"MY NAME IS HAROLD ALLEN" - A Film By Ben Sliker and Justin Kuhn

Marlon Ladd said:
I knew you guys were gonna' send us for a loop somewhere. Because of the poster, I knew there would be something big going on here. As always you had great cinematography and a compelling story. And the VFX (I guess that's what you call it) was really solid. Oh, BTW - the camera peeking around the corner making the guy think someone was there was a very cool shot. Nice job.
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There was sort of massive subplot that ended up getting dwindled out and that shot is all that's left of it. basically, we wanted to have the idea that he was being watched the whole time. originally there were these creatures that had "survived" the toxic water, but were are mutated. yeah ... they got cut.

bosindy said:
you guys really shine within the psychological suspense genre. I really love the production value ever present in your work. It is always top notch. I look forward to when you expand beyond 6 minutes. nicely done.
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we'll put you on the mailing list then :) 20 minutes, here i go!

yeehaanow said:
Production design was so well done, I couldn't look away for a second. It glued me.

I liked the style, and i'll definitely be watching this one many more times to catch all the things I missed. I think there are a bunch of flash frames that deserve some close inspection. :)

The look was very Clean. I felt that the VO audio quality bothered me a little- not sure what that was.

Overall I was really digging it and this is totally my kind of movie. The moneyshot at the end was awesome.
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thanks! especially from a guy who had an awesome moneyshot in his film! most of the flash frames are man-made water structures, and of course, our little water drop guy. i have like 7-8 designs for him, then i realized that the simple smiley was the creepiest.

Jason Miller said:
Ben this was amazing, i dont know where to star so I won't just wow
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i'll take a wow! thanks!
 
Hiya Ben,

I know I was quite hard on you last time around, so it's with great pleasure I can say I really enjoyed this. One of the best IMHO. The decisions you made with the styling this time really suited the piece, nothing threw me off. Technically top notch, and the story really pulled me in. You guys went to a lot of effort and it shows. Top marks in all categories.

Hard to pick my absolute fave but it's very close. Ceratinly top 3 for me.

Very pleased for you and the best of luck with this.
 
Ben,

Wonderful film... easily my favorite from you... I really enjoyed the ride and exploration of what was going on, as seen through your protag's eyes... def. one of the standouts in the fest my friend!
 
I'll save the positives (and there are plenty) for after I watch it again. I know, "What a jerk!" :D
Here's the only negative, and it comes from years of work in the costume department at Cal State San Bernardino: His clothes are not nearly dirty enough. The holes are better then most I've seen (worn through, not cut), but they look like they just came out of the laundry. We have a jar of leather dye that we use to "dirty up" just about everything. It stains the fabric, so you can wash it and it still looks dirty (actually I think we lost it somewhere during the shooting of Survival :( ).
Anyway, it was a small criticism, but with not much else to criticize . . . there it is.
 
lol jeremiah, this may be a casualty of the display size. Cause i gotta tell ya, i can't believe that Tom actually put that outfit on, it was disgusting. Perhaps i'll post some high rez grabs or more BTS, and show you THE GROSSNESS. :)

(Thanks for the criticism tho and leather dye idea)
 
Ben... this is Top Ten material right here.
I really liked it. Honestly, I can't think of anything I really didn't like about it. There was just enough plot there to let us in on what was going on... but without explaining too much to where it got expositional.
I'll have to watch it again so I can find things to nitpick over, but well done man, I really dug it!
 
Alright, here it is.

Mrs. Kuhn (insert Justin's mom joke here) did a wonderful job on the costume for Harold and perhaps the 640x360 size of out file didn't show that detail.

Here was our thought process in creating the costume - He's supposed to be dirty, but if I was the last person on earth, i'd want my clothes to last as long as possible, and NOT be dirty. This is evident in the small repairs that he's made to his overshirt, most notably the pocket sewn back on to the overshirt and hole patched on the right shoulder of the undershirt. I would avoid rolling around in dirt and grease as much as possible to avoid having to trudge around in my own muck.

I think what Mrs. Kuhn came up with was a great compromise of an outfit that looks really worn and is dirty, but at the same time, Harold has tried to keep as nice as he can.

costume1.jpg
costume2.jpg
costume3.jpg


Jeremiah, thanks for giving me something to post about! :) And just for the sake of curiosity, why would you think he needed to be more dirty? JOHNNY 5 NEEDS MORE INPUT!
 
Darkline said:
Hiya Ben,

I know I was quite hard on you last time around, so it's with great pleasure I can say I really enjoyed this. One of the best IMHO. The decisions you made with the styling this time really suited the piece, nothing threw me off. Technically top notch, and the story really pulled me in. You guys went to a lot of effort and it shows. Top marks in all categories.

Hard to pick my absolute fave but it's very close. Ceratinly top 3 for me.

Very pleased for you and the best of luck with this.
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Darkline, thanks so much, the combination of your film rocking so hard and you being hard on us last time makes me really take this compliment to heart. THANKS!

Zim said:
The was a good film. It is a stand out for me. Nice work
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Thanks for the watch!

