"ACT II" a film by Flyin' Monkey Films

I really dug the opening intro, loved the nature shot but would have panned slower... same with tilt up... ( maybe its a compression skipped frame thing )
girl was perfectly cast and did great... loved the wardrobe.
loved the mystery... very JJ ABRAMS - the mystery box
overall this thing had a tone about it which was very cool. I like your voice .. its stands out in this group of films.
 
So, from what I gather, this is just a scene from your intended film... So not much to say, other than the scene itself is intriguing. It definitely doesn't work as a cohesive piece as you have it edited, but I'm definitely interested in seeing more of the world from which this scene is shot. But yeah, the dialogue levels are definitely too low as compared to the music/SFX.

Oh, and thanks for plugging me as an authority on time travel. Haha.
 
Rodney:

Sorry things went kablooey during the making of this film. I liked the actress and I think that a complete version has some real potential.

After watching the film and then reading through this thread, there's a question that's nagging at me. I read about your wavering between canning the project and entering as a non-compete. Your final decision (obviously) was to enter the film in the fest anyway, to be reshot or added to at a later date. Given the benefit of hindsight, are you glad you entered this film? Have the comments you've received made it worth it, or do you think it was a mistake to enter it? I'm interested because there have been numerous canceled films in the fests and I'm wondering if it would have been worth it to those filmmakers to enter what they had anyway.
 
I adore the glasses and this actress has a fantastic charisma. I enjoyed also the mysterious atmosphere of the film, but I didn't understand the story.

Susanne
 
DEAR GOD SOMEONE HELP ME!!! I'm trying to figure out where to go, what link to click on, anything, to see this movie. How on Earth have you all seen it? Where do I go? HELP!
 
johnlabonney said:
Rodney:

Sorry things went kablooey during the making of this film. I liked the actress and I think that a complete version has some real potential.

After watching the film and then reading through this thread, there's a question that's nagging at me. I read about your wavering between canning the project and entering as a non-compete. Your final decision (obviously) was to enter the film in the fest anyway, to be reshot or added to at a later date. Given the benefit of hindsight, are you glad you entered this film? Have the comments you've received made it worth it, or do you think it was a mistake to enter it? I'm interested because there have been numerous canceled films in the fests and I'm wondering if it would have been worth it to those filmmakers to enter what they had anyway.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely glad I entered. The process of taking what footage I had and trying to be creative with it was refreshing (and frustrating) and from an editing standpoint showed me the shots I reall wished I had gotten (like the one reverse shot of the actress in the doorway to establish a connection). They say a script is written three times: in script, in production and in editing, and it allowed me to look at the footage in a new way.

There are a lot of improvements that I can make on the second-go-round and the input I've gotten is very valuable to that process, especially in terms of how I would develop the story. So I've used this as a learning tool, because I never expected to win, I just wanted to submit my really obscure chain of thought and see if people "got it"...

People were entertained, as well as intrigued, so it shows I was doing something right...

As for other cancelled entries... well each circumstance is different. I at least had the one completed scene and I could take many iterations of that, since it was the conclusion of the story. Just depends on how much of a cohesive story you really have and how much distance you can place between yourself and the story to know when you're "story-telling" as opposed to knowing too much about it.

That was one of the reasons I actually didn;t want to comment too much on the critiques and defend my decisions, because I had to know how the story itself as presented was interpreted. Sure I knew what was supposed to happen, and it context it all makes sense, but THAT story wasn't the one I was stuck telling due to my problems.

If the story works as a standalone, then you're set. If not, well you can always walk away, but try to finish it for the sake of the actors and everyone else you took on your crazy ride.
 
You have some beautiful scenery scenes. Some shots are also very cinematic. The acting is nice. The music also fits the theme of the movie. I was only confused about the relationship between the two main actors and I wasn't sure what happened to the actress. Maybe you could put up a director cut version that has more details later :-). The movie is nicely made. You did a great job! Congrats!
 
Was a bit confused and was waiting for something else to happen, although what, I don't know. Couldn't understand why there was the difference with her wearing the glasses and not.
 
Guess it's time for explanation:
Time Travel is instantaneous. She had the means to return to the past, and tried to change something there... and then the past her lived through life and was offered the choice (for the first-time again). Every time she is asked the question and chooses to go back, she is setting up her own loop, locking her own destiny in by her choice.

