"Rant"

I thought this was really quite good.

I loved the look of it and the lead actor (as someone else said) was excellent. The voice-over narration was fascinating. I especially liked when we learn it is a voice message being left.

Great character study. Very well done.
 
Rich, Chris - thank you for the positive feedback! Can't say I was expecting that at all. Thank you for even taking the time to watch. Appreciation overload sirs.

Now if I can somehow I can get the others to watch :)

Thanks again guys!
 
Hey guys,

Sorry for these shameless bumps but I have a question. Could some people who have watched this tell me that they have? I have this feeling that about 2.3 people have watched my short and my heart hurts because of it haha. Even if it's saying "hey brah...that sucked". I just want to know if this is being seen.

also...if this bump is really annoying, mods can destroy me and I'll climb back to my hole on page 4 haha.
 
Nick_Lee said:
Hey guys,

Sorry for these shameless bumps but I have a question. Could some people who have watched this tell me that they have? I have this feeling that about 2.3 people have watched my short and my heart hurts because of it haha. Even if it's saying "hey brah...that sucked". I just want to know if this is being seen.

also...if this bump is really annoying, mods can destroy me and I'll climb back to my hole on page 4 haha.
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Heh, don't worry, Nick. It's reasonable to be nervous. But trust me, in the coming days, you'll receive more feedback. You'll most certainly receive a detailed analysis from me. I just haven't made it to your film yet. It's coming up in my queue though, so don't fret! :) I've gotten through 26 films so far and have left a fair amount of comments for each. Yours is coming. Can't wait to see the film! I really liked the grabs you posted.
 
hi nick, i just watched RANT. really compelling photography at work here. fascinating VO. question: it's rare to see someone choose a 4x3 aspect ratio, why did you?
 
Nick,

Don't worry man, I watched it! :smile: To be completely honest I was actually pleasantly surprised by this piece!

You did such a good job of playing down your experience that I didn't expect much. But the story was interesting, the lead actor did a fine job and technically I thought you pulled it off quite well!

I cannot wait to see what you do in the future as you continue to improve with each film.

Great job!

Daniel
 
Very engaging film. I found myself quickly relating to the character, and my attention was kept through the whole film. The scene in the bathroom at the end was great with a blurred shot in the mirror then pulled clean, then back to blurry... this further showed the characters loss of reality. I enjoyed this film, nice work.
 
I liked it. I really did. The actor was great imo. Shots looked good. Not too sure about your choice to put it in 4:3? Maybe it was discussed already in this thread sorry i didn't read through it. The audio for "are you in there!" was quiet! Its a shame because i loved the acting right there. Kinda the climax of the movie. The character and execution was just really compelling to me. It definetally got down to my emotions which I must say usually doesn't happen in amature short films. Great job. Seriously.
 
Dude pleasant surprise here. You;re actually a competent filmmaker. you may not have the gear and actors and lots of cool stuff to show, but you do have an idea of how to tell a story visually and that is an excellent start. This film is nothing to be embarrassed about. Most of us are embarrassed by our first films (I know I am and I will kill anyone who has seen it), but this is quite good. The VO could use a little cleaning up since there was this constant noise over it all. Some places could have used less VO, but you used what you had and made it work. So kudos to you for a really good effort.

Keep making them man. You only get better with each one, so focus on story and character development. I;d like to see the next one from you without using any voiceover to see how you can motivate your actors and get a performance out of them. It will also help you to see if you;re more of a DP/Camera Op or a director... or maybe you can be both...
 
Zac - The 4:3 thing was really just because I was shooting on a dvx and I'd rather have more screen space(especially for how small my video was haha) than letterbox over it. I'm glad I didn't decide to do the letterbox though. I was pretty much up to the last minute. It would have been terrible to not make the deadline because I wanted to letterbox haha. thanks for your comments/compliments sir. yours was amazing.

pia, deklun,- Thanks guys. I'm kind of surprised that you guys were pleasantly surprised. I never thought my short was terrible but I didn't think people would be enjoy it at all.

puck, orchid - I believe the constant noise you're talking about is the rain. SPOILER: Reason for this is that he is leaving a message on someone's answering machine and basically everything in the video is the future, and when he hangs up and leaves, everything that we saw in the video is about to happen. Does that make sense at all?

and the reason I left the volume down for the Mirror scene is because I didn't want the sound to be too...present? I wanted it to sound a little ambient I guess.

Thanks dudes. You guys are seriously awesome for watching and giving me the feedback.
 
Nick,

I finally got around to seeing yours (I'm up to 42 films, I think). Phew! What a day and a half this has been.

Anyway, I was really impressed with how introspective and analytical of the human association with its own milieu this film was. I thought the cinematography was very interesting (in a good way) and that it really assisted the viewing. It followed the character just like it should. The colors and texture was pleasing as well.

