235 Studios Presents: SEMELE

Review: SEMELE

Review: SEMELE

Ok- I just watched your movie.

From a filming perspective, your movie is good... However the film itself falls way short.

1) Everything shot outdoors have come out good. The adaptor has been used very well. The running shots are my favorite. I know they are tough to execute.
2) All the indoor shots looked too plain and flat. The room looks like a motel room. It didn't appear like you used any lights at all. Moreover, the performances just didn't do it for me.

Nothing personal...

Good luck with the screening.
 
Theodore J Arabian said:
(I hope that I didn't blow my rib dinner! :) )
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You'll have to talk to Norm about that- as he is the one that makes the Ribs. :)

But you are STILL more then welcome for the steak dinner at my place. Thanks for your thoughts / review. :)
 
I've got to get going over to a superbowl party, so I'm going to respond to everyones comments in this general post-

First off let me say Thanks you all very much for your detailed reviews and input. I really appreciate the time, and specific comments that you have given me. They will aid me a lot in the production of my next short film.

Secondly, as I look back on this experience I can see that I wore to many hats for this production. I think it would have been stronger had I been able to focus more narrowly on one role. My favorite place to be is behind the camera, which from the reviews I've gotten, seems to be the stregnth of this film. (Which makes sense.) It was guite an experience trying to produce, direct, write, and dp this. If my skills were better in other areas I think I could have come out with a stronger piece. Especially since this was the first time that I had written or directed anything.

Yeah, the story is lacking in that the characters are not developed enough- I should have spent more time with one of them, and explored their emotions more. The suggestion of choosing to develop Erika would be a good idea. Also having someone else write it is a great idea as well- as everyone is pointing out I'm not a very strong writter .... I guess it is time to developes some connections with people who are stronger writters.

I think for my next film I'm going to look for a solid / reliable audio guy, a writter, as well as an editor. Overall I'm ahppy with this experience, and I look forward to producing more / better content. Keep those reviews and comments coming!
 
hi. i saw semele in the first place. still it is one of my favorites.
amazing photography, but i am sur you allready know that.
I have a couple of comments or positive criticism. The bad guy is totally believeable. But what i feel is that either he is blind, or he has very bad shooting skills. He is too close to the main character for not hitting him. I´ve never shoot to kill (yet) but if i am chasing some one like that, i ´ll just stop running and point my gun to his body. But dont listen to me, this is just the little detail.
 
But mac didint yo usee how fast norm is? he had to run after him... other wise the bullets wouldnt catch up.
 
I watched this last night, the first time and was ready to respond when I kept seeing complaints about the ADR. I just watched it a couple more times and while it might be a bit of a problem in the last scene, overall, I had no problem with it. Seeing that Jarred just announced the next fest would be SpyFest, you missed it by a couple of months...I see a sequel coming...:)

I enjoyed this one even if I got a momentary Mr. & Mrs. Smith vibe from it. Fortunately, it didn't go there...for any number of reasons not the least of which, Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a piece of cow dung. I thought your outdoor shots were gorgeous with the exception of a moment of soft focus that just felt like a mistake rather than a cinematic choice. Originally, I had a lot of problems with the indoor shots until I went back and watched it and realized that those were flashback. The set direction, however, was a bit uninspired. Uninspired or not they fit somewhat with the moody atmosphere you created.

I enjoyed this one much more on the second viewing than I did the first. Good job, and I'm looking forward to seeing your growth in the next fest... I'm still calling for a sequel for SpyFest...:beer:
 
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I think Semele is going to be a casualty of the new voting system. If we could give different votes for cinematography, story, fx, etc. then you could score very high on cinematography, editing, fx and score. But with the problems it has I can't imagine anyone saying this is the single best entry in the entire fest (there are some incredible entries) so the score could be unreasonably low.
 
acting

acting

Well, kudos to you for producing such a nice looking piece for so little.

I won't spend a lot of time repeating what will be redundant to you, other than to say I agree that the camerawork is fantastic and that the ADR doesn't work.

But it is why it doesn't work that I feel differently. Less distracting than the unusual clean and misplaced tone to the dialogue, is the delivery of the lines. It sounds like actors doing ADR. To make this stuff work, the actors need to put themselves back in the emotional mode of the scene, and play it like they were speaking to the other person in the scene, not to a microphone 12 inches away, which is what the performances sounded like (with the exception of Reid Phillips). Now of course you need to cast experienced and talented actors to pull this off, and that is maybe the area that I would reccomend you spend the most efforts on next time - casting. I know you held auditions, and I'm not sure what city you're in so availability of actors may be low, but I feel that casting is everything. A good cast can make up for bad sound/picture, anything, but not so much the other way around.
 
Blaine said:
Seeing that Jarred just announced the next fest would be SpyFest
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Wait... you're kidding me, right??? If so... OMG I have a script and I'm getting an HVX soon! I am SO IN!
 
