Mark and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Drama

Overall, a very impressive film! Feels much more like a big movie than any other film in the fest.

I love the book in the beginning with the photographs; it's easy to cheat that and shoot from an angle that shows him pulling one photo...but you went the difficult route and actually designed a book! I wouldn't be surprised if numerous pages were filled with information.

Having the ambulance scene right away really kicks it into high gear and tells us we're watching a big film, nice editing on that scene.

I like the cinematography because it serves to support the acting; you'll hold on a shot a little longer before moving to a closeup or another shot. I like that. You're only using closeups when they serve a purpose.

I like how quickly it moves and how you've got a bunch of colorful characters. They all stand out on their own! I love the whole 'story' against the fence when they explain threading the needle. That's my favorite scene!

My favorite line/moment is when you've got the closeup of the guy yelling, "come on Eric!". That moment coupled with the score is the absolute best in my opinion. And it's followed by the best VFX shot in the film. Rather (2) of the best VFX shots in the film!

A very deep, haunting score...very impressive film :)
 
Hey All,

Sorry I haven't been on the boards. Unfortunately, the timing of the festival was bad for me as I have my annual Superbowl party which is pretty huge and requires a lot of preparation! And I will say, that I wanted to cancel the party this year, and "no" not because my team wasn't in it! It is acutally a really weird and wonderful thing that has happened to me this year. Once I started becoming a filmmaker, football is pretty meaningless to me. My wife and football friends are stunned, but I would rather work on films then to sit in front of the TV watching football! This has never happened before in my life! NOTHING has ever taken my attention away from football. Gotta love filmmaking... I adore it!

Anyway, a lot of great comments made by you all here. I agree with many of you and offer no excuses. I will say that this film NEEDS to be presented in a longer cut and am very excited to share that with you when we get it done. Seriously. No excuses. The fact that many of you "did not care what happen's to Eric" is directly a result of us trying to get a lot of story and action in and not paying attention to the "set-up" of how we should "feel" about Eric. Lesson learned. As long as we are going to enter and adhere to a 6 minute festival, we have to pay attention to this element.

As for our lead actor playing Eric... that was difficult. Obviously, we had a real pilot and we wanted him to be the actor as well. I will say that in the rehearsals, he was smooth and believable. It's when he got under the lights and the camera that he stiffened up. Acting is a hard thing to do. Though acting comes naturally to me, I have learned a great deal about acting working on this film. I am excited to take the lessons that I have learned with this film (particularly about working with non-actors) and using those lessons in future work.

I have read comments about the inconsistency in the cinematography. I agree with them. I, myself, am having difficulty with some of our shots. When I was initially cutting this film, I was cringing at some of the cuts. I was saying, "we can't use this" and "this doesn't look as good as Kevin's shots." That's because they weren't. Another lesson learned. Two in fact. One, if you have a great cinematographer (as we did with Kevin), don't shoot anything without him/her. And secondly, 2nd unit has to be as skilled and percise as the cinematographer! (I don't mean to slam on the crew but we had a lot of "run and gun" footage that just doesn't blend with Kevin's thoughtful and carefully structured shots.)

I believe that Mark has covered the comments on VFX. Obviously, a huge and daunting task fell upon him and though he his amazing, he just can't compensate for items lost by FedEx! (bastards!) I am in amazement of Mark's skills as a VFX master and can't wait for the long cut to really show off his talents. But even in this 6 minute cut, there are so many examples of incredible vfx work. Some of those shots in the climax are just wonderful! And there are vfx throughout this film that I bet many of you would never be able to pick out. Mark Johnson is an incredible talent and I am so lucky to have been a part of this project with him.

I am so, so happy that we made and presented this film. It was an amazing process and I learned so much. I never want to stop learning. I love this new found joy of filmmaking and I hope to always be doing it. Other than my wife, nothing brings me such happiness.

Before I sign off on this HUGE letter, I just want to again thank everyone who worked on this film. I want to thank everyone who visited this thread and shared in our excitement while making this film. And I want to thank everyone for their comments and critique.

