"Halfway" Horrorfest Entry

TimurCivan said:
HOLY MOTHER poo pooING POOP NUGGETS!!!!!!!! THIS IS MY OFFICIAL FAVORITE!!!!!
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thats insane... seriously. Coming from you and your skills I'm erm.... I dont know.... knocked to the ground you might say.

If you saw how we lit this I dont think you'd be hiring me...lol.... . A lot of it involved me with a UV light on a mains lead hanging round my neck, with a DVX in the one hand and sometimes a strobe light in the other....lol

and I will quote you if you doont mind! :)

Deed, that's also very complimentary, I'm so glad u like what we did.

Seriously, I had better shut up here before I say something to execute myself

Cant thank you all enough and Im amazed how well it's being received.
 
Sweet mother of moses. A jolt raced through my body so quickly that it prevented me from leaping out of my chair.... my toes are still tingling.

Absolutely loved it. Artistic, creative, and frightening. I have nothing negative to say. You would be wise to get this ready for festivals submission.

FX were outstanding by the way.


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snodart said:
I have nothing negative to say. You would be wise to get this ready for festivals submission.

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wow, thank you so much! Pretty speechles..... I may submit it for festivals, but at $50 a time, I may not...lol

I have just watched 'The Seeing' and while I will post a full review on your thread I'll say I thought it was very proffessional... which makes this compliment all the more flattering.

thanks again.:)
 
Yikes! You get my first YIKES! review.

You are definitely doing some kick-assed filmmaking here. PERSONALLY, I am not a fan of some of your editing style, but I want to emphasize that that is a PERSONAL preference. Its clear you know what youre doing.

This looks like the love child of Ionesco and Stephen King. What is WRONG with you? :):)

Super, SUPER creepy use of the elements. When the thing is coming at him, its truely scary. Esp considering when you freeze-frame it and realize its really not that scary. You know what I mean.

The sounds at the end are sort of overbearing, and grating. Obviously thats the point but you might be the first movie Ive seen in the fest to use that kind of thing to good effect.

Really, really nice work.

But I want to ask, and dont give it away if its a spoiler, but is there some connection to a story in the real world here, or is it purely an abstract idea? I mean, is this all a metaphor for something and I missed it, or is this just the world of the movie?
 
Hey Thanks!

I appreicate the feedback and it's cool about you not being a fan of the editing. A bit too machine gun at the end?

But I am glad you found it scary, and yes when you freezeframe it you may notice that it is infact Mark again (the main actor) with talc all over him. So no, not the scariest single image, but we were working on the cheap and quick ... and you're not supposed to freeze it! next you'll be spotting all my dodgy masking of my other mate dragging him along the floor!

seriously tho, you know your stuff and for you to say you liked this is a huge compliment. thank you....

The story came about from the single premise that I had no idea what to do for horrorfest and my friend had a room in his pub free. The rest was just a case of how i could use that one room to make something creepy. Sometimes the deadlines and limitations force you to think a bit differently. I had no actors so I tried to do something that relied just on the mood and imagery. That all contributed heavily to the idea. Mark did a great job though (between laughing everytime the camera was on him - Ill have to post that footage, it never stops...).
 
Well, I watched it more than 'halfway'. I watched it all of the way and really liked it, this was one of the scariest films in the fest and very well executed. I really liked the editing and it flowed well. The scariest part for me, was when the pale 'creature' dude, jumps up into the frame of the camera. That's kind of cliche', I tried to do it, but not very well. Your execution of that worked very well (probably due to the editing). I liked the lighting and strobing (were there subliminal messages in there?) and it actually had a 'story' arc to it.

I've given this one high marks, except for 'Score'. I'm not sure how to rate a movie, if it doesn't have much or any of a sound score/music in it? If you can convince me that it does, I'll change the 'Score' rating.

Great Job! One of my top ten.
 
Darkline said:
But I am glad you found it scary, and yes when you freezeframe it you may notice that it is infact Mark again (the main actor) with talc all over him. So no, not the scariest single image, but we were working on the cheap and quick ... and you're not supposed to freeze it! next you'll be spotting all my dodgy masking of my other mate dragging him along the floor!
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Don't misunderstand me though. What I meant was you took a very simple image and MADE it scary through the filmmking. I wasn't saying I spotted problems or cheap-o stuff. I freeze-frame all of the stuff in this fest and I love to see things like that - oh it's just a guy. But you scared the bejesus out of me with it. That's good filmmaking.
 
Thanks Robert..... thats high praise. As for score I can convice you on two levels....lol

1) the atmos of the basement was our 'soundtrack' not just the dripping sounds but I put a pulsing drone in the background phasing in and out - not a sound from something in the scene but a mood setter. On top of that there were atonal bass chords plopping all over the place. Not music, no, but Score I would say yes...

or

2) if you download the new ballot, you can leave the score section blank and it doesnt take it into account on the final average (the old ballot sheet if you leave the section blank I think its like giving it a '0').

so I guess whatever you feel appropriate :-) but thanks very much!

