WHERE THE HEART LIES ... Johnson, Hyten, Golden & Bullis

Agreed. As I watched this several more times, I really think this is a case where, as good as it is, it would benefit from more time to allow you guys to get even deeper. Will there be another cut?

Oh yeah, Jack and I were talking yesterday about feeling old around guys like Tim, that show such a sure hand as a director and editor at such a wee age.

Screw you, Tim. I mean, best of luck in your career. :)
 
Mark Harris said:
Agreed. As I watched this several more times, I really think this is a case where, as good as it is, it would benefit from more time to allow you guys to get even deeper. Will there be another cut?

Oh yeah, Jack and I were talking yesterday about feeling old around guys like Tim, that show such a sure hand as a director and editor at such a wee age.

Screw you, Tim. I mean, best of luck in your career. :)
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We're doing a longer version that includes an homage to the true concept of beauty-flowing blonde hair, sexy aloof attitude and the appearance of sexual availability. All of this of course as a result of your performance in Dead Beauty!

Thanks for the compliments man, I really appreciate it.
 
Mark Johnson said:
THANKS artofsuntzu. How do you feel your own previz turned out now that you've finished your film (I must confess I haven't watched yours yet, but will be doing so this afternoon).

We appreciate so much your kind words.
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Hey, thanks for remembering. The previz helped keep the edit and production true to the story we wanted to tell. Whew.

But, the technical (DP, sound) needs loads of outside help.

Anway, it's work like yours that inspires guys like me to even take the filmmaking risk.

So, thank you for making such an entertaining short.

I am curious, though, has anyone ever tried managing the DVXuser festival talent pool with the goal of making a full length feature for real distribution? The talent is definitely around here.
 
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Mark Johnson said:
We had to give up a lot of gorgeous scenes in this 6-minute version due to simple lack of time. I thought I'd post this breakdown of a frame effect that didn't make it into the film, but which is still one of my favorite shots in the longer version:

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Cool stuff ..... !
 
artofsuntzu said:
Yeah, I remember your early FrameForge posts showed your story starting in a linear way.

I'm glad you made the changes, because it was a darn fun ride. It was gorgeous! Every frame was a beauty shot. Please, make a DVD with bonus features on your lighting setups.

And your editing; there was so much energy injected into the pacing by using the flashback approach.

So professional, so glossy, so top-ranking. Wow.
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Thanks for stopping by. I'll have to mill around and see if we have any BTS highlighting some of Geoff's setups. I always say "We need to shoot BTS this time!" Then it gets too hectic and everybody forgets about it.

Thanks for the comment on the editing, it was stressful at times, but one of my favorite parts. (If the footage is good, of course :))
 
Ok, I've been meaning to come back to this and post more thoughts...This short still stands as one of the best in the fest. Having watched it a couple times I'm now coming back to bring up the three (mostly very minor) problems I had with it.

1. The male lead's acting faltered a bit at points. Very minor. For the most part he was pretty good.

2. The blood effect needed a little work.

3. Why did she have to kill him? I felt this just wasn't motivated enough. (I had the same problem with Geoff's film GFH and a couple other shorts, actually) it's not that a cheating wife having her husband killed is completely unbelievable, but even in the movie world it's an act of extreme hatred/rage/desperation. It needs more explanation than just, well, she was cheating on him. There are many many other alternatives she would have considered before she got to that point and maybe those could have been alluded to somehow?

Ok, I guess I have a 4th problem :) The reveal of the other guy as the actual lover at the very end was similarly unmotivated. If there was some sort of hint earlier on it could have all paid off really well. As it was, it felt too much like you were just throwing a twist at us for the sake of throwing a twist.

Hope that doesn't take away from my compliments - I really did like this one. A lot. If this is where you stand now, I expect your next short to make Jack cry. :) Good work, all of you guys!
 
