Arabella

Chris_Keaton said:
That is one damn creepy doll. Didn't she figure out that locking her in a room doesn't work. Maybe this was time for her to play with fire. And when that damned thing is singing was she the only one who could hear it. The acting by the girl was awesome. I wish it was a bit more scary and maybe if the doll moved on its own in just subtle movements it would've provided that extra fright. Okay, in my mind grandma possessed the doll so she could possess the girl and live on. Or she was just a mean old woman passing on a creepy doll to the kid. This was a very professional short and super sharp. If you ever need a script let me know. :) Great job!
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That's actually the same backstory I had thought of about the Grandmother possessing the doll in order to live through the girl. But for a short it just complicated it too much, so I left it out.

Thanks for the feedback Chris.
 
Matthew B said:
That's actually the same backstory I had thought of about the Grandmother possessing the doll in order to live through the girl. But for a short it just complicated it too much, so I left it out.

Thanks for the feedback Chris.
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Yeah, I tried that in a short before and its hard to pull off under 10 minutes.
 
Arabella got crazy eyes!
Really like the score - somewhat Goblin or Carpenter-esque. Classic!
Nice shots of the tea party - works well with the score.
Nice push in on the girl when she comes back to the tea party.
Nice montage of shots of the other dolls.
Nicely lit night / bedroom scene - maybe cool it off a little?
I like the lighting in the kitchen. Thie CU on the daughter is nice and the OTS on the mom with the light on the cabinets is particularly nice. Maybe bring down the master at the end to match the CU and Medium OTS on the mom?
At 4:00 - Arabella on the stairs - the little girl’s costume now matches the doll’s somewhat - you started her out in blue and now they’re both in pink with similarly shaped dress - interesting…
Really like the push in on the door at 4:40. Again, nice lighting in the bedroom scene - maybe cool off that big light coming through the window though and bring the master down a bit.


SPOILERS
I really liked the ending. Didn’t see it coming. I guess what the little girl knew as grandma was really the entity Arabella and grandma’s soul was trapped in the doll. When Grrandma’s body died, I guess Arabella went back into the doll which “Grandma” had bequeathed to Jessica. Now Jessica’s trapped in the doll and the entity will live in Jessica’s body until she dies. Cool.

So - when I saw how they looked similar in the stair scene I was wondering where that might go - didn’t expect vessel swapping (body for doll) but was thinking Jessica was going to be somehow assimilated or brainwashed or manipulated by the doll. Maybe it would have been cool to change the order of Jessica’s last two outfits - have her in the cream dress in the stair scene and the pink dress at the end to underscore Arabella becoming her or vice versa depending on how you look at it.

Nice work - one of the best!

EDIT: Haven't read the whole thread but saw a few comments on back story. Here's my train of thought during viewing. The implied backstory came together pretty quickly for me Took 2 seconds during viewing - "OH... she has the blue demon eyes Arabella's possessed her. Wait - the Doll has human eyes, Arabella's possess her body and trapper her in the doll, cool. Wait - why would grandma leave her a possessed doll. Ohhhhhhhhhhh..... Arabella must have been in grandma and left the doll to her granddaughter so she could swap for a younger / living body via a brief trip back in the doll. Even cooler." That's all the steps it took me. Why grandma would leave her a possessed doll stopped me for about 1 second, then what seemed like the logical answer / back story (for me) came immediately,

 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Arabella got crazy eyes!
Really like the score - somewhat Goblin or Carpenter-esque. Classic!
Nice shots of the tea party - works well with the score.
Nice push in on the girl when she comes back to the tea party.
Nice montage of shots of the other dolls.
Nicely lit night / bedroom scene - maybe cool it off a little?
I like the lighting in the kitchen. Thie CU on the daughter is nice and the OTS on the mom with the light on the cabinets is particularly nice. Maybe bring down the master at the end to match the CU and Medium OTS on the mom?
At 4:00 - Arabella on the stairs - the little girl’s costume now matches the doll’s somewhat - you started her out in blue and now they’re both in pink with similarly shaped dress - interesting…
Really like the push in on the door at 4:40. Again, nice lighting in the bedroom scene - maybe cool off that big light coming through the window though and bring the master down a bit.


SPOILERS
I really liked the ending. Didn’t see it coming. I guess what the little girl knew as grandma was really the entity Arabella and grandma’s soul was trapped in the doll. When Grrandma’s body died, I guess Arabella went back into the doll which “Grandma” had bequeathed to Jessica. Now Jessica’s trapped in the doll and the entity will live in Jessica’s body until she dies. Cool.

So - when I saw how they looked similar in the stair scene I was wondering where that might go - didn’t expect vessel swapping (body for doll) but was thinking Jessica was going to be somehow assimilated or brainwashed or manipulated by the doll. Maybe it would have been cool to change the order of Jessica’s last two outfits - have her in the cream dress in the stair scene and the pink dress at the end to underscore Arabella becoming her or vice versa depending on how you look at it.

