'AT LAST' - a Michael Anthony Horrigan Short

Hey Mike. I really enjoyed your film. The story, production and performances were all very good. I totally felt the tension.

Great work man!
 
Great choice of music for the opening and ending. The performances were really good. While the shots were lit well, it seemed like they could have been composed more artistically, or some time could have gone into placing meaning behind your shots. I only say this because in a scene that takes place in one room the story and shot choices need to make up for the lack in change in the environment. There are many angles and options in framing to choose from here. The shot selection felt rushed like you thought of the shots on the fly. There was a little much expostition, but given as I assume constraints of budget and time it's a little unrealistic to shoot a holocaust back story I suppose though that would have blown all the other films away hands down. The main character killing the Nazi was a bit of a shock. I really sympathized with the Nazi, who was much older now, which I attribute to his acting. People change so much in that amount of time. All in all it was an enjoyable submittion and I look foward to seeing more of your work.
 
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filmcritic said:
Great choice of music for the opening and ending. The performances were really good. While the shots were lit well, it seemed like they could have been composed more artistically, or some time could have gone into placing meaning behind your shots. I only say this because in a scene that takes place in one room the story and shot choices need to make up for the lack in change in the environment. There are many angles and options in framing to choose from here. The shot selection felt rushed like you thought of the shots on the fly. There was a little much expostition, but given as I assume constraints of budget and time it's a little unrealistic to shoot a holocaust back story I suppose though that would have blown all the other films away hands down. Te main character killing the Natzi was a bit of a shock. I really sympathized with the Natzi, who was much older now, which I attribute to his acting. People change so much in that amount of time. All in all it was an enjoyable submittion and I look foward to seeing more of your work.
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I had some flashbacks in the first draft but omitted them by choice. I really wanted it to be about this one moment between these two men. Nothing fancy, just raw emotion. Shot it that way as well.

If you look at what I did last fest I think you'll find that one completely different in just about every way.
Hostile Destination

I'm glad you liked it. Happy the ending shocked you a bit as well.

Cheers,

Mike
 
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my fave so far in this fest. great look, great actors, really GREAT acting! or maybe the directors ability to bring it out in them. either way, excellent. nice twist at the ending too!
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
I had some flashbacks in the first draft but omitted them by choice. I really wanted it to be about this one moment between these two men. Nothing fancy, just raw emotion. Shot it that way as well.

If you look at what I did last fest I think you'll find that one completely different in just about every way.
Hostile Destination

I'm glad you liked it. Happy the ending shocked you a bit as well.

Cheers,

Mike
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Good job for omitting them, flashbacks rarely work. I would have actually showed it then had a gap in time, but no one has a Schindler's List budget lol.

This is far more stylized than the one for this thrill fest. I felt like it could have been an actual TV series pilot. The few critiques I have for this one would be the location of the safe room could have been better, the door and TV stand felt fake, a control room or something would have been awesome, and it would have been cool to throw in an establishing shot showing it was at a different location that what he was blowing up. Loved the lighting and composition of most shots, The only shots I would have changed would have been making the characters close ups on the opposite thirds thus leaving room so their heads do not fill frame. Liked the dolly shot, that worked well. Good use of angles and good cg as well. Definitely shows your diversity. Good film.
 
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filmcritic said:
This is far more stylized than the one for this thrill fest. I felt like it could have been an actual TV series pilot. The few critiques I have for this one would be the location of the safe room could have been better, the door and TV stand felt fake, a control room or something would have been awesome, and it would have been cool to throw in an establishing shot showing it was at a different location that what he was blowing up. Loved the lighting and composition of most shots, The only shots I would have changed would have been making the characters close ups on the opposite thirds thus leaving room so their heads do not fill frame. Liked the dolly shot, that worked well. Good use of angles and good cg as well. Definitely shows your diversity. Good film.
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Thanks for the review.

Just wanted to give you a comparison to show you the differences between styles.

