"FALLING UP" a Flyin' Monkey Films production

Hiya, Puck.

The "float in the Macy's day parade" line was great. Strong delivery of it and just funny in general. This was a fun concept and gave you and your team lots of room for verbal and physical humor. I enjoyed the end as well. It was very affirming of the character's commitment to fighting the fears and opposing forces in his life and showing gratitude toward his friend.

There were some things that were underdeveloped (possibly from time constraints) but I think some of the only problems I had with this film were on a technical level. The frame was stretched horizontally and some of the sound levels washed out other bits of audio. It seemed that some of the ADR worked against the film by sometimes inheriting the wrong perspective, such as the lead giving the climbing gear away to a guy at the door. It's a common problem with ADR. There were of course some out of sync, but I'm sure someone else has already mentioned this.

Regardless, I still certainly enjoyed the film. :beer:
 
Hahaha....awww....way to make a gal blush....:dankk2:





armisiano said:
Okay, it's official, this is not LossFest, it is ComedyFest. The few entries that weren't comedies this time around just missed the mark and the freakin' memo.

I really enjoyed the story and the concept, very fun. Music was really great, I love Damian, he's one of my heroes. I will say it's a shame you weren't able to use audio from the actual shoot. If you don't have it, buy Barry Green's "Sound for Film and Television" DVD, and utilize what you learn from it. I give almost full credit to that DVD for how clean my audio turned out in "STUPENDOUS". I didn't have to do ANY audio cleanup, noise reduction, anything, and it's thanks to what I learned from that DVD. I also want to compliment you on often quite cleverly shooting around his falling up, nicely done. :)

Oh, and Jessica Sinclair, adorable. ...Ya know, I AM recently single, so uh.... ...ah nevermind.
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The elevator music at the beginning almost made me turn it off.

I stuck it out though. I cannot understand why you chose to completely ADR this.. it is so utterly distracting.

It felt like I wast watching that with ear muffs on..
 
Its a neat idea, thats been done before.

I don't have much to say about it. It looked ok. But the audio was the most distracting part.

What was the reasoning behind dubbing the whole film? I am curious..
 
This piece had a really good energy that sucked me in from the beginning. Good music choice, and I loved the floating credits. I thought both performances were really strong. The girl's slightly more-so than the guy's, but, like I said, both believable.

Overall, great film to watch!
 
Hey, man, I laughed out loud the first time he fell. How in the heck did you get such a big window for the compression. Wow - nice. Anyway, nice and professional and funny. There were a couple of sound effects that were off a little, like when she was hitting him with the pillow, but I liked your sound much better on this one. I also thought the actors did a fine job. Oh, btw - loved the credits "falling up." That was very creative and fit the them to a tee.
 
This was an amusing tale - and i like the composition used to reflect our floating heroes er bouncy antics! It was a cute kind of romantic comedy with a very original story - and so i quite enjoyed it. The cinematography etc and acting was all fine by my book.

The voice over adr though was a bit 'blunt' shall we say and that did stand out as the main negative for me - but more than compensated by all the positives that make this film stand out nicely. Congrats.
 
Loki said:
Its a neat idea, thats been done before.
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i know its not intentional but as i read this review, i heard it in debbie downer's voice. wah-waaaahhhhhhh.

DebbieDownerRachaelDratch.jpg
 
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lol well, this is more quotable for you daaarling ;)

"A charming romantic comedy that ascends above its romcom peers thanks to it's elevated and innovative storyline"

;)

And Zak - you evil guy - you reviewed the review!!!
 
jasonthewho said:
The opening shot of this film is fantastic. Perfectly executed. I also really like the different ways you made him fly without any big budget hollywood effects. Very cute story.

I like her freaking out on him with the pillow, but it goes on a little too long. Was that improv?

The end was very sweet.

.
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Thanks Jason. We must have shot the opening sequence about 2 dozen times (lemme check... yep 22 times) to get it right. The original idea was for the whole thing up to when he flew, to be one long shot, but due to my screwing up the focus at the critical point. we got a much better edit. funny how that worked out there.

Do NOT operate a jib on a dolly and try to focus without an AC who can focus like a demon. I've said it right here. You'll be tempted, but just don't do it.

Yeah the pillow scene was a little improv. Jessica went off script a little but kept to the heart of the argument and when she raged, she really let him have it.

Glad you liked the ending.. I considered letting him flow away up into the air, but it would have felt so anti-climatic...
 
This story has a nice, natural feel to it. The actors are spot on. Your editing is very good. There is probably not one edit I would change. The music is great. You got a feature film soundtrack you can sell now. But, there is always a “but…” The lighting and sound are two issues that need to be addressed. The ADR did work during some moments in the beginning, but then it distracted me when it became too unnatural, or out of sync. I’m guilty of this as well, in previous endeavors. You need a little more light with purpose during the interior scenes. Overall, I like the organic feel of your shots and editing, and the performances your lead actors belted out. Bravo.
 
Hey Rodney,

Great film man! I've watched both of yours and you have a very natural sense with the camera...I always feel like the shots are motivated and flow well (probably a nod to your editing skills there as well)!

I think the actors did a great job. They both seemed natural to me and had a good chemistry/compliment. The male lead reminds me a lot of Topher Grace (That 70's Show) for some reason!

And the ending really worked for me. I had the same feeling that I get at the end of a good romantic comedy (yes I do watch them on occasion) and you did it in only 6-minutes! Congrats dude!
 
i really liked the ending a lot, and i totally believed he had a problem staying on the ground, and this in of itself is a cool idea! the sound is off, don't know if you used adr or not or if my player was off, i will read through some of your thread for more info. loved the song at the end and the music in the beg was cool, got to be a bit much for my taste all the way through. the acting was good too, especially the pillow fight!

good film!
 
Despite the technical flaws, honestly, this is a pretty solid effort. In fact, a little more than solid. A lot of the camera action, composition, and cutting was very well motivated and looked hyper-cinematic.

Not to mention, floating on a budget TOTALLY worked for me. This all feels really fluid and the floating wasn't the center-piece, only the problem and how it effected this guys relationship. It works, man. And works well.

Audio -- This was the most distracting. Fix it, and you're pretty much eight percent there. You don't need music for this, or at least I think the music selection doesn't fit/isn't too strong with the content.

2.35:1 -- Why did you choose this? It's a bit off in the Quicktime, I had to change the dimensions to get it to look proper which was okay, but I'm wonderring what the reason was behind it? I wonder what the 16:9 looks like as well?

I'm being dead honest when I say I like this, and if the technical difficulties are ironed out, it's a really damned solid short. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. A tangible conflict and some really nice camera direction.

I actually think the acting might be great for a no-budget piece, but the Audio interferes a lot.

Please do let me know when you've got it ironed out. It's worth the six minutes and certainly worth a save.

Good job, Rodney.

Oh, and by the way: Don't you just hate turning the lens the wrong way for focusing? LOL. That used to be one of my hang-ups when I first started pulling focus. Moved to Contax Zeiss, those issues stopped.
 
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