Mark Johnson said:
But people, please note how nice the muzzle flashes are.
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I LOVED those muzzle flashes, Mark! Did you use one of those special particle generator programs or just After Effects? I thought they looked great! Especially the closer-up, three-frame one. Maybe you could "donate" some flashes for my next short! I have a LOT of GUNS in my next short. LOTS of guns. I mean LOTS and LOTS of GUNS! I also own the full "GUNS" CD-ROM/CD-DA library of gun sounds, and they sound AWESOME!

Plastic guns:

• M16s w/tactical stocks/removable magazines/laser sights/flashlights [x7]
• Beretta 9mm [x1]
• Sig Sauer 9mm [x3]
• Plus, lotsa tactical holsters and stuff . . .

Real guns:

• Mossberg 500 shotgun w/ATI tactical stock/side saddle [x1]

Hmmm . . . gotta buy more guns. Maybe some of those "blowback" replicas.

Sorry, back to "SEMELE." Looked great. Loved the Steadicam work. How the hell did you pull focus on the Steadicam stuff without a wireless FIZ? Do you own a wireless FIZ? My biggest complaint was your gun soundFX could have been more "real."
 
Rezfactor said:
Sorry, back to "SEMELE." Looked great. Loved the Steadicam work. How the hell did you pull focus on the Steadicam stuff without a wireless FIZ? Do you own a wireless FIZ? My biggest complaint was your gun soundFX could have been more "real."
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For the running stuff, we just locked on a focus point, Patrick ran, and we hoped everything stayed in focus. For all the other stuff, I literally had a had on the lens as the camera moved. Just tried not to influence the motion of the camera and keep my hands out of the shot. A challenge to say the least, and definitely led to a couple of extra takes.
 
Good concept, and I loved the cinematography. The only thing that was very distracting for me was the audio. It clearly sounds like the dialogue was recorded in post. There was no variation in volume of the voices, everyone sounded like they were right next to the camera.
Story question: If the main character worked as an agent for the CIA, why didn't he shoot back at the bridge? It would seem like an agent wouldn't run as if afraid.
Overall I liked where you were going with this.
 
Wes-C said:
Story question: If the main character worked as an agent for the CIA, why didn't he shoot back at the bridge? It would seem like an agent wouldn't run as if afraid.
Overall I liked where you were going with this.
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Originally I had a gun fight between the two, but I cut it because it pushed it clearly into the action realm, and because i was worried about screen time. After filming this I can see that I had more then enough screen time to include it, but I think that I should have developed the characters more if Iwas going to add anything to the film.

In the current version the reason why he does shoot back is because he is out for his morning run, and he does not have a gun on him.
 
fixitinpost said:
For the running stuff, we just locked on a focus point, Patrick ran, and we hoped everything stayed in focus. For all the other stuff, I literally had a had on the lens as the camera moved. Just tried not to influence the motion of the camera and keep my hands out of the shot. A challenge to say the least, and definitely led to a couple of extra takes.
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Yeah, I'm impressed with what Jerry was able to do given the limits of the gear that we had. Even though it took a couple extra takes he was able to do a good job - some of the moves were tough.
 
Thanks for your repsonse, Ryan. And I don't know why I can't remember that you do Steaks and Norm does Ribs! I won't forget again!

And while I am here, I just want to say again how pro your film looks. Your cinematgraphy is great! And your set came out wonderful! I enjoyed trying to imagine that as your garage!!! Finally, your "break-up" pattern that you created for the lighting looks fantastic! I am going to have to employ that technic! (I use it in my lighting design for stage all the time. I am anxious to explore the use of it in film.)
 
235 Studios said:
Originally I had a gun fight between the two, but I cut it because it pushed it clearly into the action realm, and because i was worried about screen time. After filming this I can see that I had more then enough screen time to include it, but I think that I should have developed the characters more if Iwas going to add anything to the film.

In the current version the reason why he does shoot back is because he is out for his morning run, and he does not have a gun on him.
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I understand. For future reference though, agents always carry a gun even on a jog. Even regular sheriffs are encouraged, if not told, to always carry their gun...trust me. I think if he didn't see where the bad guy was shooting from, then it would have been more plausable, for me. Like if the bad guy is shooting from a distance, and we see dust from shots on the ground around the agent...you already showed that your good at vfx with the flashes, I'm pretty sure you can do dust too. Then the agent can pull out his gun, and look around but not see the bad guy. Just a suggestion.

Did you use an adapter on the camera?
 
Wes-C said:
I understand. For future reference though, agents always carry a gun even on a jog. Even regular sheriffs are encouraged, if not told, to always carry their gun...trust me. I think if he didn't see where the bad guy was shooting from, then it would have been more plausable, for me. Like if the bad guy is shooting from a distance, and we see dust from shots on the ground around the agent...you already showed that your good at vfx with the flashes, I'm pretty sure you can do dust too. Then the agent can pull out his gun, and look around but not see the bad guy. Just a suggestion.

Did you use an adapter on the camera?
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Thanks for the tip, good to know for future projects.

As for the adapter, yep the M2 was used.
 
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