Desperation - Andrew Kang

watched it once, definite parts that i liked. I'm gonna watch it again and go more indepth on my opinions. Good work though.
 
either i'm thick or the events of what lead to this are unclear. some nice photographic moments to be sure. the violence was shocking from a visceral standpoint, but i'm not sure what end. it didn't move me, or repulse me. the woman is too easy to hate. i dont know if this was done to soften the main character's actions with some sort of justification, but it would have been more interesting to see the same outcome between two people at odds who BOTH were trying to do the right thing.
 
I can't watch your movie. The pictures start jumping at 01:42 then the whole screen turns green. What codec did you use?
 
Zak Forsman said:
it would have been more interesting to see the same outcome between two people at odds who BOTH were trying to do the right thing.
Click to expand...

I agree with Zak on that. But, the film is what it is. Here are my thoughts:

The structure worked out well. I liked opening on the violent act (thus taking sympathy away from the murderer), then slowly revealing the “justification” for it (returning SOME sympathy to him). A nice twist on the twist. Moral gray areas are alllllways fun. Definitely the most violent and “****” filled film yet. Both of which are fine, but the massive and unending use of the word **** brought me out of it now and again.

Really dug the organ trade aspect.

The film looked great. Only thing is, I would have liked to see some more variation in shots and locations. It had a very cramped feeling, which worked for the film, but it also made it seem like there was just wasn’t much to the sets. But that might just be me.

Keep up the good work!
 
Gotta say I really liked the imagery, lighting looked good except for when you're sitting on the floor and the camera dollies back.

Didn't get the story line, I'll watch it again. Did not like the in your face violence in the beginning, I think that type of thing is better left up to the audience to imagine. but hey, that's just me.

cheers,

JP
 
After one viewing, I'll admit that the storyline lost me. I think it's because I missed chunks of dialogue from the phone conversation. Having looked over it a bit, the film makes more sense to me now.

You created a hell of a violent scene for the opening.

Your film made me think about storytelling devices like phone conversations. For briefly interjecting bits of information, or bridging the gap between scenes, I think that overlayed phone conversations can be useful. But I think they should be used with extreme caution. It's always more interesting to witness something take place. I felt like we needed a bit more connection with the events in the film.

The look of the film was solid.

Congratulations on your Timefest entry.
 
I am still trying to get the phone conversations they are very garbled and the only thing I can make out are a lot of cussing but no real information. I have watched it twice. i like the violence and the story seems good but the male lead seems to be lacking something. The female lead comes on too strong and the overall explanation is lost somewhere in all the ciaos. I wold like to see a directors cut with better phone conversations and different locations. But overall I did like it.
 
I like the story a lot because of the full reversal of how I feel about the two characters. I like the setting.. I thought it was created an interesting look rather than bland walls somewhere. Maybe more could have been done in how you shot it to show that reversal of character.

I didn't buy the stabbing scene... I think to have shown less would have been more.. let the audience imagine more.

maybe a quick flash of his brother in the hospital would sell it better.

I found the excessive swearing in the dialog distracting rather than taking me deeper into the intensity

Overall I felt this film had great emotional impact... reminded me of the remorse of Judas.
 
SPOILERS

Sorry, didn't do it for me.


It came across as glorified Grand Theft Auto, with violence for the sake of violence, racist comments that added nothing to the film, and a preponderance of Mo Fo.

Certainly some nice technical qualities, but I couldn't get past the violence.


Alex
 
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Cant say I agree with you alex, but some say tomato etc.

I thought this had a solid basis for a storyline that was almost there. I do agree with the mofo stuff alex mentioned, but not because I dont think its realistic. The phone call was hard to hear, so personally I would have shot this in native tongue and subbed it. Then the message is clear (I know some people who cant stand subs though). Or you could just make an adjustment to the effects you used for this.

I liked the way you tried to run the story. With the murder first and then running as back to the cause. I thought she acted pretty well.

