The Last Son of Celeste *Watch the first 6 minutes*

First of all, seeing this footage made me getting a little giddy. If two students are able to produce something this good looking, Hollywood better start watching out. I'm thinking about a quote Francis Ford Coppola once said. He was referencing the release 8mm camcorders when they were still fairly new and said that with this technology, some fat girl in Ohio will end up making a movie so brilliant that she will become the new Mozart and the professionalism of movies will supposively be destroyed forever. (Somewhat paraphrased, though the quote is easily found on Google).

I do take his speech with a grain of salt, however I always think about it when I see people doing innovative stuff with camcorder technology. And I say this because this film so far has a visual style that looks like it outdoes the look of some professional movies. It all looks very professional. The images and the editing all look great, so kudos to you and your DP on doing a great job there.

A lot of the shots in the modern day sequence (or futuristic?) in the office building reminded me of The Fountain with a similar visual style and a similar scene. Likewise, a lot of the fantasy sequence shots had a color palette similar to Lord of the Rings. Anyway, visually, what is being accomplished here is incredible. Considering how a lot of student films tend to neglect sound, your sound mix also sounded very professional. I didn't even think about it until afterwards when I realized it was as professional as the film's visual look. Maybe someone more knowledgeable in that area will have critiques on that part, but from a normal viewer, the technical aspects appeared very solid. I'm rewatching certain parts here and there, and I also need to applaude whoever composed the score. I'm digging the piano in this.

My main problems come up with the acting. From the six minutes, I saw a lot of moments where it sounded like the actor and actress were just saying their lines without a solid grasp on their situation or motivation. The girl who played Cassie didn't appear to be motivated enough in getting Frank out of the room. I personally would have expected a bit more excitement in her voice and actions to whatever she wanted to lead him to. She wants him to see something important, darn it! It felt like she had this pent of energy that I was waiting to see released. She was bouncing up and down in the hallway as they ran to go outside. When she realized he forgot about this event, she could have felt a little disappointed. The "Don't tell me you forgot. Don't you ever listen to me?" line is riding on the way she says it. An expression of true disappointment could have given it further leverage. Here it runs flat with a minimal tug in direction. There are also lines like "It looks like you've seen a ghost," that depend on certain emotions from the actors to come out in order to sound right. It came off sounding a little corny to me for similar reasons. Of course, you don't want her overacting, but I think she could have injected a little more excitement into it, and a little more diappointment when she realized he forgot. Frank appeared all right in the scene, although the bulk of the dialogue and the biggest range of acting belonged to Cassie. It had the feeling of an intimate moment, and I really felt that. I loved that feeling. I think it could have been elevated just a little higher if those things had been taken into consideration.

For the fantasy scenes, I felt similar problems. The acting on Cassie's part fell flat. Especially for a line as heavy as "You are dying." Did she not want to tell him to the bad news? Did she feel obligated to do so? Has she been waiting days to tell him, so she felt desperate? I'm curious what her backstory is on this issue, because it wasn't evident from her delivery and I felt it could have been. You're dealing with some heavy dialogue here that could come of sounding very pretentious if uttered wrong. The lines need to be justified. The "You must listen" line before she tells him the bad news sounded like she tried to make it epic and cryptic. There needs to be more emotional weight attached to it for it to come off okay.

That said, there were special moments that I loved. I loved Frank turning the wrong way in the hallway at first when he went to follow Cassie. And I loved how Cassie appeared to have a lot of energy as she ran off for Frank to follow her. Again, I would have liked to see more of that energy in performance.

I apologize for racking up this many irks. I don't want to sound like I didn't like the video. Quite the contrary, I enjoyed it a lot. I just hope you will take these considerations on your next project. You have a lot of potential. That's clear from this six minute intro. I look forward to the full project and I also look forward to your future work to see your growth as a filmmaker.
 
Zach pretty well nailed it on the head. The girl's performance is the biggest drawback to an extremely professional looking film. Very impressive!
 
Wow Marlon, just wow. That looks spectacular! - you've pretty much single-handedly convinced me with that footage that the XH-A1 is the camera I want to buy.

If you don't mind my asking Marlon, I understand you used an M2 35mm adapter for the shoot. What lenses did you use with it?
 
