Face of Fear | A Pixel!nk Production

My criticisms: There were a few spots where the dialog occurring seemed forced. Of course, knowing the end and watching again, it makes more sense, but I think there were spots where you could have kept the ending hidden while keeping the dialog about it more realistic. There was one continuity error (or maybe it wasn't an error but it came off that way to me)... she moved the dresser in front of the door, but then next time we see her, it's been moved back. For some reason, it bothered me.

My compliments: There was definitely mostly GOOD about your film. NO ONE in our viewing party predicted the ending... we had some guesses along the way, but none of us were right. And we all LOVED it overall. The set you built was a perfect "feel" for where we ended up at the end. Your use of the bat was excellent (though she didn't seem to swing it as naturally as your demonstrations in the BTS stuff). It looked terrific and the lighting and music were just perfect. The end was such a grand surprise that we were all left saying "that's COOOOL" when it was over.
 
I liked the twist at the end. Very Twilight Zone indeed...

The actress really portrayed the mania wonderfully. Also the cinematic elements along with the music supported the story strongly.
 
Spoilers Below

Chris Messineo said:
My only thought/suggestion is that the bat felt a tiny bit forced - I didn't imagine a woman like this in an environment like that keeping a bat under the bed. I know the bat was a requirement, but I think it might have been cool if she actually beat at the glass with her fists, but that is a very small suggestion for a great film.
Click to expand...

That is a very good point, we didn't think of it that way when we put it there. To vindicate the writer, he originally wrote that she goes into a closet, and we hear her rummaging around, then she emerges with a bat. To add a closet to the scene would require building another room, and so to save on cost we opted to put the bat under the bed, but we never thought of the impact of coming out like that. I really like the fist idea, if we hadn't tore down the set I wold go shoot that for an alternate take. Very good input Thank You.


Chris_Keaton said:
Hah, I liked this one. When she broke the fake window I thought you took my TZ story idea where the person turns out to be a pet. When the guy talked and the hand shadow went across the window I was sure you did. :) Then she was hidden in the picture. Don't worry Twilight Zone did just about everything. The bat thing did look real. Great work.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link to the video? Very curious now to see the similarities.



ZazaCast said:
I wondered about the editing and the breaks in the film...felt a little too long and almost made it more theatre-ish to me...like the acts of a play. The only thing that bugged me was when she first picks up the phone and we hear the 'phone off the hook' sound, it doesn't go away when she plays with the hook switch...
Click to expand...

I see what you mean by theatre-ish, it does kinda come off that way. About the phone that was a note for the sound, but wasn't corrected in time to upload, good catch on that.

Charli said:
I wish somehow the story had been a bit better than it was. I just couldn't get into it. I couldn't get into the music... I would have liked more layers...
Click to expand...

If you find some time can you please expand more on these ideas. I would like to hear what elements you felt needed work, maybe a couple suggestions on what you would have liked to see instead. Thank you.

There were a couple inquiries about the bureau being moved to the door and then just appearing back in place (both here and and to other people we showed this to). What we intended was for the painting to "reset" to it's default look after each scene, represented by the fades (like a passage of time). We needed her in her default place every time someone looked in the window to see her.

We are really happy that you found this good and are very thankful for your criticisms. We had a lot of fun making this, and learned a lot with some of the challenges we were faced with. Maria will be happy to hear your good comments on her acting, she loved doing this, she usually gets casted as a zombie or something of the like, and she loved stretching her legs on a role that could show her other talents in acting. Personally I was amazed at watching her turn on the waterworks on cue then shift them off with ease.
 
Great end. Didn't see it coming. Thought it would be some virtual reality thing. I liked the set and the actress. She had one line, it was something like "I'm not an object to sell..." or close to that - and I thought her delivery of that line was off. But other than that I really enjoyed it.
 
