Ava - MojoTrancer

MojoTrancer

MojoTrancer

Well-known member
For what it's worth I hope you enjoyed my film. If not, that's OK too. I'm just glad I finally had something to offer the forum for good or ill.

That said, let's have it!
 
I liked this film, especially the twist at the end. Very surreal feel to it. Kind of a long build up to the end IMO. Good job! :)
 
Yeah there are some pacing issues. and some effects were rushed. And I absolutely hate hearing my own voice. All I can think is "We're not gonna fall for a banana in our tailpipe." :)

Glad you liked it Briceman. I was starting to feel lonely out here.

Keep the comments and criticisms coming everyone. Be nice or be mean. I just want to hear what you think!
 
Last edited:
Of the "A.I." films posted, I thought yours was the most interesting story-wise. I like the dark stuff. Good work!
 
Thanks, Kaz. I'm glad you liked the story. We were originally going to do a much more ambitious action-oriented piece. But with time constaints looming, we decided to scrap that idea and do a more personal piece.
 
Last edited:
This was dark. But really had me listening, which BTW, I really enjoyed the VO on this. Great job, and the voice of the actress was GREAT. Some tracking/keyframe issues, obviously, with the CG, but otherwise looked pretty good.

Certainly had a surreal feel to it, and was overall enjoyable ... scored well above average to say the least.
 
Envision said:
This was dark. But really had me listening, which BTW, I really enjoyed the VO on this. Great job, and the voice of the actress was GREAT. Some tracking/keyframe issues, obviously, with the CG, but otherwise looked pretty good.

Certainly had a surreal feel to it, and was overall enjoyable ... scored well above average to say the least.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your critique. Bobette is a very talented actress (not to mention quite stunning IMHO). We work together often. Expect to see more of her soon.

I plan on going back and fixing the tracking issues. Here's one thing to keep in mind with the CG: Every scene you see Ava in had little silver markers all over the walls and her. It was our ill-conceived attempt to aid the tracking for an effect we didn't end up using. So my boy Trevor and I had to paint out all the markers. We missed a few in one shot of Ava if you look close. So that was a HUGE drain on our time.
We had to make a choice between leaving the scenes raw with silly tracking markers all over or letting the other effects slide a little. You guys see the result :)
 
the VO was good. i agree with envision that there were a couple of tracking/keyframe issues.

i had to watch it a couple of times. my speakers were on the fritz so the first time i didnt hear a lot of the VO. then i got it to work. so yeah there's my little snipit of a review
 
Wow, I thought the VO was the weakest part. But it seems you guys are digging that most of all. Once again, it might just be me hating my own voice. I guess I should get over it.
 
Yeah, I'm in total agreement with the quality of the voicework. I like the idea, too, and I didn't have issues with the pacing as some others did. I like slow-burn kinda stuff myself. Obviously the CG was a little off, but when it was on target it looked really good. It's a small, personal piece, it doesn't jump out with how awesome it is, but I felt engaged by it. Nice work.
 
Spookey.

that was very good, in a slightly distrubing way. but that was the idea. A lot of very dark themes this year, this was definatly one of them.

also, agreed on the keyframign note.

Soundtrack was good, and I liked the jump to A-roll with her talking at the end.

- Mikko
 
Z B Brox said:
Yeah, I'm in total agreement with the quality of the voicework. I like the idea, too, and I didn't have issues with the pacing as some others did. I like slow-burn kinda stuff myself. Obviously the CG was a little off, but when it was on target it looked really good. It's a small, personal piece, it doesn't jump out with how awesome it is, but I felt engaged by it. Nice work.
Click to expand...

That was the third round of voiceovers we did. The first two tries were had better performances, but they were unusable do to technical issues (recording good sound isn't as easy as I thought it would be.) By that time, Bobette and I had about an hour to do the whole film. We ended up posting the script on the wall and doing a read through from start to finish. We did that twice, and then cut and edited it as best I could.
 