You all make us better at what we love to do, so please.... keep the comments coming!

-Ted
 
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I was almost ready to not watch the Super Bowl and watch 40+ short films instead but we couldn't wait that long and watched them through Saturday Night... we were tired.

Ted and Mark, I just wanted to say again how much I enjoyed this movie and after rewatching it I agree that there were some great, unique, and colorful (as Geoff said) characters here and I would love to see a more of them. I also loved the tension and suspense at the end. The editing along with Herman's great score really make each turbine fly by gut wrenching. And Mark I hope I didn't bash you and your teams VFXs too much, I think they are really good just not on pare with what I've seen you do in the past, I do have to admit you and your team's keying was very good, very clean. Any way, I can't wait to see what you guys do the next go around and Ted I want to see you as an actor again your were great... "F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!"
 
haha! Thanks Jeremy! Thanks for checking out I.D. Funny, I just watched that again last night. I had my laptop hooked up to the big screen and showed TTN and I.D. to my friends after the game. I.D. was a lot of fun. It was great for me to watch it again. Funny how in just 4 months I've made my first 2 movies! Especially after talking about making films for so long in my life! Thanks to dvxuser for getting me off my duff and finally doing it!
 
Theodore J Arabian said:
haha! Thanks Jeremy! Thanks for checking out I.D. Funny, I just watched that again last night. I had my laptop hooked up to the big screen and showed TTN and I.D. to my friends after the game. I.D. was a lot of fun. It was great for me to watch it again. Funny how in just 4 months I've made my first 2 movies! Especially after talking about making films for so long in my life! Thanks to dvxuser for getting me off my duff and finally doing it!
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Ted - I have been watching I.D. a lot lately, because I wanted my first effort to be as good. I really like looking at all your shots and descisions; it is very well done.
My film was not even close to what I envisioned, and therefore did not live up to the bar you set for me with I.D.

Maybe I'll get it the 2nd time around, maybe I never will - time will tell!

my TTN review will be coming soon, I know you can't wait for it! :)
 
Wow! Thanks Preston. That means so much to me. Wow. I am speechless. Thank you.

Don't sell yourself short with Rockstar. You have some great stuff there. And I enjoyed reading your follow-up to my critique. I hadn't realized the issue of the lack of a lavish life style. Makes total sense. For your first film, you too should be proud!
 
Hi, R&V. I.D. was my film for horrorfest. I am planning a re-cut of it as I learned a lot from the critiques that I received but haven't done it yet. Most of the "fixes" can be done with editing and a bit of ADR. I'll post a link for you of the original version. Mind you, this film was my first film and was a solo effort. I did everything myself except for two of the roles.

http://thetheatreguy.com/ID_the_film.html

The thread for it is here... (if you wanted to check out any of the bts and such)

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=70398

My dvxuser handle was TheatreGuy at that time, btw.
 
Time for me to get my 2 cents in, I guess! Unfortunately, I don't have enough posts to vote, but at least I can give a review. :)

:thumbup: :thumbup:

That's two thumbs up, "Hollywood"-style!

Alright, seriously- Overall, the reviews on this thread are right on. The movie seems very big for a six-minute short. The opening sequences (specifically the ambulance scenes) really kick the movie into high gear right off the bat. However, the gravity of the situation, and also the desired "shock" when Eric gets grounded is missing because the audience doesn't have any time to establish a relationship with Eric. With the exception of the top of Eric's head, the character isn't seen until almost a third of the way through the film (the photo and magazine cover doesn't cut it!). At that point, I think it's almost impossible to "feel bad" for him, or to understand his emotions. Eric seemed more upset about getting grounded than he did seem "off his rocker" due to the complications of his life, which I don't think was the desired goal of the hanger scene. Also, to me, Lacey seemed more of an airport official than of a friend in that scene, and for that reason, the relationship between Eric and Lacey is lost as well. Ultimately, by the end of the movie, it's difficult to feel sorry for either of the characters.

