Fear

Hi Mike,

I finally saw "Fear". Sorry it took so long, life has been kinda crazy lately!

I liked it! I thought the ending was perfect. Fear does paralyze, even those with the best of intentions. The survival instinct is very strong. Of course fear can be overcome, given the right motivation. Had the girl in the chair been his wife or child, he would've reacted differently, I'm sure. A theme worthy of discussion.

I knew you could do comedy, but now this?! Good job.

Cheers,
Glenn
 
I really liked this. The salesman paralyzed at the end reminded me of Upham in Saving Private Ryan, who was in the same situation. Where you expect characters in movies to always react to violence, being paralyzed is a reaction as well. Good job.
 
I agree with the plot being fine at the end - being paralyzed is also a reaction. What I lacked, though, was (visual?) emphasis on the salesman - while he was clearly shown as a self-assured macho-type at the beginning - I lacked his contrastive perspective at the end. You could have shown him paralyzed in a few alternating shots over the victim's or killer's shoulder, e.g., sort of what you did with the statue of the eagle. Plus, I would definitely add quick and short close-ups of him (the salesman) - after all, if he was the main "rat in the cage" on whom we were supposed to see and experience FEAR and if the plot's point was to show the inability to react when confronted with extreme fear - then that's the feeling I missed.

I use the "ifs" because the film didn't make me sure of that... While watching it, I didn't feel the fear - and it's not that I am so tough or brave - it's that the film missed the right note in me.

In the opening sequence, only after the second viewing, did I understand she was jogging - I was mislead to think it was her car (plus the slow mo wasn't shot in 60i, was it? - wouldn't've made it smoother?) So to avoid such confusion, I would just add a panning shot of her jogging through the woods or something like that (but now she's abroad..)

As for technicals, I definitely agree with ESTEBEVERDE - footsteps (albeit soft) would have added a lot more. After all - and because the music was so loud - how was the salesman supposed to hear the creep coming when he said so (this and the killer's words about choosing were hardly audible - might be my equipment). But what I missed abut sound the most was the "body sounds" of the salesman - like heavy shallow breathing while descending the stairs and especially at the end - Jon Starr earlier said fear is "heart pounding, body sweating, etc." - that's exactly what I think too - why then not elaborate on that and show and let us hear that paralyzing FEAR?

To sum up, I think the film has great potential and after some modifications has great chances of succeeding in directing my attention and emotions - that's what a director's job is after all - through directing his crew, DIRECT VIEWER'S ATTENTION AND STEER THEIR EMOTIONS.

I may well be wrong about all these, however, since I haven't made my first film yet. Just 2 cents from a couch critic... :))))

all the best,
darek
 
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