PurpleMacaroni Productions presents "Girl vs. Boy"

I just got finished watching this. I really enjoyed it. I felt a Robert Rodriguez touch in there, as it reminded me of 'the misbehaviors' and obviously 'Spykids'.
You handled their acting great, which I'm sure is no easy task when dealing with little ones. I especially enjoyed their line readings with that cute baby inflection.
 
Hey Amy, nicely done. I really enjoyed the music. I also enjoyed the beach running shots. The laptop sfx worked out well.

The one downer was the last line. I had to listen several times and still didn't quite catch it all.

Overall I enjoyed it. I bet the kids really had a great time.

BTW, I'm on vacation in Portland this week (lucky to have stole someones wireless last night to download). I saw the portland lighting credit. Is that where you live?
 
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you all enjoyed it. I think one of these days I need to work with grown up actors and tell a more serious story, but for now, I like doing light, somewhat silly stuff. My kids are nowhere near being professional actors, although I wish they wouldn't get so stiff on camera sometimes. They aren't like that in real life. My daughter is actually pretty dramatic!

I am so kicking myself for that last line. Honestly, it all makes sense to me, and I didn't take the time to step back and look at it objectively. If this helps clarify:

BLUE HAWK: (reading a page he managed to download from the Diary) They found the cartridge? J.D. huh?

It is basically a set up for a sequel, because all good spy movies need a sequel. :)

Chris, I'm sorry it wasn't clear to you about the flash drive. In my mind, it made sense that a Girl's diary is something she'd want to retrieve from a Boy, and in this case I hoped to imply that it was the Diary for the Girl agency that the Boy agency stole.

Kurt, yeah I'm in Portland (PDX is the airport code). Welcome to town. Hope you enjoy your stay. I loved your film, but will reserve comment for your thread. All I can say is I'm going to be exaggerating my long vowel sounds for a while. Thanks! ;)
 
Wow! THis was a delight! Very clever use of props. The script kept me guessing until the end. And not showing us the diary's contents because of a "malfunction code" is classic, very well done.

The beach shots were beautiful, did you do any CC? I also enjoyed the music. Despite what others might say, the vignetting on some of the beach scenes was cool. And the confrontation, with the VO ("Do not engage"), also clever.

This short has what a lot of other ones out there don't - it kept me guessing. The script was engaging, and I wanted to see what happened. Fabulous job!
 
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it. At the end of the day, technical issues aside, that's really what this film is all about. Fun.

I did a little bit of CC on the beach scenes. The footage was pretty nice already, but the blacks were a little flat, so I bumped up the contrast and did a bit of a blue gradient to bring out the sky, which was originally typical Oregon Coast overcast grey. The beach scene is my favorite look-wise.

Thanks again. :)
 
Nice job, Amy. I liked the kids and the beach scene and agree that the film kept me guessing until the end. I just now realized you live in Portland. We are just across the river in Camas, WA.
 
Thanks, Rebecca. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought your performance in Without Provocation was spot on.

I'm so happy to see so many NW filmmakers in this fest (I counted 4, and out of 35, that's pretty good).
 
Amy,

cute kids in this. I think working with kids can be fun, I got a much smaller taste of this on my film. I had to have a kit kat at the ready.

I liked the cu's on the beach. The beach stuff in general had a nice look to it. Congrats on the film.

Jim
 
NOT BAD FOR A GIRL!

Just kidding! AmyO—I LOVED this one! You definitely win the "cute" award. I must've been smiling the whole time I was watching it! Nice filmic technique—yours? I noticed you have a 35mm adapter of some sort—those things really do help pump up the production value don't they? LOVED the computer screen stuff, and especially all the "secret agent" texting going on! Wittily written and very funny! And again, sorry to keep using this word, incredibly cute! Not always easy to pull off computer screen texting without it looking dead and boring, but I think you were incredibly successful with this gag. And the "3D boy" computer video—PRICELESS! Also loved your ultra-cool props and iPod VFX! The chase scene even got me going, too! All you needed were a few dolly shots and a Steadicam shot here and there, and you would've had something pretty darned exciting! Again, really loved this one. And loved that it was done by a . . . GIRL!!! Super job, AmyO!
 
Last edited:
Jim - Thanks for your feedback. Kids can be fun and challenging to work will all at the same time. I had the luxury of 24/7 access to my actors, so if a scene started going downhill we could wrap for the day and try again. Luckilly, that didn't happen. The only pick-ups needed were because of my mistakes, not theirs.

Ralph - I'm so glad you liked it. I don't mind my film being called cute. It could be called a lot worse! :) Seriously though, thanks for commenting on the VFX. I'm glad you feel I was able to use the iChat effectively.

I must be crazy, but I did everything on this film except act (take that back, I have an off-camera line). I used a Letus35a adapter on a DVX100a with Canon lenses. I totally agree that about the Steadycam and dolly comments. I didn't have access to either, really, but would have loved to get some CUs of the kids running with the camera moving along side them. I tried to use as much pan/tilt camera movement as possible to break up the static shots. This was my first time using the Letus in a production, and probably should have gotten a follow focus. That would have made me more comfortable doing some tracking shots. I kinda just locked focus most of the time, with only a couple of small rack focus shots.

Thanks again guys!
 
Not to double post, but, Ralph, your opening comment (and I know it was said in fun and taken that way) made me think about something. Am I only one of two female filmmakers in this fest? I have to say, part of the reason I was disappointed that Birds of Prey fell victim to setbacks was that it was helmed by a sister filmmaker, Charli. The absolutely haunting "Check" was produced by MsManhattan. I'm pretty sure the rest of the films were at least submitted by guys. But, if anyone stumbles into this thread knows of any of the films that were produced, written or directed by women other than mine and "Check," let me know. I'm curious.

