellent. There were several films that had otherworldy or people in their fims but it just looked like a normal person in the shot. You guys were able to make this very clear. The only shot I didn't like was the raising the knife into frame at 4:48. I think panning down would have been more effective.

Effects were very well done. The makeup on Bloody Mary looked creepy as hell. The blood coming out of the eyes of the statue was very cool. And the end with her covered in blood worked very well.

The only other things I didn't think woked was the title sequence. Small detail though and very easy to fix.

Let me splain'. No there is too much. Let me sum up. - You created an excellent, well told, interesting, visually stunning story. To you I say bravo.

Alex
 
Rock Punk! said:
Bloody Mary is in my #1 pick!

I believe that this well-crafted and well-told tale best represented horror in the dvxuser.com horrorfest.

I guess the best "Mary" won.:thumbsup:
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THakn you sir!!! i actually like MAry mercer alo too. it was interesting the dialogue between her and the friends while she could see her but not them. Thatwas hella creepy!
 
Alex DePew said:
Well I finally watched them all and sent in my ballots. I have not been posting too much on the boards of late as I am trying to get my sh!t together so I can make my next short, do a job for a client and get my business up and running. But you guys are the first to get my review because you are my top pick. Do you smell that? Seriously what is that smell? Smells like HVX to me.

First and foremost to me is always story. And your story was the strongest. I am not a big fan of slasher flicks, I'm more of a psychological drama man when it comes to horror and you guys delivered.

The acting in your short was very strong. You lead was excellent. Your supporting cast also delivered. How the hell do you get Samuel Jackson to be in your movies?

The lighting was seriously off the chizain. (yeah I keep it gangsta). Timur may very well have been sired by Cucolorus the lighting God. Love, love, love the lighting in this one.

The camera work and framing was also excellent. There were several films that had otherworldy or people in their fims but it just looked like a normal person in the shot. You guys were able to make this very clear. The only shot I didn't like was the raising the knife into frame at 4:48. I think panning down would have been more effective.

Effects were very well done. The makeup on Bloody Mary looked creepy as hell. The blood coming out of the eyes of the statue was very cool. And the end with her covered in blood worked very well.

The only other things I didn't think woked was the title sequence. Small detail though and very easy to fix.

Let me splain'. No there is too much. Let me sum up. - You created an excellent, well told, interesting, visually stunning story. To you I say bravo.

Alex
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Kokyloris AKA dad..... said to me, "i like that alex boy, hes a good soul"

Then he blessed you with the motivation to make a great film like memories.....

Thank you alex, Means alot my friend, because i knwo that you mean it from your heart.

Hugs. :)
-Timur
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I think you have just the right balance of subtlety -- you don't want it to stick out more ... you could perhaps give us a visual reminder of the statue that dissolves into her or somethingk, but like I said I think you have the right balance of subtlty.

Does anyone really notice that Mrs. Robinson ALWAYS wears animal prints in The Gradute? Prob not, but it works on us to underscore her predatory nature anyway, even if just subconciously, which is better and probably more poweful ... again great choice Mark and I think perfectly executed.
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Great observations jack. in the above post and the ones before it. Yea since he diddnt have to worry about things like camera, light and stuff, he got the free time to really flesh out the little touches he wanted to express. Mark doesnt realise it but he conceptualizes things like an artist. he makes fun of artists actually but if he spoke with good ones hed find he has alot in common with them. He is able to take from many sources and boil the concepts down into one coherent work of art.
 
TimurCivan said:
Great observations jack. in the above post and the ones before it. Yea since he diddnt have to worry about things like camera, light and stuff, he got the free time to really flesh out the little touches he wanted to express. Mark doesnt realise it but he conceptualizes things like an artist. he makes fun of artists actually but if he spoke with good ones hed find he has alot in common with them. He is able to take from many sources and boil the concepts down into one coherent work of art.
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Dude, you make me sound like a royal douche-bag with all that artist talk.
 
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