One Way

I really like the way you shot this, nice cinematography. The color correction is very non-contrasty and is just beautiful, as is your shot selection, especially with the nice bokeh.
what lenses did you use?
 
Spoiler:
SPOILER REVIEW:
I have to be honest here. I had to go back and watch this one twice. Even watching through twice ... I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle. Who was Ben talking to? Who was on the phone? My best guess goes like this: Jon was blackmailing Ben in the future, and holding his wife captive. So Ben went back in time to kill Jon before that could happen. Am I even close on this?!

the good: The shots looked really good. Great composition, and no harsh lighting from the sun. Very nice and hard to do outside sometimes.

the not as good: I don't understand the umbrella. The audio was either right or left a lot. Be sure to pan to 0 on those files. I feel it could have been a little warmer with a different white balance. Maybe that was intentional. It felt cold, though. The gunshot audio was flat. What was he firing at? The story also left me confused.

 
Matt Harris said:
I really like the way you shot this, nice cinematography. The color correction is very non-contrasty and is just beautiful, as is your shot selection, especially with the nice bokeh.
what lenses did you use?
Click to expand...

Matt, thanks a lot for taking a look. I used nikon primes (24, 50, 105) and a canon L non is 70-200 f4. By the way, I thought your short was crazy and look forward to writing out some more detailed thoughts soon.
 
Hawk Teflon said:
Spoiler:
SPOILER REVIEW:
I have to be honest here. I had to go back and watch this one twice. Even watching through twice ... I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle. Who was Ben talking to? Who was on the phone? My best guess goes like this: Jon was blackmailing Ben in the future, and holding his wife captive. So Ben went back in time to kill Jon before that could happen. Am I even close on this?!

the good: The shots looked really good. Great composition, and no harsh lighting from the sun. Very nice and hard to do outside sometimes.

the not as good: I don't understand the umbrella. The audio was either right or left a lot. Be sure to pan to 0 on those files. I feel it could have been a little warmer with a different white balance. Maybe that was intentional. It felt cold, though. The gunshot audio was flat. What was he firing at? The story also left me confused.

Click to expand...


Hawk, thanks for watching and for taking the time to try to understand it! You actually pretty much got it all right, but I get that it was a struggle to get there. Upon reflection, I see a number of places where I could've left clues that would make the story easier to follow. You're also right about the audio - I've gotta be more careful about that next time. Thanks again, and I'm lookin forward to reviewing your short
 
The story on this left me completely lost. There was no real indication that there was time travel involved, it just seemed like a metaphysical discussion. The audio was very distracting at times with the speach coming from the opposite side to the talking character. The gunfire needs work, it sounded like an airsoft gun.

However, the visuals were really good. Good use of DOF, nice reverses. Well done.
 
I must have missed something because I wasn't really sure what was going on.

I thought the colour grade was interesting, but as i'm not sure what was happening in the story i'm not sure if it served the story.

Was there a reason you had no sound design throughout the majority of the film? It just felt a little strange not hearing footsteps.
 
I have to agree with other comments, this left me totally confused. The sound issues have already been discussed. I thought the actors did a good job, but the pacing was way, way off. Far too many long pauses - you need to drastically tighten the editing.
Spoiler:
Since I didn’t understand the story, when Ben pulls the gun on Jon at the end it was a real WTF moment. Now that I know what was going on, this could have been one heck of a short with a powerful finish. I think you should have spent more time with the story and less on the rather static dialog between Ben and Jon.
 
After another viewing I like this a lot more.

Spoiler:
The colouring outside and the subtle score provides a nice contrast to the inside (future?) scenes. You had some nice camera angles and rack focus moves too - did I spot a slider/dolly move in there too? I thought the dialogue delivery was a tad slow with a few too many pauses, but overall the acting was good.

I still struggle with the story. I understand what you were going for from posts earlier in the thread, but your clues were a little too subtle for me at least. Was the umbrella intended to suggest that the good guy had knowledge of the future? I just got that now.

I'd be interested to know more about your villain's motivations other than being special and having nobody understand him - also what did he do that was villainous? But, he had a great look for a psycho killer villain - he just looks like a not-all-that-well-adjusted guy. Either he is gifted with villainous looks or the make-up, wardrobe and performance brought that out very well.

I have almost zero experience making films, but this is my attempt at useful feedback. I hope it helps a little.
 
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