THE THINGS WE CARRY - Geoff Reisner

Glad to finally check this out, Geoff. I know a lot of the limitations you were working with shooting this and I think you did a great job of working around them. Particularly you did good work in sound design, but all the technical aspects here are strong.

I, too, didn't quite get that he survived to the end, and to a certain extent I feel that weakens the film... in retrospect it makes the opening scene, in all its quiet somber splendor, just a confusing question mark on what just happened. I initially assumed that we were seeing that character writing his death letter, which his buddy would be forced to deliver at the end. But now I'm not so sure what I saw.

My only complaint otherwise is that I wish you had more moments like that letter-writing scene where no words need be spoken. There's a powerful relationship between these guys and there were moments that could have been serendipitous until they were cast under by a bit of dialogue that seemed unnecessary. Rather than hearing it said that he's outnumbered, and reminded of his promise to survive, I think it would be far, far more potent to have that same conversation done only between the eyes of these two men who have lived through so much together.

Anyway. Strong stuff regardless, congrats, glad I could help in some small way.
 
Geoff!

Dude, I LOVED this. Great production design, good fx, great sound design, mostly good acting, great hand held without being too nauseous, great CC/grade

Why, why, why didn't you get it in 6 min and compete?

It is possible. I pulled it into FCP and made a 'Shawn Nelson' version that clocks in at 5:50, and I'm gonna say it rocks and would have probably beaten my little film :-D
 
Thanks Shawn! Glad you enjoyed it.

The six minute thing... I don't know... I cut my films without restraint whenever editing. I let it find the natural pace/length I feel it needs to work at the level I'm looking for. I wasn't sure how long this one would end up being... When I was finished, it clocked in at nine and I couldn't imagine pulling at that point. Had it been six-thirty or even seven... maybe I could look and pry and play around a bit but I couldn't imagine stripping two minutes. I'd have to lose many moments to make it work and I guess in the end... I couldn't justify cutting it down for the purpose of competing.

I'm weary of ever doing a movie in which I don't control the edit. The mere thought of not having final cut makes me sweat...

BUT I am very interested in seeing the Nelson cut of TTWC :) PM me the link!
 
Well then, odds are you won't like it, just because it's different :-)

I'm not going to dump on your 8 min cut, because it's really freakin good. But I will say that if I was producer, I'd release this new 5:50 cut , hehehe :-).

Some of the transitions are a bit rough because I didn't have the audio tails to work with, couldn't layer the score properly, etc

I'm rendering it now, will upload it to a private server
 
Geoff_R said:
I don't know. From some perspectives, it may appear he's dead anyway, with or without the line. Whose to say the line bears absolute significance as to whether he's alive or not...
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IF it were possible to show that he truly WAS dead, it would make that line all the more impacting, in that either the supporting lead was carrying his buddy's dead body, and didn't realize he'd already died OR didn't care, and was still going to treat the corpse with dignity & get it across ally lines (leave no man behind). Various was you could play with this. While I hear you about being done with a film, IF you consistently hear enough of the same thing, and IF you're able to change it without going back & doing reshoots, etc., and IF you're wanting to submit to other festivals ... then surely, change it. :)

Geoff_R said:
I'm weary of ever doing a movie in which I don't control the edit. The mere thought of not having final cut makes me sweat...
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I've yet to do this either, except for Where Silence Falls, when I DID have someone else edit it on FCP, due to how it was shot & off loaded at the time ... however, I still sat next to the guy the ENTIRE time, so was basically editing it myself.

I really dig Zak's approach that he talks about in his thread with regards to editing, and am SO envious of his situation! If nothing else, just like you find value in other players bringing something to the table in what they do (cast, gaffer, sound guy, etc.) as they bring up ideas of their own on set (if you find value in that I should say - I do), then there could be GREAT value in having a more unbiased person make the 1st edit. That way, you've not gotten locked into how it should be after editing it yourself, and you get a fresh perspective on things & see edits & flow you may never have thought of ... from there, you still have final edit as the director anyway, when you stop to think about it.
 
Yea, I envy Zak in that manner as well... It'd be awesome to have that person... I think high level film collaboration is a lot like a marriage. It's so hard to find the right people when it comes to DPs, writing partners, producers and editors. It's a touchy, hard to predict flow between two people and sometimes it works surprising well... other times it goes down in flames. Nonetheless, you want someone just as good, and if lucky, 'better' than yourself to lend a hand in the creative partnership. And if I had that editor who could do that... I'd chain them to my desk :)

And you're right... you'd still have final cut per se under these circumstances. Now, dealing with a studio or some larger gorilla beast of the industry... who knows... I might have to chop some heads off or something to get my movie done my way :) That aspect still makes me nervous to a degree.
 
Very professional looking film. I am not a fan of war movies but I was highly impressed by the sound!! Sound of this film gets my top vote!!!!:beer:

I also was sure the guy died and saw the letter writing as a time-jump where he is writing about why he lost his comrade.

