Mark and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Drama

Mark Johnson said:
Wow. I am floored by the thoughtful notes and comments. You just can't buy this level of helpful critique (well, I guess you could, but it would cost a hell of a lot).

So, what a journey. On to the Hot Babes and Giant Robots movie that we've already begun devloping!!!!
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LOL! OK then, are the robots actually spies then, since the next venture is a Spyfest? Hmm? :huh:
 
Cliff Hanginator could be the spy investigating the evil-minded person whom is building and unleashing the giant robots upon the world....
 
Our Giant Robots-and-hot-babes-in-lingerie is a total exploitation flick that we think can turn out to be a real pleasure if we can hit the right balance of cheesey fun, sexiness and over-the-top b-movie plotting. We're going to seriously try to develop it as a feature or at least featurette. Yes, it will be juvenile. Yes, it will be politically incorrect. But, yes, it will involve bichin-cool giant robots and totally hot actresses wearing sexy lingerie. The fourteen-year-old in me is getting dizzy at the prospects. :)

I hope you serious actor-types can appreciate the fun of this and not focus too much on the mercenary aspects of such a politically incorrect film.
 
Mark Johnson said:
nd not focus too much on the mercenary aspects of such a politically incorrect film.
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HHAHAHA! mercenary aspects of a politically incorrect film? ROFL!
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OK - this is the second film I picked to watch. High expectations - usually a bad thing (and sorry if I repeat anything said before but I think we're onto page 353 of comments here which puts reading any substantial portion of this thread into the impossible category).

Your theme was great. I'm a sucker for anything aircraft and the first scene of the walk through the hanger had me craning my neck around the edge of the screen trying to get a better look at the yellow mono.

Really amazing production here. Right from the ambulance/fire scene through to the exterior airshow shots (did you film at an actual airshow? seriously - those people looked ... real). Great locations and sets (why did the junior FAA guy come out of the office when the senior guy was at the goofy table outside? Shouldn't it have been the other way around?). Didn't really buy the briefing room, but can't put my finger on why.

Acting. Female lead was good (and there is this serious thing about aviation girls in white jumpsuits ... but I digress). She was actually excellent in some scenes and then dropped it a little in others. Uneven. But good. Your pilot-Erik - I had trouble buying him. Sorry. The others were just OK to me - not bad, but perhaps given the close proximity of aircraft I was hoping for more.

I really lost the whole thing on the green screen of the cockpit takeoff. Sorry - just didn't buy it. Same comment with regard to the crash scene - maybe the plane augered in too fast - not sure.

OK - I really liked the scene where the plane hits the blade on the windmill and it falls into the viewer. Best shot of the whole piece, IMHO.

Demerits for abuse to Pacifico bottles. That's my favourite beer and that scene just hurt (did Erik have a different brand in his hand at one moment? if so, demerits will be reversed, but the continuity girl will be fired).

The story was a little predictable. OK, maybe a lot predictable. But the production value saved you. And I guess the antagonists (the FAA guys) were right to pull the guy's licence huh? I hate it when the bad guys are made out to be in the right.

Please take the above in good spirit and accept my thanks for all the obvious hard work that it took to put this together. I am really glad I watched it and it was definitely not a waste of time (p.s. - did you get up in some of the aircraft?)
 
Thanks for those great comments. Spot-on observations. As I mentioned in some posts above, I myself laugh at our cockpit bluescreen shots simply because we didn't have time to process them and they do really take you out of the film. Those will be fixed. And also the explosion frame never got built properly because of a botched UPS delivery that we were expecting that had the effect we were going to use. And, yes, the plane augers in too fast so good observation. All that will be fixed for Ted's longer cut. I also have rethought how we might shoot the FAA office scene differently to put more weight on the chief. His desk against the wall doesn't sit well for me now but we had a tiny tiny little office to work with and this allowed us to shoot into the reception area. We also had to shoot around windows and were limited with how we could stage it. Not making excuses at all, in fact, I just love second guessing ourselves as it gives you the chance to really learn and grow.

I think the next time Ted and I shoot we'll be awesome - or at least better. That's what it is all about.
 
Mark Johnson said:
Our Giant Robots-and-hot-babes-in-lingerie is a total exploitation flick that we think can turn out to be a real pleasure if we can hit the right balance of cheesey fun, sexiness and over-the-top b-movie plotting. We're going to seriously try to develop it as a feature or at least featurette. Yes, it will be juvenile. Yes, it will be politically incorrect. But, yes, it will involve bichin-cool giant robots and totally hot actresses wearing sexy lingerie. The fourteen-year-old in me is getting dizzy at the prospects. :)

I hope you serious actor-types can appreciate the fun of this and not focus too much on the mercenary aspects of such a politically incorrect film.
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Where do I sign up?
 
