Aaron Marshall - The Guardian

Aaron Marshall

Aaron Marshall

Well-known member
Watch here: http://noct.us/dvxguardian

I've been working hard on a new horror short called, "The Guardian". This has been shot on a:

DVX100a w/ Letus FE + Nikon glass (thanks dvxuser: chrisf)
& Sony PDX10

We have some BTS footage coming up.

guardianposter.jpg


Synopsis:

Down a winding rural gravel road, an evil awaits. An anxious man hurries while driving to his backroad destination. The roar from a narrow sea of endless tiny rocks almost drowns out reports of local murders. Who can survive the unadulterated fury of The Guardian?

guardianposter2.jpg


Stay Tuned...

Current Status:

Edit is locked, score is being completed.
 
Last edited:
Concept art

Concept art

This was concept art that was created for, "The Guardian" by the extremely talented artist Marcus Aurelius Klonek.

guardianconceptart.jpg
 
I'd like to post up some BTS footage, but I'd like to show the film first. That way you know where certain scenes are coming from.

Film completion meter: 99.989%

I've scored it. I'm working on tweaking the mix to work well with all the sound design elements. Then, it's off to mastering.
 
Here is a sneak viewing for DVXusers. This film is going to a few horror fests this summer.

http://noct.us/dvxguardian

note: the current audio mix isn't as compressed as the end product will be. It has a lot of dynamic range. Use your volume knob and give this puppy some juice.

some BTS footage will be coming up in a while.
 
Hey everyone,

This film, "The Guardian" is opening at the Dark Carnival Film Festival in Bloomington, Indiana on Friday August 24th.

I'm going to a private party tomorrow night that's a primer for the main venue. David Lee Roth and Ron Jeremy are going to be there! There will be maybe 20 of us, open bar, maybe some poker. Things are bound to get crazy.

The venue is gorgeous. If anyone is familiar with Nashville, TN and the Ryman, well, the Buskrik Chumley in Bloomington is like the Ryman's little sister.

Wow, that was quick. This project is already on the imdb. I only submitted it like two, maybe 3 weeks ago. http://imdb.com/title/tt1080014/
 
Great job! I really enjoyed it.... I just watched here at work on my computer. I'm in this big office building, and those 6 minutes felt like I was there in the forest, which can be a very peaceful place, but in this case with an evil twist.

Great shots, great scoring, just right! I am not a fan of digital effects usually, because most of the time you can tell it is an effect, in this case the guy getting pulled up in the air by the monster.... but I am not bothered by it, it was too quick.

Great suspense build up, you seem to understand the genre of horror and knw how to film, edit and structure the shots together. Great job man!
 
davidreimers said:
Great job! I really enjoyed it.... I just watched here at work on my computer. I'm in this big office building, and those 6 minutes felt like I was there in the forest, which can be a very peaceful place, but in this case with an evil twist.

Great shots, great scoring, just right! I am not a fan of digital effects usually, because most of the time you can tell it is an effect, in this case the guy getting pulled up in the air by the monster.... but I am not bothered by it, it was too quick.

Great suspense build up, you seem to understand the genre of horror and knw how to film, edit and structure the shots together. Great job man!
Click to expand...

David,

Thank you very much for your feedback. I'm glad you could escape into the woods for just a little while. As for knowing the horror genre -- I dislike about 95% of horror. I know what I like, and what I don't like. I try to focus in on what I would like to see in a film. Thank you for the kind words. It's a real confidence booster.

Updates on how the Dark Carnival Film Festival went:

It was awesome. It was my hometown. It was larger than life. I am still very impressed. I met a lot of cool people and made so many connections. A rep from Ambush entertainment was there (the Squid and the Whale, The Oh in Ohio, Unearthed) and we hit it off famously. He was such a great guy. I met with a lot of horror actors like Raine Brown, and a great director named Marcus Koch who directed "100 Tears".

If anyone is a big horror fan of movies like Halloween, or Friday the 13th you simply MUST see 100 tears. The killing scenes were impressive. The slower parts that bind the movie together were a bit slow and not as well made. However, the killing scenes were intense. If you have a silent killer clown with a 3ft long meat cleaver, how can you go wrong? I will say this, the attack in the halfway house is very very creepy. The killer is relentless. It will be coming out on DVD in Sep. If you're a horror fan, check it out. It's called "100 Tears".

"The Guardian" played and was very well received. The festival director noted how long and loud the applause were. It was the first time I'd shown a film of mine in a large venue. It was nice to get that kind of reaction. I had known some well educated film students who didn't give me the time of day. I'm more of a blue collar filmmaker. It was a surprise to get approached by them with such enthusiasm, and respect after the screening. I am very happy that The Guardian seemed to reach a universal audience.

I didn't win in the short film category, but one of my good friends did. I scored his entry. I was very pleased that he won. I felt his cinematography was far superior to mine. The mise en scene in his film was much better as well. He spent so much time designing the areas he shot. His film was called "Sink Repair". I also think my score for his film sounded better than the score I composed for my own film. It just played better. I think it's because I was so focused on his film in doing a single thing; composing. On my film I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off doing almost everything. I was stuck in a visual mode which powered down my ears.

:)

Ok, the celebrity guests - David Lee Roth and Ron Jeremy did not show. It was theorized by many people involved with the fest that we were lied to (none of the festival directors, but a certain guest). None of us cared, I mean we thought it was cool, no doubt. It would have been cool to hang with Diamond Dave. The big draw for us was the films.

Dark Carnival Film Festival 2008 is already scheduled. This time it will be in September. I've been invited onto the planning committee for next year. It's going to be bigger, and better.

The venue was outstanding. The screen was bigger than what they have at the local cineplex. Whatever projection they were using was very high end. I was expecting an 8ft wide screen, with a Staples DVD projector. This was not the case at all. The screen was easily 25-30ft. wide, somewhere in there. I don't know a lot about projection, but the contrast ratio looked wonderful. I peeped into the projection booth and the projector was massive.

Here are some pictures of this beauty:

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the%20pit.jpg

Marquee%20Old.JPG


You guys should submit your films and come on out next year.

If you have any questions, or comments I'll be more than happy to respond. Thanks for reading. I'll talk to you soon.

-Aaron
 
Hey Aaron,

Just watched this. Nice job! Great sense of ambiance, nice suspense, subtle but very good. Nicely shot, edited, scored, it was a very fun watch.

Chris
 
ChrisHurn said:
Hey Aaron,

Just watched this. Nice job! Great sense of ambiance, nice suspense, subtle but very good. Nicely shot, edited, scored, it was a very fun watch.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, I'm very honored by your praise. You do some great scores.

I have some more pictures from the Dark Carnival Film Fest that I took:

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Brenna Lee Roth (daughter of David Lee Roth)

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Marv Blauvelt, Raine Brown, and Marcus Koch (director of 100 Tears, and very cool guy)
 
congrats aaron. any stuntman awards? climing 15 feet up a tree and then falling out on purpose deserves something right?
 
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