235 Studios presents: FREEZE FRAME

Ok, I have to agree that this is not really a "spy film" of any sort.

Now that I've said that, purely on a film basis, I absolutely loved this one. Totally my cup of tea. The way this was shot and the final lighting/color and the story itself was kind of like Twilight Zone meets X-Files.

The final scene was creepy and effective. However, I think you needed some breathing room with this one in order to build it up more smoothly. When the "cat" comes out of the bag at the end, it's too sudden. The clipping was the only real clue as to what was going one, but I think it revealed too much.

Good job. I think you made a terrific film.
 
Great job! I really liked this one. I think it could have been edited a little tighter (I'm guilty of that myself) but the payoff was huge!

I'm now a big fan. I'll be watching to see what you come up with next.

BTW, I think that lady lives across the street from me! :Drogar-Shock(DBG):

Mike
 
I agree that the editing of the middle part could have been tighter. Great tension building though and a great payoff!
 
235 Studios said:
I'm glad that it didn't feel like a spy fest film, as this was not supposed to be a traditional spyfest entry. It is definately on the outer limits of gathering information without the approval of others. :)
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Was that an intentional reference to "Outer Limits"? 'Cause, that's what this film reminded me of, in a good way. I liked it. Great cinematography. That extreme wide angle on the sidewalk was a bit (over)distorted, and I'm on the fence if it adds or detracts from the off kilter mood. I enjoyed how you gave us the story of the inventor husband quickly and creatively.

And, dude, Granny has a creepy laugh! Love it. :)
 
Ryan, nice job! I think it fit the spy requirements just fine because the lady was spying on people and they were unaware of it. She was very creepy. I loved the gorgeous exterior shots (you are fabulous with those, btw) and I also loved the ending. Definitely took me by surprise. I thought the camera was going to be some documentation of all the people she thought had wronged her or something. She showed them....glad she doesn't live in my neighborhood. She did a terrific job as well.

Overall, nicely done. I look forward to what you come up with next!
 
Thanks everyone for all of you comments- both positive and negative.

For those of you who commented / asked- I was going for a twilight zone / outer limits feel for this film. I'm glad that the pay off works, as that is what I feel really makes the film.

Everyone had a big part in making this film what it is. Justin did a great job on the score, and Mark made the VFX work exactly how I wanted them too - they are great at what they do! :)

One more note:
I need to appoligize to Justin, as the final version of the score did not make it into the spyfest submission. I'll be updating the link on the first page with the final version of the score, and when it is up I'll let you all know.

Justin did a great job making some additional changes. Unfortunately, there were some last minute changes to the sound design, and I didn't notice that the score wasn't updated in the midst of rushing to get the film submitted on time. I've already contacted Justin, but I thought that it would be appropriate to mention it here as well.

Well, I've got to get back to work- these last couple of days have been pretty full for me, as I've had a couple of clients that I'm having to attend to .... (It is always an interesting job being given a project to fix for someone .... grrrr).
 
ehh.. no problemo on the score! I think it works either way. :) I am curious to see/hear the final version though

Cheers!
/j
 
Looks good Ryan. I have say the Sennheiser ME66/K6 did an alright job on sound, a little tinny for the sound. And a mental note with glass bottles, have a blast shield... incoming :shocked:

Great working with you!

Ryan "Panther" Roberton
 
Panther said:
Looks good Ryan. I have say the Sennheiser ME66/K6 did an alright job on sound, a little tinny for the sound. And a mental note with glass bottles, have a blast shield... incoming :shocked:

Great working with you!

Ryan "Panther" Roberton
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LOL! Yeah, that bottle did spray a lot more then I had though it was going too. Thanks for your help - it was good to have you on set. :)
 
I love the shots on this. The framing was well done in most every shot it. The only thing I thought that the clipping gave the whole thing away and I was just waiting for it to finally happen. I thought the build up to it was nice though even if I did know what to expect.
 
Ryan,

Still watching films and this one was great. I love the Outer Limits/Twilight Zone genre and this was clearly in that genre.

A few comments:
  • I liked the use of the range of lenses (especially the very wide angle one), but I wonder if they helped move your story or were mainly interesting to us as filmmakers?
  • Your lead actress was great. Creepy. In a "good" way.
  • I do have an issue with the edit. For me, this seemed to drag a little and I wonder whether or not you could have got to the same place a little quicker? That may just be me.
  • Some of the adapter shots seemed a little "soft" in places.
  • Weird, but it ocurred to me when she went to the medicine cabinet that I wondered why the bottle of Tylenol was (for the most part) the only thing in the cupboard. Maybe that just added to the creepiness.
  • I wasn't entirely sold on the music. Not sure why.
  • Cool tension when the kid was retrieving his ball from under the window. I think you hit on a great visceral memory that snapped everyone (or at least me)back to their childhood in that shot. Very cool.

This was a great original concept and I think it plays really well. Also really liked the dog.

Thanks very much for making this and letting us comment.
 
Hey Ryan, just got off the phone with you & said I'd start making comments today. Yours is the first!

