RED SHOES by Susanne Gressmann

I'd like to take a moment and say something about your subtitles. Normally, I have a hard time watching a movie with subtitles because I'm torn between watching the action unfold on the screen and reading the dialogue. I really didn't mind the subtitles here because they were so well done and unobtrusive. They were very easy to read, allowing me to pay more attention to the action on the screen. I wished all subtitles were done as well as the ones in this movie...it would make the experience of watching a "foreign" film more enjoyable...:thumbsup:
 
Thanks Blaine, that means a lot to me. I had never done any subtitling before and was a bit worried about doing something I didn't really know anything about. Of course, I do have an advantage over many others in that I am, at least, mother tongue English.
Jason

PS. I must say that I didn't really enjoy doing the subtitling. Ideally it would be better to have someone else do it, since I felt I was defacing what we had spent so much time and work on. Every step of the way felt like a compromise (in the quality of the film, but also, since I kept the subtitles as short as possible, in the translation).
 
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Beautiful movie! I can't believe you two are "beginners". But, knowing Jason is a photographer helps explain the great cinematography. The story was nice and simple, yet engaging and entertaining. And I loved that you took us on a little sightseeing tour of your city in the process. Great work!
 
Nice movie! I really liked the lead character. He was in a hurry and stressed, yet kind to the elderly lady; he was slightly irresponsible, yet wanted to still get to the meeting with the Japanese on time. His was shy and yet was obviously bold enough that someone had purchased for him bright red shoes.

The screenplay writer here captures so much of who we all are. We are always striving to be better and yet, as human beings, we make mistakes. He never gave up and did make it to work.

Capturing this depth of character in a short is nothing short of phenomenal. This is one of the best films of the fest. Congratulations on fine work! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG) As this is your first film, I will watch your work closely in the future. :2vrolijk_08:
 
You did a really great job on this film. The editing is probably some of the best I've seen in the fest (though I felt that the pace was sometimes inconsistent, going from fast to slow and fast again--it's all supposed to be a race, so I wish the pace had been fast from beginning to end). You covered a ton of ground,and yet all your shots seemed really solid and well-planned. Very pro. The shot of the red staircase is amazing. Good acting . Had a great tone too. Quite enjoyed this.
 
I enjoyed your film very much. You really captured a sense of time and place. I felt like I was in Germany for awhile... and I enjoyed the visit. The film was very charming. The music really set the right mood. Great fun.

Look forward to your next film!
 
Ich gratuliere! Great film guys. I was really impressed with your actors, they were all top notch considering that a couple of them were still in school. Liked the look of the film as well, good lighting, looked really nice.

cheers,

JP
 
Susanne. This was GREAT short. It's pacing was nice, the subtitles worked. The theme was hilarious and the acting was nice as well. There were only a couple things that confused me. The old woman on the street could obviously walk so was she flirting with the man? Also the ending with a simple picture in the middle of a black screen felt off. Maybe it would have felt better over a different image? I really liked this. You are a really good director.
 
Oh, I just realized that I didn't review your film yet.

Man this was a great short! Really funny and honest. The production quality was really good overall. Great sound and score.

What confused me a bit was the train. It was just driving into the station and in the next picture it's leaving already. I think it would have been better if it was waiting there and he was running to the train and then it drives away. Just a minor critique.

The great thing about this short is all its little details. You really took care of it. It showed when I read your costs plan.

Good work! Looking forward to future entries :)
 
Thanks very much all of you for the comments and lovely compliments. We really appreciate them.

Matt:

(Others noticed the same thing about the old lady scene. This is my answer from page 7.)

Yes, the scene with the old lady is a little weak. At the beginning of the scene I wanted the audience to think that the old lady needed help to cross the road. In reality she is a bit of an old rascal who is attracted to Jonas (MC) and his red shoes and wants to have a little fun at his expense. This was the meaning of the last part - as he runs off down the street, she watches him go with a triumphant smile and then folds her stick (which she never needed in the first place) and walks briskly off. Maybe this scene doesn't really work because I originally envisaged an older looking lady with a curved back like Quasimodo. This would have allowed us to show her old and bent crossing the road and there would have been more of a contrast when she folded the stick, straightened her back and walked off.

The final photo scene: We think you are right - maybe it would have worked better to show the photo inserted into a second photo of the hand and the cellphone which maybe could have been at 50% to emphasize the shoes.

Simon:

We agree with you about the tram. The footage was there but got cut to get into the six minutes. However we should have found a way to show the tram stopped.

A general comment:

After making this film we have a better idea how much material will fit in a six minute film. We had a little bit to much for this one. Red Shoes suffered a little from this mistake.

Thanks again everyone

Susanne & Jason
 
Susanne & Jason: great work! I think that we brought a new "eye" into the festival.

The only thing i found strange was, as others said, the old lady. I admit that the fist thing i thinked about was "now she turn the stick into a 3-way nunchaku (...that oriental weapon) and steal the red shoes".... don't ask me why... i watch too much spy movies :)
 
mik said:
Susanne & Jason: great work! I think that we brought a new "eye" into the festival.

The only thing i found strange was, as others said, the old lady. I admit that the fist thing i thinked about was "now she turn the stick into a 3-way nunchaku (...that oriental weapon) and steal the red shoes".... don't ask me why... i watch too much spy movies :)
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Hey mik, thanks. That was the best comment yet.:)

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Hey guys,

Just caught the film. Really enjoyed it. The music was perfect and I really enjoyed the acting. Your locations were nice and the colors were outstanding. Good use of day light for my eyes.

