The Odd Squad

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

...There are only a handful or less of the entries that really felt like a film to me and this was one of them. The story was a little weak and "seen it before" for me but it was still compelling to watch. Cinematography and the look of what I'm assuming is your Letus35 really helped sell the idea of an actual film.

yeah the cabbage35
I also had some interesting scene settings that I'll try to post soon, but again sage one, I took from you - most of my settings were to optimize sharpness and reduce noise, so I shot with normal gamma as per your F.A.Q. page (to minimize noise) and then tweaked the S curve as needed in post

EDITED TO ADD: Not sure if sharpenss is an issue with all 35mm adpators (will have to ask MacGregor) but it is with Lettuce, and noise is minimal with lettuce but still "additional".

Acting was very good in my opinion and you used the hurricane aftermath footage tastefully.

I think if you stick with this filmmaking thing, you will really go places. For all the talking you do on the board, you have an equal amount of talent to back it up.

Nice job.

high praise from you sir, and appreciated

 

[spidey]

I forgot I had a easte egg to I didnt realize i wasnt the only one to do this haha cool JDS.

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

cool I'll have to look for it ..

any hints? (but don't say what exactly!)

 

[spidey]

hmm not much i could say, just look for it. three people will be in a scene.

 

[MsManhattan]

I've only gotten to watch a few of the films so far as I've been working on a major deadline, but, Jack, this blew me away. From the very first line... I welled up, then I laughed, then I got tense, then I welled up again. Really, really tight story and just a great job overall on the filming, editing, etc. And the actors were really great, totally believable all the way through, not one false move. The alien dude in the warehouse was hilarious, but not overplayed -- just right for the style of the film. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this. Congrats!

 

[thartley]

I have nothing but good things for this one! I want the VO man to read me to sleep everynight, though! The only jolt I had ws the music transition (or lack of) that has already been mentioned.

Very good movie. Looked good, great story, well done all around!

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

OK catching up -- in holiday inn with hispeed now -- was going through awful withrdawl, lol

Wow - great opening. The blowback from the blast with the girl on the bike was great. Really grabs you from the beginning.

Cool ... no one's asked how that was done -- I guess people assume it was a matte painting, but that wall is actuallty before and after Katrina. I happened to have a clip of my GF riding her bike in front of that wall before Katrina (old company logo) adte the storm the wall was cracked and there was a pile of rubble so I just tried to match the shots as much as possible ... BUT THEN ... the final sunday that this was due -- A work crew just demolished the thing so I talked them into letting me peel back the saftey barrier and shoot it.

the blowback was a composite of a depth charge and clouds.

I had no trouble with the juxtaposition between the "Mike Hammer" film noire feel and the 70's series feel (I was kinda waiting for a blue Huggy Bear to jump out of the shadows). Given my drothers, I would probably have lost the hand-turning-into-an-anvil gag, but that's just me.

There was one music transition that didn't work for me (i.e. there was no transition, just a jump) where you cut from the car to the arrival at the warehouse.

yeah the music tranistion was just a boo boo in the final mix -- supposda be a "swish" there also supposed to be a flash dissolve with the next swish that goes into the warehouse ... woops!

Other than that, this is a great short (one of my favourites) - I have no idea why more people aren't commenting on it, but give it a little more time. They'll find quality.

Thanks for your efforts.

Well we went up a liitle late so people are slowly finding us.

Glad you enjoyed it - and the seriocomic tone shift is a staple of a lot that I do -- it probably doesn't work as well in this film as other things I've done (plays, and "Shed") because the serious moments are rushed to a degree - as Barry_S alludes in his comment about the ersatz pacing.

thanks again man I will get to your thread a soon as possible now that I have hispeed again

 

[conrad_johnson]

Very nice - this has to be the best one I've seen thus far and I'm almost through the list. I agree with all the nice things that have been said so far. In particular, the main character (older guy) and all the odds were great. Really great acting has been hard to come by in this festival, as has great writing - I think your main character and dialogue take the cake in both regards. Great work!

