Envision & RebeccaD Present "Where Silence Falls"

Norm and Rebecca!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!

I loved your film!!!!

I thought that your story was simple yet very effective. Wow. What an ending!!!

I love the cinematography. To me, this is the greatest strength of the film. It just looks great. The framing and the lighting is so well done.

Rebecca, you are such a talented actor! I am very impressed with your performance. Your emotions are so real. Your subtleties are so natural. Really, well done. I'd love to work with you sometime!

I thought that Reid did a great job! Wow. (I am curious about your white blood cell count, however.... that black eye developed so quickly!!!)

Norm, I didn't love your performance as much. I am sorry to say that but if I am going to give a critique, I'd like to be honest. You do a serviceable and you look great! But I found your performance a bit wooden. (Please understand that I am extremely picky about acting.) You do have your moments but I feel that your strengths in filmmaking are behind the scenes. (I loved the your direction of this film!) Just to finalize my comment on this topic, this may be due to the fact that your character wasn't given enough material to develop.

Back to the crafting of this film. I really thought that you did a great job in the direction of this story. Its pacing is perfect! The shots look great! It is nicely edited.

The score is FABULOUS!!! I loved it!

Great job here!

Very moving.
 
OK, I really like "Where Silence Falls". It is among the very few in this fest that I can honestly call a good film, not just one that isn't in fact bad, but actually good.

For me, to consider a film good there has to be one fundamental ingredient which seems to elude most filmmakers, that is it must have a story worth telling. Some films are well made and tell their story well, but they lack this essential aspect. For me, even if there are few technical and artistic flaws, if I don't care about the story, its all for nothing. I need an emotional attachment of some sort to pull me along and let me gain an investment in the situation that the characters encounter.

This entry has this key ingredient, one that any parent can relate to, the overwhelming concern for their child's safety. When one of your children is in danger or even potential danger, nothing else matters. Taping into this fundamental truth gives "Where Silence Falls" the opportunity to become a truly good film. Now that this essential element has been satisfied, let me comment on the execution of this specific entry.

Norm has stated that this film is a trial run for his upcoming feature film "Trinity River" so I too am interested in the results. First off, I have to say that in general, I am not a fan of any of the 35mm adapters that so many have fallen in love with. I certainly understand the appeal as they do allow one to achieve a look which tries to mimic a film camera, but in general, for me, they don't deliver. Now if all I was going to do were projects for online delivery or perhaps DVD distribution, they might be acceptable, but for anything larger, I usually can't get beyond "the look" that they impart to every scene. Does this film change my opinion of adapters? I can't say for certain as the bandwidth restrictions imposed precludes being able to see deep enough into the film to know. I do suspect that Norm and his crew have learned to use this tool well and in this film, it seems to serve the story.

So many times I see films shot with adapters and the it seems like the filmmaker has fallen in love with it and uses it in inappropriate ways. They go from the extreme of the inherently deep depth of field that a small format has to an absurdly shallow depth of field that they can now achieve with the adapter. They lack the vision to understand where and when it is appropriate to apply. Yes being able to rack between objects in the frame is cool, but to do it unnecessarily and often in ways that doesn't serve the story just draws attention to the effect and takes me out of the story. For me, to work, it has to be subtle, almost unnoticed, not overt and forced down my throat. I understand that shallow depth of field is a cool new toy, but don't abuse it, learn to work with it and when to use it. I compare it to a young person who gets their first fast car. They race from stop light to stop light making a big deal out of the new found performance in a "look at me" pace. I find this to be an immature approach to driving in a similar way that I find most films shot with these adapters approach the use of shallow depth of field. "Where Silence Falls" has managed to avoid this spectacle and this adds another positive to the viewing experience for me.

The next aspect to this entry that I notice (or don't notice) is the camera handling. I am not a fan of handheld shots in most situations. This style of filmmaking draws too much attention to the camera and makes it yet another character in the story. There are times when this can work well and serve the telling, but these are rare events. I try to think in terms of who is the camera, who am I as a viewer in this situation. Most of the time we are passive viewers watching a scene unfold in front of our eyes. I don't want to be taken out of the story by unnecessary abrupt camera movements. In Norm's film he has wisely chosen to make use of a steadicam in a lot of his shots. This works well as it gives the added motion that allows the environment to unfold for the viewer but does it in a fluid manner that allows the story and not the camera to be first. I congratulate these filmmakers for avoiding yet another of the traps that so many seem to fall into.

