HERITAGE - Geoff Reisner

good story! i liked it a lot, it was different. at first i thought this was going to be where the man realizes his dad is a full blown paranoid schizophrenic and that the man is now slipping down the same genetic path to disaster, but then we see the devil walk up to him... i like the ending the way it is, another more wicked look at it would almost ruin it for me, i like that you keep it to a whisper and that we dont know what it is. the worst things are imagined and not readily seen. you ending makes us think and wonder, cool.

the only thing id change would be the dialogue in the kitchen, like ambassador tex mentioned, it doesnt seem real life in anyway. but even then i didnt care that much, i still really wanted to know what was going on.

nice movie!
 
this is easily one of the best pieces in the fest; well done all around.
from a technical standpoint - flawless editing, great imagry.
I liked the story a lot. unique and interesting, and not a little scary.

great film!
 
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I really enjoyed this film. It was by far the best story of the bunch. It's always difficult to genuinely surprise people these days but I felt this film did it well because it took a very open road to it's end. The main character's voiceover tells us the story he himself wishes were true, involving us in the delusional state of mind he has inherited.

In the end you wonder if the son is truly struggling metaphysically or whether he's succumbing to metal illness like he felt his father had. There are great layers of narrative here and you handled them very well.

The performances were good, but I felt your main actors struggle to connect with their characters emotions in a couple of the sync dialogue scenes. This is definitely a nit-pick though because over all they were effective at carrying us through your great script.

Good job Geoff. Hope Chicago survived Sunday.
 
I wish I could vote, cause I would definitely have voted for Heritage. I love the story and how it came together. Again, good job Geoff! I hope you take the top prize!
 
hoz said:
good story! i liked it a lot, it was different. at first i thought this was going to be where the man realizes his dad is a full blown paranoid schizophrenic and that the man is now slipping down the same genetic path to disaster, but then we see the devil walk up to him...
nice movie!
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The devil could have still been a visual hallucination of a paranoid schizophrenic. Of course, Geoff, we already discussed this. :)
 
preston said:
this is easily one of the best pieces in the fest; well done all around.
from a technical standpoint - flawless editing, great imagry.
I liked the story a lot. unique and interesting, and not a little scary.

great film!
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Thanks Preston! I've been meaning to comment on your film, I'll get over there soon :)

Finnian said:
In the end you wonder if the son is truly struggling metaphysically or whether he's succumbing to metal illness like he felt his father had. There are great layers of narrative here and you handled them very well.
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Thanks for the insightful comments! I think you, Hoz and Rebecca are onto something here... :)

RebeccaD said:
The devil could have still been a visual hallucination of a paranoid schizophrenic. Of course, Geoff, we already discussed this. :)
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Your thoughts on this have been the impetus for a new idea I've been toying with the past day and a half.

Wes-C said:
I wish I could vote, cause I would definitely have voted for Heritage. I love the story and how it came together. Again, good job Geoff! I hope you take the top prize!
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I still think you should have submitted 'Catch' to this fest. :)
 
Geoff_R said:
Thanks for the insightful comments! I think you, Hoz and Rebecca are onto something here... :)

Your thoughts on this have been the impetus for a new idea I've been toying with the past day and a half.
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Cool! I'll be interested to hear about it. Oh, his hallucination would have actually been visual and auditory, which are the most common. :)
 
Great short. I am hoping to get an HVX soon and look forward to being able to create beautiful images like you have here. Nice mix of VO and narrative. The lighting was a little obvious in some places (keep in mind I am looking for this) I was hooked to the end and loved the slow pans and a few mid shot cut-aways were just great. I learned a lot from your film.
 
Music carried this piece... Imagine all those lonely exterior walking shots without the music track? Congratulations to your composer.

Regarding the overall film? This is one of those rare instances...

Good story. Good acting. Good camera and audio work. Good music. Add all these things together BLAMO!!! Execellent film! This is where the true magic of film occurs. When the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts added together.

I love how the dramatic tension builds with every second of the story. And a fantastic payoff. This would have been as intriguing to read as to see on film and I think that's the trick here with all these shorts. I would recommend to anyone who would consider entering a short in the next fest, if you don't have something exciting to read, then don't even pick up a camera...

Damn, I loved this short!

