"RED AND THE WOLF" -- a film by AJ Brooks...

I can't speak to the technical aspects of this short, but I did like the story. We figured it out right before the reveal just like we were supposed to. Of course my wife figured it out way ahead of time, but she's annoying that way. Good job and this is my top ten for sure.
 
Gotta love the RED. The film looked primo. The red color of her hood and cape was captured nicely. (I stay away from red on the "little" digital cameras I use out of habit).

Loved the spin on the Little Red Riding Hood story. It would have been nice to see what exactly the wolf has on her to make her be the bait for his victims.

As some people have mentioned, the bridge scene confused me, too, but watching it a second time, I really feel it was the music for that scene that caused this. Justin did a teriffic job on this film, as he always does, but I feel the crossing of the bridge could have been better served by a more "tense" score.

I was also confused a bit at first by the ending. But I think that can be attributed to the wardrobe of the woodsman. At first I thought it was Stanley again, but the I realized it wasn't. Also, the woodsman's pants are torn up and there is a hold in one of the legs. Whether this means something or not, I don't know. I can conjecture here, but I'll leave that to the imagination.

Good job. Thanks for sharing!
 
AJ, great job here, really enjoyed it. The guy who played Stanley I thought did a great job, and looked like a version of YOU! :) All acting was good, in my opinion.

Excellent camera work & score, by the talented Ryan Walters and Justin Durban!

My only confusions were:
1. When Red began to put on her hood, I thought she was going to pull something out of the basket & kick the wolfe's ass. I was wrong ... didn't understand really she was connected until the very end with the 2nd leaving of the basket.
2. When the 2nd guy comes running up, I thought he was Stanley, since they were wearing similar clothing, and the pant leg was somewhat shredded on the 2nd.

Otherwise, excellent take on an old tale! :)
 
Ryan E. Walters said:
Point well taken. There could have been more attention paid to the lighting continuity. However, with that said we really didn't have much in the way of people / hands for the lighting- none in fact. The make up lady and the 1st AD were even enlisted at times to help with the few modifiers that we did have. (A small silk 24" x 36", an 8' x 4' white card, and an 8' x 4' silver card.) And we repositioned the actors as much as possible between each take to compensate for the moving sun and shade. I think some of the variances in light are exacerbated by the grade- as when I was shooting it I made sure that we did not clip anything- so there is a lot of data to play with as nothing was blown. Ideally it would have been great to have multiple days to shoot this over, but we had one day, and about 3 - 4 hours one evening. But even still, I am happy with what we produced. It was a fun production to be involved with, and I look forward to working with AJ in the future.

BTW- great idea / suggestion on the bed sheet- I'll have to throw one of those in my kit for just these situations. (But I guess I'd still need the people / stands to hold it.)
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Yeah, I totally understand how this goes. On Mercy, we had a small crew, and even a smaller crew on Cheaters which unfortunately I didn't get done in time. I always try and think outside the box with equipment, that is why I mentioned the bed sheet. a few pieces of welded conduit can make some great stands as well. As far as the blow outs go, I didn't mean that it clipped in camera, I meant the look of it. I would have tried to get your hot spots down a stop is essentially what I was saying. Get some color in the sky instead of it being white. It's that whole issue with desaturation. If you stop down, you will lose a bit of color in the clothing, and if you shoot as you did, you desaturate the highlights (which looks like a blowout) I think it's more of an asthetic choice. It's not that yours was the wrong one, it's just not the one I would have made! :) Great job on the red (color not the camera) popping though! This may not have popped so much if you stopped down like I suggested!

Another thought on dealing with lighting is to cut in closer when you can and use a long lens wide open(if you have one) so you can shoot against just about any background that looks similar so you can't tell if it's the same place. GREAT JOB on the short shooting schedule as well! I'd love to team up with you next time to add to your crew!
 
I absolutely loved the location on the bridge and the woods, quite beautiful exterior shots from the rest of the films.

Take twist on an ol' fairy tale was nicely done.

There were sunlight/cloud continuity issues - bright sunlight before they cross the bridge and then cloudy skies I assume by the time they got over the bridge.

I also didn't get why Stanely didn't just say let's take another route.

There was one continuity issue with the hood, she puts it on, long shot she has it off, we come back to her it's on again, minor stuff.