The girl in the past was herself whom she was trying to save from some brutal attack and the consequences of her trying to save her past self lead to her own death. Which lead to her past self surviving and going on to make the choice...

every iteration is the return and everytime, somethng is a little different...

in the end, she says "no" to going back, and that finally sets her free of the loop.

Sorry it wasn't clearer, but that was the story of this edit.
 
This is where I'm supposed to tell you to F*ck off


Rogan

I have caught myself saying this the past couple of days...i'd like to see the finished product...( i think you said it wasn't finished...or i was drunk when i thought that...ROBOTS)
 
Dustin R. Rogan said:
This is where I'm supposed to tell you to F*ck off


Rogan

I have caught myself saying this the past couple of days...i'd like to see the finished product...( i think you said it wasn't finished...or i was drunk when i thought that...ROBOTS)
Click to expand...

it's insidious...

That's the advice she gives to her past self about the choice (in the full version). But does she listen? Noooooo.....
 
Interesting concept with so much more potential. Even in repetition there needs to be more of an evolution of either the main character or unfolding of the story that shows why it must never change. Interested to see how the re-shoot comes out! It reminded me of this:

"The greatest weight -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This Life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable time more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everthing unutterable small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, 'Do you desire this once more and inumberable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?" (#341) [from The Gay Science, by Friedrich Nietzsche]
 
Couple things-

first your pan over the gorgeous scenery has alot of jutter. You slowed down and smoothed it out. Dont be afraid to retake pans like that until you get it right. It's totally worth the time. Also you could hide the jutter by dollying back subtlely while panning. It will give your scene a cinematic look.

I would love to have seen more coverage of the 'fate/time' guy. You can accomplish the whole mysterious stranger thing by only shooting his mouth, back shadowing etc. Just got really repetitive to see the same scene over and over.

On the story... I think there was an element lacking which was- the cause and effect. You just kept showing the cause over and over and over until the character went a different way- but there was no motivation to go that way. or at least we werent shown one.
 
Your opening sequence was very creative. I thought a couple of the early shots were overly soft (out of focus). The panning shot was a bit disorienting because of the speed. It also looks like you could have done some color correction on the dock to try and make the scenes match. It also looks like you might have had some compression glitches.

As far as the story goes, I was at a bit of a loss. It looks like she was stuck in a time loop but we were never really told enough to understand what was happening to her or care about her. I think the caring about her is the most important in this story because without it, it makes it difficult to delve deeply into the story itself. Yours is a story that could have used a little more time (since you had it) to let us in on what was going on. The best I can make out was that she was killed in the past but had a second chance, otherwise why is she there to be asked the question about whether or not she would change anything...? I'm not sure if this was a problem with the script, what you were able to shoot, the edit OR some combination of the three. Did you have your script critiqued by other who didn't know the story going in? That might have helped you with rewrites...

All said, I still stayed with it all the way through to see what would happen. :thumbsup:
 
Writing as I watch….
Beautiful location and some of the shots are really nice. Who’s that guy in the background fishing? Was he a part of the film? Why’d he look at the camera? Those clashing stingers are pretty annoying. Ok, it’s over and I don’t get it. J

The music felt like the movie was a bad horror film and the goggles didn’t make much sense to me either. I think this is another film I’ll have to watch again to understand. A little more work on the sound design and this film would be one of those successful weird art films.

Congrats on entering the fest.
 
Im late, so I will just give some general opinion.

The things that stuck out for me as issues - the long pan at the start, speed was up and down and the shot just wasnt really necessary. The clang on cuts - deafening when listening to the rest at normal volumes. If it was once it would have great effect at bringing attention to something, but continually I found it annoying.

The story was almost there and I got what you were trying to do here. Very brave story line and I think you almost got it. Great job.
 
I definitely felt this film/concept had a lot promise. It grabbed my attention and I liked the non-linear storytelling.

I liked the idea of what you were trying to do, but agree with most of the other constructive criticism in that it falls a little short of clarity and cohesiveness. Reading your explanation of the story, it brought more sense of what you were trying to portray...but I just felt some of the visual elements weren't strong enough to convey those things...for example: her going back in time to save herself and having her past-self make the same choice over and over again. Doesn't really come across in your film, but is a really cool idea.

Overall, a good effort for brave and different storytelling.
I would just encourage you to keep refining your craft, because you definitely have a lot of good ideas and concepts...just work on tweaking the execution.

Also, I felt the sound effect heard throughout the film was almost too loud at some parts. At times it took me out of the film.

Kudos.
 
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