"Refill" - by hybridtheory, xpac84, and happygobo

Great job on this film! I really enjoyed watching it. I thought that the camera work was pretty darn good. Especially the "photography shots" and "scope shot." Very nice time lapse as well!

I enjoyed the light humor in this story. I thought that you put together a fun film to watch with some really great shots.

Great work!

-Ted
 
Thanks alot Ted, I just hope Nikon doesn't sue me for emulating their focusing crosshairs, anyone with one on their digital SLRs knows what i mean.
 
I can't get this to play after the 2:50 mark ... it hangs ... downloaded twice ... no luck :shocked:
 
keystoned, that totally sucks, please complain to the administrators, i hope this isnt happening to others trying to dl our movie
 
shawneous said:
The plot didn't make a ton of sense, but it was good. I absolutely loved the assasination scene!
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Shawneous, I glad that scene came across well, I think our film would not stood up as well if that scene had turned out campy or fake-ish.

You become a victim of your own edit because you write and shoot something and it makes a lot of sense to you, but some of the incricate details can get lost in translation. We REALLY tried to develop characters and keep a simple plot this time, but our 5 page script is nearly 9 minutes on the timeline. The way I feel about our DVX cut is that it's the meat of the story, but doesn't necessarily include the dressings.

Thanks for the view and comments!:beer:
 
This was really interesting. Nice job.

The stuff I liked:
  • The overall look. Crisp. Clean. Nice job.
  • The music was perfect for the feel you were trying to project. Nice job.
  • Your actors. All were great. Especially your creepy male lead in the coffee shop. A kinda Gary Busey feel. Wearing Hawaiian shirts. Funny.
  • Loved the match cut from the coffee cup to the SUV's wheel. Nice.
  • Also liked the use of time lapse. Wary of "gimmicks", but they seemed to serve the story here. Maybe a little too long a cut for my taste, but that's just me.
The stuff I wasn't so sure of:
  • The slow mo bullet hit on the guy in the street. I think something was missing there for me but I'm not sure what it was. Maybe the facial expression (I didn't buy that this is the expression of a guy whose chest has just been exploded). Or the velocity of the blood from the exit wound. And now I feel like I'm quibbling, so sorry.
  • I wonder whether the edit might have been tightened up a little?
  • The assassin packing up after the hit. He seemed to me to be moving too slow. To my pea brain, after a hit like that in a public place he would have been ready to move out much faster.
  • Help me out. What was the tie in of the title to anything other than the guy in the coffee shop couldn't get a refill? I am sure I'm missing something here but I just can't get it. (I should go back in the thread for an explanation perhaps)
Anyway, a very nice job. Cool.
 
Dahopa,

Thanks for the critique. We're really proud of all the stuff you pointed out in the "like" section of your review.

You probably felt the edit could have been a little tighter because I have some shots that I needed to have the beginning and end for (for either a MOA or continuity) but they dragged a bit getting to it, especially when some of the other cuts are quicker.

Good point about the assassin. He's probably too cocky for his own good.

Titles, Character Names and the like are the hardest things for me to come up with. Sometimes, I'll write an entire script without names and them ponder for hours how to fill them. Same thing goes for Titles. Yes, it's kinda gimmicky, but the tie-in is to the coffee. It's something that doesn't mean much, but might make you smirk when you think about it.

Again, thanks for the review! :beer:
 
Ben, nice transitions using the music. Very well shot & lit, great sound design, good acting, etc. A very VERY solid entry! The main guy at the table was REALLY annoying, but I'm sure he was meant to play it that way, in which case everyone was pretty outstanding in their performances. Great squib/VFX work too. Didn't quite get the whole 'explode on impact' and connection to the bomb under the bed. Was curious as to obvious use of trademarked names, specifically Coca-Cola and Ford. Nice post work throughout, as well as editing (not just nice, but GREAT work).

Again, serious contender, IMO.
 
Wow, thanks Norm. I was wondering if you were going to pop in here (i saw that you were posting reviews like mad!)

C'mon didn't you know that we we're sponsored by Coke and Ford? Just like American Idol! No, but seriously, if they come after me, I'll gladly pay them all the money that I've made of this film (which currently is like a negative 1000 bucks.) Lol, i guess the brand recognition wasn't as obvious to us when shooting. It went more like this:

Ben: We need water cups.
Brad: Hey, There's some over there.
Ben: Do it.

On a serious note, It's a lot of fun to see the leaps and bounds we've made as filmmakers. I haven't been an every fester like you and JDS, but close (had a zombiefest movie, but never uploaded it, had scripts/pre-pro for drama and hero, actually made it into sci, horror, and now spyfest.)

Makes me feel good about the prospects for future projects. Refill not only was a technical/storywriting improvement for us, but we made a lot of connections as well down here in Charlotte.

I look forward to doing battle in the future Norm! :beer:
 
This one had a great story, except ... I didn't understand why the creepy guy set the sniper up. What was the motivation for it?