And thanks Desperatecomfort! I did get what you meant, I was just shamlessly taking the opportunity to give a bit of BTS exclusives to make me sound better! lol
But yes, hopefully by that point you're drawn in enough not to notice and it's on for such a short period of time that the sound really helps at that point.
 
WOW!!! I grew up on horror flix, so I love to watch em. Even if they are not scary to me. This one is the only one that made my heart race and made me jump. WOW!! The editing was fantastic. I was expecting something to jump out at me, so I prepared myself for it. But it still scared the living daylights out of me.
I thought it looked too much like "Saw" at first. Had alot of the same qualitys and feeling. However, the story that was revealed to me was very different. I get chills everytime I watch it!! You have a real knack for the horror flick.
I dont feel you needed to throw blood in there when he gets sucked into the sack. I feel it would have been better without it actually. But, my favorite fick by far Bud. Good Work !!
 
This is the best of the fest! This one deserves 10's across the board. I can't wait for the DVD so I can see this baby in all it's NTSC glory!

Ok, there's your sig quote. :thumbsup:

Now, about your little film, here. This really is a brilliant piece of work. You could have had NO BLOOD in it, and it would still be awesome. This one had horror atmosphere to the extreme and really made my skin crawl. Stobing UV lights, cameras, monitors, squirming sacks, NOIZE... etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. A kick ass piece of filmmaking, my friend.

What didn't I like? Not much. You definitely could do away with the "WARNING: STROBING blah blah blah" card. And the supernatural thing didn't work for me as much as something more tangible or even sci-fi might have. Does that make sense? Especially with the set-up that you have. But I'm being nit-picky and I am speaking from a "now, if I would have made this film" point of view, which basically means I REALLY LIKED IT!

Best film so far, and I don't have many more to watch.

Simply awesome.


John G.
 
Wow

I just got out of bed this morning to read these!

incredible. I cant say thank you to you guys enough.

Kyleman! you crack me up guy.....lol...... you didnt have to do that :beer:

cinealma and Kdawg - well, I'm thrilled to hear you liked it so much. You know I was toying without the blood for a while, but being flat out honest, my previous work has been accused of being a nice build up - but with flat endings, this time I wanted to save the best for last - perhaps too much, but Im glad I did it :)

this is me smiling by the way :)

and more smiling :)

:)
 
This is just so damned impressive, so technicaly accomplished and the story really hangs together. While I could see that it was influenced stylistically by recent trends in horror, I never felt it was derivative -- it had its own unique technical spin on those trends, and I felt like my chest was going to implode the whole time I was watching it. I loved the way the story came full-circle. It was a perfect short. Many congratulations.
 
MSManhattan! Can't say thanks enough. Im glad u had fun (or not) watching it.

your comments are really appreciated! I loved 5B as you know!
 
Karl, I just watched the film for the 2nd time and I think it's all been said here so no use beating the dead sack... err. halfway sack.

I know what it was that urked me. It was the label about the strobing images that set my expectations and that kept me with the same expectations throughout. A really bad haunted house. For the love of making this one badass film... please Take out the disclaimer. I would hate for others to feel that you are watching an actor crawl around on the floor as one of the attraction's main exhibits.

I haven't seen hostel or saw, so I couldn't tell you if it were similar or not in terms of style and story. I enjoyed the film. I dug the effects. Ambience/sound was key to the success.

Definitely top 10 after watching them all for the 2nd time. Kudos and looking forward to seeing you in the next fest.

/j
 
Edgen said:
It was the label about the strobing images that set my expectations and that kept me with the same expectations throughout. A really bad haunted house. please Take out the disclaimer. I would hate for others to feel that you are watching an actor crawl around on the floor as one of the attraction's main exhibits. /j
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Hey Edgen

I'm actually a bit confused as to what you mean. And Im not being funny, I genuinly want to understand :-) Do you mean it sets the wrong tone? or that its too much of a gimmick? Or that it seems that someone is taking enjoyment from this whole event?

I'll tell you the effect it was supposed to have, which is that the warning itself then belies the nature of the warning. it's like someone wishing you good luck when they are out to make you fail. (by starting to strobe) ... it's more of a statment of thematic intent than anything to be taken literally.

I thought it was quite original and really sets the mood from the opening frame....however, I have not had too much feedback on that element I dont know how it was perceived in general. Ive had one who said they loved it - one who didnt care for it.. (2 including you! :-))

but seriously I'm very interested on the impact these elements have. I cannot watch the film objectively so I can only rely on others feedback to understand what worked and what didn't.

I think my film is very different to saw, as that film is about a killer torturing victims in confined spaces and making them play mind games..... but I can certinally see why people are making the connection, but I take it in a very different direction... (I actually see this room as Limbo, hence the title Halfway, a waiting room for the the recently dead) But Hostel.... It has nothing to do with that as far as I can tell. That film's about people paying to torture victims very graphically.

I hope to become a permenant fixture of these fests now I've had the taste, as I hope everyone else does. Its a great community and way of sharing.
 
This is so well done! It's dripping with style, and the style's not for its own sake, but furthers the story. It's very involving and captivating. I was glued to the screen!

Ben:thumbup:
 
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