I had to go back and watch that. I tell ya, the lenghts friends and family will go to to help us no budget filmmakers. It's great your buddy jumped in like that and gave it a try. Even the most seasoned actors can pucker up a little when the cameras start rolling. Good for him for going for it.
THE BEGINNER - A film by J. Anthony Gonzales
- Thread starter cinealma
- Start date
I had to go back and watch that. I tell ya, the lenghts friends and family will go to to help us no budget filmmakers. It's great your buddy jumped in like that and gave it a try. Even the most seasoned actors can pucker up a little when the cameras start rolling. Good for him for going for it.
cinealma
Veteran
And here's the funny part. Our lead, Paul is like, Joe Actor. Mickey, is the non-actor, BUT he's the "I've read every spy/crime book ever written" guy.
You can well imagine the wonderful BTS stuff going on between those two!
Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
Hey John, nice job! :beer:
Yeah, there was some audio stuff and the acting was a bit rough at times, but it had a nice story... the kind that makes you go, "hey, what's going on here?" and then reveals itself up to the end. I love it when stories do that...
And Sam Whitehead... I knew that name sounded familiar. He auditioned for our horrorfest short back in October... what a small world!
Yeah, there was some audio stuff and the acting was a bit rough at times, but it had a nice story... the kind that makes you go, "hey, what's going on here?" and then reveals itself up to the end. I love it when stories do that...
And Sam Whitehead... I knew that name sounded familiar. He auditioned for our horrorfest short back in October... what a small world!
cinealma
Veteran
And Sam Whitehead... I knew that name sounded familiar. He auditioned for our horrorfest short back in October... what a small world!
He was IN my HorrorFest short last year. Very small world indeed!
He's definitely a character, but a good guy. Very pro to work with. Hope your experience with him was positive.
I'm glad you enjoyed the film. Yep, the audio stuff is a little rough. It should be smoothed out in the "director's cut".
Thanks for watching!
Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
He seemed very professional. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to audition in person, but we exchanged a few emails and he sent me a link to his reel, which was pretty good. I might have to get ahold of him for something in the future...
Shawn Philip Nelson
Veteran
One of the first spyfest entries to surprise me without confusing the hell out of me, nice! Good job, I enjoyed it.
Michael_Petro
Veteran
I enjoyed your film.. the thing that seemed odd to me was the cussing.. you got that 50/60's style tv show look then a couple of F bombs... not that i dislike f bombs just seemed out of place in this setting..
Norm Sanders
Script Wrangler
Wow, John, this opened with a BANG with great music and a totally pro logo/look! From here, the B&W presentation was nice, and we had some interesting shots as well. However, overall, I didn't get the story other than the new agent was either set up or screwed up, but there's a lot I didn't understand about it, or the purpose of the 'Russian' who had no accent to support the role/character. There were serious audio/ADR issues throughout, with words being spoken at in appropriate times (i.e. when we're looking at the Russian who's talking, but mouth isn't moving). There was also a point in the middle of the film where we had some black bars at the top & bottom of the frame, but not throughout the rest of the film, so it was a little distracting, visually. Overall, this had a lot of potential, but I felt it fell short in the end.
Gord.T
Still "Senior Member"
Loved the poster. Very original. Actually set the mood for the short
and days later it's unforgettable. Very nice opening. I got a 60's feel
right off the bat with font choice and split screen. Pro stuff.
The smoke pod ofcourse I laughed at not because it was funny but because
we did the same thing and my hands were black when I was done.
I liked your choice of casting. Rough looking dudes. The hawaiian shirt
fit the character perfect.
The CU @ 1:11 almost suggests a lens change. My first impression was
fish eye but scrolling back I don't see it. I don't know cameras but
am wondering if you did a lens change for that shot. Some people like
wide angle but I think fish eye (what's that called again? tele-photo? no, that's
for bringing backgrounds closeup like for concert crowds. What is that fish-eye lens called? )
.
The swearing lines @ 1:27 were unexpected. It threw me off guard in a way that
added an unpredictable element to the flow. Kind of like ripples in the pond.
Just enough to add an edge and keep things interesting without being
obnoxious.
I liked the CU's emphasizing the earpierce. The accompanying audio
matched perfectly.
I liked the idea of the paper folding. Gives the character that one important ingrediant.
Character.
The blood splat on the table...well done and believable. I laughed though
because of our blood splat on the lens in a previous fest.
So I'm partial to blood splat. Gotta have splat.
There is a big moving shadow at 2:51. mmmmm.
On first pass I wrote it off as an airplane shadow
but upon closer inspection I'm thinking...gotcha.
The hubcaps on the strings/ropes. I've seen these in films before.
