"Channel 8" a Death by Flypaper film

Awesome! My favorite film so far. I caught the Videodrome vibe too, but not in a derivative way. The shot near the beginning where it lingers on the girl's face frozen on the TV genuinely creeped me out. My only real criticisms would be I thought the white fade up to the flashback didn't really work so well, and the guy's shirt as he's coming home at the end really gave away the day-for-night work (which otherwise looked really excellent throughout).

Overall though I liked the film a lot, and I appreciate that you took things a little slower and really established a mood of dread. The lack of cheap startling scares, shaky camera, and loud sounds was also quite refreshing. The make-up at the end was a little iffy maybe, but it still packed a pretty good punch just because you build up to it so well.

Great job.
 
Watched this last night so I'm going by memory. I really enjoyed this.
I loved some of the exterior shots. I actually wished some of the interior scenes were shot as well. The exterior stuff came off as pretty creepy, nicely done. The acting wasn't bad, I'm sure acting with a TV is hard to pull off.

The scene in the car early on seemed a little cliché.
Aside from that I thought this was pulled off well. Had a Twilight Zone feel to it, which is a good thing. Nice work!

MAH
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Watched this last night so I'm going by memory. I really enjoyed this.
I loved some of the exterior shots. I actually wished some of the interior scenes were shot as well. The exterior stuff came off as pretty creepy, nicely done. The acting wasn't bad, I'm sure acting with a TV is hard to pull off.

The scene in the car early on seemed a little cliché.
Aside from that I thought this was pulled off well. Had a Twilight Zone feel to it, which is a good thing. Nice work!

MAH
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Overall it was really well done. As a big Videodrome fan, I was looking forward to it.

I have to agree with Michael, though. The exteriors were great and had really nice energy/camera movement. It would've been great to see some camera movement in the interiors--it would've helped build a lot of tension. Still, the TV stuff was great and it was awesome to see it all done as practical effects. VFX just wouldn't have been able to replicate that old television feeling.
 
Fantastic, great job. This is the only film in the festival that has had me jump so far, and I've seen I think 25. Last night when I viewed, on a cold Halloween night in Chicago, this is what you need (a bit of scary that takes me away from the realm of tranny hookers and our city's politics).

Definitely riding near the top of my list right now. The story was quite strong, acting works, and dern that TV is creepy just being a TV by itself. I liked the lighting and look of the piece, very intimate, dark subtext, great job. It's a complete piece where most everything is effective. When you start hearing about angels and stuff from that religious dude, you know what's about to go down.

My qualms: The flashback stuff during the daylight I thought was a bit unnecessary. I didn't see how it furthered the story. I already got from the TV monitor and his reaction to it, to understand that he was in a rocky relationship with the girl. As well the end shot of the monster man, kinda woulda liked to have him be a bit more shadowy. His full-on face, seeing him, is not all that scary.

But besides that, the pacing was good, the shots well-composed, some of the look worked better for me than others, the night stuff was all effective, while some of the interior shots of him on the phone could've been set-up differently to make it less flat. Overall, awesome job. Last minute or so was absolutely terrifying.
 
POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Some really great conceptual work here. Love the ways you used the TV. The problem with watching movies on a computer is that I immediately checked to see what that flashframe at the beginning was, so I saw your demon preacher early. In a theatrical screening you wouldn't have that problem, and he would just be a subliminal effect.

I thought for me the TV fuzz sound was a little loud. It works as being scary, but I still think it could be just a few notches lower.

Acting was good. As was the cinematography, but I agree with others that some of the interior shots were a little flat.

I actually liked the flashback, since I think knowing she had an abortion made their current issues more interesting. But I would have had a sound effect accompany the fade to white transitions.

Good work and a compelling film!
 
LOVED the mood. Liked the way a lot of it was shot. A little flat looking (probably just me) for interiors. There was one shot when the lead goes to his ladies home and the mazda is in the shot, it looked a little blown out. It felt like a day to night moment. But still, really well done. I was totally creeped out by the mood of the piece, sound, pacing, overall directing was great. And you kept a old horror feel to it, where it's all about suspense more than style. Thank you for that. Good job. Oh and I didn't mind the back story either, definately added. I guess it's a hit or miss scene.
 
This had a great spooky feeling to it. The quick flashes of tv static made me jump every time haha. Part where she is bleeding on tv is scary! As others said the sound could use some adjusting, it seemed the sound effects were louder than the dialoug.

Overall nice movie, it was freaky!
 
Enjoyed your film. Good acting on both of the leads parts. Good sound. I wasn't really sure with what was going on with the storyline with the tv at first. This film was like about 30% of the others that only partially downloaded so I went it and had to download it a 2nd time. Would have liked to see you get a bit more creative with the lighting in the guys apartment at the beginning. In the end, creepy little flick, good work!
 
Watching this didn't improve my impression of the story I got from reading it. I did however get immediatly what the couple was fighting about. And I'm certainly not going to complain that we never really saw a monster. I did feel the drama and tension. I can't comment on the technical stuff, I'll let the experts weigh in on that. Overall good job.
 
As requested! But, remember, grains of salt or drops of juice.

Visual technical and audio I'm going to bypass. A lot of that is learned through experience or even establishing relationships with people to do each certain job. I definitely see the effort bleeding through to visit more creative camera action and lighting, again, it gets better with practice.

The more important points for me are definitely the short story. And, not so much the script, but the story itself. I'd like to think that I have some idea as to what it's about, it took a while to grasp it, however. Because I had to fight to grasp what was going on I begin to pay attention to everything else. That's generally not what anyone wants to happen.

I could see a cure being to rearrange events in another edit, if it so strikes you to deliver something that's a bit more congruent to your underlying message. Also, clarity is really important when telling any story. You have to think back to, or think about, how people tell stories around campfires. The best ones are told with a clear voice and tone. Similar to how we chop stories in an NLE, it's really detrimental to me (unless you're going for a twist movie) to underline the why's or you risk losing your audience bit by bit.

Why were they arguing? I know why, I could infer that, but it never comes back around to clearly state.

Why did she cut her eyes out? I have no idea.

Why was she on the television being assaulted?

Technicals aside, I personally would have liked to see a clear storyline throughout.

Again, I definitely see the effort here. Especially going from day to night scenarios, etc. Just takes more practice!

Thanks for Sharing!
 
This was a weird one. So the TV was the monster? But why is it called Channel 8? I never saw a 'Channel 8' anywhere. I saw channel 3 and 6, didn't see an 8. Why was she being held captive? I like your editing at the beginning. Your day to night effects were good as well. I just don't know about this one. Didn't quite get it fully.
 
i didn't much care for the first 5 minutes of this film, but the last one creeped me out more than any other in the fest. editing was perfect in the way you gradually reveal what has happened. for that last minute this one is one of my fav's. good job!
 
Thank you all for your feedback. It's all very helpful and much appreciated! I'm learning and will continue to learn as I make films.

I've been wrestling with the title since I wrote the script. The channel really isn't important to the plot of the film. I only called it channel 8 because the eight sounds the same as "ate." Kind of a stupid title, I know. ha.

Also, Sarah was never tortured by anyone. It was just something the TV (which is possessed) shows Andy. When Sarah arrives, the TV captivates/hyptonizes her and forces her to kill herself. Then it shows Andy what it chooses to.

Also, the TV's not the monster. It's possessed by a demon and the demon shows itself to Andy in the end.

I hope this helps with some of the confusion.
 
kennethhurd said:
Thank you all for your feedback. It's all very helpful and much appreciated! I'm learning and will continue to learn as I make films.

I've been wrestling with the title since I wrote the script. The channel really isn't important to the plot of the film. I only called it channel 8 because the eight sounds the same as "ate." Kind of a stupid title, I know. ha.

Also, Sarah was never tortured by anyone. It was just something the TV (which is possessed) shows Andy. When Sarah arrives, the TV captivates/hyptonizes her and forces her to kill herself. Then it shows Andy what it chooses to.

Also, the TV's not the monster. It's possessed by a demon and the demon shows itself to Andy in the end.

I hope this helps with some of the confusion.
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It definitely does help with my confusion. I really couldn't figure out what was going on or why it was happening, and I thought it was simply a non-linear thing.

Again, clarity is the best voice.
 
Kenneth,

I said in your ScriptFest thread that I liked your script for this, and now having seen the final product, I like it as well. It seems to me that you took some of the suggestions from ScriptFest and ran with them, which I think was the whole idea that the mods had when they tied the two Fests together, so kudos for that. :)

And I think somebody mentioned this before, but I loved the old console TV you used. :D
 
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