Another aspect of this film that works much better than most is the use of time of day in the shots and appropriate lighting choices. There are two situations that raise the complexity of a getting things right. Namely, daytime interiors and nighttime exteriors. In this film, all the interiors are daytime so things like windows become a real challenge. Look at how most low budget films approach this problem. They either avoid it altogether or they ignore it. For me, mixed lighting issues can't be ignored. I hate it when I am made aware of a films characteristics by seeing a mixed lighting situation. In "Where Silence Falls" the filmmakers have addressed this problem in an appropriate manner, they have correctly chosen how to light their scenes, controlling the massive color temperature differences in a realistic manner. This shows that these filmmakers understand lighting and that is another big plus for me. Look at the kitchen scene, where Norm and Rebecca have their opening encounter. Yes the window is hot in the shot, but at least it reads as white and not blue! Another plus for this film.

Now there are a few things that I see as problems that I will point out.

The first is very curious to me, specifically, interlace artifacts. I am pretty certain that they shot this film in a progressive camera mode. I am also pretty certain that it was cut with a progressive capable NLE (I think PPro) but somewhere along the path to becoming a .mov a problem occurred. Look at the shot where Norm's character leaves the frame (00:01:21) there are very obvious temporal problems. I suspect that if it hadn't been for the use of the steadicam, these would have plagued this film throughout, but the relative smaller motions that the fluid camera handling offers covers up this problem, but its still there. This problem is throughout the film, but due to the advantage of good camera movements, it isn't as much of a problem as it could have been. I think I might know what happened in the work-flow to cause this, but its fairly technical, so I am not going to speculate in my review. If this hadn't occurred, this could have been even a better film.

I also noticed a problem with one shot (looks like it was a pickup) that doesn't match the lighting tone of the rest of the film. It is when Norm's character leaves out the door (00:04:23) to go look for their son. I am pretty certain that this was shot on a day with much different atmospheric conditions than the others. This occurs again at 00:04:30 when Rebecca's character follows him out. Nothing that a really large butterfly couldn't have solved, but its only a minor issue at most.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the ending when Norm starts hitting the neighbor, it just doesn't read as real to me. I can't quite say if its a performance issue (but that is what I suspect) but it's just not there. I suspect that a really good stunt coordinator could have helped this scene to work out better.

I love the pace of the story, its so well adapted to the highly restrictive TRT, I am really impressed. Norm's performance is good, Rebecca's is really good. Norm, you might want to cover her eyes when she reads this, but I can tell you with certainty that she would do really well if she were to work in the LA market.

All in all, this is a great short film, one that tells a good story and tells it in a credible manner. If this group of filmmakers can understand and overcome these small issues they are well on their way to making a great feature.

A big congratulations to all involved!
 
Hey loved your film dude. The best one I've watched on here so far.

Which 35mm adaptor are u using? Looks great, great photography, although a little dark around edges.

Very Very Very Cool!


ripupthehwy
 
I don't know why everyone's beating up on poor Norm. I thought your performance was fine Norm. If there was anything wrong with it, it was that though you were fine, Rebecca blew you off the screen. I said in your Horrorfest entry that I was bummed she did not have more to do, and man, in this one, you guys gave her something to sink her teeth into. Nice.

I think the filmmaking all around is really solid and I expected to hear some sound problems from what you were saying at the last minute, Norm, but I thought it was all solid.

If I had one major beef with this it's that the story is something on Lifetime like every other night. Except that Rebecca kicks Meredith Baxter Bernie's butt out the window. But that's more a beef of taste than a critique of filmmaking. I thought your overall pacing and building of the dramatic tension were what really shined over the things I'd seen from you before.
 
Excellent, i'd say the best so far, it was certainly something different and deffo matched the actual title of the fest.
Thank you.
 
Really great film, one of the best shorts i ever saw! The scene where she tells Eric about their neighbour is just amazing. Great drama, great moments and a really moving topic.

Great performance by all of the actors in my opinion.

There were only some things i think could have been done better (most of them are nitpicking).
Picture was a bit too dark at times especially around the edges.
Didnt like the first dissolve after Erik picks up the basketball when he searches for their child, dont know really know why it just looked a bit cheap.
Really liked the music, but when erik hits his neighbor it just seemed a bit too much, although i still find that scene great.

great movie, keep it coming :)
 
I love the brutal honesty of everyone! So to add to it...

It's different for my to comment since I was crew but I'll go ahead. Overall this movie really works and Norm, definitely your best yet. Rebecca did great, and you did really good all the way up until the last scene of the movie. The movie was really rocking until that shot of you methodically punching, it just screams fake. You needed to be actually hitting something full on (such as a pillow) and not so rhythmically. The shot you have now could work, but needs to be just a split second (it held for too long). Then your expression after he's bleeding just doesn't work. I think that's because you as an actor were being distracted by being a director. It was the last shot of the day and we were rushing. Norm, I think you are a talented actor and director, but I would strongly recommend only doing one or the other on any given project. The only actor/director combos that work is if the person has total mastery of one area (see Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, etc.).

Okay, as for the M2 adaptor, it looks great on most shots but it appears to me that one of the lenses has horrible vignetting, gosh that looks bad with those cloudy dark corners. It's not on every shot which makes me blame a certain lens and not the adapter itself. Go to 2:40, CU of Rebecca and the corners are clean, the next shot at 2:43 Wide of the kitchen and we've got bad vignetting. I remembed Ryan saying he bought some cheap POS off brand lens for like $50 that previous day, I wonder if its that one. So I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.
Reid does super good in his role and the makeup is nice. The lighting is great and I had to really look to figure out which shots we had cheated the light for! Great movie, you should be proud.
Oh, and the dialogue sound quality rocks my world ;-)
 
Holy cow, lots of comments & feedback, which we GREATLY appreciate. Thanks!!! :thumbsup: But now I've got some catching up to do ...


D & G
Thanks for the compliments & kudos! As far as the parts that make you go 'Hmmm', those are all VALID points. Yep, she probably would be hounding her husband about if he's found him, etc. via cell phone. But, with a limit of 6 minutes, we had to hit the points we felt were most important/valid to the characters & story, so that's why we stuck with what we did. Even though some people may not see eye-to-eye with us on it, we still feel good about our choices, even in hindsight. As far as my acting, of course I don't like hearing it, but I'll acknowledge that I'm probably the weakest of the group and/or as Shawneous points out later in this thread, I may have been distracted some from the directing/producing aspect as well. Eitherway, I value the confidence you have in the directing end of it, and that you've seen marked improvement. Thank you.


SLIMOTHY
Thanks Tim for watching it. I COMPLETELY understand the story itself maybe not grabbing you as much ... it wouldn't me as much either before I had kids. But if you DO ever have kids, you'll experience that pit in your stomach at some point, believe me. Even if it's just a matter of them disappearing in the store you're at for a while. :) Again, I'm honored you liked it as much as you did, thanks.


JACK DANIEL STANELY
Super glad you got to watch it, Jack. You and I have been in these fests since about the beginning. Where you've been pretty much at the top from the get go, I've kind of tried to pull myself up from the bottom of the ranks (or so I've felt), so if nothing else I'm just glad that people are able to see the growth in filmmaking, because I'd never want to make another film if I couldn't continually improve on what I'd done in the past.

Thanks for not crucifying me on the acting, lol. However, I do agree that in comparison to Rebecca's performance, I probably seemed like a log. She stole the show, and I'm SO incredibly grateful & thankful (on a daily basis) to be able to work with her.

Lastly, I PM'd you back on this for some specifics (feel free to share in the thread, if you feel it's appropriate), but I'd have to agree that I tend to be a little reserved in my filmmaking approach and/or acting ... sometimes afraid to let it all out. It's that insecure side of "What if it's too much? What if I make a fool of myself & fall flat on my face?" I need to break past that. Next time for sure.

Oh, and for the ribbed sweater thing, it's called 'Body By David'. I can't really take any credit for it. I just show up for these workouts, and this brute of a guy (Rebecca's husband) pushes me through them until I cry like a little girl & say I can't take it anymore.


ncje
Wow, THANKS!! Great kudos from you, which I value as I've seen some of your work and it's very nice. 'Keep directing & stop acting', lol. I know you mean it as a compliment to the directing, and to the other talent, so I'll try not to cry now, lol.


FatBird19
This is great feedback/compliments coming from someone's film that is in my favorite's list for this festival. Thankyou. I dig that you see why we didn't want to give away too much information at the beginning. It worked. For us, we also were hoping to leave the audience thinking about the neighbor as well ... this poor guy that was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time 18 years ago, convicted of something that a LOT of 18 year old guys could get caught in if a girl lied about her age (and we all know a lot of girls can look older than they are, especially now) ... and then not only has he tried to leave that in his past & move on, but now it's thrown back in his face again by these parents who suddenly feel betrayed by just learning this about their trusted neighbor in a time when they're simply not too rational because of their missing son.


dvpixl
I'd be curious to know which BTS photo you made as your wallpaper, lol. :grin: Thanks for the compliments on the film, and glad you enjoyed it.


Raw and Vital
That actually wasn't a mistake, but perhaps there's something different we could have done to clarify this? It was a passage of time. She starts the call with Linda & learns Ryan isn't there. We then cut up to the husband putting on his shirt so they can go out, and by the time he's totally ready & comes down stairs, she's just getting off the phone with another person. In fact, if you listen to the dialogue she says "Jake's mom (Linda, the 1st person she called) said he never came over. I've made a few other calls (i.e. she just hung up from one), and no one knows where he is."


Theodore J. Arabian
Ted, thanks so much for everything & the kind words. I agree, my performance probably came off as wooden in comparison to the others ... but, I'm trying REAL hard to not believe that I suck too badly, lol. These short film fests are the perfect place for me to do the other thing I enjoy (acting), without putting too much on the line, as I would never attempt doing this in a feature (at least no time in the near future).


khmuse
Holy smokes, Kevin, what a post!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for such detailed feedback. I can't wait to have the rest of the cast & crew read these past pages about what everyone has loved with the camera, lighting, sound, performances, etc.

I'll address the technical concerns you had: The interlaced thing ... I'm not sure about the workflow you're talking about, but I CAN tell you what went wrong here, which I've also addressed in my first post on this thread. The film WAS shot 24P (I can't recall if it was 24P or 24PA - Ryan Walters will know), but when the project in FCP was created, it was apparently left at the factory default of 29.97 interlaced. Ooops! What that did, was it imported all of the footage from the P2 data as interlaced as well. Somehow, we have to go back (couldn't do it at the time because we lost of week of editing & I was leaving to Miami for a week ... major time crunches) and get everything back to the original 24P/23.98 for the master file. At that time we'll also do a better CC job working within FCP vs. my exporting out a PNG sequence to do it in Vegas, and make a few other editing tweaks as well with credit roll, etc.

As far as the lighting when Rebecca & I come out the front of the house to confront the neighbor, all the exterior shots were on the same day. However that darn cloud cover kept breaking on us randomly & kept throwing out the light. I tried to CC the best I could, but it obviously wasn't enough to match the clips. Perhaps a bit of a feathered matte may work in post with the opacity adjusted to blend?

Lastly, the hits. Yep, I agree. Shawneous nailed it. I probably should have been hitting a hard pillow or something else ... and also not had the hits soooo consistant like I was beating a drum.


ripupthehwy
Thank you! The adapter we used was the RedRock Micro M2 with Cannon FD mount. Lenses were various Cannon lenses, ranging, I believe from 28mm, 50mm, 100mm, and finally a 135mm. Yes, the vignetting really got too obvious in spots for my taste as well.


Mark Harris
Thanks, Mark ... just when I was about to slit my wrists from having made the decision to act in it, you made me feel better. :) I'm hoping it's more of a comparison thing (compared to the other talents), than just my own lack of performance. I honestly know I can cut loose, and have done it before with stage ... but I also wasn't directing the stage stuff, so who knows ... maybe it's too much for me to try & take on all at once. Regardless, thanks again.

The sound issues at the beginning had me completely freaked out. But, once I was able to really dig through all the Compact Flash files that were recorded separately, then the only real pain in the butt was trying to sync them all to the footage. LONG hours involved, and some unfortunate neglect of the family while I was locked away in my office trying to meet the deadline, but it all worked out in the end.


iSTy
Thank you!! :dankk2:


aFox
DANG IT I wish you had 100 or more posts so you could vote, lol! Seriously, though, thanks for the feedback. The disolve you're speaking of has been brought up consistantly enough that it will be addressed within a week or so for the master file.


shawneous
Yes, Shawn, the dialogue quality does indeed rock. Good job on getting some good audio, and my apologies for the stress I initially had when only hearing the RF recorded audio to the camera. Ugh, that was freakin' me out at first.

As for that final scene, and being conflicted with the role of both director & actor, I'd actually have to lend that one to being conflicted with director, actor, and producer ... for that part. It's the producer end of me that was able to secure that house from my neighbor, kick her & her dogs out of there for what was SUPPOSED to be 3-4 hours, but then ended up being 6-7. So the producer side of me was like "Hurry up folks, we got to wrap this FAST" .... so I had that tension to deal with. Same reason that Reid's lines aren't exactly what we had in the script, simply because it finally became "Okay, good enough, we'll cut it together in post. We've got to wrap & get out of here!".

Otherwise, I would LOVE to be a director for someone else's film, where I could just fight them on why we needed to take our sweet time to get a particular performance, need another take, etc. But, it's a little hard to argue with myself, lol.

Anyway, glad you feel the final product turned out well, especially since you got to be there for all the behind the scenes as well.
 
Envision said:
Somehow, we have to go back (couldn't do it at the time because we lost of week of editing & I was leaving to Miami for a week ... major time crunches) and get everything back to the original 24P/23.98 for the master file.
Click to expand...
Cinema Tools (part of the FCP Suite) should be able to do a reverse telecine of the footage...I recently had to do it...and then you can put it in a 23.98 timeline and it should be fine.
 
Hmm, great idea, Blaine. We'll have to investigate that when I get back from the trip this week. I return Thursday night (getting up at 4am tomorrow to fly out), so hopefully it's something I can tackle with Forrest VERY soon after I return ... especially since our cast/crew party is the following weekend! :shocked:
 
Norm et al--

Very solid little film! I gotta admit, you surprised me in a good way. The camera work was mostly clean and solid, except for a what seemed like one muddy shot with Rebecca on the stairs. Your acting was actually pretty good, but with one big problem at the end. The character has to completly lose control in the final scene and you couldn't sell that. It didn't help that the foley of the punching stinks on ice. Punch up the foley in that scene and you can really make an improvement. The transition from pushing your way in the door to the punching seemed a little forced. I would have either had the neighbor continue blocking the door very aggressively until you popped, or had you run frantically through the house and not finding the kid you run back down and try to beat out the truth. You pushed past the neighbor and then your objective changed from your kid to your neighbor--why?

Solid performance from Rebecca, but you really trapped her in that kitchen for too long. Otherwise good pacing and editing.

Overall, a well thought out and executed film.
 
Thanks Barry! The SFX that you heard for the punches weren't foley ... just the original recorded sound of me smacking the back of his hand. Hopefully you're not referring to the first haymaker hit, because I thought that one worked really well, which WAS SFX. However, when I tried that same SFX (or a few others I had), I just wasn't convinced by them & left them out for the fest.

So, if you or anyone else has some killer foley/SFX they could send me? I'd love it. Otherwise, I may need to quickly do my own foley when I get back from the trip to further help sell that shot.

Some good points/ideas on the ending, but as always, food for thought going forward on the next project. Thanks again for the feedback & glad you liked it.
 
Envision said:
So, if you or anyone else has some killer foley/SFX they could send me? I'd love it. Otherwise, I may need to quickly do my own foley when I get back from the trip to further help sell that shot.
Click to expand...
Watch the movie on your trip. If there's anything you can use in the sound fx there let me know...I've got everything filed.
 
Those aren't bad, but they sound more like body shots, due to the bass/thud sound. I think punching someone's face/skull would have more of a hard impact/slap sound (higher pitched).
 
Add that bone sound with this... and you'd be surprised ;) These are used along with imagery and they are perceived as sounding totally real.
 
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