Envision & 235 Studios - "R.E.M."

Envision said:
We needed to have feet in the bed on the reverse angle when showing Rebecca's character at the door ... Patrick was MORE than willing to volunteer to be in the bed
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Yeah, thanks for jumping in Patrick- that saved a lot of time not only on set, but in post to, as I did not have to comp that shot. :dankk2:
 
Wow! Very slick production! Great music and suspense!!!

I loved the clock flipping over to midnight when she was back in the bed. Great job of making that visable without focusing on it.

Rebecca did a great job of running around scared in a room full of crew! I believed her fear.

All and all, I thought this was so well done. And I love that the story was simple. It didn't get heavy or complex. It acheived it's purpose!

Again, great production values! I want to attain this level!!!

UPDATED>>> my typos!
 
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Thanks Ted! Wasn't until this post that I even knew the films were ready to view yet, lol!

Now I know what I'll be doing for most of the night tonight ... can't wait to watch yours as well, and I'll look forward to commenting on it by sometime tomorrow! :thumbsup:
 
Envision and 235,
As always, your production levels are solid, congrats.

Some highlights for me
1. The woman being dragged into the room, and then up the wall, very unnatural looking, very creepy.
2. Great Camerawork and great look from the HVX.
3. Great Facial expressions and fear from your lead.

Look forward to seeing what you guys are cooking up for the future.
 
Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.

Norm... Norm... Norm. I'll be dead honest: I'm not a fan of your work. I will say that from now on I'll look forward to seeing what you produce. This was simple, your visuals were effective and your style seemed to leap clean over Sparrow ( I haven't seen the DVD version, sorry.) My review to follow.

Script - I totally lost the story, just that she was sleeping about it all and then woke up to the real thing. Did I see something wrong on both run throughs or miss some imporant dialogue in the phone conversation? I don't think the writing really "counts" in this one though. It's the presentation.

Direction - NICE shots going on dude. From the kitchen to the staircase to the bedroom. Doll down the hall was smooth and totally fit the feeling. Very nice timing going on, Norm. You got a "whoa" out of me. Not like that counts for anything.

Acting - Running and screaming, screaming and running. She did pretty well running around in next-to-nothing. And she seemed pretty scary. I love the part where she gets pulled up the wall. It seemed like there should've really been more emphasis on that.

Cine/Lighting - Well lit. Better than anything else I've seen from you, to be honest. Dunno if you lit it or not but it's pretty darned good. Eerie blue light and smoke works for me. Very clean shots, which make it look like she's just moved in which works for me! Phitt.

Editing - Clean cuts to sew the shots together. There was one cut that stood out as "off". When the shadow crosses from one room to another it seems to hang just a second too long. Otherwise, Nothing I could see wrong but then again, this ain't my field.

Sound - Soundtrack was fine for the quick paced thrill/scare. Heck, you're the first one to do the volume crank scare effect and it caught me off-guard at the kitchen sink. You got me.

Special Effects - Eerie blue smoke was neat. How'd you get the chic up the wall like that? Or did she have to practice standing sideways and such? Whatver it was, it was neato. Though I guess I wanted her to get ripped apart at that point as well. I didn't like the translucent shadow thing going on. Looked too flat. But I know what you were going for.

Scariest Moments - Chic hanging on the wall. Did I say that enough? Oh and the loud whisper and noises. Way to blow my eardrums out.

Overall consensus - I watched it all the way through. The four + minutes went quick for me and I didn't even realize it. A great improvement, Norm. Might mean nothing coming from me, but I think you stepped all over Sparrow. Thanks for showcasing.
 
hybridtheory said:
Envision and 235,
As always, your production levels are solid, congrats.

Some highlights for me
1. The woman being dragged into the room, and then up the wall, very unnatural looking, very creepy.
2. Great Camerawork and great look from the HVX.
3. Great Facial expressions and fear from your lead.

Look forward to seeing what you guys are cooking up for the future.
Click to expand...

Hybrid, I appreciate you watching it! Thanks for the compliment to cast & crew as well. We weren't looking to knock the ball out of the park, since we did this on total spur of the moment & one night to shoot, but glad folks are liking it nonetheless. We did want to do well with what we had to work with, and it's sounding like we've succeeded so far.

Downloading the films as fast as I can now, so I can have my own little horrorfest tonight! :thumbsup:

Kholi said:
Norm... Norm... Norm. I'll be dead honest: I'm not a fan of your work. I will say that from now on I'll look forward to seeing what you produce. This was simple, your visuals were effective and your style seemed to leap clean over Sparrow ( I haven't seen the DVD version, sorry.) My review to follow.
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Kholi, I REALLY appreciate the depth of your review/comments. Seriously, thank you! :dankk2: That said, I'm lost on your opening comment. You're STILL not a fan of my work, or weren't up until this point? Only asking because all in all the review seems fairly positive, and you're saying you're looking forward to future productions from me, so just trying to understand. :huh:

Oh yeah, and the DVD is SOOOO much better (for SPARROW) than just that little DVXuser cut we did for the contest.

Anyway, we did light this. Tung did a great job, as he did with SPARROW, and had some cool ideas. The blue light came specifically from a $25 fog machine purchased from PartyCity that same evening, and a projector he brought with him that put out a cool light once the menu wasn't displayed. :)

Seems like people are digging how she got up the wall ... we'll you can thank the small of my back for that one! Meaning, I was on the other side of the door & had my arms out in front of me trying to lift her straight off the floor up the door way. Rebecca's by no means a heavy gal (easily 115lbs or less), but it was a really awkward angle, and my back was feeling it. Thankfully we only did that take 2-3 times at most.