I thought Ezra did a very fine job with the role, and I loved that the voice over corresponded with what was happening, like listening to his current thoughts. The bit with the alcohol in which he sounded a little drunk was very nice.

I really enjoy watching these kinds of characters develop their own yarns of philosophy. We're all looking for things and dreading losing things. I really like the way you dealt with the theme of the fest.

I suppose the thing I wanted from this film was a little more about WHY the character feels this way, but by that same token, it isn't a difficult stance on life to believe. I'm sure many of us have felt this way (or still feel this way at times). It's very easy to relate to this guy.

Really nice work, Nick. :beer:
 
I thought this was a interesting piece... good character work by Ezra. I think you really needed that final scene in the bathroom to play out in that nice long shot... a lot of the earlier moments are really defined by the editing and voiceover... our emotions are stimulated but in a textured, varied way, from responses to how you conformed your edit. With that final bathroom scene, it's all Ezra and it kicks the whole piece up a notch. Nice decision there.

Sound was hard to decipher at times... but I got most of it and loved the camera work. It had a very vintage, 16mm feel to it... grainy and full frame :) I believe this was dvx/hvx and adapter but it truly embodies a 16mm feel. I almost feel like this could have been shot on a bolex with some kodak 7246.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Lawsuit- Thanks for taking the time to comment man. and thanks for giving such a sweet review. People usually don't look into and comment on all of the psychology stuff...real life stuff. Thanks for the in depth reviews. I keep going on people's discussion pages and you're consistently giving solid reviews. Thanks for taking the time man.

Geoff- Once again thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. Yeah...sound...sucks. I have no idea what I'm doing there. I play music so we recorded the audio like we would a song. I'm not sure if that's how they would do that in voice over world but that's how we did it haha. Thanks for the 16mm comment man. Flattering. That's kinda where I get my inspiration in color. Desaturated and contrast-y. Thanks for noticing. I'll be commenting on yours soon :)

Hope everyone keeps giving feedback. It's not just to feed an ego or anything. All of this really helps me know what I've done right and what I've done wrong, allowing me to become a better filmmaker. Please keep them coming!

If you haven't watched..."do it...do it...hey...do it" in the voice of ben stiller in starsky and hutch. haha.
 
Nick_Lee said:
Lawsuit- Thanks for taking the time to comment man. and thanks for giving such a sweet review. People usually don't look into and comment on all of the psychology stuff...real life stuff. Thanks for the in depth reviews. I keep going on people's discussion pages and you're consistently giving solid reviews. Thanks for taking the time man.
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The psychology and sociology of the characters is my numero uno concern in film. It's what I do in school (english, soc, critical analysis) and I feel that it's important in every good story.

Thanks for the kind words for me, as well. I've been taking a lot of time out of my day to write my reviews and I'm sure that everyone appreciates them. Always glad to help out.
 
Rather enjoyed this overall. I liked the marriage of the phone call and the visuals. I think we all go through different states in our life and this one was recognisable for me, maybe not to the same extreme, but non the less I could relate. A good story for this fest. Well done.
 
strong film! it had nothing but a rant. real good job with it. it was disturbing and it hurt because it sounds somewhat familiar to that little evil voice which pops up in me own head from time to time. the knife was scary. and wrong. and it surely deepened the heck out of the film. but i really liked the way you shot the bathroom scene. the voice over was strong too, no hesitation. it sounded completely real. painful. you really nailed the theme of this fest.

only thing that bothered me was the bathroom dialogue. just him showing himself the knife in the mirror was strong enough for me. he didn't have to say a word. it almost pulled me out of the scene.

good job!!
 
I watched this film couple of days ago and I decided to wait to watch it again once I'm done with every other film and I had to say... the voice on VO is excellent, love the look of it , it fits perfectly with the situation and the feeling of the character he's going through... I really enjoyed it! Again, the VO is so good! Great job man!
 
I really, really dug this film. I love the fact that it was done in full screen by the way. And the voiceover performance was fantastic. Very real. I'm EXTREMELY critical of actors performances, so much so I don't usually comment on the acting in most threads because I don't want to sound negative or mean. My one and only real critique, and it's a fairly small one, is I would've loved to hear, very very subtly of course, the audio from all the different activities and locations mixed in with the constant rain and voiceover. Anyway, really good work, keep it up.
 
This was interesting and the acting really sold me, especially towards the end.

Liked that you went with the 4:3 aspect ratio. Made it feel like a video diary in a way.

My only gripes are that I wanted to know more about why he was this way. That and the in and out of focus. I'm just not a big fan of that style but I'm sure you had your reasons.

I liked this very much though. It was a very interesting piece.

MAH
 
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