Matt Sconce- Stricken

[Matt Sconce]

I appreciate all of you who have given me feedback and taken the time to download my movie even though it is not up for competition. I am almost done viewing all the movies, and then I will be leaving feedback as well.

 

[VersuS]

I know i said I d watch Stricken first..but one thing let to another....so...here is my review:

I ll start with the negatives:

- story, not that I dont like it, but it needs to be developped more...you get your message across quite easily and the twist is there and it comes out really nice, but i thought I watched a trailer....this is A MUST-MAKE-FEATURE-RIGHT-NOW material

- grandpa managing to kill young dude.....no way!!!! i mean....NO WAY!!! its like SUPER GRANDPA

- end credits...i was like...oh no its over ...but hey...10'....15' ....15-10=5.....5' for credits???

The good things....

Great use of camera....trully a masterpiece...great frames and angles....great setups and lighting and use of locations in the most professional way....the shots were all delivered as you would expect from a motion picture....

The actors were very good! Sometimes I thought that maybe this needed to be more ...intense...like it was rolling somehow slowly...in a hmm...how to say this....I wanted to see more TENSION building up...and have more sounds....much more sounds...but maybe this is what you chose to do...(e.g. in the diner i d rather have LOTS OF BUBBLING AND NOISE AND EGGS FRYING AND PHONES AND TV ...)

Make up, costumes, props...all wonderful for this level.

Seriously Matt AMAZING WORK....too bad you put so much beforehand in your thread and some parts didnt play in the OMG THAT WAS GREAT factor...but still I can only imagine what is going to happen with a feature version...

oh and score is great, fits perfectly with mood and image...

And to think I thought Broken was a school......

 

[Matt Sconce]

I know i said I d watch Stricken first..but one thing let to another....so...here is my review:

I ll start with the negatives:

- story, not that I dont like it, but it needs to be developped more...you get your message across quite easily and the twist is there and it comes out really nice, but i thought I watched a trailer....this is A MUST-MAKE-FEATURE-RIGHT-NOW material

I absolutely agree that the story needs to be developed. I hav all sorts of ideas for the feature. the girl discovering in glimpses about her dual nature and having to stop herself from killing the people she loves. She would be the hero and the villain, and the two would realize the others exist i.e. reflections in windows and such.

- grandpa managing to kill young dude.....no way!!!! i mean....NO WAY!!! its like SUPER GRANDPA

Originally the ruckus was gonna cause the father to fall on his own knife by accident, but it just didn't work out. I thought this worked fine for the short, but I know it hurts the believability of that moment.............perhaps he is Super Grandpa and Sarah is his cryptonite..........hehe

- end credits...i was like...oh no its over ...but hey...10'....15' ....15-10=5.....5' for credits???

I had a lot of help and positions to cover, and if you watch a normal movie, the credits are quite long. I don't the length of the movie defines the length of the credits. I could understand how they could get tiring though.

The good things....

Great use of camera....trully a masterpiece...great frames and angles....great setups and lighting and use of locations in the most professional way....the shots were all delivered as you would expect from a motion picture....

The actors were very good! Sometimes I thought that maybe this needed to be more ...intense...like it was rolling somehow slowly...in a hmm...how to say this....I wanted to see more TENSION building up...and have more sounds....much more sounds...but maybe this is what you chose to do...(e.g. in the diner i d rather have LOTS OF BUBBLING AND NOISE AND EGGS FRYING AND PHONES AND TV ...)

Make up, costumes, props...all wonderful for this level.

Seriously Matt AMAZING WORK....too bad you put so much beforehand in your thread and some parts didnt play in the OMG THAT WAS GREAT factor...but still I can only imagine what is going to happen with a feature version...

oh and score is great, fits perfectly with mood and image...

And to think I thought Broken was a school......[/quote]

Thank you so much for your review! I enjoy learning what people thought of the movie, and processing the feedback to see what changes I would like to make in the Future. :beer:

 

[Beat Takeshi]

That is a great compliment Aram. I wanted it to create an emotional response. Do you mind if I quote you on the Chills and goosebumps line? I would like to add it to some comments about the movie.

No problem. Its an honor.

 

[Matt Sconce]

No problem. Its an honor.

Thank you!!!

 

[Matt Sconce]

Good production values all the way around. You get the award for longest credits

Thanks! We worked really hard to get the highest quality look for what we were working with! Yep the credits were definitely long!! I liked em though, it lets everyone be recognized, and let's Leo's awesome music play. people usually walk out during the credits anyway, so this way, they are not left sitting in silence too soon.

 

[Matt Sconce]

Well, I have watched all the movies and will now be reviewing them as well as I can. My goal is to give the filmmaker some feedback to help improve his/her moviemaking in the future and let him/her know what I liked and what I might do differently.

I will begin with an honest look at my own film.

Matt Sconce's Review of Stricken
SPOLIERS POSSIBLE!

