"Four" - A film by Amy Beth O'Brien

I loved this one right from the start. The beautiful intro set the tone and carried it through. I didn't feel that the pacing was slow.

When the ball came her way, I thought that she was playing with another child in another dimension, either a parallel self or an invisible friend, that would throw the ball back after a few seconds, but then the ball never cam back, so I dropped that idea... and I only figured out that she was in time-out just before it was revealed. Maybe I'm a little slow, and definitely don't have kids.



Magical!
 
A beautiful, simple film. Lovely use of light, great colours. It took me a little while to get that she was on "time out", but I think that's because it's rather an American thing (or maybe it's just too long since I've been around kids!). Did you edit to the music? I rather think not, but wonder whether you could have gained something had you done so (I liked the pacing and rhythm, but maybe there was something extra there for the taking?). Once again, beautiful work.
 
I'm always amazed at what people can read into films. I like your inter-dimensional playmate idea, Yeehawnow! That's awesome. I didn't go for something so "Outer Limits," but maybe if the next fest is a Halloween-theme. :)

Horncastle, thanks for your comments. You are right, I didn't cut to the music. I found a piece after the edit. I tweaked a few things, and timed the title sequence to the intro of the song, but that's about it. It fit pretty well for the most part. I plan on going over the edit later and will see if your suggestion helps. Glad you enjoyed it!
 
Finally got it to load!! Woo ha! And certainly worth the wait.

I didn't find it too cute, or too sweet. It's a very clever and accurate snapshot of a kid's world. As we get older, and we run our lives by milliseconds, we forget how slow things used to be, and how a minute (six) was a lifetime.

The actress played it out perfectly. Love the little meditation shot. Really added a nice glimpse into the child's personality.

Didn't quite get why she tossed the book on the floor.

When mom finally spoke I 100% expected her to say 'Okay, you're four now!'

Pacing was fine. Enough things happened to keep it moving. Again, this is a kid's world we are watching. To try and 'adult' the pace (Read: frenetic) would have robbed the story of much of its purity.

So far only two films have used child actors.

Nice, nice film. Top 5 for sure.

Alex
 
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Absolutely in love with this film.

My niece turns four this week, and she looks almost exactly like the wonderful little girl in this short. Granted, my niece is a little hellion on two feet, so she might not ever be this calm, but it's an awesome short nonetheless.

Charming, well-shot, simplistic, brilliant, but most importantly, this one is unique. No other film in the fest looks like this, feels like this, has this fresh a take on the "time" theme.

I love it.
 
You should win for the absolute simplicity and perfect execution of your idea. Just amazing.

It would be even more amazing if you did one every for her to have when she gets older.
 
Well, gosh, flattery will get you everywhere with me. :happy:
Seriously, your comments mean a lot to me and I'm so happy you guys enjoyed the film. I didn't expect this little piece to resonate so well with so many.

Mark, I absolutely loved R.P.DM. That you think so highly of my film is a great compliment indeed! :)
 
Well from a filmmaking perspective you did what so many fail to do, is you let the action do the talking. It's visual.

Secondly, your actor is completely natural and seems in no way acting. Another must for on camera work.

In LoveFest, the kinds of films that really blew everyone away were so simply told and acted and shot. They were sincere and straightforward.
 
This is an absolute masterpiece and should do very well in festivals I would think. I loved everything about it from the intro to the ending. It was GREAT! The only isue I had was the color of the page changing in the cut with the book but nthat is incredibly minor compared to the movie. The music worked, the acting rocked, the framing was great the pacing was perfect. It is one of my favorites and I think it has potential to win as well.
 
Very nice film, and much to my amazement, shot on a DVX, you bastard!

Review:

Opening montage is great. Love the colors and the tone.

Watch framing eg. 0:42

Very cute child, she did an excellent job. Was it hard to work with kids? I've nver tried.

Love the singing then covering mouth, so little kid like.

The dolly shot at 2:16 was nice but seemed to add a bunch of importance/drama to nothing. I mean nothing different was happening. I'm being nit-picky, but I like to see justification for camera movement.

Meditation.....Great, very funny.

You guys should be proud of this, it's a very simple well told story.

Thanks,
-Joe
 
Hey Amy,
I have been meaning to make my way over here for a while. I just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed FOUR. I found it very charming and your young actress (I assume your daughter?) was great! A couple of comments... I really love the vibrancy of the scene and the colors... What camera are you using? Your framing was great, but one thing that really stood out to me as something that you could have taken more advantage of is punch-ins, extreme close-ups, etc. Toward the end we it started to get mundane for your actress, I appreciate the locked down shot with different poses, but it seemed to really drag after a couple of time and my feeling is that you could have really taken advantage of extreme close up funny stuff like ECU on her mouth and her finger flicking her bottom lip or ECU on the feet as the are tapping in the air over the arm... It is such a minor thing, but I really thought that it would really add some interest to FOUR if you mic it up a bit.

