"Love" a new short film by Ted Arabian

SPOILERS:


You had a LOT of fun with this camera. I could feel you undressing her. :D
Just kidding!

Nice work, dude! The acting was great! I actually really felt sorry for her... seriously. The music was nice as well, really suited it perfectly.

I'll do a more in-depth later.

Cheers!
 
My reviews will be made up of three separate categories. One for technical, which includes cinematography, lighting, editing, sound mixing, and score. One for performance which includes the acting. One for writing which includes the script, and story. And then I will summarize up my thoughts in the overall section. I plan to do my best to review each film like this in detail.

Love

Writing
Dude, what a depressing story, but probably very true for someone out there. I really liked your story Ted, it made sense, didn’t feel rushed, and really worked for me. I felt so sad and sorry for this woman, I really did. What a sad life to live. Well done on the story.

Acting
Well done, well done. Both actors did a great job. Your leading lady was very good, I felt the pain inside of her.

Technical
The shots were very nice. It didn’t quite have a cinematic feel to it, but it almost didn’t need it. I liked the look. The editing was well done too! I felt sound design needed some work. Some of the ADR was quite noticeable.

Overall Thoughts
Ted, I’ll admit, I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t the biggest fan of your previous films, but I’m certainly glad you kept at it. This is a well done short film. You should be extremely proud of it. This is by far your best writing and directing work yet! Well done my friend!
 
Ted for Prez!!!

Great stuff man, we need to get you back to Cali. Won't mind a bit if you bring your actress back with you!

This looks like it was a blast to shoot and not only for the obvious reasons. It would have been awesome if I could have made it out there. Next time.

I think you've taken a good giant leap forward, good job.

Tim.
 
Ted, you sexy THANG you!!!! Man, I have made no secret that having you back on the board is the best thing about this fest. ... and that's before seeing you bring this nice little chukka chukka wow wow flick in through the front door.

What a great job you've done here. Best of everything to your actors and please please please shoot something more with them. I would love to see you direct both of them again. You guys make a great team.

Much deserved praise will be coming your way for what you pulled off here.
 
Ted, my man. First, your link on DVXfest is working now. Thank Larry for that, of course :)

Ok, so on to the film.

I thought it was a very effective story, and it had quite a bit of story in it for such a short time frame.

Part of my next comment may be b/c I know you shot this in a theatre under theatre lighting, and I know you as a theatrical lighting guy... so take it as you will :)

The look was gorgeous. The lighting design was great. But, it didn't strike me as "filmic", per se. It had it's own look which may not be a bad thing. It did strike me much more as a play in some ways... Again, maybe that's just because I'm picturing the rest of the stage just beyond the set dressing... I don't know :)

However, I think with some more CC, it could look really nice (already does), b/c it's very nicely lit and the set dressings are great.

I have a question... Did you by chance export as pure 24p instead of 23.98, or whatever? The reason I ask is b/c it seemed to have a bit of choppiness to it, which took away a bit for me. I'm thinking it must be something that happened on the export, and I think that if it weren't there, the smoothness of 24 frames per second would have really helped the overall look and my previous comments likely would not apply as much.

Anyways, the performances were solid. Real solid. I actually really enjoyed the guy.

I thought you had all of the components in place for a great piece here, and with some more polish, it would likely go to a whole different level of goodness.

Look, shot selection, acting.... all of that on the whole was there. Again, I think maybe just some more polish and you'd be getting real close to taking this thing on up to a really good place.

Again, the story was compelling, and I appreciated it very much and thought you had some dynamic things and choices going on in the acting, storytelling, direction, etc. It was a constantly moving piece all the way to the end and it wrapped up nicely.

I'm really glad you made it into the fest in time, and am grateful that you are willing to put your work out there on display for all of the critical eyes on the site here :)

Much, love for you, man.
Later,
Jason
 
Hi Jason!

Thanks for your comments and review. Really means a lot.

I did have a lot of importing problems. I don't understand why I get all of my setting correct and import the footage, drag to the timeline and get a message telling me that my settings don't match! I use FCP 6 and need to figure this out!

As for a cinematic feel... yeah, I appear to be a long way from figuring out how to capture that!!! LOL. I try!

i definitely could not escape the "theatre" feel of this piece. I tried something new and something that I know to see if it work for a film. I learned a lot about this process and look forward to trying it again with a different outcome.

I am just happy that I was able to pull something together in time for the fest and feel that I am indeed growing as a filmmaker.

Thanks again for the comments!

Best to you, my friend!

-Ted
 
Ted,

I admire your ambition when you put your projects together. You are always willing to take on something complex with little time and help. I really like this film and I think it is your best that I have seen. You are playing in some complicated emotional territory and the pacing and performances deliver nicely on that. It does have a more theatrical feel to it than a film sensibility, but it still works really well. Your lighting always amazes me, the use of color is bold and complex. The camera moves given the crew are also to be admired.

Congrats on a some really nice work.

Jim
 
Thanks Jim! Seems like a mutual admiration period for us... I just posted on your thread!

Yeah, didn't get past the theatrical feel. I knew that was going to be an issue but I didn't really have a plan or time to conquer that.

I set out with a few goals on this film, (like I always do) and feel like I achieved them. Namely, hire GREAT actors, utilize a boom op for the first time (still need some work there!!!), utilize the dolly shot (definitely need a better dolly rig!), shoot in a controlled environment (did that and got what I got! Gotta work some more on that!)

Mainly, I wanted to shoot a very simple yet engaging story. I always seem to try and pack too much into a 6 minute short. This, I feel, I achieved.

Thanks for taking the time to watch and review.

-Ted
 
Ted Arabian said:
i definitely could not escape the "theatre" feel of this piece. I tried something new and something that I know to see if it work for a film. I learned a lot about this process and look forward to trying it again with a different outcome.
Click to expand...

Man, I thought your look was one of the best things going for you. I loved the hyperintense supersaturated colors. Of course, though, I'm a guy who likes Coppola's "One From The Heart" because it is surreal and uses the fact that it's shot in studio as an asset.
 
Thanks Mark. I definitely have mixed feelings about it.

Whereas, I really do love my super-saturated colors, it doesn't have that "cinematic" feel to it.

I tried to help by cutting it at 2.35:1 (woo hoo, I finally did it! I keep talking about it!) which I think helped take away the daytime television looks.

I don't know. I didn't even have time to play with CC. I mean, I finished ADRing actors at 8pm the night of the deadline! (yikes!) I am curious to see what would happen if i played with that.

Thanks for your vote of confidence, Mark!
 
Ted, did you use your wireless lav for the adr or your shotgun? I used the lav and it worked pretty well. JDS and I were talking about it and he likes yo use wireless because of the omin pattern. just wondering.
 
Last edited:
Hmmm... that would have been easier to say the least!

No, i used a boom. I was afraid of mixing the mics and having undesirable results.

I should do some experimenting with them.

Thanks for the tid-bit.
 
I was really intrigued by the color palette on your short Ted.

Overall, I enjoyed this one. Sad. Real. The talent worked very well and everything seemed to come together. It felt at times, a little 'stagey'; was it shot on a stage ?

That would be my only drawback.

Othersie, very nice short; damn, sad.
 
Thanks J.R.

Yep. Shot on an actual theatre stage. Learned a lot. I am glad that I did it. I do intend to shot in this space again with a completely different feel.

Thanks for watching and commenting.

-Ted
 
Okay.... gotta take a break for a while!

I've watched and commented on 29 films. Really some great work by all!

I'll be back to view more.... Gotta go get ready for that ol' Valentine's Day thing, you know!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top