Script
I think the story worked very well. It was meant to be a slow building psychological thriller, with an epic and emotional ending. On those points, I think it succeeded. I do agree that the story needs to be developed more and that this would work better in a feature film type format.
Acting
I enjoyed working with the actors sooo much. I believe Stephanie (Sarah in the movie) was tremendous in her role. She gave me what I asked for and was very directable. The other standout to me was Alyssa (little Sarah). It is hard to get little kids to act well, and she did great. The other standout was the Ken (The psycho Father) I enjoyed his performances a lot. Now for the bummer parts. While I think everyone did a great job, I feel I did not get the most natural performances out of the actors. I think I settled for some takes I should have reshot due to time constraints, and I think I need to give more direction that would allow the actor to create a more natural character. While I think the acting was good, I think it is not perfect by any means. And I blame myself.
Cinematography
I am proud of this aspect of the film. I believe I got the feel and look I was going for, and I think it worked with the movie well. I attempted to light differently, based on the help I have received here and I think it worked. I definitely will be using moments of this for my DP reel.
Editing
I agree that I should have had some establishing shots. I think the editing flowed well. I purposely let some shots linger, and decided not to cut it just for a competition. I think it would have ruined the slow building drama. I think the editing worked, but agree it needed some pause moments with establishing shots.
Score
Leo did an amazing job and delivered something that basically made the Movie. Especially between minute 9 and 10 (The end of the movie). The theme at the start was amazing as well.
As for the sound. would definitely do things differently. I needed to ADR the voices, and will next time.
Overall Impressions
Overall, I am very happy with Stricken. I see many things I would do slightly different if I was to do it over again, and those things mainly revolve around direction and coverage for external shots.

 

[Robert Eldon]

Beautiful imagery. Great Acting. The original music score gets a 10!

I watched the 'Sound Fixed' version. I loved the opening scene. Definitely got my attention. Very entertaining. And... It looks like a family affair. It must be wonderful having the support of your family doing what you do?

 

[Matt Sconce]

Beautiful imagery. Great Acting. The original music score gets a 10!

I watched the 'Sound Fixed' version. I loved the opening scene. Definitely got my attention. Very entertaining. And... It looks like a family affair. It must be wonderful having the support of your family doing what you do?

Yep, My wife is a wonderful support and helped me tremendously as she is so artistic and good at organization. My dad is a Sheriff so that really helps us not get shut down while filming without permits.

I am so glad you liked it!! I hope more people watch it. I get the feeling that due to the lack of activity in this thread, people
A. Have not yet gotten there on th list.
B. Do not want to download it because it is big
C. Are Having trouble with the download
D. Don't like it enough to comment
E. Just haven't got around to comment yet
F. Have not given it much attention because it is not eligible to win

It could be a little bit of everything, but I hope people do watch it. I think that is all I need as a film maker, just to know that my film has been seen and that people enjoyed the experience.

 

[Robert Eldon]

Yep, My wife is a wonderful support and helped me tremendously as she is so artistic and good at organization. My dad is a Sheriff so that really helps us not get shut down while filming without permits.

I am so glad you liked it!! I hope more people watch it. I get the feeling that due to the lack of activity in this thread, people
A. Have not yet gotten there on th list.
B. Do not want to download it because it is big
C. Are Having trouble with the download
D. Don't like it enough to comment
E. Just haven't got around to comment yet
F. Have not given it much attention because it is not eligible to win

It could be a little bit of everything, but I hope people do watch it. I think that is all I need as a film maker, just to know that my film has been seen and that people enjoyed the experience.

I just finished watching and rating all of the films. I went in alphabetical order. Now, I'm going back through the ones I liked and commenting on them. I think people are still watching and rating, and haven't taken the time to respond to the individual films. I know I haven't seen much activity in my thread ("Hellebore"), but I must admit, I saw my film listed with 'Hudson's top list. That's about all I need.

I'm happy for you and your wife. I can relate... my wife has been very supportive in this venture as well and my son (also a member of this board) has been super helpful.

Congratulations on a great film. I believe that I gave yours' the highest rating of all.

 

[Michael_Petro]

just watched the sound fixed version and that was a pretty darned good film.. thanks for taking the time to do it(even though your not competeing)

 

[Geoff_R]

Matt,

Finally got around to seeing this film and the wait was worth it. I really saw a lot of great things from this film. I think you did a terrific job directing and pulling everything together. It's evident that this was a huge undertaking.

Casting was great, your actors did an excellent job and kept me engaged in the story for the most part. There were a few beats that felt a little false to me, mainly the interactions between Sarah and the phychiatrist. It just felt a little too much like acting to me, but Sarah does good in practically every scene, so her presence revives the interactions. Kudos to you on your direction with Sarah.

Cinematography was overall very good; you did a great job lighting that first night scene in the bedroom and I really love that scene with Sarah and her diner co-worker in the car; those are my favs.

I loved the score! It is phenomenal, like something out of a big hollywood film. The ending score piece sounds very Howard Shore to me; almost like something from Lord of the Rings.... Leandro Gardini is beyond talented! Please pass along my praise and commend him on his work. I know you're NC, but the soundtrack for your film is off the charts.

 

[Geoff_R]

Leo,

Just noticed you're on these boards. Amazing work you did on Stricken. I'm now going through your site and listening to some of your music. It's great! You've got serious talent.