There were some photographic moments, and some so so out of focus spots that just didnt play for me.

Congrats on getting something done and doing a solid job.
 
Agree on the good acting by the woman. She could easily be on the big screen.

I should probably keep my mouth shut when I don't like something, as this is no place for negative comments. As mentioned, no matter the content, it's still an accomplishment that deserves recognition.


While watching it I thought this is probably very realistic, in that when the adrenaline is pumping, and you're fighting for your life, you may not even know you've been stabbed twenty times, until it finally takes its toll.

That said, however, I ran out of stomach for the cutting and slashing of women back in the good 'ol Kruger days.

Now if it had been the other way around ....

alex
 
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I would have liked to see some of the phone conversation play out on screen. Bringing another actor into this project would have helped a lot I think. But you used the device pretty well.

Audio was an issue, but that's been covered.

Congrats on your entry.
 
A pretty gripping film that didn't really work for me. That level of violence and swearing is always going to appear gratuitous unless the film is pretty perfect, I think. I agree with most of the criticisms about audio, telling the story through a phone conversation (which i didn't really get), script etc. so I won't go into them further.

I did think the photography was mostly good and the acting was excellent. The film certainly did have a lot of energy in it and would definitely have possibilities if it was hammered into shape.
 
Man...I couldn't handle the stabbing. It was quite realistic and the actress was great though. The story did not move well for me and I couldn't understand what was going on. I thought parts worked well, but if some studying on pacing and storytelling arcs was done the next movie could be even better. The cussing felt forced and excessive to me as well. Congrats on the entry!
 
I thought this had good cinematography throughout. The acting was good (especially on the part of the female). The way the story was executed made the whole thing a bit confusing. Non-linear storytelling can work really well if handled right, but if not it can be hard to follow. That was one problem I had with this. You didn't use the whole time limit, so I think some bettwer development and/or detail could have been used. Also, I felt that there was a lot of cursing for the sake of cursing. Especially from the guy on the phone (?) it felt overly done and non-realistic.

Well done though, besides. Best of luck!
 
I too thought the story had potential and that the general and the reversal were interesting... gruesome and disturbing, but with the character twist... intereting. My biggest issue was that you really just held on your guy in the end for far too long while the cell phone did the rest. Is struggle showed on his face somewhat, but with some creative editing and cutting back and fourth between images of his motivation and his struggle in the last scene... By cutting in shots/flashes, they can be fairly abstract shots, but something that will help the viewer get into this guy mind and on his side... well I feel that something along those lines would help sell the idea.

Just as a personal matter of taste I think profanity is relied on to much and often acts as a crutch for a story. This is a very disturbing topic that could seriously provoke people and even move people to the motivation of this young man, but the constant F-Bombs just seemed to dilute the message for me and makes it hard to take the characters serious.

In short, I found this disturbing... that must've been your intent so you achieved one goal there, but to find any redeeming value out of this young man, you need to give the viewer more than just a voice on the phone. Sure, the woman had little if any redeeming value, but I found myself feeling for her a bit because you didn't give me enough to care about this young man.

I hope some of that was useful. I think you did a good job and it was intense. Please keep at it, you obviously have some strong messages to share, just remember that most of the time it is better to show than tell. A picture is worth a thousand words. Keep going... I look forward to what you come up with next!
 
Great bookend scenes to open and close with. At least near the beginning and end.

The stabbing scene was brutal and very effective. Very raw and realistic.
Acting was pretty good as well. I liked the lighting choices for the most part.

You have some natural talent! Keep at it.

Mike
 
Great location ... the opening/closing scene .... where did you shoot this?

I was really pleased with your camera work. I see you're local. You should come out to one of our shoots and get to meet more of the DVXUSER family here in L.A.
 
Hey man,

First and foremost, welcome to the fest. Try not to get addicted to it. It'll ruin (or enhance, depending how you look at it) your life.

Just caught the flick. I thought the shots were good, the cinematography good (though it felt dark at times), the pure shock value of the stabbing was great, and I liked the structure of the piece.