So there must be a practicle reason for this. Is it like a scarecrow
type of thing to scare off birds or other animals? We don't see that
here in Canada. Usually we just pick up some girl in the bar and tell them
to go stand out in the cornfield and look pretty.(I love rotten tomatoes.ouch)
About 4:50 the audio begins to...nuff said.
I know you had issues in getting it in so that's cool.
This short had an original and refreshing feel to it. And I cannot tell
you why. It's just a feel or style that you've imparted into the film
along the way. A culmination of many factors and not just a given technique.
Let's call it personality.
It would have been really cool had you persued it in spanish as you had
originally planned. And if you had completed it the way you planned.
But I'm glad you chose to take crits on entering something that was
not your complete vision. That is hard.
There is no way in hell you'll keep me from watching your next short.
And please do not go mainstream, at least for now.
And if you can make the next one in spanish all the better.
This short sticks in my head. I have a video library full of
hollywood movies. 5 % are international. But hey, they are in my library
on par with the rest. It takes guts to be honest to yourself
but it also means being broke most of the time. Depends on what your after.
-I guess that's it. Congrats and will be watching out for you for absolute sure.
and days later it's unforgettable. Very nice opening. I got a 60's feel
right off the bat with font choice and split screen. Pro stuff.
The smoke pod ofcourse I laughed at not because it was funny but because
we did the same thing and my hands were black when I was done.
I liked your choice of casting. Rough looking dudes. The hawaiian shirt
fit the character perfect.
The CU @ 1:11 almost suggests a lens change. My first impression was
fish eye but scrolling back I don't see it. I don't know cameras but
am wondering if you did a lens change for that shot. Some people like
wide angle but I think fish eye (what's that called again? tele-photo? no, that's
for bringing backgrounds closeup like for concert crowds. What is that fish-eye lens called? )
.
The swearing lines @ 1:27 were unexpected. It threw me off guard in a way that
added an unpredictable element to the flow. Kind of like ripples in the pond.
Just enough to add an edge and keep things interesting without being
obnoxious.
I liked the CU's emphasizing the earpierce. The accompanying audio
matched perfectly.
I liked the idea of the paper folding. Gives the character that one important ingrediant.
Character.
The blood splat on the table...well done and believable. I laughed though
because of our blood splat on the lens in a previous fest.
So I'm partial to blood splat. Gotta have splat.
There is a big moving shadow at 2:51. mmmmm.
On first pass I wrote it off as an airplane shadow
but upon closer inspection I'm thinking...gotcha.
The hubcaps on the strings/ropes. I've seen these in films before.
So there must be a practicle reason for this. Is it like a scarecrow
type of thing to scare off birds or other animals? We don't see that
here in Canada. Usually we just pick up some girl in the bar and tell them
to go stand out in the cornfield and look pretty.(I love rotten tomatoes.ouch)
About 4:50 the audio begins to...nuff said.
I know you had issues in getting it in so that's cool.
This short had an original and refreshing feel to it. And I cannot tell
you why. It's just a feel or style that you've imparted into the film
along the way. A culmination of many factors and not just a given technique.
Let's call it personality.
It would have been really cool had you persued it in spanish as you had
originally planned. And if you had completed it the way you planned.
But I'm glad you chose to take crits on entering something that was
not your complete vision. That is hard.
There is no way in hell you'll keep me from watching your next short.
And please do not go mainstream, at least for now.
And if you can make the next one in spanish all the better.
This short sticks in my head. I have a video library full of
hollywood movies. 5 % are international. But hey, they are in my library
on par with the rest. It takes guts to be honest to yourself
but it also means being broke most of the time. Depends on what your after.
-I guess that's it. Congrats and will be watching out for you for absolute sure.
cinealma
Veteran
shawneous said:
Thanks. A longer script than on the screen this cut, I tried to keep the story intact as best I could. Glad you enjoyed it!
aFox said:
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it!
Michael Petro said:
I'm probably going to trim those down a bit in the final cut. But I get a blast out of seeing "older" people curse! :laugh: Thanks for watching!
Norm Sanders said:
I have to go back and check for those black bars. Probably a trim I added back into it late in the game.
My biggest faux pas, I admit, is I tend to always work on the opening titles first. It's a creative habit that I just can't shake. A friend of mine and I used to write computer games for the Commodore Amiga, C64 before that... ah, memories... anyway, my friend always made fun of me because the very first thing I would produce for our projects were "TITLE SCREENS".
But I think working on those helps to set the tone for the rest of the piece, you know?
As for the ADR, yes, the biggest weakness. This was my first REAL dialogue cutting project. I might have tried to do too much, but you don't learn until you get your hands dirty and dig right in, eh? Ha! Yes, I'll be cleaning it up a bit for the final cut.
