"CONSTANCE" Brought to you by BPress- Krew East Side! Mark Harris and Timur Civan.

alright, i finished it. great work, mark. great tone established. for the most part, the performances were hitting really nice, engaging rhythms. only on occasion did I feel like the actors might have been in their heads a little. i guess i'm thinking of the guy in the strip club -- a bit over the top. but who the f*ck am I to judge? I'm no actor. and i loved how it ended on such a small moment and a HUGE question.

you and I NEED to collaborate on something in the near future. i have the highest respect for you and certainly would have thrown one of my votes your way had you been in competition.
 
Nice work guys! Very well paced.... sucked me right in.
Fantastic lighting and very well shot!

The acting was really captivating on all counts. LOVED the ending.

I'll post more later, so many to see.

Congratulations!

Mike
 
Zak Forsman said:
i guess i'm thinking of the guy in the strip club -- a bit over the top.
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Yeah, good call on that one. I can certainly see points where I felt he was in his head. But his over-the-topness is a tough call because that guy really is over the top in real life. So the only way to solve it might have been to cast someone else. Live and learn.
 
Mark,

This film was a nice surprise in the fest. I can really see how "No Country" influenced you on this project with its austere sensibility. The opening scene was very French New Wave, something Godard might try.

I really loved how Timur shot the film, the composition was outstanding. The cu of Constance on the bed was money. And the mid shot reflection in the mirror was perfect.

Using just the keyboards fit well with the piece, I assume that is once again Herman's brilliant handy work. the montage worked well to up the tension and choosing having the actor drum on the steering wheel added edge as an opposite choice.

One spot you might want to revisit is doing folley for the traffic and the door opening before the climax. Maybe it was, but it just sounded thin and not as high production value as the rest of the sound.

The climax had a great gun fighter sense to it, and I liked how you held the shots. Same goes with holding the shots really throughout. The acting of Connie and the character she marries really stood out in the last scene. They played that really well.

Congrats on a very good film.

Jim
 
Thanks bos, for coming to check it out! I am heading to bed now, but will be over to the Simp thread in the morning.
 
Holy Crap! Mark! You know how to make movies!!!

This was awesome. It felt and looked so pro. I just love your shots and direction. Timur is amazing!!!

This was cut so well. No flaws that I could detect. And again, the framing and shots were perfect.

The ONLY (and quite small and correctable) comment I have is that the shooter in the bar's volume doesn't match the volume of the rest of the film. It was just too hot. It separated itself from the other dialogue.

Wonderful, wonderful.

Your actors are amazing.

Really great work. Nice pacing.

I look forward to watching this again!

Congrats to you!

-Ted
 
Mark, the beginning was intriguing. Very well executed. It reminds me of the films that always stand out and does everything different. Story was a bit hard to follow for me so I just need repeated watching but overall, this is more than just spit and bubble gum.
 
Your best work yet, mark. By far!

It really came together as a sum being more than its parts.

Your distict and precise vision really shows through. Its superb. Mark R. Really knocked it out of the park.

Glad to be a part of this.
 
Mark, this certainly has grown from its humble origins. When you said it was NC for time, I couldn't figure out HOW you couldn't get that script to six minutes. Now I understand. Everything was still there but you added so many more layers to your story. The short version would have been okay, but this version was thoroughly engaging.

A few of the scenes felt a tad long but I was okay with them as I felt they added to the ambience of the whole experience. They didn't feel too long by mistake, though. It definitely appeared to be a conscious choice, considering the pacing of the whole piece.

You certainly have a thing for the "hard C"...Constance, Katrina...

This is even more interesting when juxtaposed against Katrina...opposite sides of the same coin. In one the action unfolds quickly while in the other you allow it the time to suck us into a foreign (for some) world...the gritty underbelly of life.

Good job.
 
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Thanks guys. Thanks Blaine. I know you are a tough cookie to crack, esp in this genre. Maybe we can screen this one with WTHL in my "Broads who mess up your life." series.

Seriously, glad you took the time to check it out Blaine, esp given that you read the script.