Nice work - one of the best!

EDIT: Haven't read the whole thread but saw a few comments on back story. Here's my train of thought during viewing. The implied backstory came together pretty quickly for me Took 2 seconds during viewing - "OH... she has the blue demon eyes Arabella's possessed her. Wait - the Doll has human eyes, Arabella's possess her body and trapper her in the doll, cool. Wait - why would grandma leave her a possessed doll. Ohhhhhhhhhhh..... Arabella must have been in grandma and left the doll to her granddaughter so she could swap for a younger / living body via a brief trip back in the doll. Even cooler." That's all the steps it took me. Why grandma would leave her a possessed doll stopped me for about 1 second, then what seemed like the logical answer / back story (for me) came immediately,
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Thanks for the comments Jack. I'm glad you got that from the short. Sometimes I get worried that I'm being too subtle.

Thanks for the suggestions too.
 
Very pro film, Matt. As others have said, the little girl's acting was excellent. I like what you did with the lighting. Especially the shadows on the bed when the little girl was trying to sleep. I think everything all around was really good, including the cinematography. I didn't have any issues with the story. It made sense to me. It was, to me a simple story that was told very well. Nice job!
 
Matt this was a solid short film, nice act 1, act 2 and act 3. And you did it in nearly the classic dvx 6 minute time frame. Extra kudos for that, because your short flew by, and there was no fat to trim.
The lead was an excellent little actress, good for her! Score, cinematograpjy, post, CC, it was all (mostly) seamless. Congrats! You are always a consistent director and you didn't disappoint.
The simplicity of your story was spot on and effective.

ps I wrote "(mostly) seamless" only because the girl's whistle-sing-hum was a bit loud in the mix and her face isn't moving and it just looks and sounds very ADR whereas if you lowered the volume a few DB it would have been more subtle and less jarring for me. just a nitpick though, and nothing that detracted from the story.
 
Marlon Ladd said:
Very pro film, Matt. As others have said, the little girl's acting was excellent. I like what you did with the lighting. Especially the shadows on the bed when the little girl was trying to sleep. I think everything all around was really good, including the cinematography. I didn't have any issues with the story. It made sense to me. It was, to me a simple story that was told very well. Nice job!
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Thanks Marlon, really appreciate it.
 
Matt Harris said:
Matt this was a solid short film, nice act 1, act 2 and act 3. And you did it in nearly the classic dvx 6 minute time frame. Extra kudos for that, because your short flew by, and there was no fat to trim.
The lead was an excellent little actress, good for her! Score, cinematograpjy, post, CC, it was all (mostly) seamless. Congrats! You are always a consistent director and you didn't disappoint.
The simplicity of your story was spot on and effective.

ps I wrote "(mostly) seamless" only because the girl's whistle-sing-hum was a bit loud in the mix and her face isn't moving and it just looks and sounds very ADR whereas if you lowered the volume a few DB it would have been more subtle and less jarring for me. just a nitpick though, and nothing that detracted from the story.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback Matt. I'm all for nitpicks, that's how I grow...the devil is in the detail :)
 
Congrats on the fest results!

I made a quick VFX reel for Arabella you can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/80051177


Note: the soundtrack is all my fault, I didn't have any sound elements from the film and kind of wanted to see what Premiere CC was like for workflow with Acid (the soundtrack is some loops). Can't say I'm happy about what I made (it's lame) nor how poorly it fit into Premiere.
 
ARABELLA

Arabella was simple – straight forward – creepy entertainment. Very reminiscent of the campy entries (that comprised of many entries in my favourite dvxfests, (Twilightfest!)

It's cute and a little over the top (which is often necessary in such a short film!) We have evil singing dolls – glowing eyes etc – the works!

With films like this feedback more drifts towards (the somewhat tedious technical direction.)

So I'll race through... yada yada...

Cinematogrpahy – attractive and retro – invoking 80s horror imo. Loved the lighting on the bedroom – well done there. Simple effective low keySound? Watch you're levels and sfx bro – especially with the singing doll. Too boomy. Don't forget sound is more important than the visuals!

The girl was good but she was perhaps a little too old, perhaps not dressed in the manner that immediately invokes little girl (shorty shorts made her look older than a child that might play with dolls like this imo.)

Acting was a bit stiff for the parents – sure they did okay you know? But in terms of the CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE a bit of gloss to that might have added to the sense of authenticity to the story. The way it is right now, it lends the film towards a more meta/externalised perspective as if... we know the filmmaker is in on this campy slightly humoured tale which works too of course.

A more sober/ natural acting style, along with a more sophisticated sound design, along with the same cinematography would have yielded a surprisingly effective film for the simplicity of it's premise! As it stands I enjoyed it! It got the fundamentals right, albeit in a slightly rough package!
 
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