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delaro said:
nobody speaks about tarkovski , passolini, chris marker, lars von trier, wong kar wai .....
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That's pretty much a gross generalization and a decidely euro-centric view compared to our alleged american indie/Hollywood centric bias--which I partly agree with. Either way, it's pretty ludicrous (not to mention elitist) to discount legitamate critiques based on one's exposure to a certain cinematic movement or style. Dig a little deeper in the Documentary section and the Film Discussion thread and you will find discussions about the Dogme 95 aesthetic, 2046, and Sans Soleil. You might even find 'Salo' mentioned if you want your passolini fix.

Just make sure your science is tighter next time before you drop it on us ignorant DVXusers....
 
Z B Brox said:
But a movie with less startlingly great production that has a story that affects me more will be just as good or better.
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Absolutely, that is why The Island looks great but it is just that, a nice looking 2 hours film to enjoy.

But i thought we were here making sci fi shortfilms not holocaust epic drama movies that inevitably will usually go deeper in our memories. Still i would say, is it possible to create a good drama in 6 minutes? I think it is not. And again you/we are talking about films and not shortfilms, which is not the same.

Now just a question with no offense at all for the other competitors.
I would like to know what are the deep stories and shortfilms that get your mind here. Not to make a comparisson but to learn what you mean by that.

Thanks
 
macgregor said:
The fact that our project looks more pro seems to strike back on us now.
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There seems to be this strange ivory tower mentality going on now. No one is striking back at you. Yes, the film is a stunning visual accomplishment and pro on every level (everyone can agree upon that) but that doesn't make you immune (or above) from legit constructive criticism.
 
delaro said:
you like roberto rodriguez?? so i apologize .......
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more of a brett ratner fan...nay fanatic, myself. I think your missing the point of my post delaro but I'm pretty naive to expect an actual productive discussion on an internet message board.
 
hey I like wong kar wai.

Ok this is getting out of hand. You keep fighitng and you show colors that you shouldn't. Its a good film Short or long can't you understand that. comparisons towards other film is ok but can you just stop this useless fighitng? There has been alot going on with this film alone which is questionable and to fight about but its quite enough. I mean how does this look? its like US vs EURO, or EVERYONE vs EURO.

After hearing complant after complant and defense and even an actress who sad people didnt like her it getting more irritating. I Think this is out of hand and people keep opening wounds and trying to make a fight of this. this better cease before things are said and go overboard and john Hudson get back. (hudson is like the hulk you dont want to see hulk mad.)

Quit being childs and grow upand take critcal adivice and opinions, or leave them and move on.
 
Shaun Patrick said:
There seems to be this strange ivory tower mentality going on now. No one is striking back at you. Yes, the film is a stunning visual accomplishment and pro on every level (everyone can agree upon that) but that doesn't make you immune (or above) from legit constructive criticism.
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Yep, yep. I'm not sure why mcgregor feels the need to (in his own words) DEFEND the movie. Like I said, you either learn to accept criticism or you don't show your work to anyone. There are no perfect movies (though, some come very close) and even if yours is great there will be flaws in it and there will be people pointing 'em out and the best you can do is say "Yeah, man, I know. We'll pay attention better next time, we will work on this or that aspect more carefully. Thanks.". All this "Hey, this is a ****ing short film, alright? And the best one at that" mentality is not doing your film any good. Once again, art is subjective, you can't go pushing people to like something...
 
I feel we were just talking here. The forum is "Individual Film Discussions".

Besides, i dont have to accept absolutely all critics here. Why should i? Why should i say "yes you are right" to anyone that says something about your project?
What we all have to do is respect the people but not the opinions.
For example, i should respect Hitler as a person, but i can definately not respect his ideas.

In this case, the fact that you make good or bad critics dont give you the right of having the truth, so we dont have to accept absolutely any criticism. What we can do is discuss it. And that is what we were doing.

You though the plot was simple and you made your comment. Let me explain myself then why i dont find it simple.
 
Here is some cheese and crakers to go with your wine. :cheesy:

Seriously tho Macgregor, I don't think you have to defend anything. Your work speaks for itself as it should. Do you have to agree with everyones opinion? No, of course not. But I would not complain about being compared to feature films. We all know that this is a 6 min. competition, so the mere fact that you are being compared to feature films says a lot. If anything be glad that the comparison is even hapening.

