SALVATION a Twilightfest original

I really liked the graphics, lighting, and acting. You should enter her in the "hottest actress in the fest" thread. :Drogar-Love(DBG):

I see what people are saying about the beginning, but I disagree that it's the acting. You start the scene off with an "action" opening but you don't support it with any MUSIC. (No music throughout the whole movie either? ) Stick any big action cue from any movie there and I think it will play just perfect. The "talkie" section plays just fine dry. The ending and countdown section also needs music. IMO. Slap anything on there and see what it does.

One immediate problem I had was when she is looking at the screen and you cut from behind her to her CU, you're "crossing the line". You might be able to flip the video of her CU's so she is looking camera right instead of left and it would work just fine, but the screen plays as another character, and I think you should observe the 180 rule there.

Like everyone else, I loved the set, and I also loved how you lit it. The only thing I wished for was for her backlight through the window (the one that had the cool flare too) to be on a crane or something which would allow it to move ever so slowly to give us the idea that the ship was in motion.

Great performance and directing, and I liked the ending. Congrats!
 
Mike! When I say you did your thing, that's what I mean. This was a really top notchi film. I'm still wondering how you did it??? Hopefully I can find some info. in the thread, but your actress was great and the set was awesome and the digital screen - man, I'm really impressed with this piece. Keep up the good work.
 
You did a big affort with your location. The acting and production quality were very good and the story works. One little thing and this is only my personal taste: For me it is hardly bearable to hear and see a woman hysterically crying and even more when she did it nearly the whole film. But this is only a minor detail - Well done! :)

Susanne
 
This film had an O2 look. Nice coloring, and the actress did a beautiful job!

Special effects were done well also,

Robbie
 
Thank you everyone for commenting. To address some general points...

Michael said it best... say it see it. I think this is the biggest flaw in the pice. I honestly ran out of time and really, I ran out of space (6 minute limit). There are a lot of plans that we had designed to show the world before and the rescuers coming to save her. There will be a longer cut that has more of those elements as well as a proper credits scroll at the end. We just had a really difficult time cramming the whole story into 6 minutes. The original assembly cut was 11 minutes.

I think the VO in the beginning would work much better if you visually saw what he was talking about. However, again, lacking time for the cut, we had to get you in the world right away.

Noel, thank you for the detail in your comments. Actually, everyone, thank you again for your comments.

The missing element of the Twilightfest for this project was the "you think you're somewhere that you aren't"... the episodes that I used as a guideline were "planet of the apes" and the one where they landed on a planet with no air only to realize after killing each other that they were outside of Las Vegas. The rewrite of the rules to define Twilight as something supernatural came after i had completed my script. However i do see how someone who doesn't know that or has not seen those episodes would totally not see the connection to the fest.

I honestly got inspired for the set and the look while visiting the O2 set. Mark, Luis, and Tim sort of inadvertently brought me back to making shorts. I saw how the set was built and realized that I could totally do it myself. After what we have seen as success on this film, we are seriously going to work on a feature length sci-fi film. I guess I owe a lot of that to the Monster guys and their many awesome associates. (I like to call them mini-monsters)
 
Marlon Ladd said:
Mike! When I say you did your thing, that's what I mean. This was a really top notchi film. I'm still wondering how you did it??? Hopefully I can find some info. in the thread, but your actress was great and the set was awesome and the digital screen - man, I'm really impressed with this piece. Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...

Hey Marlon... thanks and to answer your question....

AFTER EFFECTS! Long long hours of lots of effects. I am writing a "how we did it" on the set. At the moment it is on post #7 in this thread. Eventually it will migrate into it's own thread/ website.
 
Susanne G. said:
You did a big affort with your location. The acting and production quality were very good and the story works. One little thing and this is only my personal taste: For me it is hardly bearable to hear and see a woman hysterically crying and even more when she did it nearly the whole film. But this is only a minor detail - Well done! :)

Susanne
Click to expand...

You know, me too. Sadly enough, the moments where she is a super tough scientist kind of had to get cut down ... we just flat out ran out of time. It's a crappy excuse but it is the truth.
 
yeehaanow said:
I really liked the graphics, lighting, and acting. You should enter her in the "hottest actress in the fest" thread. :Drogar-Love(DBG):

I see what people are saying about the beginning, but I disagree that it's the acting. You start the scene off with an "action" opening but you don't support it with any MUSIC. (No music throughout the whole movie either? ) Stick any big action cue from any movie there and I think it will play just perfect. The "talkie" section plays just fine dry. The ending and countdown section also needs music. IMO. Slap anything on there and see what it does.