 

[Kaz]

I guess people assume it was a matte painting, but that wall is actuallty before and after Katrina.

I thought that was how you did that, but then I thought, "he's not THAT clever...is he?"

Apparently you are. Great job meshing them!

And Dane Rhodes...Is he still around these parts? I gotta get him into a flick before I move.

 

[EJ Pennypacker]

I thought Dane was excellent. I even punched him into IMDB and was not surprised to see a list of credits.

EJ

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

i just watched it again and liked it even more...now here are a few questions:

1. i loved your CC (especially outdoors) how did you get that look?

I have to post settings soon, but it was basically cranking the chroma to full then cooling it off just a hair in camera to account for the DVX red/magenta shift.

Ideally the sun is behind your actor on an angle and then I used a reflector to get light on the face. it's amazing how much shape and "beauty effect" the bounced light off a $10 piece of foil coated insulation from home depot will give you.

While a lot if this sucker was thrown together - part of any success of the look in the Blue mutant scene is due to the art direction - the mold matches the senior cop's shirt, the orange rust vibrates against the blue mutant's skin, and the blue sky works well with the mutes ties and earth tone colors. I wish I had a better framed shot of the senior detective with the white 70's building in the background with the blue sky and his green shirt ... oh well

2. did you really use the letus35? how does it perform compared to G35 (i know the tech stuff after reading hundreds of threads,while waiting for G35) but all the demos i´ve seen from the letus couldn´t compete with G35, but yours looks way better...

Well I tweaked ny camera settings to compensate for noise and softness (you want the in focus part as soft as possible, but with all that glass in front of the camera theris some softening). I need to check but basically I cranked the sharpness, then used detail coring and normal cinegamma to minimize noise.[/QUOTE]

for some reason i was waiting for closer shots in the car scene (intensity) and that´s the only thing i´d complain about, what do you think?

Well you can't get much closer in 2:35 to 1 aspect -- but I think what you may be reacting to is the fact that the junior detective never opens up to the camera until the "bug up your ass" line (it was the only useable take for various reasons). So you might feel somewhat distanced as we don't see his eyes until quite late in the scene.

again, great job

yj

Thanks -- glad you enjoyed it -- will get some specific settings up soon!

 

[Barry_Green]

Only watched about half the sci-fest pics so far (flying back and battery died on the laptop) but this one was far and away my favorite so far.

 

[Ought2bCommitted]

Hey Jack!
Nice to be seeing your work again!

I read through some of your posts because I was curious how you got the look you got, so I'll try not to repeat myself... but you know you're 30 seconds over??? ;-) bastard!

Anyway, I loved the vibe/feel of your film... You had it from the beginning and didn't lose it. Major kudos on sustaining that feel. I really just loved the 70s feel.

I really enjoyed your opening scene and my first thought was you had earlier footage for the before and after since I assumed it was your hood. GREAT use of that footage. Very effective and really nice use of NOLA footage. Not too much of it, just enough. Good call there.

I liked the acting in your piece a lot. Felt spot on almost all the time (the reveal at the end that the one officer is an Odd felt forced, but that was it).

My only real gripe was the effects during the fight at the warehouse. I felt the rest of your effects and scenes felt polished and that one was a little weak. The smoke effect in particular.

I love you humor and enjoy seeing it make its way into your work.

Sensational job, Jack. A great film to be lucky enough to watch. Thanks!

-Robert

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

Hey Jack!
Nice to be seeing your work again!

I read through some of your posts because I was curious how you got the look you got, so I'll try not to repeat myself... but you know you're 30 seconds over??? ;-) bastard!

lol -- still trying to go back and get through these in order, but wanted people to know you were joking cuz of something I said in another thread.

thanks for your comments and I'm glad you liked it -- will respond to rest of them soon -- thanks again man.

 

[Z B Brox]

Wow. This is amazing work. I'm not enough of a filmmaker (just a wannabe writer, as it says in my profile) to even begin to criticize. The acting was fantastic, the dialogue was wonderfully stylized, the effects and the makeup were all at least as convincing as your average big-budget sci-fi TV show. This is the kind of thing I'd pay to see for two hours. My only issue may be the slight predictability--but given the way you played with existing archetypes that was really a given. Really great stuff.