My big complaint with this piece is it's over-reliance on race to get to what it wants. Sure, the "Mother F-ers" are a bit tiresome, but I can see the artistic/authenticity merits of using them. Maybe a tad on the overused side, but you gotta reflect what these people are like, right?
Unfortunately I wouldn't say the same thing about the refereces to race. Sure she says "I could buy your whole country" but I don't think that needs to be there. Is this a movie about a power struggle or a race struggle or both? I don't think it's a race thing, even though you use the words, cause it could have been any other two people and would have worked the same. I guess what I'm saying is that if you want to go there, to use those highly charged words and themes, the story needs to back it up or your just going to polarize people and you run the risk of pitting your audience against your lead character or, worse yet, you as a film maker.

Otherwise, I like the film and I'm glad that you didn't try to stretch it to 6 when the amount of time you used was fine.

Keep up the good work. Hope to see more from you.
 
Hey guys,

Sorry for the late response. I got caught up with work.

Thank you guys so much for all the reviews. I am definitely taking the time to read through all of them and thinking everything through. I've been out for a while and I don't even know where to begin.

Mark Johnson: I shot everything in East LA at a clothes factory that I used to work at. I would love to come out to your shoots and meet all the other DVXusers.

***Spoilers***

Danielleus: I wanted to portray the class differences not only in terms of money but also in terms of race. As much as we would love to deny it, racism does exist, even within the minorities. Even though the majority of us would like to deny the fact that we do not have a racist bone in our body, when we lose our cool, we do tend to aim for that route because we know that it will hurt the other person. In the original script, I wanted to keep true to the Organ Trade that still continues on today in Asia where the exact same thing is happening to the less fortunate. However, due to the ever changing cast/crew/budget/script that we are oh so familiar with, I thought it would be a good opportunity to slip in the race issue as well.

Despite all that, I do have to agree with Danielleus. In hindsight, I think I tried to pack too much in such a small time period without any real foundations to support everything. I can also see how such sensitive materials could definitely turn the audiences for the worst.

Phone Call: I wanted to try a different way of telling a story. Initially, I thought that the whole phone thing was a good idea. As a viewer, I find myself concentrating more during a static shot with a voiceover. I thought that perhaps, using the same technique with the phone call would help the viewers concentrate more on what was being said without any distractions. In a feature film, a small section would have been effective but I now realize that in a short, the phone call really isn't the best method; especially if the whole story was based upon that one conversation. The bad audio didn't help one bit I think. A film is a visual medium and I think I lost sight of that.

Brutal Stabbing: I did not want the stabbing scene to be left up to the viewers to imagine. Generally, I realized that when things that are usually unpleasant such as death, is left up to the viewers, the viewers tends to glorify the whole event. If proof is needed, a lot of the younger kids have a misconception of killing and murder. To them, the whole subject matter is nothing but a really really cool thing. From my experiences, murder is not something that is cool, nor should it be glorified in any matter. I wanted to return the reality and the brutality of killing somebody. Yes it is a bit in your face, and yes it is a bit gruesome but I feel that it does make its point.

The never ending F-Bomb: Like Danielleus said, I wanted to bring a sense of authenticity to the film. Once again, pulling from my past experiences... the F-word is used in every single sentence. No Joke. The thing is, even though it is one word, the way that it is said can change the whole meaning of the word. Now I do admit, I may have gone overboard with the cursing. I guess for the next film, I'll have to cut down (a lot?) to make the film a bit more mainstream and marketable.

***End Spoilers***

Thank you guys so much for watching the films. The post above is not meant to offend anybody. I just wanted to share my insight regarding some of the decisions that I have made when making this film. Please feel free to share your thoughts as well as some suggestions that would help become a better filmmaker.

Once again, thank you guys so much for all your support and your reviews. I appreciate all of the things that you guys have to say.

Andrew Kang

**Sorry for the super long post...I haven't been on for a while.**
 
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