- RECURRENCE - a MAH Film

"Dude, you gotta check out Mike's stuff, man! Trust me!"

Marlon has told me that at LEAST 10 times. I'm glad I was finally able to. I love the way each of your shots look. Was this on the t2i?! It looks awesome, man!
 
Yeah, T2i, stock lens and the cheap ($99.00) 50mm.

Thanks! Glad you liked it. It was hell shooting in that locoation. No control.

I'm off on holidays but I'll be checking back in later from the hotel!

Thanks, guys!
 
Hawk Teflon said:
"Dude, you gotta check out Mike's stuff, man! Trust me!"
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No doubt! I've been a fan of Mike's stuff for a long time. He always seems to be working "run and gun" and yet he always get's the most out of his gear, his actors, and his locations.

As for "Recurrence", I really liked it a lot. The mood and atmosphere you create is amazing. The location, as we discussed before, is awesome, but the way you shoot, the way you frame your shots and move through the space (with a purpose) is what makes it all so effective.

I love Justin's score here and what I love even more is the sound work. Did you do that? I was listening to this with my headphones on and it was phenomenal. I especially dug the way you use "Auld Lang Syne" and the way the volume and echo kept changing based on our location in the world. It was some of the best sound work I have ever heard in a short!

Your actor also had a great presence. Between his performance and your direction, the tension was palpable. However, I'm not sure I fully understand the ending and what he was after and what has happened to him? There are many hints and I have guesses and maybe that's what you wanted, for us to try and put the puzzle pieces together for ourselves.

You craft is excellent and this is another great film you should be proud of.
 
It has a great feel. And I more than most love a mystery, but this left me with too many questions. I liked the vibe and the performance, but what was going on? I need to know. If that was your goal you aced it.
 
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Chris Messineo said:
No doubt! I've been a fan of Mike's stuff for a long time. He always seems to be working "run and gun" and yet he always get's the most out of his gear, his actors, and his locations.

As for "Recurrence", I really liked it a lot. The mood and atmosphere you create is amazing. The location, as we discussed before, is awesome, but the way you shoot, the way you frame your shots and move through the space (with a purpose) is what makes it all so effective.

I love Justin's score here and what I love even more is the sound work. Did you do that? I was listening to this with my headphones on and it was phenomenal. I especially dug the way you use "Auld Lang Syne" and the way the volume and echo kept changing based on our location in the world. It was some of the best sound work I have ever heard in a short!

Your actor also had a great presence. Between his performance and your direction, the tension was palpable. However, I'm not sure I fully understand the ending and what he was after and what has happened to him? There are many hints and I have guesses and maybe that's what you wanted, for us to try and put the puzzle pieces together for ourselves.

You craft is excellent and this is another great film you should be proud of.
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Thanks, Chris.

Yeah, I did all the sound design. Took some work. :)
Glad you used headphones. :). And yeah, Justin added some great atmosphere to it.

As for the story, it's up to you. The basics are there and I think you got exactly what I wanted you to. It's pretty obvious what happened to him. The how and why is up for grabs.
 
Chris_Keaton said:
It has a great feel. And I more than most love a mystery, but this left me with too many questions. I liked the vibe and the performance, but what was going on? I need to know. If that was your goal you aced it.
Click to expand...

Love it! Thanks, Keaton. You made my day. :)

I'm at the hotel now. Going to try and play catch-up tonight.
 
Taking a second look, I'm very impressed with how clean you get everything looking. I didn't see any grain / noise. When I was shooting Jenny, I had noise at ISO 400 (shutter 50, f2.0). It was killing me.
 
Loved the location. Sound design rocked. Performance was just fine. I do need to re-watch and maybe noodle it a bit more. I am dense.
 
Dude you know i love this short, but i'm seeing the final final version and its stellar. Great color correction, it adds so much.
I really feel like i'm watching the intro to a real movie when i watch this. it's very mature filmmaking. I think the best compliment i can give you is,
i'm on the edge of my seat when i watch it. you have a real knack for building tension through shot usage and sound design. great score by justin as usual, it adds a lot. congrats on another success.
 
The Good:
Dude, awesome work. The sound was amazing. Really polished, top notch stuff. The shot design and the location was awesome as well. Real tension, the kind of stuff that is missing from shorts, but you've got it in spades.

The Bad:
There were inklings of a story, but nothing really happened. I was really engrossed for all but the last bit of the film. Yeah, I know what happened (presumably) but I feel like how it went down was a cop-out. I understand the limitations that you had going into this thing that was kind of haphazard to begin with. But I felt cheated in the end. I really wish there was more to it.

This feels like a cold-open to Criminal Minds or CSI or maybe even a Hollywood feature. That's respectable in and of itself. I just wish that there was some payoff in the end. Maybe it's just the sickest camera test in the world. :grin:

Good stuff though, I need to get my skills on your level for sure.
 
My criticisms: Everything was really strong in your film, so I'd have to be nit-picking to come up with faults. There was one shot that confused me... the shot towards the end where it's a closeup of a box (?) and the christmas tree... I wasn't sure what it meant/represented or was.

My compliments: It looked fantastic, and for that location to fall in your lap... amazing! What a great location.
When he walks into the final room with the music playing, it was very "Fallout" - which I liked a lot. There's something about music playing through an old radio that creates nostalgia and memory immediately. The overall score was a perfect fit as well. Lighting was great.
Your actor did a great job.
The whole thing came together really well and was a terrific short film. In our little viewing party, it was definitely one of the favorites. We all gave it a big thumbs up.
 
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