Jack Daniel Stanley & Mark Johnson's REKINDLED

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a huge fan of the Horror flix.

Jack, well done- this is a finely crafted piece of work, you have raised the bar again.

I must admit that I looked for your film first when viewing the enteries, and I enjoyed watching your film- the sets, acting, cinematography, editing, directing ... all came together in one well crafted production. My only critique is with the story itself. I didn't feel engaged with it- I felt more like I was just watching something, rather then looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds (With is how I have felt with your previous submissions) - but that may just be my own preferences, as the horror flix are not my thing.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Due to our effects work flow I'm also locked into some weird cuts around the neck slash right now, need to re-cut then have Mark rerender the effects around there (its not the neck, the shots on her have FX as well but I won't say what :) )
Click to expand...
The only thing I noticed is the knife disappears (or appears to disappear - I had to step through it to see what was bothering me about it) when she slashes his throat. Might have been mentioned, but I have way too much school to read through the whole thread.
 
it's never really shown, it is in fact a knife, we contemplated a cuttaway (no pun intended) that would show the actual implement used but decided it wasn't needed. She grabs something sharp from his assortment of torture tools and slice-aroos him.

Virum ...
The neck effect is all primo in this cut and nothing is done to the knife in post as its all one take actually. we are not cutting between a clean neck and one with the prosthetic or between 2 takes, its all with the prosthetic on but covered at first in post. The knife just disappears due to the frame rate.
I was only kvetching that the cut was awkard meaning the film cut because due to our work flow I was locked into a cut (film cut, nothing to do with knives really) because of we only had a certain number of frames rendered on each clip, which was correct on a previous cut. The rendered frames are actually on her, not him as there is an element replaced in her shot as well right around the throat slash. So I need to recut the scene for the appropriate pace / flow and have mark reapply some of his magic.

lol, I can see how film cut and neck cut could get confused here :laugh:
 
Oh, and one more thing. The guy on the table....

Shoulda gone for the exploitation factor and got some really hot model chick to do all that convulsing.
winky.gif
 
well well well.... I have just recently had a chance to start watching all of the entries and I so happen to come across yours, so I decided to comment my thoughts on the piece.

So let me throw out some good things to start.

You had SOME slick edits that were enjoyable and flowed really well. They definitely TRIED there hardest to keep the story on pace, but I will get more into that later.

there were a few interesting shots that worked really well, and stick out in my mind. Probably my favorite shot was when they were "doing the deed" and he was choking her.....now this was mostly because it made me laugh more then anything because it simply looked funny.

...oh yeah the pictures on the wall were pretty cool as well

Now my other thoughts.


for starters I dont really dig on the whole aspect of the story. maybe it was that fact I that I have seen alot of movies in this contest that have gone for the same thing, and I guess I am just tired of seeing the same ole things from every one...including yours.

to be honest I thought the story was slow and not very captivating on the watchers end. I just felt myself looking at the little arrow on the time bar more then I spent being into your movie.Like I said earlier you had some very creative edits that tried their hardest to move the story along but in my opinion they failed....sorry I found it boring.

as far as the acting is concerned I found it a little dry in alot of places and now very contributing to the story. A fine example would be toward the end when the asian lead tried to talk in her...Spooky "I am dead" voice. I found it not only forced, and not very good, but more distracting then anything. the main lead wast too bad ,but he had his moments as well.

With all that said there was some good acting in it. I think that everyone else will agree that it was the chick on the table.....she played a dead, bloody ,over weight chick AWESOMELY!

oh yeah and the sex :)

but thats my take of it all.


oh yeah...and to referee
back to this I read earlier
EJ Pennypacker said:
You give David Lynch a run for his money.
Click to expand...


it is almost blasphemy to call this short anything even close to lynch. If it was close to lynch it would have kept my attention longer then a minute. it would have involved something like damn good dynamic shots, involved story, or something so weird that I had to pay close attention to so I could understand what was going on....all which I did not see in this short.

ok before I hurt some ones feelings...Im gone

:)
 
haha ... were great as a "plus size woman of color" which is what the craigs list ad said