Zach Janky said:
First of all, seeing this footage made me getting a little giddy. If two students are able to produce something this good looking, Hollywood better start watching out. I'm thinking about a quote Francis Ford Coppola once said. He was referencing the release 8mm camcorders when they were still fairly new and said that with this technology, some fat girl in Ohio will end up making a movie so brilliant that she will become the new Mozart and the professionalism of movies will supposively be destroyed forever. (Somewhat paraphrased, though the quote is easily found on Google).

I do take his speech with a grain of salt, however I always think about it when I see people doing innovative stuff with camcorder technology. And I say this because this film so far has a visual style that looks like it outdoes the look of some professional movies. It all looks very professional. The images and the editing all look great, so kudos to you and your DP on doing a great job there.

A lot of the shots in the modern day sequence (or futuristic?) in the office building reminded me of The Fountain with a similar visual style and a similar scene. Likewise, a lot of the fantasy sequence shots had a color palette similar to Lord of the Rings. Anyway, visually, what is being accomplished here is incredible. Considering how a lot of student films tend to neglect sound, your sound mix also sounded very professional. I didn't even think about it until afterwards when I realized it was as professional as the film's visual look. Maybe someone more knowledgeable in that area will have critiques on that part, but from a normal viewer, the technical aspects appeared very solid. I'm rewatching certain parts here and there, and I also need to applaude whoever composed the score. I'm digging the piano in this.

My main problems come up with the acting. From the six minutes, I saw a lot of moments where it sounded like the actor and actress were just saying their lines without a solid grasp on their situation or motivation. The girl who played Cassie didn't appear to be motivated enough in getting Frank out of the room. I personally would have expected a bit more excitement in her voice and actions to whatever she wanted to lead him to. She wants him to see something important, darn it! It felt like she had this pent of energy that I was waiting to see released. She was bouncing up and down in the hallway as they ran to go outside. When she realized he forgot about this event, she could have felt a little disappointed. The "Don't tell me you forgot. Don't you ever listen to me?" line is riding on the way she says it. An expression of true disappointment could have given it further leverage. Here it runs flat with a minimal tug in direction. There are also lines like "It looks like you've seen a ghost," that depend on certain emotions from the actors to come out in order to sound right. It came off sounding a little corny to me for similar reasons. Of course, you don't want her overacting, but I think she could have injected a little more excitement into it, and a little more diappointment when she realized he forgot. Frank appeared all right in the scene, although the bulk of the dialogue and the biggest range of acting belonged to Cassie. It had the feeling of an intimate moment, and I really felt that. I loved that feeling. I think it could have been elevated just a little higher if those things had been taken into consideration.

For the fantasy scenes, I felt similar problems. The acting on Cassie's part fell flat. Especially for a line as heavy as "You are dying." Did she not want to tell him to the bad news? Did she feel obligated to do so? Has she been waiting days to tell him, so she felt desperate? I'm curious what her backstory is on this issue, because it wasn't evident from her delivery and I felt it could have been. You're dealing with some heavy dialogue here that could come of sounding very pretentious if uttered wrong. The lines need to be justified. The "You must listen" line before she tells him the bad news sounded like she tried to make it epic and cryptic. There needs to be more emotional weight attached to it for it to come off okay.

That said, there were special moments that I loved. I loved Frank turning the wrong way in the hallway at first when he went to follow Cassie. And I loved how Cassie appeared to have a lot of energy as she ran off for Frank to follow her. Again, I would have liked to see more of that energy in performance.

I apologize for racking up this many irks. I don't want to sound like I didn't like the video. Quite the contrary, I enjoyed it a lot. I just hope you will take these considerations on your next project. You have a lot of potential. That's clear from this six minute intro. I look forward to the full project and I also look forward to your future work to see your growth as a filmmaker.
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Thanks for the feedback Zach. I agree with a lot of the things you said about the acting, next time, I'll get real actors for my movies instead of just friends. Unfortunately, its not that easy to get real actors to jump aboard a "student film". It's also tough when I'm doing directing and DP'ing at the same time. I really wish I could focus more on the directing aspect but there isn't anyone at school who I could trust to get the look I wanted. I'm glad you liked the visual style, also being an illstrator & painter, I take a lot of proud in my movies compostion and color palette. I'm glad you also liked the music, Justin did an incredible job, I felt like I had James Newton Howard on my movie. He did about 70% of the movie's score (although the piano stuff you mentioned was mine). Again, thanks for taking the time for writing such an in-depth review. I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Grug
Wow Marlon, just wow. That looks spectacular! - you've pretty much single-handedly convinced me with that footage that the XH-A1 is the camera I want to buy.