Cheers,

MAH
 
Good work, truly. The performances were wonderful; top notch actors. And I liked that it was a little shorter ... 4 bucks and out. That's good - no more story than you need to tell. I'm torn on the end - on the shooting, but I don't know why yet. That's a good thing, I think. Means you leave the viewer with something to think about. It works, too, because you place enough question as to whether or not the older man is guilty of atrocities or is telling the truth. So some ambiguity. Did the gunman just commit a terrible crime, or did karma come knocking at the old Nazi's door? Good job!
 
Awesome. Whoever said a gun is just a crust for weak filmmaking is a...well, they need to watch this. Beautiful execution (no pun intended). The tension was perfect – this seemed like a much shorter movie than it was.


The old man playing the German acted well – his performance was very believable, and I think it would have been easy to let it slip into either something over-the-top or caricature, but he kept his performance grounded and even.


You can tell this was well directed. The camera work was almost invisible – on the second watching I paid more attention to angles and lighting, but on the first viewing I was really wrapped up in the story.


I imagine I'm not the only one who heard an old man with a German accent and immediately wonder if this was going to be a confrontation with a Nazi, but honestly it doesn't detract from the story and I'm that there's really a way to get around telling it without that kind of set-up. I'm reaching with that critique – overall I thought this was one of the best movies I've watched from this fest.


I also enjoyed the fact that he didn't let the old man walk away...it seemed more believable that someone searching for revenge his entire life wouldn't allow a couple of minutes of confused pleading to turn him around (of course, I've never been in that situation, but I imagine it would go pretty much like this). While you present all the moral ambiguity that should be present in a revenge yarn, I found the ending satisfying and it felt right.
 
tomten3000 said:
Good work, truly. The performances were wonderful; top notch actors. And I liked that it was a little shorter ... 4 bucks and out. That's good - no more story than you need to tell. I'm torn on the end - on the shooting, but I don't know why yet. That's a good thing, I think. Means you leave the viewer with something to think about. It works, too, because you place enough question as to whether or not the older man is guilty of atrocities or is telling the truth. So some ambiguity. Did the gunman just commit a terrible crime, or did karma come knocking at the old Nazi's door? Good job!
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Excellent! You walked away with exactly what I was hoping to deliver. I didn't want it clear cut and did my best to balance it. Thanks so much for the great review.

MAH
 
Brian P. McQuilkin said:
Awesome. Whoever said a gun is just a crust for weak filmmaking is a...well, they need to watch this. Beautiful execution (no pun intended). The tension was perfect – this seemed like a much shorter movie than it was.


The old man playing the German acted well – his performance was very believable, and I think it would have been easy to let it slip into either something over-the-top or caricature, but he kept his performance grounded and even.


You can tell this was well directed. The camera work was almost invisible – on the second watching I paid more attention to angles and lighting, but on the first viewing I was really wrapped up in the story.


I imagine I'm not the only one who heard an old man with a German accent and immediately wonder if this was going to be a confrontation with a Nazi, but honestly it doesn't detract from the story and I'm that there's really a way to get around telling it without that kind of set-up. I'm reaching with that critique – overall I thought this was one of the best movies I've watched from this fest.


I also enjoyed the fact that he didn't let the old man walk away...it seemed more believable that someone searching for revenge his entire life wouldn't allow a couple of minutes of confused pleading to turn him around (of course, I've never been in that situation, but I imagine it would go pretty much like this). While you present all the moral ambiguity that should be present in a revenge yarn, I found the ending satisfying and it felt right.
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Yah, we really toiled over how to end this and it flipped around from draft to draft. Thanks for the Direction kudos! I always take responsibility when my actors falter so it's nice to bask in their glory a little. I think sitting back with the camera and not messing around too much was the best thing I did for their performances.

BTW, no lighting at all. 100% natural. Not even a deflector or bounce card. Nada.

Thanks for the well thought out review!

Cheers,

MAH
 
Things are winding down so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who took the time to make a film and comment!
The comments are very helpful down the road. :thumbup:

Cheers,

MAH
 
You walk a very morally gray area in this film and I like the ambiguity of who is right/who is wrong. It's crafted quite well and even though he could very well be an evil nazi bastard I felt bad for the old man. It's acted superbly and you leave us wondering. Well done.
 
