pauly_the_hitman
Veteran
I am glad you made it in the top 7 this is one of my favorite films this fest. Congratulations.
Pauly
Pauly
profound pictures presents "Teacher's Pet"
- Thread starter Steve Strickland
- Start date
Steve Strickland
Well-known member
Thanks a lot. Geoff and I are stoked!
Thanks, Pauly. It means a lot coming from the talented DVX community.:beer:
Mike Manning
Well-known member
Seriously, well earned indeed! I feel like this was the underdog entry... I don't know why.. but it feels like that! Haha... congrats and good luck!
Steve Strickland
Well-known member
:beer:
Yeah, our hype machine got goin' a little late. Gracias.
Thanks so much. We are definitely surprised. To be in such good company makes us smile.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Excellent film! Congrat's!
Mike
Mike
Erez Henya
Well-known member
:birthdays:
Love,
Love,
Brian Parker
Well-known member
Congrats guys!
Hey very cool movie. Been too busy to comment properly til now. Will do so very soon.
But congrats in the mean time. Always good to see the O.G.'s in the 2nd round.
:beer:
But congrats in the mean time. Always good to see the O.G.'s in the 2nd round.
:beer:
One of my very high scores.
Sucked me right in. Very interesting work.
The critical comments below may seem to outway the good but they shouldn't. What makes the film so engaging is rather esoteric and hard to talk about, so there's less to say. Aside from one story concern all of the rest of the notes are small technical things.
Of course there is one "refrigerator question" - Hitchcock's term for a little fudge in continuity or logic that that helps facilitate or move the story along, which, as long as the audience is with you, they probably won't think about until they get home and open their refrigerator.
Although I did think of it towards the end as we were pulling back from the kid in the window ... If she's some kind of freak that needs to eat live animals, supernatural or just crazy, why does she have to do it at school / keep it right there in the class. And secondly, what does she need the kid for? One line of his V.O. could have addressed this. "Asked her why here, why me once, and she just smiled and said it didn't taste as good if I wasn't watching. But I never really watched ..." to that effect. Maybe that's one of those things that is supposed to be a mystery to the viewer but since it's at the core of the concept, it did ditract some from my enjoyment.
But like I said, my highest mark so far for the mood and feel of it and the way the story is told despite that little logic hole. Much better to kill little animals and bite there heads off at home. But it had such a fluid movement to it, the film I mean, and the tone of it and the characters were so cool I didn't care too too much.
A few technical thoughts.
Your tight shots, and their frequency are a bit too tight too often for me. You have some really nice long / wide shots and then there's nothing in between those and the head to chin shots. Dunno if you read the "shot size discussion" link in my sig, and not that I necessarily am an an authority, but that's my extended take on it if you care to take a look. Basically though, I feel shots that close should really be earned. True the kid and her have an intimate connection, but the shot where she first comes into the classroom was just way to tight for me. Tightest I would go there is like ribs or elbows up. Movies we see at the theater are not cut this tight. For a scene in a classroom where the is a certain level of intimacy, mediums do until a close shot is needed. For example, if you used mediums until the rest of the class left, then used those forehead to chin closeups it could have further hightened their intimacy. Or just used a very few closeups in the class scene, but only when the teacher and the pet student were being conspiritorial or shareing a secret. To quote Frank Marshall. "Cut it tight theyll give you 10 million for a TV show. Cut it wide they'll give you 100 million for a movie." Paraphrase. That's the basic idea. If you back off a bit it's more cinematic, the film feels like it has breathing room, and then those very intimate closeups have meaning when used more sparingly rather than the defacto non-wide size.
Try equing your actors voice to roll off a little bass and give a slight boost in the 3-4k range. Can make it sound less like V.O. Also use stock room tone bed.
I think the DOF was a little too shalow throughout. Again this is kind of a common DVXuser thing like cutting everything but the master shots really tight - extreme shallow DOF. It's just not used all the time as the defacto look in movies. Ideally you should be stopping down your lenses to f4 or f5, anything softer is a strong choice. Maybe that's the look you were going for, but it looked a little sof to me.