The dolly shot down the hall was all Ryan. Thanks Ryan! I just tapped his back to let him know when he was going to run out of room.

Glad you liked the sound design, etc. That was something that was fun to do, basically having Rebecca do some ADR, and then just playing around with it in Vegas ... those high pitch 'panting' sounds, etc. really freak me out, so I thought they'd work well for an 'edge' in the film.

Justin did a great job with the score. The guy is PHENOMENAL with larger than life epic scores, and just all around good ... but the images we had weren't really all that scary in and of themselves, so for the final draft of the music he told me he was going to just have to do it with his eyes closed & imagine the scare, lol! Then he could sync it up to the picture, etc. Great work, Justin, thanks!

Ryan also did a great job with the initial rough cut, and there was VERY little that we had to change for our final edit when he & I sat down together with our Baja Fresh dinners ... just some tweaks for timing, etc. I know what you mean about that spot where the shadow passes ... I'd mentioned it before, but we were on such a tight timeline I may not have communicated well, or just didn't have the time to fix it. It was the level of motion blur & supersampling, and the point at which they came into play, that makes that one spot look 'slightly' off for some. Jerry Turner (fixitinpost) has just offered to rotoscope & clean up the section where she's pulled down the hall (to get rid of the rope shadow), so perhaps this is something we can tweak for the DVD as well.

Again, thanks for the feedback folks, and specifically to you Kholi for such a detailed review!
 
I am saying that I'll keep an eye out in the future. Sorry for the confusion. And thanks for reading.
 
Hmmm, so even with all those positive comments, you're still not a fan?! You're tough, man ... I enjoy the challenge. :grin:
 
Ted & Hybrid,

Thanks for the comments, I'm glad you liked it. We had fun putting it together.

Kholi,

Thanks for the detailed feed back, much appreciated.


Tung did a great job lighting- as I think he did with Sparrow. Personally I still like sparrow better then REM, but if you've only seen the DVX fest cut, then I can see why you would prefer REM.
 
Envision said:
Hmmm, so even with all those positive comments, you're still not a fan?! You're tough, man ... I enjoy the challenge. :grin:
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Hey now. Gotta win a few games before you can get fans. >=D

Kidding. Honestly, you guys did a great job on this one. I'll be on the look out from another Collab from this team in the next fest.
 
Just checked this out. Niiiccce work.

Script - Cool idea. I liked it. You managed to achieve a lot having just one person acting. Nice job.

Directing - Strong. Nice work - some very good and interesting shots and everything was smooth...Good job. :)

Acting - Nice job Rebecca! You did a great job.

Cinematography/Lighting: Cool stuff! well lit and good job..that smoke with the blue light worked very nicely!

Editing: Nicely done. Very smooth, and fitted together nicely..very good job. Great timing/pace.

Sound: cool sound effects...liked the sounds in the kitchen..I think personally I would've gone with something more subtle and less 'busy' but you certainly got me with the sudden loud sound...nice. :)

Score: Another good job Justin. Very dark, very appropriate...well done.

LOVED the opening credits with that flickering stuff..I loved that. I'm being picky but I didn't like how the "R.E.M" carried into the first shot...maybe it's just me. Overall great work! Very enjoyable and great BTS too.

Looking foward to more...all your stuff so far has been very good to watch, and as an aspiring filmmaker I can say that I really like what you guys are doing...and hopefully one day soon I'll be able to submit a short here at DVXUser.

Cheers for the inspiration guys.

-Chris
 
Dude Should Have Paid More Attention To Your Movie And Bought Some Close For The Chick! Guess You Spent It All On Lighting Equiptment Huh!
 
Kholi, Thanks for the in depth review! I appreciate the feedback.


Chris, thanks for the compliment. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.


"Movie Master"- LOL. Do you have any idea how much time was spent on deciding wardrobe? Exhausting!

Rebecca
 
LOL! K, enough about the wardrobe GUYS ... let's hear the good, bad & ugly on the film itself, both the talent in front of the lens & behind it.

Sheesh! :grin:

That said, we did set out with wanting the film to catch some attention, knowing most of the audience would be guys, so we've succeeded ... thanks to Rebecca agreeing to the role & choice of wardrobe. Thank you, Rebecca. :beer:

Beyond that, you also did a great job acting ... didn't have a whole lot in the way of story & script/dialogue to work with, yet you made it work!
 
Envision said:
That said, we did set out with wanting the film to catch some attention, knowing most of the audience would be guys, so we've succeeded ... thanks to Rebecca agreeing to the role & choice of wardrobe. Thank you, Rebecca. :beer:

Beyond that, you also did a great job acting ... didn't have a whole lot in the way of story & script/dialogue to work with, yet you made it work!
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It did take a bit of persuasion for the wardrobe, LOL! Glad it all worked out, and looking forward to seeing more of these films.
 
Rebecca's on dial-up still, can you believe it! Everyone at the same time ... Ewww! LOL. Kidding.

I'm going to throw some films onto a usb flash drive for her & get them to her tomorrow ... though she can't vote because she's got less than 100 posts on DVXuser, she's itching to watch & comment on them!

Just gotten through several myself & going back to watch more. Got some ringers in this fest! :thumbsup:
 
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