"Cristo" by: justin r. durban

Yea, please don't misunderstand...that was an observation, I still think you have a great eye for the camera, the "costumes" were perfect, the "set design" was great, the locations were good. :thumbsup:
 
Geoff_R said:
Justin, I think the best scene in this film is the sequence with the boy and girl near the pool, their kiss...her death... Visually, it transcends the rest of the film. I think the scenes between the father and son were bogged down by dialogue.

The score is great! Powerful music!

I can't get that sequence out of my head... 'girl in the water'....'the shot and blood hit on the face'....'the kiss'... awesome :)

Thanks for sharing the film!
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Justin,

It looks like you're getting a lot of good feedback. And the comments are very consistent.

Geoff's comment regarding 'the scene with the kiss, the gun shot, girl in the water' seems to be the one that everyone here really likes as well. There is this calm, quiet moment before you hear the gun shot and see the spray of blood and you still don't know what has happened. That moment seems to linger longer than the actual screen time and then you see the guy falling out of frame. Everyone I've talked to agrees that it's a lovely piece of cinema.

A lot of people really seem to like the underwater footage. Your vision realized! Good call! And props to Amanda. What a trooper being thrown into the water over and over and ...

I also really liked the shots of the 'hitman' when he was following, and almost toying, with his victim as he shot a round, he had this weird thing that he did with his mouth. I thought in those short shots it projected a lot of his character.

Great use of the music to set the tone at the appropriate places. You have a gift for that timing.

It was a distinct pleasure working with you and I appreciate your ability to get your 'vision' into the finished product. Congratulations on a great flick.

-Robert
 
Justin,

I think this is your best film yet. I was very impressed by many of the shots. The underwater shots were especially impressive. Your score was rocking too. It helps that you're so intimate with the material from all angles. It gave you a lot more time to attack the score because you didn't have to do as much prep work, finding out motivation etc.

The acting was the weakest link. The singular performances weren't bad, but it felt like the two were miles away from one another emotionally. I don't mean that in the sense of the story, but in the sense of judging a technical acting performance.

The special fx looked awesome! Overall you did a great job and should be proud.
 
Hey Justin,

I just noticed. Thanks for posting some BTS images. So we can see the 'director on set'. I love those shots of you in the pool. That's dedication!
 
RobertE said:
Justin,

It looks like you're getting a lot of good feedback. And the comments are very consistent.

Geoff's comment regarding 'the scene with the kiss, the gun shot, girl in the water' seems to be the one that everyone here really likes as well. There is this calm, quiet moment before you hear the gun shot and see the spray of blood and you still don't know what has happened. That moment seems to linger longer than the actual screen time and then you see the guy falling out of frame. Everyone I've talked to agrees that it's a lovely piece of cinema.

A lot of people really seem to like the underwater footage. Your vision realized! Good call! And props to Amanda. What a trooper being thrown into the water over and over and ...

I also really liked the shots of the 'hitman' when he was following, and almost toying, with his victim as he shot a round, he had this weird thing that he did with his mouth. I thought in those short shots it projected a lot of his character.

Great use of the music to set the tone at the appropriate places. You have a gift for that timing.

It was a distinct pleasure working with you and I appreciate your ability to get your 'vision' into the finished product. Congratulations on a great flick.

I just noticed. Thanks for posting some BTS images. So we can see the 'director on set'. I love those shots of you in the pool. That's dedication!

-Robert
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Thank you so much again Robert. It was so great for you to make the trip up to help. I'll most definitely be asking you again. Perhaps next round I'll have a 'massive' budget to work with. (right.) :) Amanda and the underwater stuff was great. It's tough to approach an actress and say.. "Are you willing to drown for me?" :) Ya, those BTS... looking forward to seeing the shots from Greg's still camera and tommy's jaw-biting performance was dead on. :thumbup::grin:




Aaron Marshall said:
Justin,

I think this is your best film yet. I was very impressed by many of the shots. The underwater shots were especially impressive. Your score was rocking too. It helps that you're so intimate with the material from all angles. It gave you a lot more time to attack the score because you didn't have to do as much prep work, finding out motivation etc.