Nice little short with a clever twist, I didn't see it coming so well done there. My main issue with this was I found it really tough to understand the voices outside the room. Also, you spend the entire time in the room up until about 4:30, then you suddenly go outside for a few quick shots. That felt weird, and it didn't really seem to go anywhere. I would have liked it to either stay in the room right until the end, or give a better mix of the two locations throughout. Great job on the make-up as well, overall this was quite well done. Thanks for putting it in.
 
Very good acting. The film held my attention the whole time. I like very much the unexpected end. It is like a small diamant. I enjoyed it very much. Compliments and good luck!

Susanne
 
Very well done. Great acting and the art gallery/human trafficking thing was a really good idea with a very successful reveal at the end. My one criticism was that some of the men's dialog was a little difficult to hear - I had to go back and listen a second time to catch it all. Doing that I did notice that some of this dialog was a little "mafioso-sounding" for an art gallery/dealer. They also sometimes referred to the paintings as "it" and sometimes as "she". I appreciate that you did this to give weight to the human trafficking idea but I wonder if you could have got away with always using "it" and a cool and sophisticated "gallery talk". Maybe it could have had an even more chilling "woman as object" effect. I'm nitpicking though - this was definitely one of the top films for me.
 
That was great. You spend most of your time thinking "thats inconsistant, whats that supposed to mean", then wham it ends and it all makes sense.

Excellent.
 
Bravo. You got me. It had a Dark Shadows meets Night Gallery thing going on... Like a lost BBC show. That added to it somehow for me. The idea was fun you foreshadowed it and I still never saw it coming. Loved her performance and the tricky dialog. I feel like such a perv now... Thanks. Ha ha. Only suggestion, put the bat in the painting. Bang up job.
 
lyonfilms said:
She had one line, it was something like "I'm not an object to sell..." or close to that - and I thought her delivery of that line was off.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you, to cut it down to 6 minutes we had to take a chunk out of the middle where she gets angry and decides to leave, just before she gets the bat. But all in all with out that lead up the line seems out of place

4100xpb said:
Also, you spend the entire time in the room up until about 4:30, then you suddenly go outside for a few quick shots. That felt weird, and it didn't really seem to go anywhere. I would have liked it to either stay in the room right until the end, or give a better mix of the two locations throughout.
Click to expand...

That was us trying to show there was an outside and trying to reveal more to the audience that there is a "regular" outside and not some kind of dungeon. Showing him on a cell phone also showed that she was in a lost time and that the world around her was in a modern setting. If more concerns come in about that we might think of ways to cut more in or take it out. Thank you.

MrFluffy said:
That was great. You spend most of your time thinking "thats inconsistant, whats that supposed to mean", then wham it ends and it all makes sense.
Excellent.
Click to expand...

Awesome that was the goal. We really wanted people to rewind it and watch it again to see the clues.


Anthony Todaro said:
I feel like such a perv now... Thanks. Ha ha.
Click to expand...

LOL. That line might go on the dvd cover, haha


Thank you everyone for giving the film high marks. We are glad to know you liked it. The entire crew is happy to hear their hard work is paying off. Thank You.
 
Congrats on making the 2nd round! You should get the whole cast & crew to sign that bat for ya.
 
Ahhh, pretty good. I'd never heard of you before so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Way better than I thought. The actress was really good.
And you caught me at he end. I couldn't figure out how you could possibly end this in the last moments but you gave me a pleasant surprise.

Not to give give way any spoilers but it was nice to see Mrs. Gray again. Pleasant surprise man. I enjoyed that one.
 
Ha. I quite liked this.

Some really nice touches made this a film which pulled you in and kept you hooked until the final shot. Kudos for that, and for making 1 location work in a way most would not think to use it.

It's one of those shorts that once you know the end, it doesn't really leave much to go back and re-watch; however for the first time ride it's fun. SPOLIER...I didn't figure out she was in a painting, but I thought she was in another reality of somekind. Just a ***** for her she didn't get painted having a picnic on the beach.

Loved the final transition out of the painting, I bet that wasn't easy.

A simple, atmospheric, but fun short. Well done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top