"sara's gone." -- a film by Abraham and TheMacB

abraham

abraham

Well-known member
sarasgone.jpg


"sara's gone."
​
Here is our short. It is our second Fest with DVXUser, the first being our entry, "A Brief Case" into Sci-Fest.

We had a great time making this thing, and paid close attention to the lovely diagram displayed on the Festival Rules page. Hope you guys dig it.

There should be some production stills floating around somewhere that I hope to get uploaded here at some point.

Can't wait to get this party started.
good luck guys,

evan & adam
(abraham & themacb)
 
Welcome and congrats! Good luck on the fest!!!

I believe that you are the third to announce your entry today! Better late than never! I like the simplicity of your poster. Nice composition.

OH! I see that you are in Vermont! Welcome, welcome! I haven't seen too many New Englanders on these pages.

Best to you!
 
Yep, same here... A Brief Case was great. Looking forward to seeing what you did this time! By the way, if the next fest is comedy.... please submit a remake of "Jesus" (I say remake not because the original is bad, but so that you won't be DQed :thumbsup:) Funny stuff.
 
ignatius said:
Yeah, A Brief Case was great fun, funny and cool, I'm looking forward to this one.
Click to expand...

I will simply second this and say I'm eager to check out what you have come up with for this one.
 
Love the Lincoln-Grant avatar.

Interesting that you will have key characters in your movie called "Eric" and "Sara," too. We're Anxious to get into all the viewing, too...mere hours away!
 
RomanJaquez said:
Downloading "A Briefcase" right now. :)
Click to expand...
ditto - it's like Christmas Eve - opening a small present to hold you over till morning!

welcome to the Fest . . .
 
i'm having a really tough time getting this h.264 to work. something really weird is going on at the beginning. there's one opening title over black that for some reason keeps changing to gray for about 1 second. then the movie starts and everything is fine. i'm about ready to give up. hopefully people can just disregard the second second of our movie. can't wait to watch all the others!
 
let me just add to the consensus that a brief case was excellent. and yeah, jesus was hilarious. i'm really looking forward to seeing your entry.
 
Heya guys! Looking forward to checking out your film. Poster looks pretty slick. Definitely a minimal approach and simple. Makes me wonder where Sara's hiding... or... the irony.. the suspense... :)

good luck!
/j
 
word -- thanks a lot guys. too bad we're having some problems with this quicktime stuff. anybody ever experienced anything like this??
 
arrright. looks like Geoff_R (Presenting Heritage in the fest) is hooking us up with a good file...so no more grey mess.


goddamn this would've been the perfect day for me to watch all of these movies. i wish you could plan when to get the flu. just to get it out of the way -- i feel like i get the damn flu at least once a year. if i could just plan it accordingly i could have a really good time with it.
 
Wow, am I the first one to review this? What can I say...it certainly was dark. A 180 from A Brief Case, which I loved. It was my choice as best movie in SciFest. This was good, but in this competition, it just didn't stand out. I thought the acting was good, particularly Eric. The young girl seemed forced at times. The story was entertaining and complete. I like the cinematography...its darkness matched the story. So why didn't I like it more? I guess I just felt I'd seen it before, too many times. Technically, I thought it was good but some of the music didn't work for me. You certainly proved that you can handle different material and I give you kudos for that. I've got to congratulate you for taking a chance and doing something completely different.
 
Nice job on your entry. I agree that the girl seemed forced quite a bit. It really had a dark side, that I wasn't totally prepared for... I thought Eric did a nice job and I appreciate you doing something different from the norm. I thought the sets looked very good and reflected the mood of the film. Heartbreaking story, but you pulled it off.
 
REVIEW: SARA

Currently one of the most complete in the fest. Congrats on that.

I was pulled out of it several times. Why did you choose to intercut scenes instead of allowing it to progress on a linear track? For me, it was the cuts back and forth that removed the impact of the payoff and the overall impact of his dilemma. While it may be nothing I haven't seen before, it was certainly tangible and effective. She's a crazy *****, now how's this gonna end up? I think the technical issue of editing, or perhaps script structure, removed it me a bit too much.

Your younger female was so over the top at times that I wanted to Laugh Out Loud (LOL) at her misfortune and insanity. Her facial expression near the beginning of her appearance was comical. Also, the entire office scene feels rushed and thoughtless. He divulges personal information as an excuse for not tipping, and then she cries on his shoulder. It just seemed off, to me. Could it have been redone in a way, or re-written in a way, that made it as effective as the scenes in the room? A total contrast to the monster that's been created?

Great shots going on in the bedroom, as well. I really liked those. The weakest of all would've been the entire dinner table scene. It seemed really forced into the corner. I almost feel like that was purposely done, but the point you were trying to get across with this relationship didn't come out the way you wanted. I could be wrong, though!

Overall pretty complete, which I do applaud for sure. You've presented a very apparent conflict, which is exactly what drama is about. The execution is where it seems to slip and slide.

Do you think re-editing could turn it around as far as story goes?

Those are just my thoughts, though. Pretty cool, dude.
 
hey thanks a lot for the criticism guys. all really constructive and i appreciate it a lot.

this movie has turned into kind of a bear for us. as a couple of ya said this is something entirely new to us -- not only the genre, but the idea of working with actors who aren't our friends.
Sara was my professor, Eric is a local actor, and Jessica Hodge is a student and friend from UVM. I know I was nervous to be working with "grown-ups" and I think it definitely comes through especially in that office scene.
Also our lovely octava microphone had broken just before we shot, so the sound is pretty damned horrible at times.

But each of these movies is a lesson.

It's interesting what you say Kholi about the structure. We were particularly fond of the jumping through time a bit -- starting the last scene at the beginning, the opening line "anyone call for me" of course referring to the mistress's phone call.
If it were to go in order, it would start with the office scene, then the bedroom, and then the kitchen. we felt like we should get right into the thick of it, to pull people in.

As far as the weakest link, i'd have to go with the office. I like those kitchen scenes -- i only wish we had an empty chair at the table. But in the office, I personally just didn't hit the mark I wanted as a director. Adam will have to give you his take on things. But I and I think We wanted to show that this girl is just a rolling snowball of emotion -- a complete opposite of Sara, who has become outwardly emotionally numb.

the faults in this picture, as i am dwelling on them, are not in the way they were shot, i think adam nailed some beautiful stuff -- most of it planned, but a lot of it improvised, but in the way that the actors were led. All three of them were very maleable, and easy-going about what i said. Imagine telling your professor how to stab herself in the chest and die slowly, haha. But she was so chill, and it was so relaxing. And at first it was very rewarding to see how well they had taken my direction, but then it came known that the directions I had given had kind of deviated from what we had initially gone over.

***spoiler
what did you think of sara's death?
 
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