Noct - Hero of Mana

This was a nice piece, it had a very mystical feel to it and I immediately thought of it being a children's film when I saw the winged creatures flying in the opening sequence. My favorite part of this film was the location, in particular the cottage it starts out in. You could do so many things with that and it just fits perfectly with this story.

I had a little trouble following the story in terms of the dog. I never really understood that interaction, but I think there was some meaning there that I missed. I'll have to watch it again.

The voiceover sounded really good, it was very clear but not overpowering and it had a nice tone to it. Great job.

I enjoyed the score in this piece it really fit the "mystical" tone of the film.

While I like the stuttered edit effect sometimes, I didn't think it fit this piece very well. Primarily because it wasn't showing a great passage of time, but rather was moving ahead in very small increments of time. I think you should have used broader cuts her or just let it play out straight.

I liked the overall color of the piece, in particular I liked that it wasn't 100% black & white, but that there was still some hints of color.

The framing all looked really good to me. I read in another post that you did this 100% by your self...I would love a behind-the-scenes how-to on how you made the background stretch out while staying static on your face (as the bad guy). It was reminiscent of the hitchcock dolly-zoom, but if no one else was there, how did you do it?

I LOVED when the "bad guys" hand is in CU and the finger motions the "good guy" to approach, like old kung-fu theatre on Saturday afternoon TV when we only had 10 stations :)

The transitions were ok, I think they gave it a comic book feel. But I don't think it would have hurt if you took them out.

The visual fx were decent, and they fit well within the story. None of them felt contrived, or put in for the sake of including an effect. They could use more work to be more believable, but they are definitely better done than I could do.

Overall a great job, I enjoyed it. My only real complaint is that I was hoping for more cape and mask, comic book style superheros....but I think you executed your variation very well.

Peace,
Larry
 
Man, the cinematography and location was gorgeous. Holy Wow! Really amazing.

A simple story with a delightful ending. Wonderful effects.
 
The entire middle of the film doesn't match the beginning or end. You set us up with this magical world and a dark force that takes it over, with only one man who can save it. Then it's three minutes of a guy in a fedora sitting around, or walking. It didn't progress, the momentum just died. The fight at the end was also sorta anti-climatic, mostly because I don't really know anything about the hero or villian and what they're capable of. The music was amazing though. I loved it, it carried the film.
 
My first download of this didn't work, so I just got to see it now.

Pros - Great score, some of the shots had a great feel to them, and just an overall neat sense of fantasy. I'm a sucker for dogs, so what a great addition to the story, so much can be spoken to an audicence without saying a single word by using our canine buddies. Bravo.

Cons - I have to agree with a few previous posts about the flow of the film. I would have used my time a little differently. I didn't understand the dead plantlife until the evil dude was killed I just thought you were using a funky filter. Then again, I'm a slow learner, so don't think you did terrible. The end battle could have been a little longer to build some tension, but you had to work with what you had.

Overall - I'd say this was a decent film, but for doing so much of it yourself, it shines. It's an great effort. I felt like I was about to begin a great quest on my PS2 or something. Very exciting to feel that thrill of adventure again!
 
Stunning openning images -- really really
Don't know if that was you on the V.O., but it was not up to par with the imagery, sounded like a young non pro's earnest attempt at seasoned professional VO

Love the post camera movement and teh compositing

when the talking ancient rock face acme a I wasn't sure where he was in teh shot and there was no thuder clap or anyting for the character to react to so that moment didn't work for me

teh talking rock guy looked great, and i bot the VO there

I thnk the score is effective

Great look and fantasy feel to this whole thing

love the open / close circle transistions

the effects looked great to!

NICE secondary CC effect withe th trees and what not ay the end.

Dude where the hell do you live Middle earth? :)

I'd like to see wha t you'd come up with if you had a story where two people were in conflict, there's a lot of stuff on your website with dudes running around in the woods.

this is definately the most accomplished thing I've seen you do - congrats

I also might ask you to work as a colorist on my next thing ...

