"I ****ING HATE YOU" – a film by SABI

I have to say that the response has really been overwhelming. Matt Garrett can verify the number of times I proclaimed that "people are going to hate this". I thought that because it was sooo small, and that i had to lose the first act that it would be dismissed as "just a scene, not a short film".

so, I want to thank everyone for all the kind words and valuable insights. and a special thanks to all the "private" messages praising our humble little "experiment". i still don't expect we'll do all that well in the voting, and really, I'm not here to "win" anything. I'm so f*cking happy to have had another excuse to work with Jamie, Matt, Marion and John once more and to have been a part of this amazing experience. can't believe it took me so long to get involved. I think I'm addicted now... and looking forward to the announcement of the next fest's theme. *tear*
 
I loved the song. Great job! I loved how the edit cut back and forth between their faces as he was singing to show her reaction. It was a neat observation on how love can be a rollercoaster of polar opposite emotions yet still feel good.
 
Hey Zak, just watched your film again and really do find it to be a very sweet story with very real and sincere people. AND THAT SONG STILL KICKS BUTT!!!

Really a great entry!

Good luck to you in the voting.

-Ted
 
I keep watching this one. So many good little moments. It blows me away how much was said just in the looks they gave each other. I will be eagerly awaiting your future projects.
 
Nice look. I really love the colours.

I know there was a lot of rack-focussing, but some shots were blurry the entire length of the shot. Also sometimes the wrong part of the scene was blurry (like when he's looking through stuff in the kitchen).

Sound and sound-design was awesome. Camerawork and composition was great. Editing was great -- mostly seamless.

Acting was great. I like the little looks they gave each other. Oh, and Jack Black called and wants his song back.

Awesome short. One of the best.
 
Zak, just watched your Behind the Scenes vid. Cool. Nice editing bay, too!

But I just wanted to relate to your line (roughly paraphrased), "I could work on something forever... it's the deadline that forces me to complete it."

That line was right out of my heart. (which drives my wife crazy!!!)

Enjoyed watching this. Thanks for sharing it.
 
Hey Zak, a late review!

Loved the piece. I saw a comment waaay back about a possible web series. Think that would be great. I loved the way the characters are handled. They are easily some of the best performances in the fest. That's a compliment for them and to you, the director.

I also have to say I'm a huge fan of the realistic relationship flicks in the fest. ...and yours is at the top. No guns... no lives threatened... no creepiness... not overly cute... just honest to goodness humanity. Real friggin people. That is the films strongest point.

My only beef would be the focus. I know what you were going for and liked it for the most part. Just thought it was a bit much at times. But, that's a matter of taste.

Great job!
 
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i loved that it was shot so sloppy. it doesn't take away from the story. the blurriness and shaky camera moves totally set the vibe and become a character themselves. i got the same feeling from the movie "once". it was shot like hell with a stock sony z1u with no 35 adapter. they had a little different approach. the two leads had never done any acting before so the director wanted to keep the camera as far away from them as possible to avoid freaking them out. every shot was at full zoom pretty much. this resulted in a super shaky film. they didn't spend much time on lighting or set dressing or any of the techy stuff. i saw shadows and reflections of the crew several times throughout the film. however, the story is great, the performances are great, and it just goes to prove that a solid story and great acting are still king.

i f'ing hate you would lose some of it's charm i think if it was technically perfect. i think you guys made the right choice by shooting it this way. great job.
 
Hi Zak,

This is one of the few entries that I watched more than once. At first, I was taken aback by the severe color grade and focus racks, but I settled into the style for the most part. Your actors' performances were really great; I think they were the best in the whole fest. Shot selection and editing were superb as well. For me, the end of the song could have done something more instead of repeating the "lovey-lovey-lovey-love-love" and "me love you long time" - it lost a little bit of its charm for me then. It made me laugh the first time, but the second time it just seemed a bit lazy. Of course, her smile after the song was over made me completely forget it, as that moment really pulls the whole film together nicely.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing "Heart of Now," especially as it features the same actress as this short. Good stuff.
 
abalex, pmark, bryce, herbal, ted and hudson...

thanks for the encouraging words. much of the feedback I garnered here will be taken into future projects. special thanks to all the members who messaged me privately, as well. you know who you are and how much i appreciate you're thoughts on our humble little effort.
 
Watched it again last night, Zak. I still laughed out loud. f*cking awesome.

I barely made voting deadline at 11:55. Lucky for you. :thumbsup:
 
I F*CKING HATE YOU -- F Bomb and shakey cameras = good?

And if you would've taken out the shaky HV20+Brevis combo, I'm not so sure if it would've been as interesting as it was. This entry tears me in lots of different directions. So many that I had to give it a third watch and check because I just couldn't tell where my mind was.

VISUALLY it's interesting. In ways that I'm so not sure if it should be. If it weren't for the acting and the pacing I would DEFINITELY feel put off by the way this was shot. Most of the time my eye doesn't know where it wants to be, and that's because of the focusing and shaking camera. It can get so distracting that some of the dialog actually got lost because I had to try to keep up with the camera. But, then, at the same time... I was paying attention to the entire frame. This is why it baffles me. Because it actually "looked" right in context to the overall mood.

I could say, will say, you can totally make a style out of this with a heavier camera. The HV20 just seems way too light for handheld work (from what I've seen of adapter HV20 combos) and you and your team are pulling it off so well, it's very apparent that it's a purposed and practiced.

And then, there's this really hairy cloud hanging over the entire thing. Hairy like... I don't want to touch that with any of my extremities hairy. Like, married couple best friends in a funk kinda hairy. The short is empathic altogether, it succeeded in making me never want to be around these two as real human beings during a time like this. Not in the same room. I felt bad for him, and her? I could feel her confusion right up until the SOUND of the cup hit the surface.

Note: Awesome use of foley/sound, dudes. The cup plink? Superb. I know it's such a MINOR detail for me to pick up, but it was very VISUAL in an audible sense. Same sort-of usage in the beginning as well, although audio may need to be adjusted because there's a VERY important piece of information dropped vocally and I missed it the first time around. I'm not in headphones at the moment.

No lingering, wasn't too long, love the 2.35:1 of course ALTHOUGH this may be the one thing I feel wasn't exactly motivated by the scale of the picture. Total choice, total opinion. My thought is that I would've rather seen more in the tiny world of tense notions created by your actors.

I say this because of the leading male: He's obviously PRETTY torn up about it all, I can tell his apartment is a mess but bein' that we have JUST entered his brain (and only in his brain does he have a chance to sing a song about hate to the female he still has feelings for... the literal word brain doubling for APARTMENT or TERRITORY) the chaos surrounding him? I KINDA feel like I wanted to see more of it.

That means what LOOKS like a totally WRECKED living space.

All in all I really like the short! I mean I'm trying to figure out exactly why it works with the handheld style, because I admit that it was too shaky for me in some instances but it still works.

Dang.
 
haha! thanks guys! I was never running under the impression that this was the ideal venue for "IFHY". I'm so f*cking happy that a member of the Sabi family, Matt Garrett, came out on top. I'm happy because he owes me big time!!! (j/k)

anyway, i appreciate the phone calls and emails saying I was "robbed", but let's be serious here... many expressed a point of view in this thread that "IFHY" had some aggressive stylistic choices that obscured Marion and John's flawless performances. the writing was on the wall.
 
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