Solid acting, and some veeeery cool camera moves here. Probably the slickest moves of any entry I've seen so far.
 
lol, were we that far down on the list that everyone is just getting to us in the past 24 hours? :)

gabriel, there's one line as they fade into the restaurant that explains the motivation. It cuts in mid-conversation "Apparently, he got away with more than 5 million before they knew it was him". he being Rob and they being the people Tyler and Jon work for. And since Tyler and Jon don't think much of Rob, they decide to f*ck with him.

I probably should have added the tagline:

"this is what assassins do for fun"

Sweet ... we have slick moves. Normally how my thought process works is I come up with 2-3 real bad ass camera moves/editing conventions that I want to try out and then try to work them into the film, some make it, some don't. We have 2 50 ft long dolly tracking shots that didn't even make the cut!

thanks for the view!
 
Norm Sanders said:
Was curious as to obvious use of trademarked names, specifically Coca-Cola and Ford.
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I contest this merely to argue semantics. The Coca-Cola logo was transluscent, and not lit or displayed to the logo's recognizable advantage (like say Blade Runner or any Michael Bay film). Except maybe when Rob says "That's insulting," and takes a drink, 'cause being insulted makes you thirsty. At what point is the Ford logo actually used? The picture car was a Ford, but the logo was never actually displayed.

Uniroyal, Nikon, and Panasonic on the other hand, should have provided us all with company brochures abosolutely free of charge. Coke could have contributed some flat Diet Coke to our craft services. If there's anything more disgusting than Diet Coke it's flat Diet Coke.
 
Justin,

What I imagine Norm was referring to was whether or not the fact that we were aware that we were displaying such logos prominently, hence "obvious". The fact is that the brand names are there, true, but i also think it doesn't matter, or matters just as little as the heinz 57 ketchup bottle in the background. Brands are all over and can slip in wherever, just like in our film.

So I think to settle Norm's curiosity, anything that has a brand name in the film was there because it slipped in under the radar, probably when we we're worrying about lighting, direction, camera moves, and the other 100 things on a shoot.

No need to argue semantics buddy. lol. :beer:
 
Trademarks are fine as long as you are using the product for it's intended purpose. Prominence is not the issue really.

You can't hold the product up to ridicule etc. (trade libel) but you can have a Heinz bottle on the table of a diner.

This area of law contrast sharply with copyright and is often confused with it.
 
Got a good clean naturally lit lookin image goin

haha some nice dialogue in the cafe here
"does the pope shi* in a funny hat" heheh

Like your actors, but your sound setup/recording was unkind to the dark-haired guy

I like the still camera o' vision - nice spy feel that.

Dig the time-lapse stuff.

Shot through the highball glass with the liquid at different levels ... steeling it ... fair warning, you will see it in my work one day :)

Nice squib ... post blood effect? Squib? A combo maybe? Looked great.

not sure I got the shot of the guy with the DVX or HVX

not sure I got the ending but I definitely enjoyed the ride

Looking back, I think the opening scene is maybe too long. Maybe there is vital information there that I am missing that makes it all make a little more since but if not it seems it is just to establish that the red haired guy is kind of a twit and that he his hiring the dark-haired guy go kill someone, who is supposedly very perverted. That could all be established much quicker and then we could get on to the meet of the short. If it was a feature the first act would run long, the basic turning point or dramatic question is “go kill this guy” “will he be able to kill this guy and report back” that’s the basic function of that first scene I think. It is true that in comedy you don’t always have to move the plot forward but I think here it could be tighter and get to the second act – going out and killing the guy – a bit sooner.

Thanks for making me laugh with this entertaining short. It was a good bedtime snack. :beer:

Goodnight:-KnockedOut(D
 
Cool story, good lighting. Love the time-lapse shots. In all this film touched me in an inappropriate place.
 
bosindy said:
Trademarks are fine as long as you are using the product for it's intended purpose. Prominence is not the issue really.

You can't hold the product up to ridicule etc. (trade libel) but you can have a Heinz bottle on the table of a diner.

This area of law contrast sharply with copyright and is often confused with it.
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Thanks for clearing it up bosindy, that makes so much more sense in my brain now.
 
Keystoned said:
Looking back, I think the opening scene is maybe too long. Maybe there is vital information there that I am missing that makes it all make a little more since but if not it seems it is just to establish that the red haired guy is kind of a twit and that he his hiring the dark-haired guy go kill someone, who is supposedly very perverted. That could all be established much quicker and then we could get on to the meet of the short. If it was a feature the first act would run long, the basic turning point or dramatic question is “go kill this guy” “will he be able to kill this guy and report back” that’s the basic function of that first scene I think. It is true that in comedy you don’t always have to move the plot forward but I think here it could be tighter and get to the second act – going out and killing the guy – a bit sooner.

Thanks for making me laugh with this entertaining short. It was a good bedtime snack. :beer:

Goodnight:-KnockedOut(D
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Keystoned, thanks for the quality bit of criticism, I went ahead and I timed it out. It ends up being about 2:30 for the 1st act, around 2:00 for the second, and 1:30 for the third. I think for the sake of everyone's closure, I should have extended the conversation at the end and really hit people over the head with "this is what just happened" instead of just hinting at it.

Thanks for taking the time to redownload, and we're gald you liked it!
 
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