Dissonance - a j.r. hudson reel

From the grabs this film looks visually stunning. I love the almost candy-like color saturation. It's nice to see something so stylized. Can't wait to see more!
 
Echo that!
I am excited to see John's submission. To me watching a John's picture is kind of like watching a Clint Eastwood movie.
 
Oh yeah? Well i think John is a scoundrel and a brigand!!! How dare you sully this noble festival with your drivel of a film!! How dare you sir!!

:)
 
John, add me to the fanclub. I'm excited to see what you were able to do, no matter how ghetto. :smile:
I respect the will to do it, particularly in nearly one-man-band mode!

I'm gonna throw my hat into the next one. It's all your fault!
 
John_Hudson said:
Whew

Wrapped and delivered

and just done with it

-

I am already ready for the next one
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nice! its like sitting on needles to see all these films. ive particularily been a fan of the JH collection so far, and im sure this one will be no exception.
 
OOOh John! You mispeeled my name in the credits. What... were you up till like 4:00 in the mornin working on this or something? :) Oh well.

if anyone would like to score:
"Dissonance"

cheers!
/j
 
What is up with the color in this one? it looks wierd... Also the blurry backgrounds look like wierd greenscreen. Loved the kids acting. Lighting in the hospital was cool....I'll go deeper later..
 
Will write more tomorrow, I am off to a mis-timed Murder Mystery dinner, but JH, I thought this was really solid work. One thing I will note before I go is I like the LENGTH of the scenes. You weren't afraid to just let the actors do their work.

More tomorrow.
 
So I watched it, and I don't get it. The credits rolled and I thought "wtf?". The hospital scenes looked absolutely amazing. The acting is great although it's tough to pull off something this deep with no build up (it felt like this needed to be the last 6 minutes of a feature). I still don't know what happened, was the end part of the young dad just symbology (i.e. He invisioned his own death) or did he really die?
 
John,

I felt for the story. I felt like you as a director were taking it very seriously, and in a good way. There were moments when the actors expressions and dialog turned me off. I think the weakest part of this film was the actors. The old father especially seemed so detached emotionally from his son. There was no real struggle to speak. I didn't feel death nearing him in his performance.

After "You should probably take this call" the expression on the Son's face seemed forced. I think it would have been better if he'd grabbed the phone all willy nilly like discrediting the woman's advice. Then let the expression drain from his face in a CU shot. I think the main guy is a good actor, but this role may not have suited him. I'd love to see him in some comedy from seeing the BTS footage doing Arnie.

I was also confused because didn't he fall forward? Then at the overhead shot he's on his back? I think if he had a heart attack, he's not going to be rolling over.

The hospital mis en scene was, in my opinion, some of the best elements of this film. I liked the push in shot to the fence of the women's faces after the man finds out about his father.
 
I liked it a lot. It's good to see you tackle something that doesn't have a zombie in it. :)

I actually thought that the old man was the strongest part of the film. I felt that his performance was right on target. He came off as a sort of sorrowed, but unrepentant character, kind of like he wanted to be a good father, but in the end he had a good life and if he wasn't such a great dad, what the heck? Maybe I'm reading too much into a six minute film, but that's really what the dialog and performance left me with in that character and I thought it was great. And dying to a Doors lyric. That's the way I want to go!

The other comment I want to makes is about the fence at the beginning of the film. Again, only having six minutes limited you, but I picked up some dissonance between the husband and wife character as well. I'd love to know the back story here, but in a very short time you illustrated that beautifully with the use of the fence. There's always something coming between the husband and wife in the film. Even when she hands him the cell phone there's this sheet of permiated metal between them. Then at the end, they're seperated by the hospital bed. Really interesting.

Good film.
 
Thanks Aaron (and everyone thus far who has commented)

I took some chances on this piece and failed to get certain shots, and even shots I got just did not work out like I hoped.

The jist of the film, is that the younger man is the one who passes away but the hospice scene is actually in his own mind ....