I always think it's an interesting perspective to be able to read the script, and fully understand the story prior to seeing the movie. Obviously, as an actor in TTN, I got that chance. So, it's very hard to objectively review the film because it's so easy to fill in the missing pieces with information that I know, but others may not. But I tried to review it for what is there, and not what I know could be there, and so with that being said, I truly believe all of the problems listed above would be solved with a longer version. I understand that the time limit for the festival was 6 minutes, and unfortunately this story is was too complex, and there were too many actors (i.e. characters; relationships) to establish for that time frame. IMHO, the roles of the pilots, and the air boss, and even the Chief could have been minimized for this version in order to fully establish Eric and Lacey. Not to say these roles weren't important, as they each served a purpose, but I think that purpose could have been attained using other methods. It's hard to give a solid example, but here's a "for instance"- For instance, because the Chief, AND Lacey, AND the Air Boss, AND the pilots are established in the beginning, it takes up too much time until we see Eric (going back to my original critique about not seeing Eric until 1:45). Seeing Eric reading the fax himself, perhaps while reciting the story of Jasper Colburn to Lacey, might have connected the audience to his inner-turmoil. By the time we see Eric, the chief has already called him a "drunk and an a**hole", and the pilots have already insinuated that he was an old, reckless bastard. So, we have no idea why Eric is lining up the bottles, and we don't really care to try and like him. (I think I just suggested cutting some of my scenes. :huh: ) In a longer version, it will be much easier to establish all of these characters, allowing the audience to feel the emotions for each of them, but I think it is an impossible feat in under 6 minutes.

WOW! Long review on the story... more than I intended to write!

The acting... hmmmmm. I have my own feelings on that, including but not limited to severe personal criticism, so maybe I'll leave it at that! :lipsrseal

The score was awesome! Now I understand what you are all saying about Herman being the man! I should take back my post (about 150 pages ago!), and let Herman take the "Hermn8r" title.

I think the editing was amazing. The cuts all blended well together, with a nice, consistent flow. And for the most part audio was good with only a few minor exceptions (pilot briefing as an example of audio that needed work).

As far as the VFX go, I KNOW that given enough time, Mark can make them all seem more realistic, and less "SNL-style". I can say that confidently, because I know of some VFX scenes that are in the movie that nobody has commented on, or probably even noticed. The scenes where the VFX are hidden are the scenes that Mark had ample time to work on. I truly believe that the scenes that are noticeable are the scenes where time constraints became an issue. The most important scenes that obviously needs improving is the final crash. And I think even simply slowing it down would look better. But I'm not worried about this, since like I said, with enough time, Mark will make it look flawless. Personally, I thought the sequences of Eric flying through the turbines was incredible.

Again, in my book, the movie gets :thumbup: :thumbup: . All of the "problems" (and I use that term very loosely), will be solved in the longer version, and with an appropriate time for post-production. We wrapped principle photography 3 weeks prior to submission in the festival (ADR being wrapped one week prior), so that only serves as a testament to how amazing it really is to have put out something of this quality. You guys rock! You were all amazing!



On a side note, I am all about a robot/naked women/Mark Johnson movie. Count me in under ANY capacity.
 
Hermn8r said:
The acting... hmmmmm. I have my own feelings on that, including but not limited to severe personal criticism, so maybe I'll leave it at that! :lipsrseal


On a side note, I am all about a robot/naked women/Mark Johnson movie. Count me in under ANY capacity.
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So, are the robots spies? And, hey, you did a great job in your role! Very believable and easy to relate to...so natural. Nice work!
 
Were you guys in a plane shooting any footage? I'm looking at the shot at 5:30-5:31 where you're flying low over the ground (PLANE POV) towards a wind turbine, there's no way that shot is CG as far as I can tell but it looks like you're heading right into the turbine! How was this done?
 
Hey John, Thanks for stopping in and commenting. You really brought up some valid points. (damn, we should have had you around for all of the script sessions!)