My biggest complaint with this short is that the story does not take a new twist on an old idea. It does not add anything to the topic, or make me think about it in a new way. But then again I think that is true of all of the other films I have watched so far (30+) including mine. With the last DVX Fest, what i think set Texas Forune apart for me was that besides the great cinematoraphy, it was a new twist on the same story which made it unique and stand out from the rest that much more. Everyone else seemed to follow the same MO.

With this SiFi Fest I think we all did the same thing- just rehashed familiar themes without adding to them, or changing them.

Anyway, I do like how you left a lot of unanswered questions- I always appreciate a film that makes you think- as someone else already said, the American Films tend to spoon feed the viewer to much. Keep it up.

BTW- Do you have a longer version fo the short? If so, will you be posting it at any time? The stills form the extra footage that was left out has me intrigued... would love to see an extended cut if you have it.

:beer:
 
Okay..Great Film
To get away from all the comparisions, and defend posts...
have a question about the production....
im shooting a short soon, and there are a bunch of shots in a truck....Dialouge...wondering how you went about shooting your car scenes, i know they were filmed in the garage with a projector, if i could do that and get the same Results, that would be awesome, I thought it was shot on the road no questions....

thnaks
 
I'd really prefer not to start trying to compare the flicks here, but I will say that in six minutes you can create a character I care about, put them in a situation that interests me, and leave me thinking about the ideas you put forth. I've seen that done in the space of a television commercial. I'm not particularly good at it, myself: I'm a wannabe novelist, and I find it excruciating to try and write in short stories just to get published. But I've seen collections of stories that were all 500 words or less (And how many words is a picture worth, again?) and some of those accomplished this. Six minutes isn't a lot of time for a plot, but it's plenty of time to develop a character and an idea.

And, to be fair, I wasn't comparing your movie to the hollywood flicks I mentioned, I was really comparing them to each other. And I certainly don't think your movie was as flawed as The Island, for that matter, either. ;) I wouldn't even call the film flawed, because what it does it does fantastically well. Not every film *has* to do what I'm asking for, there's a lot of different ways that a film can be strong. I'm just saying that craftsmanship isn't the only way a film can be great, and having the greatets craftsmanship is not always going to make the greatets film.
 
This is a great film. There's nothing to "defend". It's leaps and bounds above anything else. Period.

My only critique is that I think the story can be told without the voice-over (with a bit of editing). It would be much more moving -- especially with the existing music.
 
Macgregor. I would just be thrilled that your film has spurred this much.... debate... controversy is a good thing.
 
delaro said:
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, ......?
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Right! That´s what I´m talkin about! I didn´t say it´s impossible. It´s a matter of having the resources. He´ll never do the next Blade Runner, or Alien, or any other big sci-fi masterpiece with a dvx100, a g35, zacharias and the beautiful and talented Magda.

I was talkin´ about from what perspective we should see macgregor´s film. He made an indie almost-no-crew film visually comparable to a Hollywood sci-fi movie shot on 35mm! That´s the point! Go to your videostores and look for some films shot with DVX100: Nine Songs, Lonesome Jim, November... SIMILO has a better cinematography IMO. How much those films costed? 1-2 million dollars ONLY for production? And they had ASC DPs and DI.
 
gumonstro said:
He´ll never do the next Blade Runner, or Alien, or any other big sci-fi masterpiece with a dvx100, a g35, zacharias and the beautiful and talented Magda.
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Hey, I´m not saying Magda shouldn´t be your actress and zacharias your writer. I meant ONLY 3 people makes things harder.
 
Wow... we're still debating this? Look... Similo is a wonderfully, wonderfully shot film! And, I think it should win the technical award of best lighting! That having been said, art is subjective, and the story wasn't my cup of tea, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Go look at the thread for my film. I just got ripped by someone who pretty much hated the movie. That's their right to have an opinion. And, I can only respond with sticking by my creative decisions, and moving on. I don't need to try and convince the other person that I am right, and he's wrong for not liking my movie. It'll never happen. Just some food for thought :)
 
pmark23 said:
My only critique is that I think the story can be told without the voice-over (with a bit of editing). It would be much more moving -- especially with the existing music.
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i totally agree on that point. 90% of the shorts you can see everywhere have a voice-over now. i understand that even in a short with non professional actors it permits to look and sound more professional to have the voice-over trick. and technically easier. record a whispering and monotonal voice and it's ok. but i think that without the voice over and some clever editing it would be stronger, more mysterious. look at 'gerry" from gus van sant, just steps sounds, or the scene of the capsule in "2001", nothing else than the sound of the breathe, no stupid john williams music to be sure that you understand well what it is about.
 
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