 

[Daniel Skubal]

Holy shite! I've been hearing about your film all week and I've FINALLY gotten the chance to see it! I LOVED the story!

Your dialogue was superb. The "But then that thing you thought could never happen; but it goes right ahead and happens anyway"... it just sounded so badass!

Your opening shot had me in awe, and the narration was incredible! What kind of mic did you use and who did your voice over?

The blue man was incredible too! Your dialogue was great for that character. I just loved that whole scene. It set the mood for the film and had a lot of subtle exposition.

I'm going to read over this thread about your cinematography, but it looks like you used a 35mm adapter. It looks great, whichever you used, and if you didn't used one, then I will bow down to you for achieving DOF like that without it. haha

The world you created with this film is probably the most believable and creative in the entire fest. Although it's sort of a quirky 70's crime fighting style film, it worked great with the sci-fi genre. It's fresh, and worked well with your story.

The rearview crossfade was a really nice shot. I'm curious how you did that?

I thought overall, your effects were great. That may have been the only thing that was lacking in your film though. There were a few shots where the effects just didn't blend as well as the others. But I do have to admit that even the not so good effects looked good.

Your story, along with great dialogue, acting, effects and cinematography was one of my very favorites in this contest! Great job man! I hope you've got a lot of extra goodies for the dvd for us to watch

Just an incredible job, man. Be proud!

 

[Jack Daniel Stanley]

This one is my favorite so far. We all actually clapped after this one was done.

thanks mam!

"It tickles me sometimes...."

that line was inspired by the first Dirty Harry movie (my principle research for this - even though I diverged from the music - but the mostly day light look, and pallete is what I tried to emmulate)

anyway the line that inspired it was this sequence where harry has just been assigned a new partener who happens to be latino. He and the new partner, Gonzales, go to get another cop, De Georgio, who Harry refers to as Fatso. When we see De Gorgio we know why and Harry says something like "hey fatso, the chief wants to see you" and De Gorgio smiles and informs Harry's new partner that Harry is an equal opportunity hater .. the rest is verbatim:

"De Georgio: Harry hates everybody. Limeys, Niks, Hebs, Fat Dagos, Niggers, Honkies, Chinks, you name it.

Gonzales: How does he feel about Mexicans?

De Georgio: Ask him.

Harry Callahan: Especially Spics."

OK ... I hope that didn't offend anyone, but that's what Harry says and he's just trying to push his new partner's buttons, whom he sees as young and inexperienced and a burden. He looks his new partner right in the eye and gives pretty much the same delivery as Dane for the "it tickles me sometimes" line in that squinty I'm as tough as nails eastwood delivery ... anyway its pretty funny and I asked Dane for that basically. Neither Dane nor clint Eastwoods characters are 100% serious and you see (hopefully) that they have a sense of humor AND are tough enough to eat nails for breakfast.

 

[Larry Rutledge]

Quick Disclaimer: I am avoiding reading other comments before rating each of the films, so I may repeat comments others have said to death.

I enjoyed this one, clever and funny... "It tickles me sometimes" That line made me laugh out loud (really laugh out loud, not virtual LOL).

The colors and shooting style fit the piece well, felt like a gritty, 70s crime comedy. I liked that you mixed in some serious moments as well. The FX were really good, the one creature's hand turning into the smashing whatever-it-was looked very smooth.

The acting was pretty good too, although it seemed like there was ADR done or something because it seemed like the voice was not always in sync with the actor.

Great job.

Larry

 

[g0ldenb0y55]

Great job! Enjoyed it very much. I was totally glued to my screen the whole time. Great look, great dialogue, and cool effects! It's at the top of my list.

 

[Daniel Skubal]

Man I can't stop watching this one. I love it!

I need to know what kind of mic you had for your voice over. Whatever it is, I am buying it. lol