I suppose with more time and planning, I could have gotten this point across better ?

I tried to tell this story with minimal camera set ups as well as visually; turning off the volume, I think, still tells the same story ...

I wanted to use dolly, panning, tilting, minor zooms and P.O.V.'s to tell this stroy and I did not want a single HAND HELD shot in the piece as, my experience in the past has led me to believe that too much hand held is lazy and an easy way to go.

I enjoyed the process on this one and am somewhat pleased but as usual still questing to find my own style and my own voice in film. I feel a bit behind the curve as of late with my general lack of making movies and hope to make up for lost 'fests' (Horrorfest, Scifest, Herofest) in 2007 !

-

I am thankful for every one that has taken the time to watch it and appreciate all of the commentary and questions.

I'd like to look back at this film a year from now and hoepfully show some strong growth.

Lessons learned?

Stronger story
Realize the shots and don't settle
Rehearsal
Stonger Pre-Vis
At least one other crew person (LOL)

=

ANyways

THanks Aaron !
 
And dying to a Doors lyric. That's the way I want to go!
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OMG

Yes. I wondered who would pick this up. Bravo!

The other comment I want to makes is about the fence at the beginning of the film. Again, only having six minutes limited you, but I picked up some dissonance between the husband and wife character as well. I'd love to know the back story here, but in a very short time you illustrated that beautifully with the use of the fence. There's always something coming between the husband and wife in the film. Even when she hands him the cell phone there's this sheet of permiated metal between them. Then at the end, they're seperated by the hospital bed. Really interesting.
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Yes yes yes

I looked at many ballfields and chose this for 3 reasons:

1. Green grass in WInter
2. 4 identical ballfields in one location to use against the light form the sun

and

3. The fence that separated the Mother and husband !

Tks for the insight !
 
Story & Acting
John, I think this is a pretty well crafted story. However, it did take me several times watching it to understand that it was the son who actually died and not his dad. That is right, right? LOL. I thought overall the acting was pretty good. I thought the look on the son’s face was a little overdone when his wife said he should take the call. But overall a decent story. Kind of didn’t feel a good payoff though.

Technical
Honestly, I was expecting some really nice stuff from the grabs you posted earlier. The shots were just ok. I just don’t like that Letus grain very much, and I felt a lot of your shots could have used some nice color grading. The best stuff here shot-wise was the hospital stuff. That was awesome! Also, the sound was quite weird quality, I am thinking this was the compression though. Editing was pretty good.
 
John_Hudson said:
...
The jist of the film, is that the younger man is the one who passes away but the hospice scene is actually in his own mind ....
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I got it 100%. Sometimes its hard to tell though if it is just there in the film or if I just figured it out, because my story rubics cube is always working while watching these things. I knew that it wouldn't be just straight forward because you know that doesn't work so great in a short - leaves you with a "yes and?" feeling. But all the clues make sense to me ... "haven't seen you cry in 20 years" the guy falling when his father flatlined, the mirroring of his position with the fathers, the mirroring of the mother son position with his in the hospital.

I know you wanted to turn the visual volume down a notch, but we have to remember that's what this medium is and I think some of the previs you talk about could have helped clarify the story by developing a vocabulary that clarified that things were in his head by the end of the film. This is not just a simple "how the family handled this death" straightforward story - this story moves in and out of subjective realities and that will certainly call on your best visual chops to tell that story.


Also I think if we ever saw the main character as disoriented or confused by his reality, that would have clarified it as well.

Not sure what was up with the green screen shots - they were distracting - perhaps a necessity due to scheduling or weather?

Nice work John, and I admire how you consider yourself a student and all of this a learning process - and see screening your work as part of that process. There are filmmakers who are pretty far along who could benefit from that attitude.

hats off, :thumbsup: will comeback with more that I liked later, this was just off the top of my head based on what's being discussed here right now. :beer:
 
The color was distracting, it looked like a Michael Bay movie. The hsopital scene looked good. Acting wasnt bad. You sons a good batter. :)

B+
 
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