I thought the pacing was just a tad bit slow at parts. Not slow as in boring, but overall, just not as frantic as I would have liked. The bit where he talks on the phone felt long to me.
Some of the editing seemed a little strange to me. I can only guess that you wanted the black bits before the jump cuts because it was consistent. It distracted me.

Also, is there something about Red Shoes that I'm missing. The subtext for everyone's look seems a bit larger than I felt like I was getting. Like, when the old lady looks at his shoes and then to him and asks him to walk her across the street. Not sure if it was just that the shoes don't seem to match the rest of the guy or maybe it's something else.

I also mirror the bit about the old woman already mentioned. She seemed out of place, in both the way she reacted to his shoes and to how much time we spent on her. I mean, sure she's an obstacle in the film, but I felt you lingered on her just a bit (overall).

Pacing issues aside I thought this was a very nice, well put together piece. The angles and actors were great. Your colors were fantastic. I really like the camera pan for his medium when he's trying to catch the bus and it's moving behind him. Very dynamic and added that energy that I think was lost in some of the pacing.

Still, a good film and a great first entry. Can't wait to see more from you guys.
 
I could agree with Daniellus about the old lady.

And I might have wanted the payoff emphasized a little more.

But this was thoroughy enjoyable. What was most impressive, was the editing. I read in the credits that Jason was the editor? He has such a great sense of timing in my opinion, and knew exactly how long he had to stay on certain shots, move on to the next shot. And I mean in a purely practical way. He seems to understand how quickly an audience can get a piece of information.

I also thought the choreography of the old lady scene was particularly nice. Just the geography set up I guess. Crossing the street. Then I kept seeing trains in the background and that kind of kept reminding me that he might miss one. Then seeing the bike-cab dude across the sctreet again. I don't know. I just thought it was impressively set up.

Likewise, nice job on the details. Like the red shoe box sitting there the whole time. And blowing the dust off.

This one and the Italian one really make me want to get out and shoot some stuff around NYC.
 
Mark Harris said:
This one and the Italian one really make me want to get out and shoot some stuff around NYC.
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Mark,

thank your very much for your critic. If you want "get out and shoot some stuff" around Berlin and if you need an assistant for the shoot: I am here!
Also we have a very comfortable bed in our living room for guests.

Susanne
 
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Thanks all of you for watching the film and for the criticism, it really is very much appreciated.

Daniellus, thanks:

You are certainly right about the phone call scene (and others have mentioned the same thing). We were well aware of this in editing and shortened it as much as we could. Stupidly, we didn't have any material for cutaways on this scene. We were lucky in that the scene following this of Jonas getting his first pair of shoes only shows his legs so we were able to put the end of the phone call here. In hindsight we probably should have cut the beginning of the call - maybe it could have started where Jonas says "Lunch?". Really though this was a problem with the script - we now realize that it would have been much better if Jonas had been doing other things that made him look in a hurry while he was on the phone.

"The black bits between the jump cuts". I think here you are talking about the inserts of the mess on his bedroom floor while he is looking for his second black shoe? Originally these were straightforward cuts, but they didn't feel right to me. They are of course Jonas' POV shots and I thought "well he's turning his head a little between each view, they wouldn't follow each other instantaneously" so I put in a single black frame between each one like an eye blink. Personally, I feel this works but I'd really appreciate any other feedback on this little detail.

The old lady: yes, another scene with problems. I think Susanne covers that in a reply to an earlier post at the top of the page.

Mark Harris, thanks:

"the payoff": this was a weak part in the early drafts of the script. Successive modifications made it a lot better, but it probably does still lack something.

the editing: thanks especially for this comment, it's great encouragement. Yes, I was the editor from the point of view that I physically did the editing and I made the first rough cut alone, but thereafter Susanne sat beside me as we trimmed it down so much of the timing is due to her as well. This seemed to work pretty well - we really pretty much agreed on all the suggestions the other made. I then did the sound track alone, but Luca Antonini, our composer, did some final cleaning up, added a little foley and made the final mix.

I would say that the choreography/blocking was also very much a collaboration between Susanne and me. Wardrobe and props (and therefore responsibilty for the details) were really all Susanne's work. Above all I would point out that the script and directing the actors was Susanne's work. Unfortunately my German is still very poor - there is no way I could have done any of that!!

Thanks again all of you,
Jason
 
Danielleus said:
Not sure if it was just that the shoes don't seem to match the rest of the guy or maybe it's something else.
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Thank you very much Danielleus for you interests in our film. You are not the only one who was irritated about the old lady scene so I gave already an answer for this one before.
The main character (Jonas) is a little bit boring and he didn't want to put this shoes on, because they are to much coloured for him. The thing is that all the other people found that this shoes are very nice and make Jonas an interesting person. For this reason the old lady was attracted to him. And now I gave you the longer version I wrote before:

Susanne G. said:
Yes, the scene with the old lady is a little weak. At the beginning of the scene I wanted the audience to think that the old lady needed help to cross the road. In reality she is a bit of an old rascal who is attracted to Jonas (MC) and his red shoes and wants to have a little fun at his expense. This was the meaning of the last part - as he runs off down the street, she watches him go with a triumphant smile and then folds her stick (which she never needed in the first place) and walks briskly off. Maybe this scene doesn't really work because I originally envisaged an older looking lady with a curved back like Quasimodo. This would have allowed us to show her old and bent crossing the road and there would have been more of a contrast when she folded the stick, straightened her back and walked off.
Click to expand...

Susanne
 
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