Hey guys good job. I really liked this one. The second time I watched it I liked it even more. It felt big. To often short films feel small and confining. I felt like this one could have gone anywhere and I would have followed joyfully.

I really liked the variety of characters you had. A bunch of great personalities. I did feel that Eric himself could have been developed a bit more.

I think the lighting and cinematography was great. I think the editing was great as well. Some framing choices confused me a bit but that may have been a editing choice based on performances. To many times has the wrong shot had the better performance in our works. But it is the one you have to put in.

The SFX were both great and not. The green screen stuff was a little rough. The one that killed me the most was of the cockpit in profile as Eric blazes down the runway and some of the planes in the background are bigger then his in the foreground. The CG plane and crash stuff was really nice.

The music was amazing. Herman is great isn't he. The tension he builds is second to none.

I had a great time watching this short. It was exciting, sad, funny and all those other things great films should be. Great work fellas.
 
Mark Johnson said:
I have to laugh myself when I see our cockpit bluescreens. Cheese-o-rino!!!!!
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I gotta say, though, a big reason they're less believeable is how amazing the other VFX look. The cockpit shot of Eric looking at the picture of his wife and daughter is totally believable, and I think a true testament of your crazy, mad skills, Mark.

I've watched TTN about 37 more times since my review, and also watched a few of the other flicks on here. I am really coming to the strong realization that TTN is outstanding is SOOOOOO many ways. I am incredibly happy to be a part of it, and find the film better and better the more I watch it. Also, everybody I've shown it to has really liked it, and is really excited about the prospect of a longer cut (i.e. wants to see more). This is including, but not limited to my mother (although her opinion is admitedly somewhat biased :happy: ).


On to some real business:

RebeccaD said:
OK then, are the robots actually spies then, since the next venture is a Spyfest? Hmm? :huh:
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Seriously. Are the robots spies?!?
 
wow, what i like the most about your movie is that you thought big. thats awesome. guts! love the planes, and the best scene is the one where the yellow plane scoots through some of the blades. the music there is awesome too. the explosion was fine too. neat stuff. the air show looked like an air show too. looks like lots of people milling around and im sure this wasnt easy to pull off.

didnt think the whole beginning of eric's family dying got enough time, but in six minutes there wasnt enough time, maybe cut out the entire antagonistic agent thing? didnt look too good anyway. something cheesy about it, it looked eighties in a way. eric's bellowing before he takes off looked a bit staged but that might be because he didnt get any time to build it up on screen? i dont know about the cursing either when the rest of the script seemed more tv ish. maybe go real edgy and more darker with the whole script and look, or keep it more pg and brighter looking. something didnt fit about it for me, but thats just my taste.


the movie was real fun to look at though, with more running time to pace things out a bit more i have no doubt it could even be a lot better. for what its worth i give you a ton of credit for taking on something so huge in scale. for the most part i think you pulled it off too.

must have been a lot fun to work with that many people. is it true what they say that food and beer is enough to lure a crew to work with you?( although i would hope you had eric throwing empties around in the movie, ha! ) i made my movie pretty much solo, is this how you started out as well?
 
Hey guys, I'm working on revised VFX as well as color grading the skies so that I can give that footage to Ted for the long cut. Also, we'll add to the DVD version as I understand that is permissible. Hopefully, Tim can work more on the sound too. I think John is right that when we start taking care of these things we'll be able to see just how ambitious and successful the project was!

One of the first things I'm gonna do is change out that darn cheese-o-rino lateral cockpit view of Eric taking off! That thing grates on me every time I watch the film!
 
Mark Johnson said:
One of the first things I'm gonna do is change out that darn cheese-o-rino lateral cockpit view of Eric taking off! That thing grates on me every time I watch the film!
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Thank you :thumbsup:
 
Mark Johnson said:
Hey guys, I'm working on revised VFX as well as color grading the skies so that I can give that footage to Ted for the long cut. Also, we'll add to the DVD version as I understand that is permissible. Hopefully, Tim can work more on the sound too. I think John is right that when we start taking care of these things we'll be able to see just how ambitious and successful the project was!

One of the first things I'm gonna do is change out that darn cheese-o-rino lateral cockpit view of Eric taking off! That thing grates on me every time I watch the film!
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Awesome Mark! I know you'll work the magic! I just watched your BTS on Rekindled (on your website). Amazing stuff! You rock! :beer:
 
Thanks Brandon. Just got back up North after a long drive and a detour to shoot some footage for a client. My boy turns 12 today and we're going to eat a bunch of stuff his mom wishes we wouldn't and play with his new Nintendo Wii.
 
Will do Tim. When he turns 16 I will bring him to the house of the mole people (Chateau D .... or D'if if you want to get technical)
 
Oh, and Tim, somehow this place didn't get any cleaner since we left it. There's still some pretty strange detritus over on the table by where you were editing. ....
 
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