I really like this one. I think the cinematography and acting were excellent, and the slow ramp up was just right. I really felt like we got to know these two characters in a really short period of time, and when the twist hits, I felt totally heartwrenched. I loved the subtlety of this piece, and how it didn't rely on special effects. Sure there were a few in there, but they were by no means the crutch many other sci-fi films need them to be. Very nice, I will be watching this one many more times.
 
Captain KickAss said:
I really like this one. I think the cinematography and acting were excellent, and the slow ramp up was just right. I really felt like we got to know these two characters in a really short period of time, and when the twist hits, I felt totally heartwrenched. I loved the subtlety of this piece, and how it didn't rely on special effects. Sure there were a few in there, but they were by no means the crutch many other sci-fi films need them to be. Very nice, I will be watching this one many more times.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, Captain. I'm glad the film spoke to you. I'm more and more glad that we didn't go the action route. I think it was the right choice the more I think about it.

mikkowilson said:
Spookey.

that was very good, in a slightly distrubing way. but that was the idea. A lot of very dark themes this year, this was definatly one of them.

also, agreed on the keyframign note.

Soundtrack was good, and I liked the jump to A-roll with her talking at the end.

- Mikko
Click to expand...

The soundtrack is two royalty-free tracks I bought on Q-music. Their prices are pretty decent and if you dig around the site hard enough, you can find some good stuff.
 
I would have liked this one more if you didn't tell the whole story via VO. It looked pretty good, and I liked the dark twist. The CG was pretty bad (especially the computer chip thingy on her arm--Looked VERY fake). I liked some of the compositions/lighting. I really hated the pan of the computer monitor for some reason. I think it cheapened it somehow. I think both actors (I assume you were one of them) "looked" good, there just wasn't really much acting as it was all V.o.
 
Just to be clear: When I said I agreed ont he quality of the V/O, I meant with the people praising it, not your self-criticism.
 
Slimothy said:
I would have liked this one more if you didn't tell the whole story via VO. It looked pretty good, and I liked the dark twist. The CG was pretty bad (especially the computer chip thingy on her arm--Looked VERY fake). I liked some of the compositions/lighting. I really hated the pan of the computer monitor for some reason. I think it cheapened it somehow. I think both actors (I assume you were one of them) "looked" good, there just wasn't really much acting as it was all V.o.
Click to expand...


Fair enough, Slimothy. Thanks for giving it to me straight. For the record I think Bobette did her part very well. As for my performance, well I offer no excuses. It is what it is. But be warned I'm going to be in the next one too :)
 
MojoTrancer said:
Fair enough, Slimothy. Thanks for giving it to me straight. For the record I think Bobette did her part very well. As for my performance, well I offer no excuses. It is what it is. But be warned I'm going to be in the next one too :)
Click to expand...
I don't think the performances were bad by any means. Just wished I could have seen them act out an actual scene w/ some dialogue.


And you BETTER be in the next one. :)
 
Slimothy said:
I don't think the performances were bad by any means. Just wished I could have seen them act out an actual scene w/ some dialogue.


And you BETTER be in the next one. :)
Click to expand...

Groovy. I've been reading some of your other reviews and I feel like I got off lightly So I will take what I can get. ;)

I've already started work on the sci-fi piece we shelved to do Ava. Both Bobette and I will be back and this time will be a more straightforward story.
 
I think this film had a lot of really strong stuff - at the end. The blood, the sound design at the end was very strong indeed. I also liked that you seemed to have a fairly concrete idea of the story you wanted to tell.
I'm afraid that's where the big ups end. I DIDN'T like the voice-over. I almost never like voice-over. And any film which tells its entire story in voice-over is afraid to give its audience a chance to identify. We can never get close to characters without knowing what they sound like. Without sync sound, it's just a montage.

The tech-end wasn't perfect, but I really don't care about those things. Once you've got your story together, the right tech-people will assemble and good things will happen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top