Brandon Rice said:
Ben,

Wonderful film... easily my favorite from you... I really enjoyed the ride and exploration of what was going on, as seen through your protag's eyes... def. one of the standouts in the fest my friend!
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Brandon ... why you no enter no more? :) You used to be able to beat me in these fests :evil: THAT'S RIGHT BRICEMAN, I CHALLENGE YOU.

(lol, thanks man, i appreciate it, especially cause you'll watch all these even though you don't have an entry)

blindbuzta said:
Ben... this is Top Ten material right here.
I really liked it. Honestly, I can't think of anything I really didn't like about it. There was just enough plot there to let us in on what was going on... but without explaining too much to where it got expositional.
I'll have to watch it again so I can find things to nitpick over, but well done man, I really dug it!
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BRING ON THE NIT PICKS! for serious tho, it gives me an opportunity to share info behind the process that was HAROLD ALLEN! Thanks for the watch and we are happy that you liked it!
 
I think that you have already a high standard of production, lighting, acting, etc. - I expected this and nothing else, knowing your last two films in dvxuser. I especially like the special effects in this one. Very nice work - compliments! I am not sure if I understood the story. It seems to me that the character is a normal person, nothing special, not a hero - what means that the world will die, because the normal population have the blame with all their habits being like parasites on this planet? Is this the message? I am also not sure what did mean the sign (the sprayed drop of water with the face). This could be the mystic element of twilight, thinking that there is still an other person alive?
However - very professional! :thumbup:

Susanne
 
Susanne G. said:
I think that you have already a high standard of production, lighting, acting, etc. - I expected this and nothing else, knowing your last two films in dvxuser. I especially like the special effects in this one. Very nice work - compliments! I am not sure if I understood the story. It seems to me that the character is a normal person, nothing special, not a hero - what means that the world will die, because the normal population have the blame with all their habits being like parasites on this planet? Is this the message? I am also not sure what did mean the sign (the sprayed drop of water with the face). This could be the mystic element of twilight, thinking that there is still an other person alive?
However - very professional! :thumbup:

Susanne
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Susanne! thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

I think you are overthinking things a little, here's a basic outline.

Harold is in the classic "last man on the planet" scenario, the problem is, he can't remember a thing (even his own name) or why that is. The "water drop" is the emblem of the organization that he was a part of before everything went awry. To not stuff you with backstory, something that he did involving the water (presumably poisoning it) lead to the death of A LOT (thousands, maybe millions) of people. All of this comes flooding (pun not intended) back into his brain once he sees the emblem.

There's no real over-arching lesson for humanity to it, just one man trying to understand his place in the environment around him. Does that make more sense?
 
Ben Sliker said:
Susanne! thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

I think you are overthinking things a little, here's a basic outline.

Harold is in the classic "last man on the planet" scenario, the problem is, he can't remember a thing (even his own name) or why that is. The "water drop" is the emblem of the organization that he was a part of before everything went awry. To not stuff you with backstory, something that he did involving the water (presumably poisoning it) lead to the death of A LOT (thousands, maybe millions) of people. All of this comes flooding (pun not intended) back into his brain once he sees the emblem.

There's no real over-arching lesson for humanity to it, just one man trying to understand his place in the environment around him. Does that make more sense?
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Thanks I understood it now, it makes more sense and thank you also for not making lessons for humanity! :beer:

Susanne
 
This was great. I really enjoyed your editing style especially.

This feels like an introduction to a longer piece, and it certainly got me hooked. Very memorable and it stands out as one of the best.
 
MrKilloran said:
This was great. I really enjoyed your editing style especially.

This feels like an introduction to a longer piece, and it certainly got me hooked. Very memorable and it stands out as one of the best.
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Haha, you got us. I don't know if it will ever be a longer piece BUT we certainly had to flesh out a longer story so that this smaller one made sense. Thanks for watching!
 
harold is part of the army of the 12 monkeys, lol
Really liked this piece, you used the montage perfectly.
Loved the way you handled his memory.
One of the best paced films i have seen in all the fests.
 
Alright, for those art department people out there.

I fabricated the spear out of some old stuff i had lying around in my garage, a broken painter's pole, and some metal from the rails of an old dresser. I pounded the metal flat with a mini sledge and cut out the triangular shape. I then sawed a slit in the top of the painter's pole, stuck it in a secured it with some duct tape (i figured this wouldn't be out of the realm of possiblities for someone left all by themselves out in the world. This was draft one of the spear.

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Which Justin so lovingly put it ... "It looks cool, but we're not playing f*cking cowboys and Indians" So I went back to the drawing board (and to hobby lobby to pick up some supplies.)

I decided to cut the spear head in a different way, taking off the bottom corners and adding indents to hold some twine. Then I got an 88 cent roll of twine and started to wrap up the top. After tying it off, I covered it in wood glue and let it harden so that it wouldn't move or come undone. I did a similar treatment to the handle for the bottom. The last touches were to nick up the painter's pole and smear some black paint on it. Here's how it turned out:

SPEARV2top.JPG
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The only change i made from there was to douse the whole thing in some dark wood stain, and Voila! you have yourself a post apocalyptic fish/rat hunting spear.

Oh, and here's the cool dolly system I built for us to use - portable and small!

dollytrack.JPG
 
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