Jack
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Stunning openning images -- really really
Don't know if that was you on the V.O., but it was not up to par with the imagery, sounded like a young non pro's earnest attempt at seasoned professional VO
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Awesome man! Thanks. That made my day. I agree 100% on your thoughts on the VO. Honestly, it was the hardest part for me in the entire process. It took the longest. I think I did 200 takes recording each segment separately. I wanted to time it right with the visuals so they would weave in and out with each other. In the end I was not happy with them. I was surprised when most people bought them.


Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Love the post camera movement and teh compositing

when the talking ancient rock face acme a I wasn't sure where he was in teh shot and there was no thuder clap or anyting for the character to react to so that moment didn't work for me

teh talking rock guy looked great, and i bot the VO there
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I'm really big on post camera movement. Cool, that's a good point on that particular moment with the rock face. The VO there was more exaggerated and performed more theatrically. I also lowered the pitch down a couple of semitones. I wanted it to sound different from the opening VO, trying to cheaply create "another character" so to speak.

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I thnk the score is effective

Great look and fantasy feel to this whole thing

love the open / close circle transistions

the effects looked great to!

NICE secondary CC effect withe th trees and what not ay the end.
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Thanks, I hope to get better with all the effects. I have about a decade's experience with Photoshop and graphic design. I was hoping that would carry over to AE. In some ways it did, but in other ways I still need a lot of practice. I tried not to make the effects too overbearing.

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
I'd like to see wha t you'd come up with if you had a story where two people were in conflict, there's a lot of stuff on your website with dudes running around in the woods.
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Me too! I dream about this. I just might do it for the horrorfest. They say make movies about what you know, and most of the time I'm running around the woods. :grin:

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
this is definately the most accomplished thing I've seen you do - congrats

I also might ask you to work as a colorist on my next thing ...
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I think so too. I'm proud just to have finished something. I barely did. I had 2 hard drives crash (they only crash when I'm trying to F'n do something), right before I was about to render down the final edit. Luckily I had it backed of thrice. My motherboard of 5 years fried. Of course! So I canabalized another PC with similar parts and finished it all up. Now I'm without a main workstation and a bit depressed and having withdrawl symptoms.

I would LOVE to work as a colorist on your next opus. I feel very honored to be considered.
 
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Larry R said:
The voiceover sounded really good, it was very clear but not overpowering and it had a nice tone to it. Great job.

I enjoyed the score in this piece it really fit the "mystical" tone of the film.

The framing all looked really good to me. I read in another post that you did this 100% by your self...I would love a behind-the-scenes how-to on how you made the background stretch out while staying static on your face (as the bad guy). It was reminiscent of the hitchcock dolly-zoom, but if no one else was there, how did you do it?
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Thanks Larry, your thoughts are most appreciated. That was a nice thoughtful review.

Oh, how I did that hitchcock dolly-zoom type thing... I used a stand-in. It was my niece with the "Dark Ones" costume on. I need some fill shots that I could not get on my own so I asked if she would put the cloak and mask on and just stand there. She lives about 1/4 of a mile of where the dark ones showdown was shot, so the woods looked very similar.

What I did was; I had a steady rig and was zoomed out, then I moved backwards very quickly and zoomed back in. That's how I did the flowers in the intro as well. It really separates the background from the foreground. When I did each of those types of shots I had to do many takes to get the focus right.

icon3.gif
BTS Fact: The shots of the mountains, and very wide vistas I took while I was in Norway. They're on Lake Tyrifjorden, and Balestrand, Norway. I made virtual matte paintings with them.