If you are keeping the DOF in some check, you should be able to cut between stock lens and teh adapter with no trouble or with some slight tweaking in post. Along those lines, I would have ditched the adaptor for the ending crane shot. Or was that blurred in post? My suspision is that without a $4,000 follow focus you decided to have it be in focus on him and then just let it go out of focus as it went back? Or maybe you blurred it in post? Or maybe it was a little too soft so you really went to town blurring it in post? Don't know, but I would have liked to see that shot and the pull out. You kind of lose the feeling of the pull up and away if you go that soft during it. Felt a little like I'd lost my vision there or something.
So those are the small things. The big thing is that you made a very engaging film that we're all enjoying very much despite what are IMHO, a few technical things. Great work.
Very enjoyable engaging film.
Thanks very much for making it / sharing it with us.
Sucked me right in. Very interesting work.
The critical comments below may seem to outway the good but they shouldn't. What makes the film so engaging is rather esoteric and hard to talk about, so there's less to say. Aside from one story concern all of the rest of the notes are small technical things.
Of course there is one "refrigerator question" - Hitchcock's term for a little fudge in continuity or logic that that helps facilitate or move the story along, which, as long as the audience is with you, they probably won't think about until they get home and open their refrigerator.
Although I did think of it towards the end as we were pulling back from the kid in the window ... If she's some kind of freak that needs to eat live animals, supernatural or just crazy, why does she have to do it at school / keep it right there in the class. And secondly, what does she need the kid for? One line of his V.O. could have addressed this. "Asked her why here, why me once, and she just smiled and said it didn't taste as good if I wasn't watching. But I never really watched ..." to that effect. Maybe that's one of those things that is supposed to be a mystery to the viewer but since it's at the core of the concept, it did ditract some from my enjoyment.
But like I said, my highest mark so far for the mood and feel of it and the way the story is told despite that little logic hole. Much better to kill little animals and bite there heads off at home. But it had such a fluid movement to it, the film I mean, and the tone of it and the characters were so cool I didn't care too too much.
A few technical thoughts.
Your tight shots, and their frequency are a bit too tight too often for me. You have some really nice long / wide shots and then there's nothing in between those and the head to chin shots. Dunno if you read the "shot size discussion" link in my sig, and not that I necessarily am an an authority, but that's my extended take on it if you care to take a look. Basically though, I feel shots that close should really be earned. True the kid and her have an intimate connection, but the shot where she first comes into the classroom was just way to tight for me. Tightest I would go there is like ribs or elbows up. Movies we see at the theater are not cut this tight. For a scene in a classroom where the is a certain level of intimacy, mediums do until a close shot is needed. For example, if you used mediums until the rest of the class left, then used those forehead to chin closeups it could have further hightened their intimacy. Or just used a very few closeups in the class scene, but only when the teacher and the pet student were being conspiritorial or shareing a secret. To quote Frank Marshall. "Cut it tight theyll give you 10 million for a TV show. Cut it wide they'll give you 100 million for a movie." Paraphrase. That's the basic idea. If you back off a bit it's more cinematic, the film feels like it has breathing room, and then those very intimate closeups have meaning when used more sparingly rather than the defacto non-wide size.
Try equing your actors voice to roll off a little bass and give a slight boost in the 3-4k range. Can make it sound less like V.O. Also use stock room tone bed.
I think the DOF was a little too shalow throughout. Again this is kind of a common DVXuser thing like cutting everything but the master shots really tight - extreme shallow DOF. It's just not used all the time as the defacto look in movies. Ideally you should be stopping down your lenses to f4 or f5, anything softer is a strong choice. Maybe that's the look you were going for, but it looked a little sof to me.
If you are keeping the DOF in some check, you should be able to cut between stock lens and teh adapter with no trouble or with some slight tweaking in post. Along those lines, I would have ditched the adaptor for the ending crane shot. Or was that blurred in post? My suspision is that without a $4,000 follow focus you decided to have it be in focus on him and then just let it go out of focus as it went back? Or maybe you blurred it in post? Or maybe it was a little too soft so you really went to town blurring it in post? Don't know, but I would have liked to see that shot and the pull out. You kind of lose the feeling of the pull up and away if you go that soft during it. Felt a little like I'd lost my vision there or something.
So those are the small things. The big thing is that you made a very engaging film that we're all enjoying very much despite what are IMHO, a few technical things. Great work.
Very enjoyable engaging film.
Thanks very much for making it / sharing it with us.