The story, well, I'm afraid suffered in the 6-minute cut. The final cut will fix that (I hope :happy
.The Russian. I think when a lot of people heard "That ****ing Russian's early", they were expecting a REAL Russian guy, complete with accent. My intention was for Mark to not be a 1st generation Russian guy. Agent Solak just like to refer to him as a "Russian" because of his heritage/last name or whatever. So Agent Tarkovsky is more like a American of Russian descent from the Bay area. :thumbsup: I'm going to fix that in the final cut, though.
Glad you like it, Norm. I think it has a lot of potential too, I just have to get back into the editing room and work it.
Thanks for watching!
Edgen
Veteran
My Thoughts:
I liked the look of the main character. He looks like he came straight from the 50s. I'm not sure the black and white worked. Perhaps if all the set looked from the 50s, it would be a different story. I think some of the film was shot in a school room? Maybe I would rather see all the bright colors and it just took me out of the film. The white haired actor ..
Ok, music. I'm.. eh.
Audio seemed off sync. I'm not sure if it was mentioned earlier in the thread about this or not.
Loved the lead.
I dug the end shot.
/j
I liked the look of the main character. He looks like he came straight from the 50s. I'm not sure the black and white worked. Perhaps if all the set looked from the 50s, it would be a different story. I think some of the film was shot in a school room? Maybe I would rather see all the bright colors and it just took me out of the film. The white haired actor ..
Ok, music. I'm.. eh.
Audio seemed off sync. I'm not sure if it was mentioned earlier in the thread about this or not.
Loved the lead.
I dug the end shot.
/j
cinealma
Veteran
I'm debating about the color, too. I've been messing around with some different "looks" and I might give do some CC and render out some tests. My only challenge is going to be the "blood". Since I was shooting for black and white, I used a darker mix.
The color is funny, too, because when I apply color to the opening sequence, it still works, only instead of 60's, it feels more like late 70's, early 80's.
Ok, the music. I'm... eh. HA! HA! I like what I composed for the opening, but the "score", well, you know... So, you wanna do some pro bono work this summer?
I'm serious!Thanks for watching!
gabrielflorit
Well-known member
This one started out really cool. Bongo music, 60's fonts, very cool. And then it started, and the black and white.... didn't really pop, it was so muted. So blah. The acting was good, except for the ADR, which was poorly done. Interesting script. Overall I enjoyed it, thanks!
cinealma
Veteran
Raptor, thanks for the feedback. Sorry I took so long to get back to you.
Thanks. Like I mentioned in another post, I tend to work on the "big opening" first to kind of set my own mood for editing, as well as the film's.
Yeah, that's my favorite line in the whole script. Added a little surrealism to it and set up his next line.
Ha!
And I appreciate the time you spent in your detailed feedback. Thanks for watching!
Thanks. Like I mentioned in another post, I tend to work on the "big opening" first to kind of set my own mood for editing, as well as the film's.
The DVX has a fixed zoom lens on it. We didn't use any attachments. But, we stuck to just three or four spots on the zoom. We used the wide end a lot and really got into the actors' faces at times.
Thanks. Some people like 'em, some don't.
Thank you. We actually shot that around 1:00am in my garage. We threw a kids shower curtain up as a background to fit in with the preschool. Because of the power outage, we had to improvise.
"See this poo pooing bird..."
Yeah, that's my favorite line in the whole script. Added a little surrealism to it and set up his next line.
The blood splat was fun. We used the basic garden pump sprayer and hose setup. We did three takes. #1 actually looked the best, but sprayed out at the wrong angle. #2 sucked because the hose clogged. #3 was crazy because it kind of SPRAYED out in a big, thick stream. I had to cut a lot of frames out just to make it look like he was shot and not harpooned.
Not a person, I'm sure. We're all standing behind the camera. It was a windy day, so either it's a shadow from the tree or possibly a moire pattern from the mesh stuff covering the fence.
Acutally, these are for the kids to bang on at the preschool just for fun during playtime outside.
Ha!
Yes. Because of the power outage we had, there were a lot of missing shots I had to deal with in editing. I think the idea is there, I just have to go back and work it a bit.
Thanks! That's what I keep telling my wife. But it's not usually about my films.
The spanish version had the same story, except it was WAY toned down and only dealt with the two main characters. I just didn't have the actors to pull it off and ran out of time to find them. Paul's a great actor (Agent Mann), but he doesn't really speak spanish.
Thank you so much. It's great that somebody enjoys my films as much as I enjoy making them.
And I appreciate the time you spent in your detailed feedback. Thanks for watching!
cinealma
Veteran
Thanks, man. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The B&W was a challenge on this one basically because we really didn't "light" it. So it kind of has the old 60's documentary feel to it, and not intentionally. Something I will really work on for the final cut.
Thanks again for watching!