DerrickTempleton said:
The entire middle of the film doesn't match the beginning or end. You set us up with this magical world and a dark force that takes it over, with only one man who can save it. Then it's three minutes of a guy in a fedora sitting around, or walking. It didn't progress, the momentum just died. The fight at the end was also sorta anti-climatic, mostly because I don't really know anything about the hero or villian and what they're capable of. The music was amazing though. I loved it, it carried the film.
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Derrick. Wow that is harsh. I was prepared to hate you until I read the last part about digging the music. Then you redeemed yourself hahaha. I get your points about not knowing anything about the hero or the villains and what they're capable of. It was probably too broad of a subject to shoot in a 5 minute film.

Personally, I think the soundtrack, and sound design is the most solid part of my film. I was glad to read that you thought close to the same thing.

Texture said:
Man, the cinematography and location was gorgeous. Holy Wow! Really amazing.

A simple story with a delightful ending. Wonderful effects.
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Thanks! Yeah I think non filmmakers will appreciate this film. It's better if you don't pick it apart. But I appreciate it getting picked apart (picked apart sincerely) because then I can make a solid film later.

MiataFilmSomething said:
I felt like I was about to begin a great quest on my PS2 or something. Very exciting to feel that thrill of adventure again!
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Awesome thanks! That's a major vibe I was going for. My fellow video game nerds will dig this movie.
 
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Opening shots were great. I too loved the feel to this simple film. Youve also made me a fan of the transitions you used. Hawks back to the old days innit!
Nice job.
Dog A1++
Jp
 
jpbankesmercer said:
Youve also made me a fan of the transitions you used. Hawks back to the old days innit!
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Finally! Yes Mr. Mercer, it certainly does. My transitions, as well as a few other elements were a homage to Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, and other german expressionist films.

Thank you dearly my friend. I deeply appreciate your feedback.
 
I loved the transitions. It did give it an old silent film feel, which worked very well...especially since there was no dialogue (other than VO). I thought it was excellent. Something between a beautiful art film and a fanboy D&D film.
 
I loved it dude, a lot. I was shocked at how good your cinematography was, not that I didn't expect it to be good, but it really was nice. We definitely need to work on some stuff together. Talk to you soon.
 
Loved the opening and closing scenes .the shot of the dogs legs thru the window .
Liked how you shot this ..colour correction, effects .
The only issue I have is that the EVIL guy died a little to fast ..

Just thought this was excellent ..just a little differnt from the others I've seen .
congrats
Ian
 
sean90291 said:
I loved the transitions. It did give it an old silent film feel, which worked very well...especially since there was no dialogue (other than VO). I thought it was excellent. Something between a beautiful art film and a fanboy D&D film.
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Sean, thanks man. That means a lot. A beautiful art film... awesome! Now I don't just have to take my mom and girlfriend's word for it. I can totally see the D&D fanboy connection. It has that sort of nerdy aspect for sure. I think I need to stick close to that because that's kind of how I am. I'm not a D&D guy so much but definitely Warcraft, Super Metroid, Zelda, SquareSoft etc.

My dad ripped me a good one for the movie. He's like the devil sitting on my shoulder telling me my stuff isn't good enough (very earnest and truthful). So if I seemed full of it in this thread, trust me, my head is on straight.

Peter Murphy said:
I loved it dude, a lot. I was shocked at how good your cinematography was, not that I didn't expect it to be good, but it really was nice. We definitely need to work on some stuff together. Talk to you soon.
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Oh dear, thank you Peter. If there was one person that I hoped "got it" it was you. Let's team up on the HorrorFest and show'm how it's done. :grin:

arielman said:
Loved the opening and closing scenes .the shot of the dogs legs thru the window .
Liked how you shot this ..colour correction, effects .
The only issue I have is that the EVIL guy died a little to fast ..

Just thought this was excellent ..just a little differnt from the others I've seen .
congrats
Ian
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Ian, thank you for your feedback. The shot through the window was one of my favorites. It felt very "hitchcock". I wanted that shot to be a slightly heightened voyeuristic shot. The evil guy did die too fast, I agree. For the time length I wanted to convey the restoration of this world and not focus on the evil so much.

