Brandon Rice - "Welcome To The Party"

Brandon Rice said:
The idea is she OD'd... I wanted to foreshadow her death...not telegraph it...

Thanks for checking out the film! Appreciate it!
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Yup...ok, I did think I might have missed a shot in there and I was leaning towards her taking one too many pills because of some of the 'flashes'. I was slightly distracted and that always means you could miss a subtle details...in this case...I did!

All in all I thought you did a great job with this. If you ever come down to NC to shoot...you know where to find one old broad if the part calls for it!
 
Ok, Brandon, I have intended to post my review for awhile and finally got around to finishing it. I am aware that some of what I discuss will have been the subject of discussion on your thread, but I made my notes without reference to your thread and, in many cases, before I read other's comments.

Without further explanation, here's my comments and observations:

1) The opening frame is marvelous. That warmth and silhouette of the building is beautifully suited for the title and the opening chimes/score is poifect, just poifect.

2) The title itself is very cool. Liked it on your poster and especially like the fly-away used to exit it from the screen. To me, neither the font nor the effect read as anything stock or often seen before, so great work there.

3) I was amused by one of the very close-up images that probably was the fabric of a chair but it looked to me like a CU of a woman's arm or shoulder (soft fuzzy hair etc.) ... maybe says more about my mind than the image itself....

4) When the film setting is revealed I was struck by how atavistic CRTs have become with the ubiquitous presence of LCD monitors. I'm assuming this is your own workplace so, obviously, its current but I thought I'd mention the fact because it reminded me of how I'll watch some tv reruns and be struck by the size of the mobile phone or the model of computer etc. In this case, though, the big problem is the moving scan line on the working monitor. That's a pet peeve of mine and it is often associated with low or no budget productions so is something to avoid if possible. Also, whenever I personally see such scan lines it is like a big title saying "this is being filmed". There are a couple ways to avoid the scan lines but I'd have simply replaced the monitor with a LCD one, which would read more current anyway.

5) The photo with the wineglass was brilliant. Big points for meeting the requirement without having to "shoehorn" a wineglass scene into the film!

6) The cinematography throughout is gorgeous. The camera work and lighting on your actress is to die for. Among the very best in the fest in my opinion.

7) I thought your actress did a great job in most all respects. I did feel the interplay between she and Noa was just a tiny bit artificial.

8) I was curious about the wedding band that apparently you intended to show as it is prominent in the CUs of her typing. Her colloquy with Noa did not seem like husband/wife and after the film was finished I found myself wondering what its significance was. Were they supposed to be married? Was he hitting on her knowing she's married?

9) The pill-taking OD issue was the weakest for me simply for execution. I think the whole story was great and the idea of her discovering she had OD'd was perfectly sound. The problem for me is my perception that it is pretty difficult to overdose on prescription pills with the dosage she took. When she flashes back on taking pills she's still only taking a couple. To make this work I think you should have shown a whole series of repeated pill-popping throughout the day in rapid fire. Or, if you are going for the aberrant medication side-effect you could have done a CU on the bottle with a warning such as DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN ONE IN A 24-HOUR PERIOD etc. etc. Anyway, I got what you were doing but I think this was the one weak point in the execution.

10) I liked very much the lighting shift from warm to natural white but found myself a bit wondering at whether you were suggesting a transition from daylight (sunset) to night. Wouldn't make sense to me in a room with no windows or skylights so I read the color shift as symbolic and not a literal motivated light thing.

11) The radio voice announcing the accident was a bit off for me. If you had carried some radio on the soundtrack earlier it would have played better and not been so obvious. Although the device itself was "obvious" the audio was not and I had a hard time hearing what was being said. That was the only weak audio thing in your whole film for me.

12) I REALLY loved the sound effect with the lights going off. Man, was that well done and well shot.

13) The camera work as the actress becomes disoriented is awesome and her performance is stunningly good. Really captured the sense of fright and confusion.

14) Makeup was really nice at the end. Very good job there.

