New York City DVXUSER Crew Presents: Katrina

RebeccaD said:
Overall, this is such a great short and I am so thankful you kept it at 13 minutes and didn't destroy it by trying to compete. I have a few other reasons I'm glad you didn't compete....hee hee.:beer:
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That's funny, I got so wrapped up in it that I never even noticed the length. Way to go.
We went way over on a 48 film challenge once, on purpose, so that every actor and the story got served properly... we lost a lot of points, but it still all worked out fine. We got the Audience Choice, which is what it's really all about and you guys seem to prove that.

Even if you don't get to compete there's an Audience Fav. here.
 
jeremytuttle said:
Now for the questionable:
I'm not sure (and sorry if any of these were brought up before) about why there was two separate bags of money or was one empty or did she just have two bags of money or she had one the cowboy had one?
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There was no money in the briefcase she had. Should have been explained better, and in fact, there was a bit of the scene which got cut from the script, showing him opening the briefcase to find it full of phone books. The idea was that she never had the money, but was planning on getting him to kill the COWBOY and get his (the COWBOY'S) money, the money he steals at the top off the piece, in the news broadcast.
jeremytuttle said:
I'm not sure what I think about her living through the "situation"? I like the dialogue and connection they have at the end, but I wonder if maybe we saw how she got out that might fix the problem I had. I just felt it was strange to suddenly bring her back. You have this amazing scene in the hotel, this show down, and then it kinda becomes not as "powerful" when she is just back and okay.
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Well the intent here is that she comes off as a wascally wabbit, and much more capable than she let on.
jeremytuttle said:
I think the news cast was a little long without some kind of visual, maybe adding some smoke would help (slowly building up until the title (amazing titles by the way)).
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Agreed. I think there are some posts earlier in the thread that address this.

jeremytuttle said:
I also think (and this is getting nic-picky) you stay on Katrina's face a little too long on the end. The eyebrow raise is nice but I think we see it too much.
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Yes you are correct, I think Mark said this was the result of just a screw up at the end. The film should black out on her before the music stops. This will be addressed in the next cut.
 
FYI i heard through the grapevine, that there will be a Screening of dramafest movies coming up in NYC. Detials coming as they unravel.
 
Want to touch the booty. You guys make some awesome ****. What else left is there to say. Next stop hollywood.

david jerome
 
Hey guys, I'm EMBARRASSED I hadn't watched the film until today. I even could have seen it before anyone else, because of hosting the HD files, but instead I knew I wanted to watch it when I would have ZERO interruptions ... which pretty much meant once I was on an 8 hour plane flight.

My first disappointment was that my laptop wouldn't play the HD version without little skip/glitches throughout (stupid laptop, it's not your film, believe me), so I had to watch it on the smaller SD screen.

That said, I'm still REAL glad that you guys didn't enter. The guy who played Eric was GREAT. I ESPECIAILLY loved when he was on a role in the hotel, cutting everyone off with "Third....!". Demanding his list, and doing it well.

While the female who played Katrina was EXTREMELY easy on the eyes and fit the role very nicely, I'd have to say she was perhaps outshined by the gentleman who played Eric. Not that she didn't do a good job, because she did ... but she was up against one really good performer in this role. Kind of like Rebecca & I in our film ... tough to compare against that.

Oh yea, and I loved the debt collector guy as well. And Mark, to see you in the Cameo of that crazy huge gun toting cowboy, was great!

The set design & costumes were absolute top notch, and I don't need to waste your time telling you how brilliant the camera & lighting was in this ... it was pure cinema!

My ONLY critique might be that I thought some of the dialogue in spots (if I remember correctly, in the hotel?) was a little harder to hear than others, and that some of the fade/jump cuts in the bed scene could use some work/polish ... something about a lot of them bugged me ... perhaps just that the frames were SO similar that it at times seemed more like a blur than fade to another moment.

Other than those nit-picks, Congrats guys on an incredibly well made film'! Completely enjoyable, and looking forward to watching it again in it's extreme HD glory once I'm back home.
 
