Gray Days

I liked the story, the action and the acting. I thought the look was cool as well and really dug some of the shots. On another note, when they were punching the guy it didn't look real. It looked like they were playing with him. You should have had them really him in the arms and chest. Some sound fx would have gone nicely with that as well. Other than that I thought it was a very good and intriguing piece.
 
I agree with the punching thing. We plain old ran out of time and just didn't have the time to reshoot. Thanks though. Watch Stark Nights afterwards to finish the story.
 
i liked this film. the punching scene was weak as mentioned before. everything else was really cool. i loved the intro and how you told the story filmwise.

how did you get those different angles in the car scene during the dialogue, etc? were you sitting up front or something? had the cam mounted on the car outside?
 
I loved the visual tone that you created with this story. Great camera work. The shot with the snow... I loved that. Great scene where is laughing on the ground... loved this short... congratulations to your whole team!
 
This one had some potential. I like the gritty feel. Not so much the acting which just didn't feel natural to me. Quite a few times the lines felt like lines an it left me outside the story.

I was never given enough information in the story to develop a connection with ANY character so I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

For the most part the action was good...aside from the beating scene.

As I said, there IS potential here and I'd like to see you guys live up to it.
 
puckthemad said:
Is this a 2 parter? This ends where Stark Nights picks up.
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Yes they're two films that are part of a larger story. But they stand on their own as two separate films, two separate entries. The goal was to make it so that you could watch either one and not need to see the other to understand what's going on, now if we succeeded in doing that is a whole different story......................


 
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Blaine said:
This one had some potential. I like the gritty feel. Not so much the acting which just didn't feel natural to me. Quite a few times the lines felt like lines an it left me outside the story.

I was never given enough information in the story to develop a connection with ANY character so I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

For the most part the action was good...aside from the beating scene.

As I said, there IS potential here and I'd like to see you guys live up to it.
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Thanks for checking out our film. I hope we can live up to our potential in the future!
 
This was great! The ONLY part that took me out was when they beat him up... but you've already addressed that ;) I loved the lighting very noir- was it all practical or did you augment any of it?
 
Really loved the look of this movie, I wish I had a better understanding at the end of what was going on but I enjoyed watching it, there were some great shots like all of the inside car stuff, I wish some of the line delivery felt as "real" as the movie looked, if that makes sense. I look forward to checking out the companion piece. Good job!
 
chriscurl said:
Really loved the look of this movie, I wish I had a better understanding at the end of what was going on but I enjoyed watching it, there were some great shots like all of the inside car stuff, I wish some of the line delivery felt as "real" as the movie looked, if that makes sense. I look forward to checking out the companion piece. Good job!
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That's my issue with this 2 piece/entry business. I don't think it does stand on its own and I think the confusion surrounding the ending shows just that.

This was gritty and real, I liked that. To be blunt I don't like that you cut a longer movie into 2 acts.

I think it also hurts your chances in the ratings, especially the way that you did it. The time limit is there to test you. To see what you can do in 6 minutes or less.

Best of luck.

MAH
 
well we wrote it in two parts, and that's how we made it. It's not terribly helpful for you to tell us that the limit is there to test us. We are the only ones in the fest who thought of this and you are condemning our idea. If you don't agree with it that's cool, but if you watch the two entries back to back, the way they're supposed to be watched, then they make a lot more sense.

We also don't make movies to get good rating. We try to make good movies, and then, hopefully, the ratings will be there. If not, that's cool too. We just wanted to make movie that we liked, and if other people like it too, then that's just bonus.
 
open-heart burglary said:
well we wrote it in two parts, and that's how we made it. It's not terribly helpful for you to tell us that the limit is there to test us. We are the only ones in the fest who thought of this and you are condemning our idea. If you don't agree with it that's cool, but if you watch the two entries back to back, the way they're supposed to be watched, then they make a lot more sense.
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Of course they do, as a 12 minute movie. That's my point!

IMHO, one doesn't really work without the other.
I'm not the only one to touch on that. That kind of dispels the "They work on their own" theory.

BTW, this idea has been tossed around in the past. :)

I just gave you my 2 cents and now I'll move on. Take it our leave it.

My advice would be to learn how to tell a cohesive story within the 6 minute time limit and you will do MUCH better in the Fest.