Before the creature came and I then understood the story, I felt like telling the girl to just write grandma a letter. Shoot, I'm not going through creepy woods like that for family.

This is one of the top contenders, seriously, good job.
 
I was ready to hate this short. I can't stand the re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. Done a million times x another million. You know where I'm going with this...

You did a great job re-telling of this story, even though its predictable at the midpoint. I couldn't help to watch the rest and watch deftly executed. Music is wonderful. Performances are fantastic... and the makeup fx are par excellence. I'm clapping with my hands over my head.
 
Again, thanks everyone for the comments!

SPOILERS*******************

cinealma said:
Loved the spin on the Little Red Riding Hood story. It would have been nice to see what exactly the wolf has on her to make her be the bait for his victims.
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Yes, this was something I purposefully wanted to leave the audience thinking about...the pact that Red Hood has with the wolf.

Does she have some strange appreciation or relationship with the wolf? Was the wolf once someone she knew that was changed into the creature? Does she keep the wolf well fed so that it will not be hungry and harm her grandmother?

Norm Sanders said:
My only confusions were:
1. When Red began to put on her hood, I thought she was going to pull something out of the basket & kick the wolfe's ass. I was wrong ... didn't understand really she was connected until the very end with the 2nd leaving of the basket.
2. When the 2nd guy comes running up, I thought he was Stanley, since they were wearing similar clothing, and the pant leg was somewhat shredded on the 2nd.
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Yes, I wanted similarity between Stanley and the Woodsman at the end because I wanted to emphasis the cycle, that this is something that has happened and will keep happening. But that is a very valid point since the Woodsman's pants are ripped. Does seem confusing and misleading. Great point.

cinealma said:
As some people have mentioned, the bridge scene confused me, too, but watching it a second time, I really feel it was the music for that scene that caused this. Justin did a teriffic job on this film, as he always does, but I feel the crossing of the bridge could have been better served by a more "tense" score.
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I wanted to play up the love story going on (at least on Stanley's part). And as I said to the cast and crew, "This is a love story...until it's not". For me it felt right to use a more emotional melodic piece of music.

As I said earlier, Justin Durban bailed me out last minute and gave me a few tracks to use and I pieced that to the film to match the beats I wanted.

He may have made a different (and maybe better) choice for the tone of the bridge scene.

Maybe I can convince him to do a custom score for the rework of this film which I want to send to other fests? :)
 
Anything I wanted to say on grading, blowing out lights and light continuity was already said, so there is only one thing left I can say:

WOW!

Frank
 
Really liked how this one came out. Good twist on a well known story. I thought it was well done and enjoyable on many levels. Thanks for sharing.
 
I wasn't a big fan of the story/screenplay but I actually wasn't focusing on that this time.

The directing caught my attention for some reason, in a good way. Some of the beginning shots reminded me of LOTR.
It started off great and had some really good vibes as it moved along and looked promising until around midway...

...The scenes around 3:50 to 4:16 I thought the characters were too centered on the screen.
As well as the following shots of Red into at least 5:04, being too centered and there was a lack of emotion on the actors parts during that time.
It picked back up again at 4:58 and was fine again after that.
Not sure what happened there in the middle.

I really liked the directing up until that midway point. Darn it.
Otherwise in the future I think maybe with ongoing better screenplays, given a little more time to spend with the scenes and better actors you could kick some major butt.
I'm sure it's just a case of budget and time getting in the way as well, as usual.
I mean, it started off and was running so great.

Hope I don't sound too negative. Like I say, your directing was the real high point for me in this short. I just wish you had more time to work on it I guess.

Looking forward to your next one now.
Congrats man.
 
This was, to me, a pretty nice surprise and change of pace. I'm okay with the concept and actually applaud the execution of such! It worked for me, pretty plain and simple. All of my discrepancies, which are minor and based on preference, are in the edit, pacing and shot compositions.

As far as the edit goes, I don't think you needed five minutes to tell the tale, personally. There are a few shots that could have been paced a bit shorter, as what's on screen doesn't establish, to me, any emotional connection with characters. Which, it's a short, so it's hard to do. This is one of those times where I don't even need to see any real character development, but PLOT development. Because, it's a plot driven narrative through and through.

As far as cinematography goes, it REALLY Bounced back and forth which was a surprise. It went from pretty damned solid to confusing and flat. Not that you need to go and reshoot these things, my "gripe" is more so in wanting to see consistent shot composition and such throughout. Otherwise, man, it was pretty good. Was it all available? Who did your grade? It was minimal but I think effective.

