Human Failing - a short film by Phil Grasso & Reese Sinai

The story here seemed kind of slow and without an ending, but rather a segway into another episode. I knew from the early shot of the sink that the two had committed a bloody crime. I did really like some of the shots and I thought the acting and the music was really good. The only complaint that I have of the hooker is that she didn't seem to look beaten and battered. The blood on her face seemed put on. Her makeup still seemed fine and there were no signs that she'd be crying or fighting. Some running mascara and a few cuts on the face would have made that all the more convincing. Other than that, good job on this.
 
this was pretty good! great to see some good old fashioned cocaine on dvxuser. I really liked your lighting, the actors, the dialogue and the music... most everything.
the one thing i would push you to do in future fests is take your concept, and give us MORE. now, i like your short as is, but i would have liked to have seen more of the situation you set up.
the 3 minutes of the 2 leads in the kitchen drags a bit. I would have loved to have seen the 6 minutes broken down into 3 two minute acts:

act 1 - two guys in a car, they solicit the hooker, bring her back
act 2 - something goes wrong, there's an accidental death
act 3 - resolution

just food for thought, but good entry and congrats.
 
The photography on this was very good, some of the best I’ve seen so far. I particularly liked the wide-angle lens close-ups on the young lead, it really helped emphasize his state.


In the bathroom scene, I kept expecting someone to be hiding in the stall, either a cop or even the girl. I like how you chose to end it, definitely non-conventional, but I think the lead-up was too shallow and too drawn out to make it really hit like it should have.



The young lead did a great job, and I think you really could have pulled this a lot further with him. I think this film would have been stronger if you started easy, like showing them kidnapping the girl, but quickly ramped up the evilness of the actions, and continually had the young guy struggling even harder, but giving in and going along with his boss. As it stands, yes we see him struggling, but there’s not enough of a change in his circumstances or his attitude to make the ending really punch us in the gut.


Great effort, and thanks for putting this in.
 
I liked a lot of your close-ups/angles on the main character, it really pushed his emotions to the forefront. The story was good but as others have said I would have liked to see a little more instead of just focusing so much on the kitchen (even though the dialogue in the kitchen is very tense - you played it well, making me think something was going to happen there) it's just I wish the story was expanded a bit to see how they got to that point. The end also works rather well. Nice work!
 
OK, confession time. I'm in Thrillfest and I don't really like thrillers. Yours was creepy, so that I didn't like. Still, it was supposed to be creepy, so you get an A anyways. Liked the lighting and liked the pacing. I liked that it took a while to figure out what was going on. Congrats on a solid entry.
 
Thank you so much everyone for all the feed back and suggestions! We were definitely worried about the pacing and how long the kitchen scene was. And in hindsight, we should have probably had our younger intern character refer to the girl as a call girl and not a hooker lol! Glad that most people seemed to have enjoyed it!
 
Thanks!

Thanks!

Just read all of the great commentary! I did the music to Human Failing. Thank you all very much for the compliments and critical feedback :thumbup:

- n8
 
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