DEPENDENCE - a Matthew Bennett film

This was really good. The acting was superb. I didn't care for the fight scene it was too slow and felt staged. It must be super difficult to pull off great fight scenes, I want to try and shoot one. The hand held camera work in the beginning was bit too shaky too.

It looked amazing, the lighting was great and the whole movie felt big budget to me. Really well done you are a top notch film maker. The above is nit picky, my only real complaint is that it ended so abrupt. I wanted more! There is a bigger story and I wanted all 90 or so minutes of it. Very well done.

Oh and thanks, my wife walked in while I was watching it and she said its tough to compete when the other movies look like that. She then asked what camera did he use? As my bottom lip trembled I said... mine.
 
Great Work! I really loved the color on the opening shots.. very Filmic! The Audio was fantastic (I would like to know about the equipment used) I did feel the interior shots were a little saturated for my taste however that is only my opinion and we know what they are like ;). Anyway..I think you are avery talented Filmmaker and will be very successful in this biz... So keep it up! I look forward to seeing more of your work!
 
Spoilers....
Attractive and handsome this film was only let down a little in my opinion by the wooden performances and weak choreography of the 'mugging' scene and the predictable nature of the ending (to be fair, i doubt it would be nearly so predictable outside the fest!) A little cliche'd in its depiction of the girl... little princess.... storyteller. I mean it does work, but (and im sure this is food for thought) the film is directly comparable to thick window.

Now the question is what is a superior film (well im not going to offer an opinion on that) but both of these films may lend useful food for thought to the other. As a general premise it also perhaps shows that the scenario for this narrative was a little cliche and flawed in the first place.

Those gripes may sound a little larger than they are! Overall this is a capable film it does what it says on the box, even if it is a little inconsistent in parts. What it lacks is a true daring on the part of the director to take the story somewhere more dangerous and creative. The grave scene just doenst cut it, its a bookmark for a non-thought conclusion. As an artist i think you could have given us more in a way?

I rated this film in my top 6 and congratulate you on making a decent and enjoyable short!
 
Good work.

My comments are echoes of the main gripes you've heard already, so I wont.

The little girl was very natural, which seems to be the case with child actors. Either their great or they're bad.

In my top picks!
 
The actors are amazing - both the man, the girl and even the two fighters in the first scene - everyone looks great.

Also, the cinematography is beautiful, although the shed scene did feel a tad "lit".

But, I have to admit, I feel dumb here - I just don't understand the story. At first I thought it was some sort of post-apocalyptic world where men fight to the death over scraps (why else would these men be ready to kill over little more than a teddy bear). Then we meet the girl and she complains of chest pain and I thought perhaps she was dying. Then we see cops and discover this father isn't who he appears to be. But who is he? Lastly, there are two graves, but I have no idea who is buried there - is that the girl's parents and if so, why did he kill them and why would he mark their graves? I'm sure it all makes sense and I'm just being dense, but at the moment I can't quite put it together.

Your craft is excellent, I just wish I got it all, but that might just be me being stupid.
 
Hey.... I liked this one. Finally got it to work.

I liked it enough that I'm going to ***** at you about sound design. :)
The opening fight scene could have leapt off the screen with some good old sound design. It would have saved it.

I read about the gravel but that was no issue at all and I used headphones. The punches, kicks, choking, grunts and pipe beating needs a serious overhaul.
Luckily you can go back and do this. I really hope you do. Because it's the only blemish on this fine film.

Fix it, put it in another festival where they won't be expecting a Villain and you should do quite well.
I really enjoyed this quite a bit. You should be very happy with it and I expect you to do well in this Fest.

PS - The little girl did an admirable job. The lead sucked me in as well. Nice pacing too.
You could always let a few shots linger a bit longer in the end to really send the message home. That's the only big change I would suggest.

Congrats.
 
Thanks everyone for all the great feedback, it is incredibly helpful. This is what i love about DVXfest, to me its like a test screening for filmmakers. So now i know what needs work and what did work and can fix it before i send it off to other festivals. Thanks guys.
 
Nemesis TS said:
This was really good. The acting was superb. I didn't care for the fight scene it was too slow and felt staged. It must be super difficult to pull off great fight scenes, I want to try and shoot one. The hand held camera work in the beginning was bit too shaky too.

It looked amazing, the lighting was great and the whole movie felt big budget to me. Really well done you are a top notch film maker. The above is nit picky, my only real complaint is that it ended so abrupt. I wanted more! There is a bigger story and I wanted all 90 or so minutes of it. Very well done.

Oh and thanks, my wife walked in while I was watching it and she said its tough to compete when the other movies look like that. She then asked what camera did he use? As my bottom lip trembled I said... mine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words.

As for the camera, i thought you shot yours on the 5D? I shot on the AF100. I used the 5D for my BTS. I was using the 5D as my main camera, but since getting the AF its been downgraded to BTS and stills camera.
 
galbach said:
Great Work! I really loved the color on the opening shots.. very Filmic! The Audio was fantastic (I would like to know about the equipment used) I did feel the interior shots were a little saturated for my taste however that is only my opinion and we know what they are like ;). Anyway..I think you are avery talented Filmmaker and will be very successful in this biz... So keep it up! I look forward to seeing more of your work!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments.

Not sure how much there is to tell you about the audio gear... Rode NTG3 mic recording directly into the AF100 for dialogue, and into Zoom H4n recorder for foley, then edited in Final Cut Pro.
 
I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences in the BTS video. It's always nice to see the set and the crew at work.
 
For the first minute, nothing happened. I know you are trying to set things up, but geez, it's a 6-minute film. I suppose I just don't like characters walking, sitting, waiting that first 60 seconds (or near minute). Mugging scene was forced and not believable.

When he was first captured he didn't even say a single word. Not believable. If you remove the first half and just go to the second part of the film that's when it works. The exchange between father and daughter was very good. Did I get the story? Uh, no. I really didn't get it. I liked the 2nd half but this film I think fell short in a lot of storytelling areas. Props for the little girl.
 
Nice locations good acting for the most part. I too kinda felt like WTH just happened. More set up and less slow mo lame fighting and this coulda been a lot better. Good job.
 
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