MrKilloran said:
You walk a very morally gray area in this film and I like the ambiguity of who is right/who is wrong. It's crafted quite well and even though he could very well be an evil nazi bastard I felt bad for the old man. It's acted superbly and you leave us wondering. Well done.
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Exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks so much.

MAH
 
Bravo, Michael! Great performances, nice camera work. I'm a fan of the natural lighting style myself, so good job on that front. Like I said in my comments for "Serial", I really like watching a character make a choice and follow through with it. So many moments for doubt, for a change of course here. And just when you think our poor German is out of the woods, BAM! Choice made, action taken. No turning back. Nice.
 
AmyO said:
Bravo, Michael! Great performances, nice camera work. I'm a fan of the natural lighting style myself, so good job on that front. Like I said in my comments for "Serial", I really like watching a character make a choice and follow through with it. So many moments for doubt, for a change of course here. And just when you think our poor German is out of the woods, BAM! Choice made, action taken. No turning back. Nice.
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Thanks, Amy! I'm so happy you enjoyed this one. :beer:

MAH
 
Doubt is a powerful thing. I like the performances from when the gun was pulled forward. I didn't like how the gunman's attitude changed instantly, like a switch was suddenly flipped. What set him off? Did he recognize the back of the guy's ear or something? I was hoping you'd show something that hit his memory so deeply. The way it plays out he's been stalking him for some time, who carries a gun on them like that. If that's the case I think the beginning would be less cordial and more sinister. Anyway that's my only griped. Great job.

So for an empty square room how did you minimize echo?
 
Mobie540 said:
Doubt is a powerful thing. I like the performances from when the gun was pulled forward. I didn't like how the gunman's attitude changed instantly, like a switch was suddenly flipped. What set him off? Did he recognize the back of the guy's ear or something? I was hoping you'd show something that hit his memory so deeply. The way it plays out he's been stalking him for some time, who carries a gun on them like that. If that's the case I think the beginning would be less cordial and more sinister. Anyway that's my only griped. Great job.

So for an empty square room how did you minimize echo?
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That's awesome. I'm glad you brought that up. It's obvious from the start (he's armed) what his intentions are. You'll notice that the gunman's demeanor changes at the first closeup. It's like a switch goes off, you can clearer see it on his face. No, he hasn't pulled the gun out yet but he's all business. Why was he nice to begin with? Maybe he wasn't 100% sure he had the right guy and wanted to gain his trust and feel him out.

What made the switch happen? Was it something Aldo said? The way he said it? A certain mannerism he picked up on? That's up to you. But you could look again and see if you can spot what it was.

Now at this point you can see he's clearly made up his mind. After asking him his name, he gets angry, asks him another question and pulls the gun. He's convinced.

Getting rid of the echo took some work in Adobe Soundbooth.
Wasn't easy. It was also disappointing that for the first day or two after the upload it had sound issues. Quite a few people had sound issues but Larry was very helpful in getting that fixed for us.

Cheers,


MAH
 
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Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
That's awesome. I'm glad you brought that up. It's obvious from the start (he's armed) what his intentions are. You'll notice that the gunman's demeanor changes at the first closeup. It's like a switch goes off, you can clearer see it on his face. No, he hasn't pulled the gun out yet but he's all business. Why was he nice to begin with? Maybe he wasn't 100% sure he had the right guy and wanted to gain his trust and feel him out.

What made the switch happen? Was it something Aldo said? The way he said it? A certain mannerism he picked up on? That's up to you. But you could look again and see if you can spot what it was.

Now at this point you can see he's clearly made up his mind. After asking him his name, he gets angry, asks him another question and pulls the gun. He's convinced.

Getting rid of the echo took some work in Adobe Soundbooth.
Wasn't easy. It was also disappointing that for the first day or two after the upload it had sound issues. Quite a few people had sound issues but Larry was very helpful in getting that fixed for us.

Cheers,


MAH
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My argument stems from the old man saying it was nice catching up with you. Like he was helping him move or like they knew each other.
 
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