The Fallen: our entry to DramaFest

Hey Neil,
Congrats! You should be proud. The visuals were amazing and the revelation of the angel was awesome!! The narative could have been cleaned up, I was confused for most of the short. The cinematography was spot on (except the apartment scene with the girl and the tree). The 3 mob guys didn't act well but the other actors were really good. The fx of the angel was so cool! So was the angel a fallen angel? It's ironic, I've been working on a screenplay about fallen angels for 2 years now with the title The Fallen, oh well, they are totally different subject matters. Good makeup, especially the guy getting beaten up. So why did the angel commit suicide at the end?
 
Great Film... wrong fest.

I was very impressed with this work. It's a Cool Film with some sweet spfx, but for my taste this is more along the lines of a science ficition/fantasy than a drama.

This would have ranked very high in previous fests in my opinion, but as much as I dug it, I don't think I can vote for it because of it teetering on different genres.

I thought the angel at the end was awesome! Hope to see more of your work for sure!
 
Dude, I mean DUDE!

Location - I liked the variety of locations.

Acting - The three thugs were a little over the top, liked the security guard, the angel, acting was okay.

SFX - DUDE, I mean DUDE! That freakin' angel rocked. Where were you when we did the Black Angel. We could have used that talent.

Audio - lost some of the signal when the guard was about to get shot. Audio went a little weak.

A most enjoyable flick. My advice is for you to tweak that audio, get some solid ending credits, throw this out to some film festivals and see where it goes. That's what I'm saying.

Dude! Amazing.
 
REVIEW: THE FALLEN

Visuals are shiny. Sweeping, spinning, production values look sky high.

But, alas, we fall short in areas. From the beginning, the crane shot over the officer's face, I was like "oh okay, yeah, this is gonna rock.". And on a visual/technical level, it pretty much did. However, the story itself-- as a narrative-- seemed to trip and stumble.

It felt like it wanted to be a gangster flick, and then a sci-fi movie, and then other things. As though the plot/story, itself, were fumbling to find an audience. I really didn't know who was who, and I really didn't care about anyone at all. Seems as though there wasn't a real focus on anyone. Even with the angel having the voice over, telling us that he was there the entire time waiting to protect this guy. He wasn't important enough, to me, to really care what he was doing.

What was wrong with Eric? Did he lose his faith? After losing his faith, did this twisted turn of events lead him back to his faith? If that's the case, how important was it for us to know that some guys want some number from some other guy?

I ask the questions because I just have no idea, and the neat visuals aren't enough (for me) to keep this floating. Speaking of visuals--

The CG/Greenscreen totally backhands all of your practical effects and work. It reduces your visual quality, honestly. But, that might just be me. I'm sure a lot of people love the effects.

That said, what do I know!?

Oh, yeah, I know I want some cool Neil Rowe toys, as well!

Thanks for showing this off man. It looks really good.
 
Kholi said:
It felt like it wanted to be a gangster flick, and then a sci-fi movie, and then other things. As though the plot/story, itself, were fumbling to find an audience. I really didn't know who was who, and I really didn't care about anyone at all. Seems as though there wasn't a real focus on anyone. Even with the angel having the voice over, telling us that he was there the entire time waiting to protect this guy. He wasn't important enough, to me, to really care what he was doing.

What was wrong with Eric? Did he lose his faith? After losing his faith, did this twisted turn of events lead him back to his faith? If that's the case, how important was it for us to know that some guys want some number from some other guy?
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..to be honest, i actually wrote it with these things in mind. to me, the story isnt really about one person vs the other, or about telling us the entire story about why some weirdo was hired to wack some other guy for some info. its just supposed to portray peices of individual lives/worlds and the focus is really on how they all intersect, each with their own motivations (letting the audience imagination create thier own motivations for the charachters as they are all relatively cliche anyway) and then of course finally revealing the identity and crucial role/connection (within the human drama) of the mystery man in the whole thing in the blink of an eye without anyone else ever even knowing at the end. its really a film about a "happening", who that "happening" involved, and how it happend. its really just meant to invoke thought and reflection. however, these are only, and can only ever be my humble intentions for it. i have no problem with whatever it stirs up in anyone who watches it. it just is what it is to any particular viewer. i just hope that at least it was enjoyable to watch :)




"Great Film... wrong fest.
..for my taste this is more along the lines of a science ficition/fantasy than a drama."

..i know i know.. i figured i would get some questions on the matter. but i guess it didnt bother me. i just feel that a dramatic story is a dramtic story. same story on the earth or on the moon. but either way, im glad you enjoyed it :)
 
Neil Rowe said:
..i know i know.. i figured i would get some questions on the matter. but i guess it didnt bother me. i just feel that a dramatic story is a dramtic story. same story on the earth or on the moon. but either way, im glad you enjoyed it :)
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You're absolutely right. I'd love to see someone tell me that Lord of the Rings isn't drama.