 

[Kyle Stebbins]

Leo- I followed this thread for quite awhile, in fact it was the first thread that got me interested in Horrorfest. -- Let me say that your film truly lived up to it's hype! The BTS photographs were actually EDUCATIONAL to me =) and I loved the composition of your shots. I hope you quote me when I say that I've been STRUCK with STRICKEN FEVER!

I would say more but I'm dead tired and just found out I have to open the bank tomorrow for my girlfriend. More later!

 

[Norm Sanders]

Matt, really looking forward to watching this ... I keep getting tempted to, but am trying to get through the ones first that ARE competing, so I have time to view them all, vote, etc.

Not sure how much longer I can hold out though.

BTW, I was able to catch today that there's version with improved sound, so I made sure to download that one & ditch the other file. :thumbsup:

 

[JoshuaNitschke]

The good: So far the best looking film in the festival. Better than rekindled, I'd say. Couple of shots where the focus wasn't spot on, but still great.

The bad: Your offscreen violence and cutaways didn't really have an impact to me. Some better sound effects might have improved this. Story was a bit predictable, but the writing was pretty good. Acting was a bit iffy in parts too.

Main strength of this short is how it looks. I'm a bit jealous of your skills to be honest.

You one of the highest overall scores in my ballot. It's a shame you didn't enter this for competition. Why didn't you?

 

[Matt Sconce]

The good: So far the best looking film in the festival. Better than rekindled, I'd say. Couple of shots where the focus wasn't spot on, but still great.

The bad: Your offscreen violence and cutaways didn't really have an impact to me. Some better sound effects might have improved this. Story was a bit predictable, but the writing was pretty good. Acting was a bit iffy in parts too.

Main strength of this short is how it looks. I'm a bit jealous of your skills to be honest.

You one of the highest overall scores in my ballot. It's a shame you didn't enter this for competition. Why didn't you?

Thanks dude for the constructive critique. I wanted to pimp this movie externally as well to get it ready for the festival circuit, and cannot fathom cutting it to the 6 minute mark. I would have to cut 4 minutes of movie as the actual movie without credits is 10 minutes long, and I think it would kill the story. If I had entered it, it would be a much different movie than you saw, because of the missing 4 minutes.

It was a personal decision that way, and also because I wanted to go into this competition with no pressure. I wanted to use it to better my film with feedback, but not "worry" like I did during herofest what people were thinking.

I am REALLy enjoying watching and commenting and not feeling competitive.

I am SOOOOOO glad you liked it!!

About the cutaways. I am a minimalist when it comes to gore. I think less is more scary.

 

[Matt Sconce]

Matt, really looking forward to watching this ... I keep getting tempted to, but am trying to get through the ones first that ARE competing, so I have time to view them all, vote, etc.

Not sure how much longer I can hold out though.

BTW, I was able to catch today that there's version with improved sound, so I made sure to download that one & ditch the other file. :thumbsup:

It is worth the wait I hope. The corrected sound is SOO much better, so I am glad you found it!

 

[Norm Sanders]

I wanted to pimp this movie externally as well to get it ready for the festival circuit, and cannot fathom cutting it to the 6 minute mark. I would have to cut 4 minutes of movie as the actual movie without credits is 10 minutes long, and I think it would kill the story. If I had entered it, it would be a much different movie than you saw, because of the missing 4 minutes.

Yep, smart move. We learned with SPARROW there was just no way to take a 20+ minute story and really make ANY sense of it at all in 6 or less minutes. In hind site we would have done better to take the middle scene of the movie & shown that instead, as it had it's own story within the bigger story, but hind sightis always 20-20.

That said, by exhibiting your film here, you'll have an opportunity to still fine tune it before you take it out into the festivals, which is VERY smart. Even having our CRAMMED 6 minute version in the HeroFest brought to our attention some things (specifically sound levels) that needed to be addressed, so we were actually glad things turned out the way they did.

 

[Matt Sconce]

Yep, smart move. We learned with SPARROW there was just no way to take a 20+ minute story and really make ANY sense of it at all in 6 or less minutes. In hind site we would have done better to take the middle scene of the movie & shown that instead, as it had it's own story within the bigger story, but hind sightis always 20-20.

That said, by exhibiting your film here, you'll have an opportunity to still fine tune it before you take it out into the festivals, which is VERY smart. Even having our CRAMMED 6 minute version in the HeroFest brought to our attention some things (specifically sound levels) that needed to be addressed, so we were actually glad things turned out the way they did.

I absolutely agree. I have no reservations about not competing...except for the shiny HVX I cannot win, even if my scores were the highest....:crybaby: haha!

Seriously though, I am glad I have done it this way. It will help me improve the movie so I can win some awards in the festival circuit, get noticed by someone with money, and get a shot at a feature with a pretty kick butt story, with good distribution possibilities. Hopefully Lionsgate or some of those other guys who pick up low budget horror, put a pretty cover on it and sell it like crazy, especially in the foreign markets.

Now back to the roasting....... What did ya'll think oh Stricken? Yeehaw!........Okay...I don't know where that came from....:cheesy: