Deceivers

Story: Loads of Betrayal in this one. :)

Acting: The acting was pretty good. Nothing bad.

Technical: Nicely shot. I wanted a bit more coverage with the odd wide angle. Everything was very tight. The gunshots were cool, as were their results. Sounds pretty good as well. I liked the score too.

Nice work.

MAH
 
Thanks for all your comments on this film everyone!! It's great to see such positive reviews overall. Mike has done a great job responding to all of your comments, so no need for me to add anything else here. The story is wonderful, with a lot of unexpected and engaging twists!! Mike did a phenomenal job with the story, the directing AND the cinematography!! Makes all us measly actors look good!!! ;)
 
I did find the ending predictable, I did find the acting believable to point,
but I did not find that this story was engaging that I would want to see more.
You had the betrayals down but I am not sure they were intriguing enough.
 
holy cow, betrayals upon twists upon betrayals!

This was a big story fit into a small environment, but it worked. It almost had a 'whodunnit' feel to it because of the constant changes. I can imagine that acting 'while shot' is fairly difficult but Jonathan did a serviceable job at it. Kudos.

The iphone app kinda made me giggle. It seemed very pop culture reference to me and a little distracting because of it. I think some other generic looking smart phone would have been better, just cause we KNOW it's an iphone.

Other than that, some solid work here, for some reason i really like the exchange between the females in the hallway, it just worked. Now on to watching your other film! (btw you deserve mad props for entering two, i couldn't imagine finishing two films.)
 
Charli said:
I did find the ending predictable, I did find the acting believable to point,
but I did not find that this story was engaging that I would want to see more.
You had the betrayals down but I am not sure they were intriguing enough.
Click to expand...

Thanks for watching the film. Sorry you didn't enjoy it. Maybe our next one will work better for you. Glad you enjoyed "myPhone" as much as you did!
 
Ben Sliker said:
holy cow, betrayals upon twists upon betrayals!

This was a big story fit into a small environment, but it worked. It almost had a 'whodunnit' feel to it because of the constant changes. I can imagine that acting 'while shot' is fairly difficult but Jonathan did a serviceable job at it. Kudos.

The iphone app kinda made me giggle. It seemed very pop culture reference to me and a little distracting because of it. I think some other generic looking smart phone would have been better, just cause we KNOW it's an iphone.

Other than that, some solid work here, for some reason i really like the exchange between the females in the hallway, it just worked. Now on to watching your other film! (btw you deserve mad props for entering two, i couldn't imagine finishing two films.)
Click to expand...

Hey Ben, thanks so much for the great comments! Glad you liked the film!

I wasn't worried about it being an iPhone or people knowing it's an iPhone. There's so many of them out there anyways I don't think most would really care what kind of phone it was unless it was something they'd never ever seen before, like some new prototype model, which we certainly don't have access to or the resources to make a special prop just for this film. Thanks for the insight on it though. Something to think about for next time.

Yes, 2 films was quite a bit of work, especially the week of the deadline. It was fun and worth it though. I'm not sure Jonathan has been checking on the thread, but I'll be sure to let him know about your praise. Thanks!
 
Good job guys, another well done film. Some things that really stood out for me were the camera movements were well executed , with the sped up moves. Worked well. It may be my monitor but the image seemed a bit hot in spots. The color grade was that of cheeky or comedy, but it was a more serious story this time. I was a little unsure if you were going for more of a light hearted feel. If not and you wanted a more serious movie then you need a different color grade to achieve that.

The acting was great. The guy, John, I didn't realize it was the same guy from myphone right off. The whole cast worked great and they all did an excellent job. You guys have these six minute shorts down to a science. I expected the girl to turn on her guy, cause that's just how these are all going but I liked that he took the bullets out of the gun. I half expected the second woman to kill the guy, and I'm glad she didn't that would have been over kill.
 
Wow, this is like the ultimate betrayal movie! :)

Perfectly directed, acted, and edited. It's supposed to be slightly tongue in cheek though right? I'm not misinterpreting it am I?

Definitely keeps you guessing, on your toes. Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be another betrayal!

I really have nothing negative to say. For what you were trying to do, you totally nailed it.
 
hey dude, ok so i thought you did a great job with the cinematography and overall directing of this sucker... the pacing is solid and the score is great... i thought the acting was good, though i wasn't too much a fan of the main dude who is shot from the beginning... unfortunately i just didn't believe he was just shot and bleeding to death... the bad guy and the main chick were solid, though...

when filming guns i would suggest next time to have more body movement when the trigger is pulled... when you fire a gun, your hand and arm don't just sit there... trust me, i've killed several people...

also the blood could have been more realistic... and the freeze frame (that's what it looked like to me) when that one chick died was a little off-putting... and if you have the opportunity, I would give it an improved ending as right now i felt like the laugh and abrupt kiss and fade to black was a rushed ending for timing issues?

i enjoyed your directing and overall filmmaking more than the story... but yeah... great job, buddy...
 
Chris, thanks for watching the film and for your compliments on the cinematography and directing.

The ending was scripted that way and nothing was done to rush the film to a close due to timing. The running time without the ending credits is only 5:45. There's just nothing else left to show and sometimes there's more that could be said for a sudden ending than one that's drawn out. With this film we get out of it almost as quickly and abruptly as we got in.

Again, thanks for the feedback and comments.
 
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Jason, thanks for the compliments and feedback. Glad you enjoyed he film. It's not supposed to really be tongue-in-cheek, but some of the discussion during development and preproduction involved Mr and Mrs Smith so I'm not surprised you're asking about it. I'm okay with the interpretation. Thanks for watching the film!
 
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Nemesis, thanks for watching this one too. Glad you like the film and found some of it to surprise you.

EDIT: I know what you're referring to on the hotspots I believe. Part of the style I tend to go with: high contrast by boosting the highlights and crushing shadows and blacks. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn't. It might be getting hurt because of the white appliances in the kitchen? Not sure if that might be what you're referring to? I tried to add a vignette where I could without making it too obvious.

Thanks for watching both films and for your compliments and feedback. Glad you liked them. I look forward to seeing what you make next yourself.
 
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Nice film I liked it. In a fest where everyone is expecting a betrayal, how do you surprise the audience? Cram in as many betrayals as possible! It's funny, I had a similar idea for a story (not the money, but a love triangle where everyone betrayed everyone) so I may be a little biased but I liked your story.

Technically everything seemed great too. There were only two things that stuck out to me a little bit, the gunshot wounds and the 2nd actress in the hall when she's asking about hearing the gunshots. But these were minor.

Good job man.
 
You kinda had me until the whole 'log in on the iphone bit', because:
A- This guy has money? Doesn't look like it.
B- Even in this technological time, I don't really buy it.

The ending came off kinda cheesy to me.

There were some nice shots, and it looked good overall, but I couldn't get into the characters or buy the story. I think it's too much packed into 6 min.
You did surprise me 3 times, so nice job!
 
A - Why wouldn't he have money? Because he doesn't look like he has money? I've met young people and older people who you'd never think were rich because of the way they look, but that doesn't mean they don't have money.
B - Go onto the iTunes app store and search for "bank". You'll find a few bank apps there and they do allow transfer of funds. For example, look at the BofA app. Also, this is fictional. Just because you may not be able to do something now in the real world, doesn't mean you can't have it in a movie. Movies sometimes require imagination, otherwise most movies shouldn't be made.

Thanks for watching the film. Glad we were able to surprise you a few times.
 
You're right that it's totally plausible, I'm just saying it took me out of the movie. I think it's more to do with the location, and not the way he looked. If I'm ever rich I will still look like a bum for sure. :)

last time I tried to wire 2.7 mil though, it wasn't that easy.

I know about suspension of disbelief too. Heck, I got two talking road cones!
 
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