Very well filmed, acted and all but I was most impressed by the excellent sound quality.
It was so well done, that just the sound explained most of what was going on.
:thumbup:
 
timbook2 said:
Very professional looking film. I am not a fan of war movies but I was highly impressed by the sound!! Sound of this film gets my top vote!!!!:beer:

I also was sure the guy died and saw the letter writing as a time-jump where he is writing about why he lost his comrade.

Very well filmed, acted and all but I was most impressed by the excellent sound quality.
It was so well done, that just the sound explained most of what was going on.
:thumbup:
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Yea, Matt truly delivered on this one. He's an amazing talent to work with and worth every penny.
 
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This film is awesome... both sound & picture... I'm not much of a war movie fan but I enjoyed this one... great editing and direction! The acting is okay... imo
 
Matt showed me a rough cut of this and I really dig the coloring job you did. Considering how heavy the material is... it's a really fun watch. I really dig it.
 
well that's a shame it's view only! that was amazing. great acting, costumes, cinematography, lighting indoors, sound. I also loved the handheld. I thought it carried the mood perfectly.

only little critique...which is just opinion. I kinda wished that the woods would have been more wooded. if that makes sense. I thought that would have worked out well. That probably would have been hard with lighting and crew though so completely understood. awesome awesome job man!
 
JCVR said:
Matt showed me a rough cut of this and I really dig the coloring job you did. Considering how heavy the material is... it's a really fun watch. I really dig it.
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Thanks for checking it out, Jordan.

Nick_Lee said:
well that's a shame it's view only! that was amazing. great acting, costumes, cinematography, lighting indoors, sound. I also loved the handheld. I thought it carried the mood perfectly.

only little critique...which is just opinion. I kinda wished that the woods would have been more wooded. if that makes sense. I thought that would have worked out well. That probably would have been hard with lighting and crew though so completely understood. awesome awesome job man!
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Thanks, Nick! Yea, for the woods I wish we could have made the trek all the way up to Northern California. I wanted to get into the Red Wood forest... that would have been cool :)
 
After finishing it, I must say that even though there's a very strong message linked to the title, the film sort of falls flat for me. WWII has been done absolutely to death, and this film tends to trail a little in a manner that mixes elements of SPR, Big Red One, Forrest Gump, and a few others. I actually believe it could have been compressed. Definitely not down to six minutes, for that would be terribly tight and ludicrous. But I feel that just a smidge could have been trimmed since there were moments in which they were simply moving through check points. Now that works extremely well to build strength in the events to come, but after the first killing, the film finally begins to develop into a character study of soldiers. Hmm...really though, I didn't mind watching them running and evading. The sound design kept the film very exciting. But there's just something that feels a little loose to me...god, I wish I weren't so tired so I could describe it. Heck, I'll probably sing a different tune in the A.M.

And I was actually bugged by the camera fumbling around as much as it did, but only a little bit. Sure, if one were documenting the situation, it would fumble, that makes sense, but many journalists were able to secure stable footage from the war even when near fire. I think it was really just a few shots that irked me in which the camera performed a slower whip pan back and forth between the men multiple times. I don't really know why that bugged me. Once again, I'll probably think it's fine on the second viewing.

Really though, the film is technically almost FLAWLESS. Fantastic sound design and the cinematography was generally great. I thought the actors really kept the events highly believable as well. You did a great job cutting the piece as well. Image and sound was blended wonderfully. I commend you for taking on the roles of writer, director, editor, and cinematographer. Just be glad you didn't have to try running sound at the same time (that was a pain in the arse). So for me, except for the fact that I'm just so sick of WWII films at this point (not your fault, obviously), it was a great view!

And don't worry, I'll be back to check it out again. :beer:
 
Geoff_R said:
Thanks for checking it out, Jordan.


Thanks, Nick! Yea, for the woods I wish we could have made the trek all the way up to Northern California. I wanted to get into the Red Wood forest... that would have been cool :)
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Red Woods would have been fantastic! You could have gotten some incredible long shots there.

Man...I haven't been there since I was nine. :(
 
Geoff_R said:
Thanks for the in-depth thoughts, Jon. Appreciate it!
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No problem, Geoff. I hope it didn't come off too "argh, a WWII film, blah, I'm giving it a one star!" (which I didn't do, haha, you got a good rating from me). I really do think that compared to many other films in the fest, this film is, on a number of levels, pretty dang flawless. And you certainly would be in the finals, if not winning a top spot if this was running the contest.

I'm very excited to see more work from you. :beer:
 
Geoff,

Dug the film, especially the cinematography. The editing/pace was very good and kept my interest the whole time. Perhaps like Lawsuit_Boy my first impression, was "not another war film" but you managed to overcome that.

My only constructive criticism would be that the uniforms looked a little too green and too new, at least at the start of the film. Also, a few more extras would have gone a long way in establishing more authenticity and believability.

Overall, good film though. I enjoyed watching it.
 
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