So, first thing to cover is the HUGE marked growth with this entry! Well done! I remember reading the script, and the writing style was VERY staccato ... enough so that it was difficult for me to follow & I never finished reading ... I'm glad I didn't because the payoff on this was huge with the ending.

Sound design was good, with solid music, and some excellent cinematography as always. And the VFX of having the people stuck in the picture frames was spot on! Totally creepy ending that made the movie.

All that said, the pacing up TO the ending was slow & I think could have been improved with tighter editing and/or some more interesting things peppered throughout to keep the viewer more interested. While the ending was totally solid, I wonder if it was enough to compensate for the wait we had to get there?

I've seen others mention the clipping perhaps revealing so much ... perhaps I'm a slow reader because I don't even remember what the clipping said ... I was looking at the picture instead. So for me, there were no hints or reveals of what was coming. With regards to the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits vibe, you nailed it. The quality of this is also TV ready. Great job, and marked growth as a director.

I'd look forward to your next submission having more dialogue, so we can see the growth in working with talent, interactions with each other, etc.

Keep it up!
 
Freeze Frame was the first movie I watched in SpyFest that actually compelled me to show it to someone else. The idea was just so neat that I had to share it. As others have mentioned, yes it was very twilight zone-ish, but that's a good thing. The framing of your shots was nice, but I got a little tired of seeing that same wide, low exterior shot from the sidewalk. The extreme wide angle really captured the surreal-ness of the movie. The exterior lighting looked pretty good as well and I liked how vibrant this movie was.

The few little problems I had with the movie were: The seemingly unmotivated character shift in the old woman as she watches the boy play basketball. First she seems to enjoy seeing him make all that noise and have fun, but then suddenly she gets very annoyed. I guess a case can be made for her hearing aid being on the fritz at first... =) There were a few shots where the focus seemed to drift a little as well.

I really liked this story. It could have been a little bit shorter, but it was still a fun movie. Thanks for showing it to us!
 
Hey Ryan,

Great concept here.

Will agree with Aram that the framing was very nice. Not sure I agree about the clipping giving too much away however. I knew something was going to happen
involving the camera obviously but not sure exactly what. So it acted as an effective dramatic forward for me in that sense ... in other words for me at least it was foreshadowed but not totally given away.

I enjoyed this. I would have loved to see a shot pull back and see dozens of picture frames though at the end. Why not really go for it you know?

Glad I got to see this. Thanks for screening it :beer:
 
I like this film mainly because it reminded me of Sapphire & Steel, a brilliant British programme of the '80's.
Cheers.
 
Karl151k said:
Freeze Frame was the first movie I watched in SpyFest that actually compelled me to show it to someone else. The idea was just so neat that I had to share it. As others have mentioned, yes it was very twilight zone-ish, but that's a good thing. The framing of your shots was nice, but I got a little tired of seeing that same wide, low exterior shot from the sidewalk. The extreme wide angle really captured the surreal-ness of the movie. The exterior lighting looked pretty good as well and I liked how vibrant this movie was.

I really liked this story. It could have been a little bit shorter, but it was still a fun movie. Thanks for showing it to us!
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Thanks for the comments- glad you liked it, and I feel honored that it compelled you to show it to someone else. :)

Karl151k said:
The few little problems I had with the movie were: The seemingly unmotivated character shift in the old woman as she watches the boy play basketball. First she seems to enjoy seeing him make all that noise and have fun, but then suddenly she gets very annoyed. I guess a case can be made for her hearing aid being on the fritz at first... =) There were a few shots where the focus seemed to drift a little as well.
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Yeah, that is a good point- I think I definately could have done a better job at communicating why she is happy, then annoyed. Perhaps some kind of flashback, or some other story element, like a picture of her husband playing basketball would have helped. I was thinking that she was happy at first because she was remembering her youth, and her husband at an earilier time, but then the noise, and remembering the loss of her husband over come her, and she reverts into her old annoyed self. That is definatley a lot of subtext that went uncommunicated.....
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Hey Ryan,

Great concept here.

Will agree with Aram that the framing was very nice. Not sure I agree about the clipping giving too much away however. I knew something was going to happen
involving the camera obviously but not sure exactly what. So it acted as an effective dramatic forward for me in that sense ... in other words for me at least it was foreshadowed but not totally given away.
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Thanks for the comments- glad it wasn't given away for you, as I definately wanted to convey that something was going on, but not let the cat out of the bag before the end...

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I enjoyed this. I would have loved to see a shot pull back and see dozens of picture frames though at the end. Why not really go for it you know?

Glad I got to see this. Thanks for screening it :beer:
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That is a great idea- I wish I would have thought of that- it definately would have worked well!!!
 
iSTy said:
I like this film mainly because it reminded me of Sapphire & Steel, a brilliant British programme of the '80's.
Cheers.
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Nice! The writter is based in London- so I'm glad to hear that the film had a bit of a british flare to it. (I'm a big fan of british films- [especially their comedy] - so thanks for the comparison!)
 
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