If you don't mind my asking Marlon, I understand you used an M2 35mm adapter for the shoot. What lenses did you use with it?
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I used Nikon 24mm, 50mm, and 135mm. Glad you liked the clip!
 
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jcapurro said:
Zach pretty well nailed it on the head. The girl's performance is the biggest drawback to an extremely professional looking film. Very impressive!
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THAT WAS SICK!

very well done man, just goes to show what indie's are capable of.

I agree with his comment though, i was not impressed with the girls performance. The main dude looks like he could be orlando blooms brother hehe.

The sound was great, but the only thing that bugged me a bit was the girls eye line when she looks at the main dude at the end of the clip, it looks like shes looking right over him.

**** that was great.
 
hey marlon could you get me you music scorers info i'm just about done with my 20 minute short and need it scored.this project is amazing and you made me recosider sailing my m2 adapter.
 
Hey Marlon. GOtta say there are some high-dollar images in these six minutes! I'm on the boat that the actors are underdoing it, but what can ya do huh?

Lookin forward to watchin the remainder. Fantasy is my kinda genre!
 
Sorry! It's a thing that DVXusers do. Repeat the same thing over and over. LOL. Don't take it personally, you weren't acting.

The images are sick man.
 
It's fine. It's a reality check, I need to improve as a director. I hope the acting isn't bad enough that it ruins the whole movie experience.
 
hi marlon if you could get the info for the guy who scored your film i'd love to throw some work his way.thanks
 
marlontorres said:
It's fine. It's a reality check, I need to improve as a director. I hope the acting isn't bad enough that it ruins the whole movie experience.
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Oh no, it doesn't ruin it. It dampered it a little bit, but it doesn't make it unwatchable or anything by any means. I am intrigued by the story, and that will keep me watching. I'm glad you're being critical of your work though. That says a lot.

If you wouldn't mind me asking, how did you and the actors prepare for this movie? Was it a day by day thing or did you have meetings and read throughs and rehearsals?
 
Zach Janky said:
Oh no, it doesn't ruin it. It dampered it a little bit, but it doesn't make it unwatchable or anything by any means. I'm glad you're being critical of your work though. That says a lot.

If you wouldn't mind me asking, how did you and the actors prepare for this movie? Was it a day by day thing or did you have meetings and read throughs and rehearsals?
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Since we're all students with pretty busy schedules, rehearsals were almost out of the question. We did it pretty much day by day. We had one rehearsal and it was very short. I guess it shows :(
 
marlontorres said:
Since we're all students with pretty busy schedules, rehearsals were almost out of the question. We did it pretty much day by day. We had one rehearsal and it was very short. I guess it shows :(
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Hey, I'm in the same boat. Being a student and finding time to prepare sucks. But I do think that is one of the keys that you were missing. With time being restrained as it is, I would recommend finding time with each actor and having individual meetings to discuss their character. This would at least give them an idea of what you're looking for ahead of time and they can work to go towards that. You could explain to her that each scene has a few different beats that you want her to hit. That shift from being excited to disappointed in the scene you showed would have been a great one to hit.

Anyway, that's the road I had planned out for a shoot of mine. However, it got delayed to probably next year because there wasn't enough time to prep, and a lot of the actors were involved in plays. I could just see the nightmare of getting a shooting schedule around that, let alone rehearsals and meetings.

It is good that you got one read through in. It's better than nothing. But those one-on-one discussion can immensly help actors find their characters.
 
Okay, I feel like I should explain (and defend) why I didn't do the shift from excited to disappointment with the Cassie character. The main flaw of my protagonist is that he's forgetful, heck the overarching theme of the movie is forgetting and remembering a long lost love. That's why he's searching for something in that scene, he's misplaced something, forgetten where he put it. The Cassie character does not show disappointment because this is a flaw that she has grown accustomed to from the character. In fact, she doesn't really find it as something negative. Think of it as a girlfriend with a shopping problem, its annoying as hell, but you eventually reach a point where you just tease her about it. I know this is going to sound lame but that scene in the labratory is probably one of a few scenes where I was fairly happy with her performance. Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest :)
 
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