Only one pet peeve. The ear stud was a distraction to me in the final scene, because I'd never noticed it before... Not sure if a young guy commuting to work everyday is wearing an ear stud to the office...

I wish you best of luck with the contest!!!
 
Jazz Dog said:
...I learned a lot from your film.
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That made my day :) Thanks and I'm glad you enjoyed the film and got something out of it. I've learned a tremendous amount on making films from this site and I'm happy to be on the giving side for once.
 
Texture said:
Music carried this piece... Imagine all those lonely exterior walking shots without the music track? Congratulations to your composer.

Regarding the overall film? This is one of those rare instances...

Good story. Good acting. Good camera and audio work. Good music. Add all these things together BLAMO!!! Execellent film! This is where the true magic of film occurs. When the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts added together.

I love how the dramatic tension builds with every second of the story. And a fantastic payoff. This would have been as intriguing to read as to see on film and I think that's the trick here with all these shorts. I would recommend to anyone who would consider entering a short in the next fest, if you don't have something exciting to read, then don't even pick up a camera...

Damn, I loved this short!

Only one pet peeve. The ear stud was a distraction to me in the final scene, because I'd never noticed it before... Not sure if a young guy commuting to work everyday is wearing an ear stud to the office...

I wish you best of luck with the contest!!!
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Wow, thanks the in-depth review and comments, I'm very grateful. I told Anthony (the composer) from the beginning that music was going to define the film.

Funny you mention the ear stud, I hadn't really noticed it before but I agree with you completely! It is distracting and it's the most important scene! I digitally removed the stud from the bedroom scenes when 'Anna' leans in to ask, 'What did he whisper?". For the master version of the film, I'll probably go in there and remove the stud from that final scene completely.
 
Ok, This is one of the two best films here in the contest. Congratulations.

Now, i did not understand the story, probably because i am missing some lines.

Couldyou summarize it for me? the thing about god and devil? please?
 
macgregor said:
Ok, This is one of the two best films here in the contest. Congratulations.

Now, i did not understand the story, probably because i am missing some lines.

Couldyou summarize it for me? the thing about god and devil? please?
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Thanks macgregor! In summary, one of the stories the father told his son (eric) growing up was that he had 'met and spoke' with god on a subway train one day. This has always bothered Eric, he never believed the story and assumed his father had either made it up completely or exaggerated.

Eric and his father had an estranged relationship so they didn't share their feelings or have much contact. Upon recieving his fathers journal, he realizes they have much more in common than he realized; they're both confronting the same fears and experiencing the same internal torment.

At the very end, this stranger (devil) has approached him and whispered into his ear, as he walks off Eric says, "my father hadn't lied, he was just wrong, he'd seen the devil."

In the big picture, it's as if the men in this family owe their souls to the devil. Perhaps generations ago, their great-great grandfather sold his soul and they're all paying for it.
 
macgregor said:
Also the "weird" music really works.
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Yea, I'm always nervous when finally putting in music, I had to listen a few times to feel it out and now I can't imagine it with any other kind of music :)

Thanks for taking an interest in the film. I'm a huge fan of your work.
 
Nicely shot and some the best, if not the best, acting in the fest.
Thanks for entering this!
I wish I had time to comment more on these.
But great job. Also best use of sound in fest, maybe of any fest. Lots of great editing too.
 
12th review:

a few notes again, i didnt really care to watch this movie finish. I felt extremly bored through it and had to find inspiration to continue through knowing id need to review, but mainly found reason in its technical superiority to the others watched.

Sound was extremly well done, hell for a change i could hear what he was saying. The acting was very good, but i felt the lines he was given to say were just unnatural for anyone other than a poet or wordsmith of any sort. they seem to be what bored me, over observational detailing of events. i got the point and became annoyed by the further monolouge. I enjoyed the twist at the end.

I felt alot of the shots again were filler as with some of the speech. I think flashbacks would have proved much better this go round. This was VERY EASILY the best at looking not like a home video without using a 35 mm adapter. So great job there, usually the first thing i notice when no 35mm adapter is used is just the bad composition of the shots that dont compensate for the amount of detail given, but you used the blacks and other nutrel (sp?) colors so well that it again was the best non 35mm adapter footage ive seen on this forum since well i can ever remember. kudos, whether on purpose or not~!
 
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