Penfever - Occam's Razor

You do give a rather honest view on films. If you have the chance take a look at the upload and I will download your film too. I am looking for some good constructive critisicim
 
penfever, I don't know what to say. I really expected more from you, probably because I've respected so many of your reviews I've seen. You give such precise feedback that I thought, now this guys' going to deliver big time.

But the film made ZERO sense to me, other than a guy that liked to kill people. He speaks of control, like a scientist, but if that were the case then I'd imagine a story/killer more in the line of the movie SAW ... who keeps them captive, experimenting with them, etc.

This dude just walks up and knifes people. Ah yes, the knife ... he oh so loves that knife. And that's about all I got out of it.

I didn't understand what was going on, the ending, nothing. I've not read through the other posts, so perhaps I'm the only one who missed it? If so, spoon feed it to me, please?

Otherwise, editing, camera, lighting, etc. all seemed fine (nothing that caught my eye, but nothing that turned me off either).
 
I liked it.

Better than Primer. At least I'm not asking you for my money and time back.


I too love long shots. and as mentioned earlier the shot on the scientist at the begining in his workspace was long...too long for most people with no movement from actor or camera.

My suggestion would have been a slow dolly toward him. That would have buit curiosity and dramatic tension. Tarkofsky is a master at the long shot...are you into him at all? If not watching his films is a good thing to do as a study in long shots.



Your credits have names that go off screne. Use title safe bars in your NLE! I was very disapointed when I saw that. Your film's too good to have soeething like that in it.


The old Macintosh in the lab was a nice touch but why was'nt it on? It just seemed wierd to not have a visual refrence to a functioning machine....and maybe I'm jumping to conclusions but I thought the computer was part of the Time Travel machine.


I like the time laps on the watch alot...reminded me of HG Wells Time Machine. Nice old school effects!

One editing tweek I would have made is to have the first kill scene be be much quicker. Up the shock value.

Foley on the door - the creaking - was off to me. First time the door opens a bit then the creaking starts. The second time the door is opened it creaks immediatly.


I'm being picky now of course.... Great entry. Thanks for making it.

Kip Kubin
 
Sorry Penfever... but yours was one of my least favorites... there were several reasons.

I don't want to watch a movie that has to be explained to me, or, that I have to watch multiple times to figure out at least the basics of the story. I also didn't catch the time travel aspect until subsequent viewings.

It felt random to me... and like you were trying to be obscure for the sake of being obscure. The pacing was too slow, and there was a real lack of cohesiveness with sound and music. What I mean is that you need to pay attention to sound FX, dialogue and scoring equally, so that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle... but it felt like you put effort into the sound FX, but forgot about the other two pieces.

The lighting was okay, though a little flat in spots... and the blood FX looks good. But ultimately the story just lost me.

Thanks for sharing it, and I hope you aren't offended by my criticisms... our individual opinions hopefully all help each other, and it's the viewer we are really making films for :)
 
Hey - I'll have to agree with many of your other reviewers in saying that the short didn't do it for me. It was dense in story, which is fine if it leaves you wanting to understand more. But for me, it didn't. Sorry. I liked the look of the actor and the locations you picked were great. But the story just wasn't delivered very well, and it took reading your responses to reviews to even guess at what was going on.

This coming from someone whose short also presented some amount of confusion to its viewers (go check it out), so you can take the comments with a grain of salt I guess!
 
I really like the premise of this movie, and I'm certianly willing to forgive unscientific behavior from a scientist who's this deranged (after all, he's mastered time travel, chances of a God complex seem fair to good). I think like most I would've just preferred the storytelling to be a little more explicit. What was there I really enjoyed, but I wanted these interesting ideas to be conveyed more clearly and explored in more depth. I know that can be a lot to ask of a short, but I think it can be done, and a few of the shorts here prove it.
 
penfever said:
Well, MikkoWilson sorta mentioned it above, but basically the motivation is - he's trying to disprove Occam's Razor, and he's kinda crazy so he picks a crazy way to do it.

OCCAM'S RAZOR = THE EXPLANATION WHICH REQUIRES THE FEWEST LEAPS OF FAITH IS ALWAYS THE CORRECT ONE.

So, if a dude kills his wife, you'd immediately conclude, oh, he killed her. Or if he doesn't kill his wife, you'd conclude the opposite. But in fact, the protagonist uses time travel to frustrate those beliefs - in fact, he both kills and doesn't kill his wife, because in the end he stops himself from doing it (via time travel). Ergo, the explanation which requires the fewest leaps of faith was NOT the correct one.
Now he kills those people but then he says "Don't worry, before they knew it, they'll be fine". Because of course, they will be once he goes back and kills himself - since he believes all of his earlier (later) actions will be eradicated.
Unfortunately, he miscalculates, and the him from the past sees the him from the future coming to kill the him from the past, which causes a nasty paradox - hence the ending.
Click to expand...
WOW I LIKE THAT STORY ; HOW YOU EXPLAINED IT THAT IS BUT I DIDN'T GET THAT FROM THE SHORT. MAN IT'S SO HARD GETTING THE CONCEPT IN A 6MIN. SHORT
 
I wouldn't say this was the worst one I've seen. But it's also not one of the best, probably because I really couldn't understand it. although I like the 'explanation' above. and after reading it a few times, i think it makes sense.
 
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