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Envision... I was still composing/editing my post when you replied... I think it can be either. If I put a new motherboard in my computer I might call it "new" but it's fixed and not the same.

ZB, I don't see it as a weakness, because I see this as an emotional piece first, with a sci-fi backdrop. The whole point for me is to feel for her, and I did at the end of this film. It honestly didn't leave me asking questions at all... I just felt bad for her... she thought she found "the perfect love" in Similo, but even that wasn't perfect.
 
MattC said:
Here you raise some really good points. I agree with all of them, and for me it's part of why I like the film. It's also part of what I meant when I said this was a European film. Most films in the US spoon feed us everything. They take us by the hand as if we were children and lead us through the story. Many European films take a different tack. I like films with ambiguity. Life is ambiguous after all. I feel it makes me a part of the experience because I haven't been told what to think, my thoughts, my interpretations become part of the art itself. So the art will be a little different for everyone, like reading a poem. It is that very relationship between artist and viewer that, for me, is rewarding.
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Here here!
 
If this much discussion has to go into finding the meaning of this story, maybe we're overanalyzing. Just my opinion. Some stories have layers, and depths of plot, but this is a discussion trying to find a plot, and story.
 
It was just his lower extremities that were smashed to pieces and strewn across the road for the next car to catch in their tread tracks ... so unless his brain/CPU was housed below the belt (yeah, I know, something guys are accused of all time time anyway), I don't see how repairing him would change him.

He was broken. She traded him in because with as many miles as she'd already put on that bot, it was cheaper to just buy a new one that to fix the existing one. Hence, he is new.
 
Brandon, like I said before, I'm just helping pad the posts. I'm all about the underdog, and this thread's not gotten nearly enough attention.
 
The lower extremeites were visibly broken, but if I get my legs ripped off in a car accident, I'm not gonna assume my brain is okay too, y'know?

But, you could be right, just what I read into it.
 
Envision said:
Brandon, like I said before, I'm just helping pad the posts. I'm all about the underdog, and this thread's not gotten nearly enough attention.
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Ah... how I love the sarcasm! ;)
 
OH! I know, I know... it's just this girl who fixes her broken robot lover, that's it... nothing more... nothing less... it is no deeper than that.
 
LOL Envision... "with all the many miles she'd already put on that bot"... too funny!

Well, if you really want to get into it... yes, the bottom of him was smashed, but he was still possibly awake (hard to tell)... the hand holding thing... but if he is such an advanced robot to be THAT lifelike, it may be safe to assume that life functions are simulated as in humans... which means if you rip off the bottom half, he's going to die... or NOT... he's a robot, so could be fixed, but might have to be to the point it's like a whole new model. Could go either way. (though I tend to agree he's been replaced with a new model).

Briceman... I'm not at all trying to find the plot. Like I said, I had no questions at the end. The significance of the robot himself wasn't as important as how she felt about him... and that was very clear to me. How she felt overall was pretty clear.

Then again, I'm a woman :p :p :p
 
Hello. I will just talk a couple of lines. You have the oportunity to discuss the film here and i have the right to give my opinion, haven´t i?

I will say i hope this shortfilm is now on the top list and the one with most posts not only because it used a 35mm adapter. I hope it has its place because it is a well acomplished project in all categories. And i could understand you don´t like the story. But it is strange that it is the more discussed film here and now eveyone seems not to like it...

Someone said that since it is in the top list, now it is suffering from more criticism than any other. It is a pity.

Some people are over analizing this piece i think. They say the monologue is simple, or actors are plain, or the cinematography is nothing but a Nike commercial.

I wont say our project is the best at all. And i will certainly admit those critics IF this were a Cannes festival and we were running against Schindler List, the Godfather and the last Eastwood´s film. But that is not the case.

So have in mind please (and i dont want to offend the other participants here) the competence, and think that from all the other shortfilms it is hard to find any competence. (I find only ONE other piece equal in quality and moving story). What i mean with this is not an excuse but just to put things in order. I find Simillo not the best shortfilm ever but certainly it is in the top list in this contest.

Some people said that the images were above the story and since they are top class they make the story smaller. What are you recommending me? To shoot in Woody Allen´s style?

I feel my shortfilm is not being compared with the other shortfilms but now it is being compared with 2 hour hollywood movies, which of course, cannot compete.

Some people complain about the score. Would you have prefer to use the typical sad midi piano that almost everyone is using?

Some people complain about the actors do not talk. I say, better to be quiet than start speaking and break all the acting. Lets be serious, we dont have Robert De Niro nor Natalie Portman in our shortfilms. So do not rate it down just because they almost do not speak to camera. I find that argumen totally stupid. And look again to 99% of other shortfilms.

This is my turn to defend my film and i am using the right to do it. Please do not take it personal.
 
Hi Magregor,

May I say the following:

Your film is the best.

Thats it. Head and shoulders above the rest.

Beautifully shot, superbly acted, a compelling storyline with a nice reveal which has not only a physical crisis but an existential one too. (certainly all my favourite films have this). I like your storyline (I myself have a script which deals with similar sci fi material) and pace.

Your actors are wonderful (she is a real find - very expressive eyes - use her again - she has a lovely quality) and I love his smile at the end in the car which is perhaps a glimmer of recognition and heartfelt (what she wants) or perhaps sophisticated programming (what she fears). It sums up her dilemma perfectly.