"Victim/Corpse Role. Full Nudity. Plus Size Women of Color Encouraged to Apply"

for a while the screenplay said
"blonde victim"
"blonde" just to not be confused with the asian lead at all
but I decided to question why I was basically imagining a petite blonde in the roll and the only reason was because that was fairly typical ... so I asked myself what would be better, grungier, scarier, more real, and plus size woman of color came to mind ... someone that wears arch supports and has a subway commue that's too long ... someone that could be someone's aunt ... someone who would most likely take the titalation factor off the table and replace it with real person vs. sex object.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
haha ... were great as a "plus size woman of color" which is what the craigs list ad said

"Victim/Corpse Role. Full Nudity. Plus Size Women of Color Encouraged to Apply"

for a while the screenplay said
"blonde victim"
"blonde" just to not be confused with the asian lead at all
but I decided to question why I was basically imagining a petite blonde in the roll and the only reason was because that was fairly typical ... so I asked myself what would be better, grungier, scarier, more real, and plus size woman of color came to mind ... someone that wears arch supports and has a subway commue that's too long ... someone that could be someone's aunt ... someone who would most likely take the titalation factor off the table and replace it with real person vs. sex object.
Click to expand...

i think that made it more disturbing and less cliche.
 
kind of ashame, because there's lots of cool crane work there that seems like whip cuts but you will notice that we start tight on her face then pull back for the full body shot there then there's like a shake cut to a simmialry framed dollly shot that pushes in on him as he moves into the table

there's a long lingering crane shot that really takes her in which didn't make the cut for the fest because of teh VFX envolved.

Our plan is to post a still of the composited VFX and then a raw clip of the cut crane shot without VFX so you can get an idea of how the composited shot would look, but not let you see them together until the directors cut :evil:

And Mark, the NY screening is the 10th ... we gotta get crankin for that and the DVD as well. And thanks for your earlier posts BTW.

Jack
 
J-Dan,

My pleasure in all respects. I'm finally settled in here among the wheat fields in Kansas and am setting up the workstation to get cranking. No prob, baby. I'm not going to let the 10th come without that signature effect there in blazing glory.

On a totally random and off-topic note, I was driving in from Wichita and thinking about how much Barry's HVX book helped me and I remembered my favorite George C. Scott line from Patton. Thus, the woman I passed slowly on the freeway must have thought I was a lunatic when she looked over and saw me pounding the steering wheel and shouting at the top of my lungs, "Barry, you sonuvabitch! I read your book!"
 
I think a lot has been said already about Rekindled
so I'll try keep my review somewhat short... somewhat...
But, let's just set the record straight here for a
sec, I'll qualify this review from my design
and vfx background as well as a audience member.

The editing had me miffed just a little. It felt
very safe and calculated. Maybe that's a good
thing or a bad thing but, nonetheless not as
transparent as it should be with characters that
need more depth (more on this later).

The vfx of the flash of light coupled together
with a harsh sfx is an established practice for
any flashback sequence, in any film, in any genre.
I think it's about time this effect should be put
to rest. I'm also not a fan of using film scratches
to age footage. I've talked about this at length
with colleagues often and it always comes back to
canned effects will get you in trouble... always.
It's not creative, it's available to almost everyone
and again, very safe. Also, the bloating/scaling
of the image when transitioning lessens the impact
and is a personal no no of mine.

The lighting is nice but, not top notch. The one
thing I'm looking for in lighting is how one makes
dark and mysterious lighting seem natural and unforced.
Sometimes I ask myself where do all the fancy highlight
sources come from in big budget movies? When making
an independent film one has the chance to challenge
conventional Hollywood thinking. Why mimic it to
'add production value' instead of maximizing it for
creativeness?

The score is great but, not unexpected. I love the
20-30's style pop music although it seems, once again,
a logical choice to use pop music of a bygone era, in
a horror film, to eek out the strange but familiar
juxtaposition of bloody imagery and soothing music.
I understand that the "Rekindled" song reinforces
the theme but, it outshines some of the story aspects
that need attention.

Story and characters seem underdeveloped and not
very intriguing. I find it hard to feel anything
for either character during the entire six minutes.
All the action in the story is well placed and well
paced but, the nagging feeling of more developement
kept me from enjoying this one.

Overall, this film shows great strengths in directing
and framing but, lacks in story and emotion. A solid,
solid, solid effort here though.

I hope none of this comes off wrong it's just an honest
opinion. We're all here to learn right?
 
Inexistence, I appreciate reviewers who take the time to really critique and you provided a basis for where you come from on each point. Thanks for the candid comments.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top