One immediate problem I had was when she is looking at the screen and you cut from behind her to her CU, you're "crossing the line". You might be able to flip the video of her CU's so she is looking camera right instead of left and it would work just fine, but the screen plays as another character, and I think you should observe the 180 rule there.

Like everyone else, I loved the set, and I also loved how you lit it. The only thing I wished for was for her backlight through the window (the one that had the cool flare too) to be on a crane or something which would allow it to move ever so slowly to give us the idea that the ship was in motion.

Great performance and directing, and I liked the ending. Congrats!
Click to expand...

thank you for the comments... Bree suggested some music from a fantastic composer friend and we also could have possibly had a score from Edgen. At first we felt that it moved without the music. After we had cut it to time we never revisited the music element until it was too late. I personally still feel like there is so much going on already that music might muddle things up... but I am game to try it.

It is funny that you noticed the 180 rule... no one else has. I had intended the line to be broken. My thinking was that it would create a more disconnected/ disoriented feel to the film. The computer was another character but it also was a part of the environment. I really wanted that environment to be all screwed up. In hindsight, I am not sure if following the 180 rule or my was was better. It's a good question I'll have to face for future projects. Thank you for noticing :)
 
lots of work! and it shows, it looks great. acting was good too. story was okay, but i see that from above posts that this is part of along story so i would really like to see the whole thing.
 
Great job man! I was excited when I checked out your thread before and it's good to see how well everything came out. Awesome awesome set. Loved the computer interfaces and the shots where she was navigating through them. Actress did a great job as well. I have to agree with yeehawnow, it could have used a little music in places...even some ambient tunes. That's my only issue. Awesome film man!
 
Mike you are Insane!!! I finally got to your film and I'm so pleased with the outcome.

I recall that we were, like, within a week of shooting O2 when I saw a post by you basically saying that it's too bad that it's virtually impossible to shoot a decent micro-budget sci-fi flick given audience expectations for production values. We started corresponding and I first met you on the set of O2 where I realized the wheels were starting to turn in your head. Since then you've become a great friend to Fat Monster and I look forward to working on many projects together over the years to come.

I first have to compliment you on your set. You really showed how its possible to create a believable spaceship interior out of almost whole cloth. Brilliant. Salvation has given me a bunch of ideas too. I'm thinking that it would be awesome if we could get several people here in L.A. to build small spaceship interior sets like this that could then be used to fill out a bigger project. As we've considered future projects that would involve the O2 set at Laurel Canyon Stages we've realized that we really would need to extend that set for anything more ambitious. Your set could easily be an additional part of the ship or the interior of a shuttle/escape pod etc.

This past week we have been scouting prop houses for sci-fi interior dressing and we visited Woody at Woody'sElectricalProps. If you haven't been there yet, you gotta go. First of all, if you are a fanboy like me you'll just get a kick out of seeing all those flashing light panels that were used on the old Irwin Allen shows like Lost in Space, Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He's got a ton of stuff from Star Trek and god-knows-how-many-other sci-fi features.

It is mildly depressing to find that Woody rents his panels for $350 - $550 a week so that by the time you get the truck to haul it you've racked up a hefty bill and it isn't cost effective for the micro-budget stuff we shoot around here. However, Woody is an incredibly cool guy with a great personality. I hope to find some ways to trade out services and generally schmooze our way into an opportunity.

Nevertheless, a resourceful guy like you should visit simply to get some ideas. Woody is happy to turn anything on for you and if you study the panels closely you can see a lot of little tricks and techniques (I noticed one screen was merely an old aviation navigation map with a flashlight bulb behind it. Worked perfectly and had a great techno look).

It also reminded me of a great resource I found up North in Santa Clara called "Weird Stuff." All the big silicon valley manufacturers dump their obsolete parts inventory on this place and you can pick up bizarre high-tech parts for peanuts. If you are willing to wander through the big back warehouse you'll be amazed at what you can find.

While I'm on the subject, 20th Century props here in L.A. bought out the bizarre "Alien Decor" collection and now include it in their "Specialty Resources" department. While we were wandering around the big back lot we ran across the huge water tank used in "The Prestige" as well as a complete 60's submarine interior set! There's all sorts of Austin Powers props and more weird things than you can count.