The acting was the weakest link. The singular performances weren't bad, but it felt like the two were miles away from one another emotionally. I don't mean that in the sense of the story, but in the sense of judging a technical acting performance.

The special fx looked awesome! Overall you did a great job and should be proud.
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Thanks Aaron! Tackling most all those FX shots was a pain in the arse specially since I had relied on some of my friends from the German Film School to help out. Only one of them did. (plane/opening explosion and watch faces). Ugg.. lesson learned. Start earlier without any other planned projects on the plate.

Acting... I thought they did a good job and I was proud of their performances. I wished I had more CU's of matt as he was stuck in medium shot land. :(




Herman Witkam said:
Sweeeéét

I was impressed with the overall production quality. Great visuals, and most of all, great score!!

I agree with Aaron about the actor's performances. I also think you've put too much narrative/dialogue into it. The story seemed way to complicated to rush through in a mere 6 mins.
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Thank you Herman!! If I had a chance, I'd probably go back again and re-work some of the score, but oh well.. I guess it'll do for now. Story... ya, there was a lot to pack in such a short time frame. And to think the cut before this was 9 minutes of even more side-story stuff. :)

Of course I enjoyed all your pletheras of scores too. Looks like you are building yourself a wonderful little reel that will snagg you the feature films in no time.


cheers DVXr's iN DvX Land.
Now GO VOTE!!

/j
 
Great piece. Love the colors and movement. I think the framing and music really moves the piece. I love the underwater shots, but im deedive, can’t help it.:)

I have a friend that said u where insane! I said" no, not insane, enlightened.
 
Wow, Justin, you are just a multi-talented guy! This is an impressive piece of work. I've perused your thread and I'm not sure I have anything original to add, but nonetheless... I loved the shots in the pool; so ethereal. I must read the thread more closely for your comments on how you accomplished that. I also liked the overall pacing of the reveal of the backstory. Solid performances. I found it to be a little heavy on dialogue, but that's really my only criticism.

On another topic, thanks so much for the score for Check -- you are getting rave reviews for that as well.
 
elite.jpg


here's the Camera Housing we used for the underwater shots. (It was DVXuser RobertE's) www.epiccam.com

Thank you Arielman,

and no problemo DeeDive and MsManhattan. :) It was a fun lil' piece and I hope it worked for ya. :)

cheers!
/j

*VOTE Cristo* heheheheh
 
Edgen said:
elite.jpg


here's the Camera Housing we used for the underwater shots. (It was DVXuser RobertE's) www.epiccam.com

Thank you Arielman,

and no problemo DeeDive and MsManhattan. :) It was a fun lil' piece and I hope it worked for ya. :)

cheers!
/j

*VOTE Cristo* heheheheh
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Justin,

I might add that the camera in the picture is not a DVX100. We used a DVX100 in the Epic Camera housing for "Cristo". As a matter of fact, wasn't there at one time a four (count em 4!) camera shoot going on in one shot? All DVX100's I believe?
 
RobertE said:
Justin,

I might add that the camera in the picture is not a DVX100. We used a DVX100 in the Epic Camera housing for "Cristo". As a matter of fact, wasn't there at one time a four (count em 4!) camera shoot going on in one shot? All DVX100's I believe?
Click to expand...

Yup! We had the four cameras. Unfortunately I only used two of them. THe one with the 35mm letus had the camera crane in the shot and the camera crane looking down was... well, the other two were just better. Perhaps I"ll include those shots in the bts video.

can't wait to use the UWH again in the next film. :)

cheers!
/j
 
Edgen said:
...tommy's jaw-biting performance was dead on. :thumbup::grin:
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hehe :)

Seriously though, I think the final short came off really well. Yeah, there was some acting issues and a few cinematography things that needed some work, but I think it was a great story to tell in 6 minutes. I don't think you were trying to squeeze too much in there at all...

The next one is gonna be great too! :thumbup:
 
Hey Justin,
This was definately probably my fav of the fest. Well done on many angles. The older actor, I believe his name is Dan Payne is awesome. The other actors did a fine job as well, but I think he really held it together. The cinematography and fx were done quite well too.

Great job man, I hope to get to work with you in the future.

Tim.
 
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