15) Noa's "she just wants to get to know you" or whatever he says is just a little too trite for me. But otherwise, it was a great twist pulled off very nicely.

Overall you absolutely demonstrate how essential it is to plan and preproduce. Following your thread it was obvious that you were keeping to your schedule and getting things done. Unlike we poor fools, who found ourselves with essentially three days to make our film, you give a wonderful illustration of how care and time will make all the difference in the image on screen.

Yours also illustrates what a huge difference the score makes. This whole score was brilliant and the sound design nicely executed.

By far, I think this is the best thing you've shot, Brandon. We all have enjoyed making fun of your proclivity to begin fest projects and not finish them the past couple of times but boy did you shut us all up!

Nice job B-man.
 
Hey Brandon,

Great looking shots with really nice lighting. Nice dolly's and good composition.

I think your story is pretty good from what you have mentioned about it in the thread but it didn't have as much weight in the film.

One thing that is one of my pet peeves it the long intro credit sequence. I
The shots look great but it doesn't really advance the story at all and it's almost too big and epic for a short since it's only 5 minutes.

So the girl is typing, then the creepy guy talks to her then there is more typing then at 2:30 into it the lights turn off. This seems like way too much time has past before anything has really happening.

You probably could start the film with a shot of the main character typing and go right into it. One shot of the office is all we need to know the location. I know it's hard as a director to cut shots, especially very good ones, but in the end the story has to come first. I had to chop a couple scenes out of Meat that I really liked, but it had to go.

Did anyone go through the edit with you? One thing I've learned over the years is that having other editors or directors look at you edits really helps in trimming down and making the story really come through. I have a friend I always let look at me films before I lock them and he is ruthless about cutting stuff, but in the end he is usually right about what can be taken out.

I think with some reediting you could make the story come through stronger and that's good because I think the story could worthwhile.

Good Job overall. Technically everything is outstanding. Music and sound were very nice.

Laters,
Ando
 
after watching this again, i was really impressed with the editing, camera movement and music. Great work again.
 
andoguru said:
Did anyone go through the edit with you? One thing I've learned over the years is that having other editors or directors look at you edits really helps in trimming down and making the story really come through. I have a friend I always let look at me films before I lock them and he is ruthless about cutting stuff, but in the end he is usually right about what can be taken out.
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Hey Ando,

What I first started doing in this field of film was editing, so I am quite accomplished in that regard... I do have others who check things out and give notes, but sometimes I go with my gut The beginning is how it is because it sets the mood, which is CRUCIAL for this film... believe me when I say, it would not work if that beginning was chopped down... the middle and end being expanded is another thing, but the beginning is good how it is... Thanks for checking in... appreciate your comments sir! :)
 
deedive said:
after watching this again, i was really impressed with the editing, camera movement and music. Great work again.
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Thanks bro! Appreciate your comments! Glad it worked for you! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Here's some MORE BTS pics!

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Mark Johnson said:
10) I liked very much the lighting shift from warm to natural white but found myself a bit wondering at whether you were suggesting a transition from daylight (sunset) to night. Wouldn't make sense to me in a room with no windows or skylights so I read the color shift as symbolic and not a literal motivated light thing.

11) The radio voice announcing the accident was a bit off for me. If you had carried some radio on the soundtrack earlier it would have played better and not been so obvious. Although the device itself was "obvious" the audio was not and I had a hard time hearing what was being said. That was the only weak audio thing in your whole film for me.
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The lighting shift was going from sunset, to night (overheads only) as you saw the coldness of the image. And we implied windows in the scene, I guess it didn't read for you.

Sad the radio voice didn't work for you. I felt that it worked as she wanted a break and decides to turn the radio on, maybe that doesn't read as her turning it on?

And regarding the wedding band... we wanted to show how obsessed this guy was... his unhealthy attraction to this woman...

Thanks for all your comments Mark! I am glad to have a guy who's got attention to details to show my stuff to, whether it be scripts, or completed shorts! I always appreciate it, and you bring up great stuff! Thanks again :)
 
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