I kind of got side-tracked but my point is that resourcefulness like you've shown is what really gives Indie productions power. Kudos, my man. Kudos. ... I'm gonna review your film today too.
 
Ok, my review of SALVATION:

Nice opening title and I liked the VO. It succinctly gives the necessary info to be able to do this in 6 minutes.

Love your "suspended animation pods" or whatever they are and the graphics for the screens are very well done. There's a tiny "drift" in the word "DECEASED" that could have been avoided by having it on the original graphic composite.

Really like the dampened sound when she's pounding to get out. Totally cool.

You open up immediately with action/conflict with a great hook as she is in jeopardy from the get go. Sound levels peg a bit and I do think the scene would be better with a nice score underneath.

I REALLY appreciate and like the "heads-up" display she starts working with. One of my favorite parts of "Minority Report" was the interface Cruise works with and you've really done nicely here (as has your actress in selling that she's actually looking at and manipulating the data).

I really like the look of your actress. I'm a huge fan of the "Ripley" look from the Alien films and your actress has got a nice similar gritty tough-as-nails approach in this film.

A bit of tracking drift at 3:51 on those screens.

Nice job on the computer voice. Great idea to use a true text-to-speech parser.

I believe at least one person posting didn't realize that was a Search Rescue ship at the end instead of the enemy and I didn't catch it until the second viewing. I think maybe reversing the ship so that the "SEARCH+RESCUE" is upright might be better without being TOO obvious.

Nice effects throughout and I really compliment you for pulling this off. I'm such a huge fan of SCI-FI and feel you are somewhat of a kindred spirit in that regard. I also really like dystopian sci-fi and you've got a good feel for it.

I also think this is absolutely another classic Twilight Zone piece. The ironic and morbid twist at the end fits very well (See the episode "TO SERVE MAN"). Great job Mike! This is one of my favorites for sure.
 
Mark Johnson said:
I believe at least one person posting didn't realize that was a Search Rescue ship at the end instead of the enemy and I didn't catch it until the second viewing. I think maybe reversing the ship so that the "SEARCH+RESCUE" is upright might be better without being TOO obvious.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I totally missed that. That's a much better ending than what I thought it was (enemy ship). Maybe you could do a CU of the "Search and Rescue" and pound it home for those of us that are a little dense in the head. :huh:
 
Mike.. I think the film needed more music!! :)

I think if you cut the exhibition down in half, this would be a pretty powerful lil' film. (again, just seemed a little naked) Visual FX were a feat in themselves and huge congrats on the set design.

Looking forward to your next entry!
/j
 
Hey there!

Well I am a little hot and cold on this one!

First off massive kudos for the set and production values, sure theres the odd thing (like the office chair) and so on, but heck it looks great and the actress as well i think - did exceptionally well.

Spoiler//
The FX were okay too (the ship explosion shot at the end was perhaps a little weaker and also too fast for us to catch the 'search and rescue'

The set up for the story and the ending in general was the weakest for me, i think by nature of twist/unexpected it technically qualifies (that question never entered my head watching it.) But I myself had the story guessed out far sooner than i wanted, the second we knew she was the last hope... we knew she was doomed, the 2nd we knew it might be the 'enemy' we knew it would ironically not be.

Its an example where great micro-budget production design and good acting can still not get a film all the way there unless (just my opinion) unless the story is a bit more original.

However the story wasn't terrible it was just a little too average imo in comparison to the other qualities that shone here for me, but overall this is an enjoyable and striking short!
 
Nice twist. At first I was disappointed when she set the self-destruct, as I was thinking there need to be something a bit more original. But final shot was fun enough. Oh, those silly things called emotions. Salvation = Doom. Fun. While I'm on this subject, i really don't get the confusion with teh ending. The "EARTH ORBIT" text was enough for me to get it.

My biggest problem were the sections of the script that required Lt. Spears to freak out. Bree Michael Warner did her well in her role, but the dialogue came off unnatural. Just me? My second issue was the lighting. I felt it was a bit muddy at times.

In the end, who doesn’t like a sci-fi pic?!? I love 'em!!! The set and effects worked to help the telling of the story. Nice cryo-pods, comp interfaces, etc... Well done.

I also liked the Kirkland water bottles in the behind the scenes pics! Can't beat 'em. Cheap! heh...
 
Nice set, good story & acting. I liked the specuial effects you did here. if i lucky, i'll get in on the next fest and makea movie.
 
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