Steve Strickland
Well-known member
Steve Strickland
Well-known member
Jack, you aren't the first to ask this "refrigerator question." I always kind of liked that we don't know much about Ms. Storey and her eating habits, left it up to your imagination. However, if it took away from your enjoyment, I suppose I thought wrong. Your recommendation of the VO add in is excellent. I think it would fit nicely there and really help dissolve that issue. It also would continue the tone perfectly. Thanks for the great insight.
I've already talked about the entry CU with another member in this thread. That one I'd love to have back. Way too close, and I agree on your suggestion of elbows up. Unfortunately, on set, things get chaotic, and I don't always cover my shot list as extensively as planned. I tried to go tight on Benjamin to isolate him, but yeah, I can see where it's too tight. I'll definitely read your shot size thread and put it into action on my next film. Thanks.
Awesome. We definitely needed something here. I'll try your suggestions.
Once again, right on here. Unfortunately, the extreme shallow DOF wasn't my aesthetic choice on a lot of the film. We were working with limited lighting and I HAD to open up the lens all the way to get the shot. Believe me, it was maddening. Being the first time I've used my Letus on an actual film, my focus was spotty at best. Throw shooting at f2 in there and it was a recipe for disaster. Just another lesson learned about getting more light to the lens. DOF is a tool, and I understand that. In this case it ran amok.
You got me on the window shot. Although, I actually did want it to go out of focus here. I liked the effect. But yeah, when you are running the camera, pulling the dolly, and ducking below the window line at the same time, it's pretty damn hard to pull focus.
Every film teaches me what not to do again. Now, I need to learn and grow from these mistakes. Your critique is much appreciated and helpful. Thank you.
I've watched you grow since "Shed" and your technical expertise has caught up with your natural talent. I love your attention to detail in every piece you do. I've learned so much here at DVXUSER and you in particular. Like I said in your thread at Cold Calls, your insights are one of my favorite aspects here at DVX University. Thanks for the schooling.
Here's to making movies!:beer:
Even if it's not as explicit as what I suggested. He's the main character, we relate to him most / see the story through his eyes. So if he just asks the questions we're thinking, even if we don't get an answer the question is dismissed / satisfied. "I asked her once ... and she just smiled and said she could tell me but what would be the fun in that. I didn't care as a long as I was with her ..."
One advantage you have over a lot of films in the fest is that you can continue rewriting. : )
I learned the same lesson on Bonehand. 50% for the reasons you mentioned and 50% because we suddenly had to stop shooting one scene. But I think now, if mediums are your default rather than the other you won't hit that wall again. You won't hit it again anyway since you'll be hyper aware now. Also - don't know what you are shooting on, but if it's HD, especially 1080 you can blow up a bit in post if you absolutely had to, and obviouslt you can't pull back from a closeup in post.
http://www.digitalprosound.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/mixing_excerpt1.htm
:beer:
Sorry I meant to give you this out when I was posting my feedback. I had assumed actually that it wasn't a choice but out of necessity due to slower lenses / lack of light. Been there too my friend.
Forgot to mention we ditched the adaptor for the tub shot in ours. Just no way to pull focus.
What you got on the end was a strong choice though. And it does look like a choice. Just since I know how we make these things - 35mm adaptors, usually without even a whip, let alone remote follow focus, I figured that that's probably what was at going on there.
haha, thanks very much.
and Congrats again.
:beer:
Steve Strickland
Well-known member
Just watched your film. Excellent all the way around!!!
Thanks a lot. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Texture
Well-known member
My favorite music in the fest. Its seems many of us composers are great at setting a mood, but somehow this soundtrack was unique. Seemed to have a style all its own, subtly devolving from the beautiful to the disturbed, the soundtrack was a huge part of what made this film work. Great work by Erez who created some ear catching melodies that had me "Googling" him the moment his credit appeard on the screen.
Kid was great too. And I thought is was cool how the teacher's trophy shown in the opening moments was bookended into the end. Effortless pacing, great story telling.
Cheers,
Erik
Kid was great too. And I thought is was cool how the teacher's trophy shown in the opening moments was bookended into the end. Effortless pacing, great story telling.
Cheers,
Erik
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Mike Insane
Well-known member
Okay, that's awesome! I didn't get a chance to view your film before the first round closed. I'm so glad you made it into the next round. Great story, well told, good cinematography, better than average acting, just simple enough to be creepy and yet sweet and admirable. well done.