There's a large misconception of what DRAMA is and it needs to be resolved.
 
shawneous said:
So why did the angel commit suicide at the end?
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well ..he doesn't. the story is entirely linear from the angel reccollecting what has already happend and how it all came together right up to that very point in time where he jumps/falls/drops directly into the story and moves forward with it.
 
i filled all the production roles for this one except for the positions of AD, grip, and boom op. so between writing it, to shooting it, to uploading it , i had my hands full. we had a little crew of 4 at most (a couple crew were also cast members, and i guess i had 5 when my wife was doing the "beat up" makeup for the eric charachter), and then the awsome cast which also pitched in to move equipment and such. I had an awsome AD/script supervisor that ive worked with in the past that helped me immensly throughout the production process. so my hat is way off to him. and i also had a few great guys doing grip work and boom op. i have to thank them for all thier hard work and effort which really made working on this possible. all the actors pitched in and helped with equipment moves and setups. my hats off to everyone involved with this as it everyone was so great to work with, and really helped bring this thing to life.

but as far as pre and post work, i did it all. so if by SFX , you mean sound fx. entirley all the sound aside from the charachters voices was created in post. and only the voices aside from the narrator are location sound. and if by SFX you mean special fx. all the SFX were done very straightforward with simple no budget techniques and just required some very creative planning to be pulled off hopefully halfway decent. i didnt have anyone to do CG or anything like that so it was all accomplished with live or still elements, the trusty HVX, and a bunch of weird looking shots and footage that shomehow all come together. I havent really done too many before and Im not a great SFX guy by any means. they were by far the biggest challenge for me with this film, but they needed to be there to really be faithful to the story. hopefully they turned out ok. :)
 
Wow, this is really impressive work. I agree with you Neil, for DramaFest, this is fine. It's dramatic, and i think there is this misconception that drama has to be of the Lifetime variety.

Technically, this short is CRAZY good - though I think you had some weak dolly wheels in there, kind of bumpy - j/k :)

Anyway, I thought everything about it was very solid, but I agree with some others here that I wanted more story. I think there is a lot more to tell there, and 6 min ain't gonna cut it. Maybe you said this, but is there more shot? Are you planning on a longer version?

I read what you said about the "happening," but really what you put on screen is bigger than that and you introduced a mythology a given circumstance with the lead character which - though it is familiar to us - I think needs more explanation in the film.

But man, do I want to see it!!!!!

GREAT WORK.
 
thank you for the kind words mark. you are certainly right in that it could have been longer. the completed version from the storyboard and script (which is scribble ont the storyboard next to the frames) would have been about 7-9 minutes. it doesnt have incredibly too much more in terms of actual background content rather there is more time given to certain shots and scenes. there is alot more visually of the angel in the end and other parts throughout the film in which the scripted voiceover of the angel delves a little more into what his purpose there was and not neccissarily about any charachter in specific, but about his relationship to the world and this story as well as his emotional involvement in it. due to the six minute restraint when it came time to edit it, as with everybodys edit im sure ..i really had to make some tough choices as to what could stay and what could go. i decided to just let the face/body language of the angel do the talking for emotional connection, and focus on the "suprise twist ending" and let the audience really think about it. ..just about gaurdian angels and the fact that he had his instructions to actually have to let the guy just about die before he could step in at the appointed time.. then he kills someone when he steps in. then leaves ..all without actually having anyone else ever knowing his involvement both physically and emotionally. hes sort of an unsung hero, and i guess i chose an edit in which he remains a mystery within the time that i had. ill admit that i have this problem of thinking of everything on an epic level. then i try to somehow squeeze 70 lemons into one glass of lemonade with these short films. i think i need to be making features instead of shorts. at least for sure the next short i do is going to be a more simple story with strong very small scale storyline focus, becuase i really need to learn how to reign in my imagination. :) i dont think ill rework the full edit of the film because i try to consider each project an excercise, this one with a 6 minute limit. i generally try to just let things sit where they fall and try to just take what ive learned from whats been done, and aplly it towards something new. the DVD version im doing in a while will likely just include the BTS photos and footage. ..which of course is longer than the film.
 
Awesome Neil. Great cinematography, effects were good. Your angel was great! Voiceover was very good... Loved the way it started and finished.

The bad guy was the lowlight for me. Lines didnt come off and the dialogue was average.

Again ..... GREAT!
 
Production value on this is over the top !
The first thing I noticed was that the V.O wasn’t too convincing. IMHO, it was too actorish, with false bass and pronunciation. Which brings me to the acting, which is always the hardest element to achieve with distinction. Mostly, it was what you see in a short film indie, but IMO, the doctor really subtracted from the flick. I’m willing to take something less than pro level here, but he needed many acting lessons (trying to be charitable). Part of it may have been that his dialogue was mixed low, though.


Some of the camera work felt out of step. If you kept a consistency, I’d have liked the ride more.

Watching this for a second time, I really wanted it to work. There’s so much good film making involved that I had a hard time figuring out why it was less than it should have been. Besides some of the corny acting, I gotta place some of my reasons on story and structure. For some reason it emulated an opening scene to a movie and less than a coherent short film. Yeah, the 3 acts were there.

Hmm, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because this material has been done a lot. I’d have liked you to have taken it for a different spin, script-wise, but all the aforementioned is purely subjective.

Overall, technically I was impressed. I watched the stopping of the bullet a buncha times. If you could have shown me that with a better backstory, you’d have a winner, IMO.

Appreciate you entering Neil…even though you’re an accomplished gent already. Thanks.




:beer:
 
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