I finally saw this today and you guys did one heck of a job. Tim, nice work on the edit. It really works, really moves, keeping us engaged throughout the entirety of the piece. I don't even want to know how many hours you logged on the editing bay doing this...

It was a pleasure working with all you guys and gals!
 
Thanks for the comments guys. It means a lot to us and bear with me as I make my rounds. I'm trying to get to everybody's.

Geoff-You rock dude we had such a good time and I can't wait till the next one!
 
Zak Forsman said:
please, please, please tell me there will be a longer cut that follows the originally intended structure.
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We are DEFINITELY going to be doing a longer version (with the original structure). After we have a chance to see how it plays out we MAY tweak the structure a bit, who knows...
 
I started watching all the films in alphabetical order, but I got as far as the M's and I couldn't take it anymore and I broke down and watched your film.

Professional. Everything about it was top notch.

The story, the acting, the cinematography, the sound, the edit, the score. I loved it all.

You set the bar really high.

What happened to getting really drunk and messing it all up in post? :)
 
Great Looking, great story, great actress (not actors), great score (though in my mind it seemed a bit too much for what was needed), great short film. Almost like watching a trailer that happened to be a movie in its entirety.

My only complaint was sound design, not score.
 
Been on airplanes all day. Snapped this shot over Utah with my iPhone.
Utah.jpg


Now that I'm settled into the Midwest I'm looking forward to watching the films I haven't been able to see. This has been a great fest and I'm humbled by the talent on display this time around.
 
It's obvious a lot of work went into making this. It shows such a great progression over the past entries. Very nice job on everything.

This was visually stunning. Geoff has a real talent for cinematography. I know in another thread that he said directing is harder that cinematography, but he's wrong. He's got such a natural talent for lighting stuff that it seems easy to him. I assure you most people can't get the kind of result that he gets.

Tim's a very talented guy. He knows that I'm more than a bit jealous of the job he did with this... a big complement as it was very well executed. The talent doesn't just lie with the directing job that he did, but he also cut the hell out of it. He knew what to keep and what to get rid of, and that's a BIG part of what makes a movie a success. It must be from all the music videos that he's done in the past.

As far as acting, I think the male lead did a very good job with the role and dialog. I'm not sure what Brandon was referring to. I didn't see anything weak about his performance. Ana was definitely the strongest actor, so maybe that's what threw him off? I honestly don't know why he said the guy was so terribly bad. I didn't see it and I've been an actor for a long time.

Also, I don't know why Brandon made his comments about the story and the script. The writing was excellent. There were no plotholes at all. Very solid script and story which was executed well.

Shot breakdowns

The opening shot reminded me of Secret Window where Johnny Depp was sitting in his Jeep, pondering about the hotel room. Good just setting that up. I know that wasn't the original editing / story design, but it worked well. I would keep that as the opening shot whether you decided to make the edit more linear or not.

I liked the shot of the motel sign. More of Mark's mysterious movie magic. :thumbsup:

Ana does a great job with the sexy flirting with the other guy in the dinner scene. The whole time I'm thinking... wow, what a *****.

In the bar - The friend wasn't that great of an actor. He seems to be the weakest of the 4. Nothing you can do about that, though. It's not that he's not that great of an actor... the other performances were just much better than his.

I like how she knows both Blaine and Bullis from the emails... :laugh:

The editing of the whole email sequence was nice... to her laying on the couch in the black outfit giggling over the email.

The dutch angle of him walking down the hallway was perfect for that scene.

The gunshot needs to be redone, but I know that was a time-crunch issue. It should be fine in the end cut.

Good ending. The guy who played the room service guy was horribly miscast by the way... just wanted to point that out...

Great job, guys! This is a gateway short for even bigger and better things. :beer:
 
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Tom Marshall said:
Good ending. The guy who played the room service guy was horribly miscast by the way... just wanted to point that out...

Great job, guys! This is a gateway short for even bigger and better things. :beer:
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Thanks, Tom. We definitely won't make that mistake again...:grin::grin:
 
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