On a funny note, my 7 year old said "Man that took forever!" I looked down at the time bar and said "it was only 4 minutes... " he said, "It seemed like forever". I got a kick out of that... Also, my nine year old said.... "hey that is a Pump It Up ball!" and I didn't believe him until I toggled through and sure enough.... it was...

Check out this link... we like PIU... A friend owns one of the franchises and this is a commercial that I made and we tried to pitch to Corporate... They said that it was to much... they weren't ready for 3D yet! I laughed!

I really like your film... Great job! :grin:

Mark T. Aro

We did a 15 sec and a 30 sec... this is the 15...Enjoy (7MB MPEG):

VisualCranium_PIU_15sec_half01
 
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Matt, I'm glad you enjoyed the film. Thanks for your comments. And, ah, you weren't supposed to notice the continuity of the book 'cause Cheyenne is so darn cute. ;) Seriously, I knew that was there, but cutting as she was opening the book to get the pages to match was more jarring from a movement point of view. I took the lesser of two problems and matched action rather than continuity of the book. However, now that I think about it, maybe I could do a little color change operation in FCS Color . . . Anyway, I appreciate your kind words.

Joe, thanks for your input, especially on the dolly shot. I'll take another look at it. Glad you enjoyed the film.

Mark, thanks for coming in and posting. As for the camera, I used a DVX100a and a Letus 35a adapter. I totally agree with you on the CU shots. I almost set up for another re-shoot to get some, but ran out of time. The initial filming was done over three days, and then had to do a re-shoot a month later when I finally got around to editing and realized one of my tapes was glitchy beyond repair. It was a struggle some days just to get the fulls and MCUs. Definitely needed another set of eyes and hands with me on this shoot. I was so intent on getting the pieces to put the film together that I didn't slow down and give myself more options. The editor in me kicked myself for that!

As for the blue ball, your kids are indeed correct that is where it is from. Cheyenne had gone to a b-day party there a few days before filming. We've been there a couple of times. Great place. And I loved your commercial. If I was the Corporate suit I would have bought it. :)
 
Dvx100? I didn't guess, nice work. First off, kids ya gotta like, nice piano ya gotta like. It put me in a pleaseant mood and the visuals looked nice and then it just dragged a bit too long and I didn't feel the payoff was there.

Maybe a little more story, I guess? Everything else was cool. (Still like that piano though. Who played that?)
 
Great job Amy!!!

Very touching with an excellent touch. A sublime gentle feel that slipped by wonderfully. I did get bored, but that's probably because I'm very ADD and need someone to get killed or laid every 5 min to keep me interested :).

You did a wonderful job on the cinematography and the directing, excellent different perspective of the 'ticking clock'!
 
Raptor365, thanks for the comments. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The music was by a pianist/composer named Ehren Starks. I found his music on Magnatune.com (love that site, BTW).

Shawn, thanks man. I loved your imagery in Aetas. Sorry no one died or got laid in this one, but I knew I wasn't going to please everyone with this film ;). Seriously, I appreciate your comments and thanks for stopping by to share. :)
 
This one is actually one of my favorite in the fest. It's really sweet and the concept is so friggin' brilliant -- such a perfect use of the theme. The idea of different perspectives on time seems like a pretty obvious choice, but telling it through the eyes of a child is just a cool idea. And your actress did a great job... very natural and totally believable!

I'll echo others thoughts on the pacing / editing -- I think it could definitely have been punched up a bit as there were moments were it did seem to drag [in particular the sequence of her in different positions], but overall I had a lot of fun watching this one.

:laugh:
 
She is simply ADORABLE. Great camera work! What a sweetheart. I absolutely loved this little vignette into the world of a child!
 
Fantastic short! It was extremely refreashing, Amy, and it made me smile. A great break from all the murder and violence. You did a great job of capturing the pure anxiety that one feels when in this situation. The camera work was lovely. I especially liked the focus switch to the book shelf, cut to the closer shot of the book shelf. The minimal dialogue allowed for the beautiful music to take on a larger role as well.

Another one of my favotite parts was the sequence of different positions in the chair. Usually when this is done, the cuts are a bit faster, but I thought the slower cuts were perfect for this story because it really illustrated the pure boredom (especially when barely any time had passed) well. The payoff was equally as fantastic, I like how it isn't clear what is happening until the very end.

Extremely refreashing (did I already say that? It doesn't matter, you deserve it twice!) Good job and good luck!
 
Your movie has some very cinematic scenes. The little actress is cute. She looks very comfortable in front of the camera. The music is nice and DOF is very pleasing. However, the story is a little bit simple for me. You should have added a little bit of twist here and there to keep the viewers interested. Anyway, you did a great job. This is a nicely done movie.
 
I like the concept, everybody on here probably can relate to the feeling of waiting for timeout to be over, I enjoyed it
 
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