Hi Mark.H. Have not read anything here but here goes. I think you (and crew) nailed it in all depts except 1. The music. I think the score was incorrect for this short and serioulsly hope you spend more effort next go around in this area. You guys deserve the best man, go get it.
 
In all fairness I almost didn't make it through the initial "blackout"... but boy am I glad I waited... this thing is on the very cusp of greatness... not "fest" greatness... but REAL greatness.

A couple of bumps to address... but wow... seriously... wow.

Eric rocked my brain.
Mark pulled in a respectable second.
The collector was a really close third.
The dame wasn't bad at all.

Seriously guys... I'm extremely impressed. I'd hang onto Eric for as long as you can... that guy was truly awesome. I'm going to show this flick to all my local actors and tell them "this is what will set you free".
 
david jerome said:
Want to touch the booty. You guys make some awesome shi*. What else left is there to say. Next stop hollywood.

david jerome
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Are you refering to our lovely Lindsey? Lol, Thank you David.

Envision said:
Hey guys, I'm EMBARRASSED I hadn't watched the film until today. I even could have seen it before anyone else, because of hosting the HD files, but instead I knew I wanted to watch it when I would have ZERO interruptions ... which pretty much meant once I was on an 8 hour plane flight.

My first disappointment was that my laptop wouldn't play the HD version without little skip/glitches throughout (stupid laptop, it's not your film, believe me), so I had to watch it on the smaller SD screen.

That said, I'm still REAL glad that you guys didn't enter. The guy who played Eric was GREAT. I ESPECIAILLY loved when he was on a role in the hotel, cutting everyone off with "Third....!". Demanding his list, and doing it well.

While the female who played Katrina was EXTREMELY easy on the eyes and fit the role very nicely, I'd have to say she was perhaps outshined by the gentleman who played Eric. Not that she didn't do a good job, because she did ... but she was up against one really good performer in this role. Kind of like Rebecca & I in our film ... tough to compare against that.

Oh yea, and I loved the debt collector guy as well. And Mark, to see you in the Cameo of that crazy huge gun toting cowboy, was great!

The set design & costumes were absolute top notch, and I don't need to waste your time telling you how brilliant the camera & lighting was in this ... it was pure cinema!

My ONLY critique might be that I thought some of the dialogue in spots (if I remember correctly, in the hotel?) was a little harder to hear than others, and that some of the fade/jump cuts in the bed scene could use some work/polish ... something about a lot of them bugged me ... perhaps just that the frames were SO similar that it at times seemed more like a blur than fade to another moment.

Other than those nit-picks, Congrats guys on an incredibly well made film'! Completely enjoyable, and looking forward to watching it again in it's extreme HD glory once I'm back home.
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Yea MArk had to crank out the editing in only three days to give herman the time he needed to score, and Joe Johnson the time he needed to do the sound. I agree there are one or two little editing Quirks, (one of which was my fault for not getting proper coverage), but i think for only three days for 13 minutes of final product, he did an increadible job. im sure mark will continue to tweak the edits in the near future. we are already ready planning to start shooting the pick ups we missed on the first go around.


Michael_Petro said:
Ummm welll heres my review "I SUCK"

Great short!!!!!!!!!!

I just burned my camera thanks :)
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Oh dude... Dont say that. You too can produce good results. The secret is, get two bright lights, one hard, one soft put them across fro eachother ina room, and have theactor stand right inbetween them.


Raptor365 said:
Hi Mark.H. Have not read anything here but here goes. I think you (and crew) nailed it in all depts except 1. The music. I think the score was incorrect for this short and serioulsly hope you spend more effort next go around in this area. You guys deserve the best man, go get it.
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Hmmm. Raptor, what kind of music do you feel would have fit? mark and i conferred that we wanted a jazzy/1950/1960's feel. I actually am very curious, because i think different music that we may not have thought of , could very well change the whole mood of the piece. Please give me an example, i'll play it under the film and see how it changes it. :)
 
MattinSTL said:
In all fairness I almost didn't make it through the initial "blackout"... but boy am I glad I waited... this thing is on the very cusp of greatness... not "fest" greatness... but REAL greatness.

