A Short Science Fiction Film - The Dream of the Butterfly

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politplastika

Member
A short film about Programmed Artificial Life ...and ghosts in the shell...

WARNING : NSFW !!! (contains full nudity, both male and female)

 
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Really cool, man. You should probably let people know that it's NSFW, though. ;-)

What you shoot with? HVX and adapter?
 
A whole bunch of Nikon Glass.
We had about 8 different primes, and LOT'S of lighting.
I'd love to submit it but wouldn't know where...
Any suggestions ?
 
I gotta say A+ for visuals, cinematography, etc...

As for story/pacing, you had me a bit lost. Not in terms of confusion, but attention. Though I loved the idea of an abstract world that we follow as he gets programmed. I just felt it was too long/slow and not enough content to engage me. But that's just me.

Good job though.
 
Thank you, I have to say, I do agree with your comment on story/pacing.
It was my first film with an actual crew, and the enormous amount of time we were spending on lighting the shots kind of got in the way of the actual directing. I was used to a crew of 1 to 4 people max, and found it hard to transition to a crew of about 15 (still a small crew i guess, but since i was also the producer, it meant dealing with issues i wasn't familiar with...).
It was definitely an interesting experience, but not an entirely satisfactory one from a director's point of view.
The learning curve was steeper than expected... ;)
So even though i'm very pleased with the aesthetics of the film, i'm disapointed by lack of story/narrative content in the final cut. There was more in the script than what finally made it in the film, but for a variety of reasons had to be cut out. So in the end, the film is way more abstract than originally planned... :)
But at least the film exists, and even though i find it flawed, i'm still happy it's done!

I appreciate your comments, so please keep them coming...

David J.Johnson
 
I agree with several sentiments posted. The visuals were quite stunning, and you achieved a very cinematic look pretty impressive.

But I was at a friends house and we were watching some shorts so i popped this one on cause i hadn't watched it yet. We are both sci-fi fans, but i had to turn it off about half way because he was giving me a weird look like wtf is this?

I will go back and continue it when i have time, but as others have said, the pacing is slow and especially the abstractness of it and exposure makes it a little confusing.

Maybe some edits at the beginning could fix this?
 
Good job for lightning, camera. But I also got a little lost in the story.

People can only pay attention for 2 minutes, afther that they get "bored".
 
I enjoyed the film a lot. I thought the sound design, particularly at the beginning, was stellar - really set the mood. Congratulations.

Regarding the pacing, I liked that you took the time to develop the character. Without dialog, it takes time - and you didn't rush it. I also like the disjointed time jumps - forward, backward or was that all just in his mind? Excellent. Very reminiscent of sequences from Battlestar Galactica.
 
So, so, so good. I didn't have any problems at all with the character development or the story. Bizarre that some people did.

If you ever get the chance, though, to reshoot the ending, it most definately should have been him killing the girl, right? I mean, if this dude was just programmed, the best way to prove his programming would be to have him murder the girl who he used to love. THAT would have capped off the "story" aspect of the piece, for me. It would have made all the silence worthwhile, to have the moment when she's like, "Where have you been?" etc, and he blows her away.

That's totally on the story side, though.

I loved, loved, loved the photography. Great job
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Most people I show it too definitely don't get it, but I'm glad some of you do.
You're right about the story, he should have killed her without even hesitating, it would have gotten the point through in a more efficient way.
The sun was getting up as we were shooting the last shots. We didn't have the time to cover our asses - Lesson learned :)
Thank you for sharing,

David
 
politplastika said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Most people I show it too definitely don't get it, but I'm glad some of you do.
You're right about the story, he should have killed her without even hesitating, it would have gotten the point through in a more efficient way.
The sun was getting up as we were shooting the last shots. We didn't have the time to cover our asses - Lesson learned :)
Thank you for sharing,

David
Click to expand...

But he doesn't kill her at all so far as I can tell. It felt as if he were supposed to be killing her, but then she zapped him with something (or shot him?) instead, which had me thinking that maybe this women was no one to him, just another part of his programming. (e.g. they created a relationship in his mind and then showed investors in a controlled environment that he would kill her even though he "loved" her, which, honestly, isn't as dramatic IMO)

Again, everything worked perfectly except for the ending. I wouldn't look at this strictly as a "know for next time" deal. I think you can still go in and reshoot that end scene with the actors (assuming they're both still alive and willing to take a couple hours out of their day). You just need the notion that this guy has been missing (and has been missed by his girlfriend) and that someone programmed him to kill the one person he never would, as a test, right?

It's a beautiful flick regardless!
 
Chamber005 said:
But he doesn't kill her at all so far as I can tell. It felt as if he were supposed to be killing her, but then she zapped him with something (or shot him?) instead, which had me thinking that maybe this women was no one to him, just another part of his programming. (e.g. they created a relationship in his mind and then showed investors in a controlled environment that he would kill her even though he "loved" her, which, honestly, isn't as dramatic IMO)


It's a beautiful flick regardless!
Click to expand...

You understood perfectly, as that was how it was written. Looking back on the film, i agree that killing her would have worked better, but at the time, we obviously shot according to script (the film was shot 2 years ago, so a reshoot is no longer an option).
What I could do, though, is end the film after he shoots, implying that she's dead, I'd simply have to cut before he get's zapped...huuummm, I may even do that...
I'd also have to add some muzzle flashes to his gunfire.

Thanks for the insight, I might actually do that...

D.
 
first of all, i thought the pacing was fine. if not pretty good. its not your fault people have short attention spans, i got into it. I also really am curious about the effect you achieved in the begining, because i have somthing liek that written into my script, but i have no idea how to shoot it. How did you make it so that he was like complelty sorounded by white and all you could see was him, and he was like fadding in and out of the white? in my movie, the character wakes up in a white room, and is comfronted by another character there. just wondering how you pulled off the effect so well.
 
politplastika said:
You understood perfectly, as that was how it was written. Looking back on the film, i agree that killing her would have worked better, but at the time, we obviously shot according to script (the film was shot 2 years ago, so a reshoot is no longer an option).
What I could do, though, is end the film after he shoots, implying that she's dead, I'd simply have to cut before he get's zapped...huuummm, I may even do that...
I'd also have to add some muzzle flashes to his gunfire.

Thanks for the insight, I might actually do that...

D.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I like the idea. I think anyone and everyone interprets this woman to be his girlfriend/wife. Revealing that she was just part of the experiment and was an implant sort of makes things tough on the viewer.

You'll still be left with the non-reaction the woman has when she sees him, but even if THAT were a scenario (like a hologram test), it would still play better than being left with the notion that the entire relationship was implanted -- a fun idea, but maybe not quite able to function in this format.
 
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