I get really depressed in the winters. I'm always glad when spring comes. This movie captured that very directly. I was trying to convey that personal emotion. I shot everything up to the "restoration" in early march before everything greened out in Indiana. The rest was shot in early-mid May. The themes in the movie aren't so literal. They are more symbolic. I'm not one of those artist that likes to paint blobs on a canvas. I'm also not one that likes to paint photorealistic portraits. I like a mixture of abstract and reality based or something that is relevent to emotions. I think if either one gets off balance a work suffers. That's just my opinion and outlook.
 
Hey Aaron, finally got a chance to watch this. Very nice job, especially since you said it was a crew of one: you. Wow!

That said, the story seemed a little slow to me at first, but finally picked up when he got his mission from the face on the wall.

My favorte part of this were the creatures he encountered ... totally reminded me of the things from Lord Of The Rings ... great job. Nice job with the FX as well, especially the flying reptiles.

One thing I noticed was perhaps an over use of the iris transition within Vegas. It especially caught my eye because that stinkin' transition always pauses for a beat before it closes all the way, and I have NO idea why/how it does it, but I see it was doing it in yours too. Glad it's not just on my end. :)

Oh, and KUDOS to your dog for being able to stretch like that when getting out of bed. PERFECT timing!
 
Norm,

Thanks man. I sincerely respect your critique. I always thought that pause in the iris was because an emulation of human error. I never thought of it as a bug. I feel sheepish now :)

I'm glad you liked the FX and the flying dragons. I'm glad you noticed my dog Esther stretching! I was so proud of her. I laughed when I looked at the footage. She's so dramatic. There were a few times where I had to tell her to tone it down and stop hamming the scene. hahaha just kidding. :grin:
 
Hey... finally watched this one over again... wow... this film isn't getting enough recognition. Great job. I absolutely LOVE the last shot where things turn back to color and the dog runs out of the house... how'd you pull that off.... beautiful!
 
Very Kool. A bit artsy but shot very well. Loved the music also sortof dreamy relaxing. I'm not a fan of a lot of voice over but I thought your voiceover was done very well IMO. :thumbsup:
 
briceman said:
Hey... finally watched this one over again... wow... this film isn't getting enough recognition. Great job. I absolutely LOVE the last shot where things turn back to color and the dog runs out of the house... how'd you pull that off.... beautiful!
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Thanks Briceman! I'm glad you liked the color change. The dog shots were fairly easy. I just said, "Esther, stay." and she would sit down. Then I would proceed into the distance, out of frame and yell for her. I set up four different shots of that with two takes on each. Most of them only needed one take. The color changes were multilayers with different CC and masking effects, then I would automate them in and out.

Cryogenic Filmworks said:
Very Kool. A bit artsy but shot very well. Loved the music also sortof dreamy relaxing. I'm not a fan of a lot of voice over but I thought your voiceover was done very well IMO. :thumbsup:
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Thanks man. I'm glad you liked the VO and the music. I need to get around to uploading those mp3 tracks. I'm going to remaster them for listening outside of the film.
 
Aaron -

I thought this was one of the most interesting films of this festival. I say interesting because you didn't take a hero and just let him sit there - instead you created a heroic universe to surround him. The reaction between hero and environment is vital to selling the super-film. Look at Raimi's Spiderman, the way the camera swings like it's on a web when he travels. This was an introspective hero, and he lived in an introspective and solitary world. Thumbs up.
I think you would benefit a lot from working with a crew. Not only does it give you good experience, it's a lot more fun and it can temper certain ... excesses. I particularly think you should get a consult next time on your editing and FX work. You have a lot of knowledge and ability, but that often leads people to be a little shortsighted about the effect their choices have on a viewer. Your choice of circular wipes, for instance, was excellent and kept the video-gamey feel alive, but the desaturated tones were overdone and (sorry) a little hokey.
Anyhow, best of luck and see you next fest.
-Ben
 
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