A couple of bumps to address... but wow... seriously... wow.

Eric rocked my brain.
Mark pulled in a respectable second.
The collector was a really close third.
The dame wasn't bad at all.

Seriously guys... I'm extremely impressed. I'd hang onto Eric for as long as you can... that guy was truly awesome. I'm going to show this flick to all my local actors and tell them "this is what will set you free".
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Yea Godfrey is the BOMB. I love his face when the music drops down to the baseline, and he takes off his glasses. Gangsta.

We mentioned before, but the black out is a kind of place marker temporarily.
 
TimurCivan said:
Oh dude... Dont say that. You too can produce good results. The secret is, get two bright lights, one hard, one soft put them across fro eachother ina room, and have theactor stand right inbetween them.
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weird you should say that.. on "alone" I did that very thing.. I got some home depot shop lights .. the bought me some 3200k photobulbs and did just what you said.. I actually thought my lighting was tons better than "betrayed" where I just flooded the room with lights.
 
MattinSTL said:
In all fairness I almost didn't make it through the initial "blackout"... but boy am I glad I waited... this thing is on the very cusp of greatness... not "fest" greatness... but REAL greatness.

A couple of bumps to address... but wow... seriously... wow.

Eric rocked my brain.
Mark pulled in a respectable second.
The collector was a really close third.
The dame wasn't bad at all.

Seriously guys... I'm extremely impressed. I'd hang onto Eric for as long as you can... that guy was truly awesome. I'm going to show this flick to all my local actors and tell them "this is what will set you free".
Click to expand...


You are correct. The actor is named Godfrey L Simmons and he is a long time stage actor in NYC, and one of my oldest friends. It was last year that I started putting him in my films, beginning with Man-Hole IV, and I have settled on him as a leading man since. I wrote the MH IV role for him and am going to continue writing for him. He is a remarkable pro.
 
Envision said:
Hey guys, I'm EMBARRASSED I hadn't watched the film until today. I even could have seen it before anyone else, because of hosting the HD files, but instead I knew I wanted to watch it when I would have ZERO interruptions ... which pretty much meant once I was on an 8 hour plane flight.

My first disappointment was that my laptop wouldn't play the HD version without little skip/glitches throughout (stupid laptop, it's not your film, believe me), so I had to watch it on the smaller SD screen.

That said, I'm still REAL glad that you guys didn't enter. The guy who played Eric was GREAT. I ESPECIAILLY loved when he was on a role in the hotel, cutting everyone off with "Third....!". Demanding his list, and doing it well.

While the female who played Katrina was EXTREMELY easy on the eyes and fit the role very nicely, I'd have to say she was perhaps outshined by the gentleman who played Eric. Not that she didn't do a good job, because she did ... but she was up against one really good performer in this role. Kind of like Rebecca & I in our film ... tough to compare against that.
Click to expand...

I agree with you about Lindsey. I talked to her about it and I felt like we lost some of the specificity in her performance when we got on set. And Godfrey is so pro that he kind of never loses it. So I think he wound up stealing the show. During rehearsal with Lindsey I tried to emphasize the importance of preparing each beat, knowing what your action is in each beat, because we will shoot out of order, and she said afterward she didn't fully grasp that concept at the time, though she thought she did.

All that said, she did a very nice job for us and I will be excited to work with her again.
 
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Yeah, some people have gone one way on the music and some the other way. When I talked to Herman about it I only said "Mingus and Miles." And in my head I had Brick as a model. As the tension in that movie builds to the climax, it has this crazy, off the rails jazz riff going, until the gun goes off in the basement and what's his name is jumping out the window.

the music is pretty much exactly what I wanted. But I would also be curious what you would prefer.

P.S. - Why'd you shoot me?

Raptor365 said:
Hi Mark.H. Have not read anything here but here goes. I think you (and crew) nailed it in all depts except 1. The music. I think the score was incorrect for this short and serioulsly hope you spend more effort next go around in this area. You guys deserve the best man, go get it.
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