And that's not to take anything away from all the wonderful films in this fest that were created by men. I won't knock a film for the gender of it's director. This is more of a wondering out loud post than anything.
 
Amy, I believe you are right -- you and I are the only two women with SpyFest entries. It seems that way in most of these fests, but I suppose when you look at the ratio of active female DVXuser filmmakers to DVXuser dudes, it comes out about the same as the ratio of female Hollywood filmmakers to Hollywood dudes. Anyway, I had come to your thread to say how glad I was to see another Wo-man in the fest. I like that you went in an unexpected direction by using kids and you did a great job on the computer screens. I would have liked more out of the final confrontation between the boy and the girl -- I kind of got the impression that you maybe ran out of time to keep it under 6 minutes (if you have already addressed this in your thread, I apologize, but I'm still struggling to get through all the films and haven't been as diligent about reading peoples' posts). Also, I know it can be hard to get what you want out of kid actors -- Aram and I have worked with a lot of them. Anyway, welcome to the fest and I hope to see more from you in future fests. Congrats!

ADDENDUM: You know, I was trying to be so PC and not say that I thought this film was just super cute... But a quick read through of earlier posts and I see everyone else has said the same. And it truly was cute in the best way -- amusing, fun, witty. And again, I'm really glad you went with kids because it was a refreshing departure for this fest. Oh, and thanks for your kind words about "Check" -- really appreciate it!
 
Last edited:
MsManhattan -
Thanks for your comments on my film. I really don't mind the "cute" label. I knew going into this with the script as it was that it would be viewed that way, which is fine. Perhaps the next fest will inspire me to do something a bit more "grown up".

I agree with you that the confrontation seems a bit lacking. Had I the opportunity to shoot it again, I'd take a DP with me (I shot this myself), a Steadycam of some sort, and get a follow focus unit. There are many other angles I had in my head that were not possible from a tripod or without a follow-focus control on the 35mm adapter. I think in shooting it with just the two shot and CUs, it lacked tension. But, the scene was shot as written as I didn't want to include any violence (not even wrestling - we're working hard with my son to control his anger outburst, so why encourage it on camera?). Also, I had to limit the amount of time the kids were on camera together as they got each other all wound up. The outtakes from the two shot are full of giggles. If I'd been recording sound, you'd hear me getting a bit frustrated with them :) . All in all, I learned a lot from producing this, and even more from the comments people have given in this thread.

Thanks again.
 
Well, this is the second film in the fest that actually and really had me wanting to know what happens next. A MAJOR accomplishment and pretty much what Storytelling is all about.

This film is awesome, no two ways about it.

I think you can help yourself a little by getting more creative with the editing. that will help you pick up the pace in some spots. Like for instance when BLUE HAWK is just getting the diary, I might have tried some jump cuts there to step it up a little. I think you can find a lot of places throughout to tweak the pacing in that way, and I wouldn't be afraid of the jump-cut if you don't have coverage to cut to.

Also, no offense to the kids, but when they talk they have some issues. If it were me, I might cut around the parts where they talk and give them some internal V/O, even if it's adult voices.

Man, I nearly shot coffee out my nose when she is looking at the video of BLUE HAWK, because every time he would spin around, he would take a little peak right into the camera.

Also, when you cut to the shot on the beach, when she first finds the transmitter he removed. You cut to where she's looking and he's standing there, very bad-ass:

1181236350.jpg


I died. :)

Anyway, as I said, I think you can do a lot in post if you want to change things. If you did shoot this again, can the adapter. It's just a hindrance and has absolutely no affect on this story at all. You would be better off putting your time and energy into helping the kids than screwing around with one of those beasts again.

GREAT, GREAT short!!! :beer:
 
Thanks for your comments, Mark. They are appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I disagree with you about the adapter, but would concede that I don't need to be messing with it. I like the look it created, and will stand by my decision to use it on this film. If I could go back and shoot this, I'd get a camera op instead. Let THAT person mess with the adapter so I could focus on the actors.

Yes, my kids have difficulty with delivery. It's why they had so few lines to begin with. And why I relied on iChat for the conversation with HQ. I think adult VO's would have taken away from the charm others seem to have found in this film. In the end, because this was more about the process for me than the product, I got the best performance I could from them and accepted it.

As for your editing suggestions, I will take them under consideration. I never thought of cutting in that manner, but it does seem a valid option to pick up the pace a bit. Thanks.
 
AmyO said:
Thanks, Rebecca. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought your performance in Without Provocation was spot on.

I'm so happy to see so many NW filmmakers in this fest (I counted 4, and out of 35, that's pretty good).
Click to expand...

Thanks, Amy! 4 Northwest filmmakers is indeed cool. :) Kudos to you to being one of 2 women entering as well. :beer:
 
AmyO, That was wonderfully charming! I smiled throughout!

I thought that your editing was very nice! I loved the diagonal sweeping transition, too! I would liked to have seen a couple of insert shots (like C/U on the boy plugging in the iPod) or even a rack focus there. But I enjoyed this none-the-less!

Actors were superb! Great VFX work!

Hats off to you!!!

Nice job!


-Ted
 
Thanks Ted. I'm glad you liked the transition. It was inspired by the poster graphic, and I hope to create a brief title sequence to tie it in even further.

I think I might have that CU you mentioned, but if memory serves, I shot it from an angle that didn't cut well with the wider shot. I'll give it another look-see, though.

Glad you enjoyed it! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top