Personally I found it the only truly professionally finished film that I have seen here and it wouldn't look out of place beside any top level feature films. Dont worry at the "solaris" comparisons here, everything comes from somewhere and if you're going to get influenced, get influenced by the best. As Oscar Wilde said "Good artists borrow, Great artists steal".

Personally I find a lot of the criticism levelled at the film here a bit mean spirited.


Stunning, Macgregor. You have a fan. Well done.

James
 
I liked the acting just the way it is. It works fine for the mood of the film and is so cool...

About being the best film, let´s not talk about this. The problem is: this film is surely the one in the contest that LOOKS more like serious pro films, something that sooner or later would make people begin to compare it with those films. I don´t think SIMILO is better than Code 46 and I´m not so sure macgregor can, one day, make a film better than Blade Runner, but we´re talking about dvxuser films, and you guys know what it means! From this perspective, macgregor did something we all should respect: a film that CAN be compared to a Hollywood-budget film in visual terms. Whoelse did it before? And the best thing about all that is that he showed us anyone can do the same thing. He never said: 'give up, guys. to do something like this you must have the MACGREGOR MOJO". No, he showed the way is to have a METHOD: be careful about EVERYTHING, plan ALL your shots, rewrite your script a ton of times, think about every single detail and you´ll surely do a better film. Better that SIMILO? Who knows... maybe... it´s time to try.
 
your short is very good macgregor.
since i'm on dvxusers, the only cinematographers references i read on this forum are roberto rodriguez, quentin tarantino and steven spielberg. nobody speaks about tarkovski , passolini, chris marker, lars von trier, wong kar wai ..... i would love to be hated here :)
maybe there wasn't enough guns in your short for some people.
 
Better than Code 46? Thats a bit of a tall order for a short film dont you think?

and I happen to disagree on the Blade Runner statement. Blade runner was critically mauled on its release as being all about the visuals - it took a decade before blade runner was hailed as a masterpiece and by comparison with some films today looks deep and layered with meaning even though it is a pretty simple racist allegory which borrows some of its tropes from chandler and westerns and is all served up with some lush visuals.

I do happen to think that Macgregor may well go on to make films that are better than blade runner. (personally I find solaris the equal of blade runner - just because BR is a gold standard doesn't make it unsurpassable - films need time, sometimes years, to gestate to see whether or not they achive that accolade.)

Macgregors film presented me with a vision of the future which I felt was credible in a film context and I felt was one of the few that actually presented some subtext. I found it more sophisticated than the rest and I'm not talking about pure visuals - although its visual strengths tell me that I am watching a filmmaker in control.

Much like Blade Runner. Which also for all the Voice over critics out there used voice over to get its plot over.

Just my two yen.
 
gumonstro said:
I don´t think SIMILO is better than Code 46 and I´m not so sure macgregor can, one day, make a film better than Blade Runner
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nobody knows ..... "blade runner" was not just made by ridley scott alone. the story is from philip k. dick, actors were professionals, teams for special effects.......
macgregor was almost alone to do everything!! could ridley scott make something like that, being alone, writing the story, directing the actors, holding the cam, doing the lightings, editing, ......?
give 20 millions dollars to mac gregor and maybe he will make something bigger than "blade runner", maybe not. who knows?
 
Hey hey hey. Hold on guys. This is a F------g low budget shortfilm.

Do not compare it/me with such wonderfulls films as Code 46, Blade runner or Solaris (which happen to be my favorites movies along with THX1138). Of course i am influenced from them. In the same way Lucas took a lot of things from other movies. Still this is not the issue. We have a 6 minutes running films here, and 6 minutes dont let to make a deep film such as Solaris. Besides i am not as good as Soderberg who also is the cinematographer, writer and editor of Solaris (wow) or any of those directors.

The fact that our project looks more pro seems to strike back on us now.

Again, compare it with the other shortfilms, please.
 
I have to disagree with the idea that because this film excels in the craft of painting with light and sound that automatically qualifies it as the best movie.

Let me say, I'd rate this movie *very* highly. I absolutely loved watching it. But, as far as I'm concerned, looking the most professional and having the least mistakes isn't everything. I think "Clerks" is a better movie than "The Constant Gardner", despite flaws in look, acting, and camera work. The fact is, to me The Constant Gardner felt cold, antiseptic, and predictable. Clerks, on the other hand, presented me with an effective portrait of a character who was weak and afraid and how those flaws translated into udermining every effort to find happiness. It sure wasn't a perfect movie, but it drew me in and made me care what happened next.

And on the topic of movies about the Western world's indifference to Africans, Hotel Rwanda was not the best-shot or most beautiful movie ever. It had some odd cues, transitions, and timing. And it is quite literally the only movie that ever had me bawling unashamedly in the middle of a theatre. I've seen some sad and tragic movies, but the way that movie absorbed me in the specific story of a character, made me dread as his life fell apart, and then made me feel elevated by his extraordinary actions, had an impact on me I probably haven't felt since I was a kid watching "The Land Before Time".

Like I said, I loved this flick, I'd rate it very highly, But a movie with less startlingly great production that has a story that affects me more will be just as good or better.
 
magregor, I would take it as a compliment that your film is mentioned in comparison with these films. Embrace the madness.

For your film is very good.

has anybody seen ridley scotts short film "boy on a bicycle"? Its pretty simple and unremarkable.
 
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