Seriously though, good words. I would like to comment on your suggestion about having Eric get the fax. Whereas that whole approach to the story is a novel approach, I believe that we always knew that we were shooting for the extended cut and shot accordingly with the hopes that it would cut into 6 minutes. It would have been great, if time allowed, to shoot two different approaches but as you know, we were always up against the clock. But I like your idea.

As for cutting, in my original edit of the 6 minute version, I had even more of the Pilot's dialogue on the cutting room floor. I hated that because I loved what you guys did. It is a tough sell with a 6 minute fest. We tried and I am glad that we did.

Thanks again for the comments.
 
Geoff_R said:
Were you guys in a plane shooting any footage? I'm looking at the shot at 5:30-5:31 where you're flying low over the ground (PLANE POV) towards a wind turbine, there's no way that shot is CG as far as I can tell but it looks like you're heading right into the turbine! How was this done?
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No. We didn't have the chance to get up in the air but it was discussed and I was really looking forward to it.

I'll let Mark tell you about the footage.

And John Hermann was the Pilot in the shades. Check out his avatar!
 
Ahhh! I'm finally getting around to commenting. Excellent job everyone! Really loved the ending, that was epic. When the first blade comes into frame... i was like "Holy sh*t!" Great job on the edit.
 
RebeccaD said:
And, hey, you did a great job in your role! Very believable and easy to relate to...so natural. Nice work!
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Thank you so much for the kind words, Rebecca. But as we all know, us actors are our own worst critics!


Geoff_R said:
Herman, which role were you? The guy who yelled, "Come on Eric!"?
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No, that was Craig Stoa, and I agree on what I think was a previous comment of yours in that the scene where he yells "Come on Eric!" was an awesome shot.


Theodore J Arabian said:
It would have been great, if time allowed, to shoot two different approaches but as you know, we were always up against the clock..
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No kidding!! We were strecthed to shoot what we did wind up getting! Don't get me wrong, Ted, I thought TTN was simply awesome, and definitely is in contention for drama fest. I just wanted to play the devil's advocate! Everybody in the TTN gang should be very proud of what even the 6 minute version accomplished!
 
Love the aviation.


With the opening, my impressions are (briefly) that the zoom in effect to the picture was unnecessary. The flashbulb sound effect was is an overused device, IMO, and you really didn’t need it. It didn’t add too much to the visuals, but if you wanted to use sound design I’d consider an alternate SFX.

The cinematography was very interesting, if too ambitious. The lighting was tonally all over the place- some high key , some low key don’t get what you were trying to do cinematography wise – a tribute to film noir of the 40’s ? When you tried low key lighting it drew way too much attention to itself and away from the story. Kinda like one foot in another foot out (ex. Airplane hangar spotlight), with most of it non-motivated. For me, it didn’t amplify the constituent parts. You may have gotten better results with mixed hard and soft lighting. Or shot this in B&W and made it a period piece. In fact, I’d like to see that short. Most of your elements had a yearning for old school glamour, melodrama (in a good way) and fast planes. All the natural instincts of your pic were leaning towards old school glamour, guys with snappy replies and dames with clipboards.
The briefing room setup was odd. Her desk lamp was pointed away from her and yet she had a spotlight on her? As much as one can appreciate non-motivated lighting, if it detracts from the story or distracts the viewer then it should be reconsidered. Perhaps using alternate practicals or underlighting would’ve worked better? A fabulous shot you had that was very evocative and beautifully composed was the shot of her standing outside the hangar, (at dusk)? I loved it. Very emotive and great use of perspective.

Compositionally, the framing was too ordinary to impart meaning to the themes – two shot of talking guys, for example… I’d work on dynamic framing, and paying particular attention to the interplay between foreground and background - 3 dimensionality.
Your editing was efficient, such as the dynamic cuts working in a “Snatch” kinda way. Good use of transitions.

Acting was ineffective. Sorry, but it seemed telegraphed and more theatrical than cinematic.