I was definitely working with the slow pacing as a means of suggesting an inevitability to the outcome. I like the tragic feel the slow pace brings it. I will likely tweak based on feedback like yours, but I'm glad you got it. Very much influenced by No Country, just in that they showed so much confidence with letting things play and not forcing them. They did that in Blood Simple too. I am trying to work on that in the next few pieces I do. The stillness.

The name Constance was Timur's suggestion. I liked it because not only was it her name, but also suggests phonetically "Constancy" which is the main guy's flaw.

Anyway, thanks!
 
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TimurCivan said:
Your best work yet, mark. By far!

It really came together as a sum being more than its parts.

Your distict and precise vision really shows through. Its superb. Mark R. Really knocked it out of the park.

Glad to be a part of this.
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Could not have done it without you, homey.
 
dvpixl said:
Story was a bit hard to follow for me...
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This is fair. One of the biggest things I worked on in the writing in this was absolutely NO exposition. I was trying to emulate things like THE WIRE, where you REALLY have to pay attention to the words and actions and divine what's happening without having it laid out for you. It's super hard, but the way I am trying to work in my writing.
 
Wow. This was wonderful.

The look was amazing. Timur did a phenomenal job.

I thought your actors were fantastic. The tone and subtleties throughout were lovely.

If I had one complaint (and it's minor) the pace was a little slow for me in a couple of spots (the opening in particular).

Herman's score was haunting. I loved it!

I really, truly enjoyed this and your direction was excellent.
 
wow, man. that looked so great! very very impressed with this.

writing a critique is hard for me on this one. i've been trying to wrap my brain around how to explain the issues i had with the piece as a whole.

first off, when i have a problem like this, it usually means the piece is excellent. this certainly was.

it left a knot in my stomach that there was something up and i couldn't put my finger on it at all until now.

in the end, i felt like this should have been either a 5 min short or a feature. and i think i wanted more, a lot more. i can imagine you taking this and using it as a way to get investors interested in funding a feature project based on the story.

that being said, one of the best entries, even though it's an NC.

that opening shot really sucks you into the mood and the story from the start. the acting was great, i liked the interstitial stuff, but some of it felt kind of forced, but you might chalk that up to my impatience to know more about your characters!

is that your ass getting beat in the first scene? :thumbsup:
 
Mark and Co. I was really looking forwad to this one. I'm starting to like the Desperate Comfortverse.

Very good execution of this. I like the way you took existing archetypes and fleshed them out. The pimp wasn't JUST a pimp. The call girl wasn't JUST a call girl. And the john wasn't JUST a john. I felt I could understand where they all were coming from.... well not so much in the case of the girl, but she was SUPPOSED to be an enigma. We're supposed to wonder why she wouldn't just go w/ the john (but of course we really know why).

Love those haunting foosteps at the end as the john lay bleeding. Love the photography of course. When do we get to see a feature from you guys? Are you going to do a few more shorts first or do you already have a long form project planned?

Thanks for offering this in HD, btw.
 
So much high praise and of course deserved. I had high hopes and you guys delivered. Easily one of the best.

Timur, great light set ups.

I also really loved the image composites, they were so well thought out and put together. That bedroom scene where he introduces the gun was one of the best this fest. WOW!!!!!

Things that I went hmm - and believe me I had to be extremely picky.

I felt it was a bit slow and could go into 6 mins.

My small chuffs on sound. The black guys voice level was higher than anyone elses. The black guys footsteps, didnt need them at all (mentat above says the total opposite, so there you go). First day car shot - sound goes the wrong way. As he goes into the bar, the exterior sound tone is a fair bit higher than other scenes.

My small chuffs on shots. Was a bit jumpy on scenes. Some shots gratuitously shallow where I didnt think it served a particular purpose. The exterior bar shot color didnt seem to match the rest. I felt the same about ext car shot at 8 55
 
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thanks for checking us out everyone.

Noel, I really appreciate the detailed critique. That's my favorite part about these fests.
 
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