Just my opinion.

Cheers,

EDIT:

open-heart burglary said:
We also don't make movies to get good rating. We try to make good movies, and then, hopefully, the ratings will be there. If not, that's cool too. We just wanted to make movie that we liked, and if other people like it too, then that's just bonus.
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If this is the case then you should have entered it as a 12 minute exhibition film and you wouldn't have this confusion.

MAH
 
open-heart burglary said:
We are the only ones in the fest who thought of this and you are condemning our idea. If you don't agree with it that's cool, but if you watch the two entries back to back, the way they're supposed to be watched, then they make a lot more sense.
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We're all creative people here and we can be a little sneaky, so don;t you thin you;re the only one who considered doing a movie in "two parts" and submitting as two films. You're the only one who went ahead and did it, while we decided to honor the rules since that would be a little "too sneaky".

I watched this film and I made notes, and just had this feeling that it wasn;t finished. That left me with a feelign of being cheated, so I made a note on that and to ask you about it.

Then i decided to click on the "cpmpanion piece" and imagine to my surprise... same actors.... and starting where the other one left off. And here's the thing: I saw exactly why I had felt cheated...
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
My advice would be to learn how to tell a cohesive story within the 6 minute time limit and you will do MUCH better in the Fest.
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I take offense to that statement, my advice is you take your own advice. I'm familiar with your work.

I'm all for criticism as long as it's constructive and I have a very thick skin, but I know when someone is being a jerk. They are stand alone pieces not one 12 min film. The fact is we had to cut some things out of both that may have helped each of them work better as two movies. With that said they are still two separate movies.
 
Ryanrjack said:
I take offense to that statement, my advice is you take your own advice. I'm familiar with your work.

I'm all for criticism as long as it's constructive and I have a very thick skin, but I know when someone is being a jerk. They are stand alone pieces not one 12 min film. The fact is we had to cut some things out of both that may have helped each of them work better as two movies. With that said they are still two separate movies.
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Thick skin? Hardly. I never got personal, you have.

No problem though. Everyone else is wrong and you're right. All those who have been confused are wrong.

Have a good one.

MAH
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Thick skin? Hardly. I never got personal, you have.

No problem though. Everyone else is wrong and you're right. All those who have been confused are wrong.

Have a good one.

MAH
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I'm not saying that everyone is wrong, but you DO NOT speak for everyone, so stop acting like you do. I for damn sure am not always right just ask my girlfriend! So please stop with the condescending crap.

Have a good one
 
Really cool opening here... like the energy... same look/tone as the other half... like that gritty, grainy, rough look. A part of me likes the dolly shot off from the car and then gunshot... but in some ways, it bothers me because I know what's going to happen prior to it happening. It looks cool but simultaneously detracts from the overall story IMO. I'd almost rather have seen a push in towards the guy which edged her out of frame while at the same time, his actions seemed as if he were humanizing the moment and going to let her live and then suddenly blew her away. Still perhaps predictable... I'm not sure... but its little things such as I'm describing that I notice in films and it can go a long way towards how I feel about it as a whole.

This is still a difficult story to understand.. I'm a fan of parallel editing and I've done work just like it but it was hard to follow this one... I think it's because you have many characters to track and follow... and some of them look similar... perhaps not to you, because you've seen these people more and notice the facial differences with more ease but to a first time viewer, some of these characters look similar and I'm not certain of who's who during certain moments. All of this distracts the viewer from appreciating your story. They're consumed with trying to understand rather than absorbing, interpreting and enjoying.

I personally think it was a bad idea to break this into two movies, that just takes what I said above and compounds it doubly. I understand the drive to experiment and try things but in this case, I feel like this really is one movie cut in half. You really need to watch the two parts back to back (as you've said above)... and if you have to do that, then really it's one movie, except now you have to see some quick intermittent credits, do some double-mouse clicks and watch another dvxuser leader before seeing the rest.

I think more people would understand the movie and you'd get better feedback if it were one movie at twelve minutes. It'd be more solid and allow people to focus on your story and characters rather than trying to make sense of things.

From a pure tech perspective, I enjoyed the other half a little more... more of a visual style in that one, but I think that's because of the additional small moments such as running through the car wash, etc... I'm still very sold on that bit and it's definitely my favorite moment from this piece.
 
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