With regards to sound design and score, I noted that the sound levels seemed out of sync in the briefing room scene – sounded like, too much peaking. Mixing possibly required?
The ADR was noticeable. I’ve seen this in numerous shorts and it’s a real art to making it sound seamless. When there is no ambience or environmental level to it then again it interferes with suspension of disbelief. I really think if you mixed in more audio tracks at several points in the flick, you’d have a less aware dialogue and effective story. Maybe it’s my computer but I had to really listen to catch the dialogue at the resolution. And I’d reconsider the resolution music. It was overarching, repetitive and mixed too high. It was like March of the Red Brigade – for me anyway. Yet, moments later, the score is a treat with strings or flute that fit like a Savile row glove. To be sure these are subjective impressions so take them for what you will.

The most evocative part of the film was the flying shots. Hence, it may be efficacious to drop the greenscreen shot – you had great production value of the plane taking off but offset it with a “less-than” grand greenscreen shot. I went from “cool” to “ha ha”.


Alas, we come to the story/script. For me, the script was predictable and the dialogue needed flava. I felt you tackled a piece that wouldn’t easily fit into six minutes. There was no time to create empathy beyond the 2 dimensional portrayal of the pilot. And there was a structural question that made me exclaim wtf? Gents, a flashback at the apex of the conflict ?, and an expository one at that ?. All of the pace and conflict, sprinting towards a finale, and you stop to tell us some backstory ? Put plainly, it doesn’t work, IMHO. As an audience member I would rather you allude to it earlier, use visual exposition earlier, or somehow make it organic to the story and the propulsion of narrative.

Overall, I’m a big aviation junkie (wiled away my youth on a sailplane field) and I appreciate you guys bringing back some memories. There were some glorious moments in your short. And I really do appreciate the convivial vibe you guys bring to the table and all the help and effort at learning from one another. This has just been my 3 pence. Much respect.



:beer:
 
Wow. I am floored by the thoughtful notes and comments. You just can't buy this level of helpful critique (well, I guess you could, but it would cost a hell of a lot).

A lot of great points are being made here and I know Ted and I both were aware we were taking on a huge project that would tax us to the limits (intentionally so). It will be nice to shoot something small next time and really work on the craft. However, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. And, of course, I do want to eventually take on another ambitious project for the very same reasons -- to tax ourselves to the limit and hopefully come closer and learn even more.

With regard to the effects, I am really looking forward to replacing most of the funky shots. You should have seen the last week with us just trying to renderframes that wouldn't be so bad as to look like they were made for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. :) Anyway, the other thing that was a little frustrating was the inherent need to keep the climax short. Not only is the friggin' plane travelling 200+ mph, but we were limited by having to get the rest of the story in. So, we had to chop up a lot of VFX sequences. For instance, here's a nifty dolly out shot as the plane approaches in its entirety. I loved how Tim cut it into two segments to fit the fast pacing, but as you can see, you don't get the full effect of the dolly VFX:

www.lodohappyhour.com/DollyBackTurbine.mov

The POV shot mentioned above was a simple CG placement of a 3D wind turbine tracked into some ground rush footage. The motion blur sells the shot and we sped up the footage 20%. We actually have some really cool POV footage of the whole series of turbines but we set it up on big rocky terrain that ended up not fitting with the setting.

I have to laugh myself when I see our cockpit bluescreens. Cheese-o-rino!!!!! We literally slapped those in within hours of our upload because we just didn't have time to deal with them properly. Sad, because Kevin lit them to key so nicely. I plan to revisit both of those for Ted's long cut and I don't think you'll recognize them when I'm done after replacing the backgrounds, doing some CC, camera shake and motion blur.

Sound was problematical because our super duper sound-foley guy got a television gig and had to bow out, leaving Tim with the duties at the last minute. We just didn't have the time or manpower and were scrambling. All said, though, Tim did an amazing job doing the sound while trying to get a final edit done.

So, what a journey. On to the Hot Babes and Giant Robots movie that we've already begun devloping!!!!
 
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