Lastly, the sudden jump to nighttime jarred me. Not sure what happened there. I know where it was going, it was just jarring in the transition.

Lastly, only a creative choice, the blue wolf fits the narrative, but he looked a LITTLE like the Cookie Monster. However, I'm just happy that there was a monster and it was very much a detrimental part of this story.

Great job, dude. High ranks from me.
 
Mr Brooks. So it has come to this. Your twisted mind has me paraphrasing a more famous quote: The Grandmother is a LIE.

I loved your take on the story. It's definitely one of the instant standouts of the festival that enters my list of favorites. You had a lot of great things going for you and you used them well. Sure there were a few inconsistencies with the lighting ad such but no huge deal breakers. Just a nice solid story all the way through. The transition to night was a bit jarring, but it was mainly because they were keeping up the same pace as the previous scene. I would have liked to have seen some form of exhaustion from either of the actors since they had been travelling quite a while (as the woodsman stated earlier). Which leads me to wonder about the trap and why it would indeed be so far from where she originally enticed the woodsman to be her brave rescuer. A good trap would be more efficient and closer... more victims perhaps.

If there had been some sense of a larger world outside this microcosm it would have made more sense and resonated stronger. Even in the fairytales Red has a life outside and some kind of normal routine. Here we get a sense that this is all she does, every day. What's at stake here but her own life? SO many questions raised by the compact she has struck with the wolf but nothing for us to make any connections.

And all because the Grandmother was a lie.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent there. I really do love the story and it gets a high score from me. Solid piece of work. I just wish some more depth could have been hinted at just a little.

Top 10.
 
Thank you Kholi for your review. Excellent points.

Kholi said:
As far as the edit goes, I don't think you needed five minutes to tell the tale, personally. There are a few shots that could have been paced a bit shorter, as what's on screen doesn't establish, to me, any emotional connection with characters.
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I'm glad you said this because I am working on another tighter version and I agree this story can be told more succinctly.


Rodney V. Smith said:
If there had been some sense of a larger world outside this microcosm it would have made more sense and resonated stronger. Even in the fairytales Red has a life outside and some kind of normal routine. Here we get a sense that this is all she does, every day. What's at stake here but her own life? SO many questions raised by the compact she has struck with the wolf but nothing for us to make any connections.
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I like your critique Rodney. For me it is always a constant debate on how much I should include in the story/script/film.

Obviously I want create the feeling that the world is bigger than what is in the frame of the story. I've made the error before of including too much and packing feature length material into a short. And then I've gone the other way and left details too sparse for someone to believe this imaginary world actually exists.

But I do agree there could be a bit more depth. In an early draft I had a nice conversation between Red and Stanley just before the bridge scene. It added character depth and helped you understand the world they live in. But I couldn't justify the extra minute it would add to the film's length.

Rodney V. Smith said:
Mr Brooks. So it has come to this. Your twisted mind has me paraphrasing a more famous quote: The Grandmother is a LIE.
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Is that quote "The cake is a LIE?"

In that case I consider this a triumph. And yes, I fully support Aperture Science.

:)

Thanks for the comments everyone!
 
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I finally got around to watch them all, ending with this one. And what a great way to finish!

I really love the take on this classic tale. The flow was really great and it took me in. An overall very solid entry. Another one to add to my favorites. Great work!

cheers
 
AJ-

Really liked your film. It looked great (kudos to you and Ryan), I really liked the sound design, and the story was solid in my opinion. I loved the twist at the end. Even loved the wolf costume, which could've been a problem if not executed properly.

The shift to the darker scenes was jarring, as someone else mentioned. And you had a continuity problem at one point with Red's hood being down instead of up. But I'm sure others have mentioned that.

Overall, nice work! Excited to have it part of the Portland showing!
 
This was pretty great for me! I'm all about just doing a simple story, and doing it well. I think you did just that. Great storytelling. Loved the camera movement.

The one thing I didn't like, which Kholi (and perhaps others) hit on was the shift from day to night. Even a dissolve would have helped it for me. I just didn't like the way those two shots cut together. A nice transition shot of the moon or something might also be nice.

Anyway, great film, I really enjoyed it!
 
ha I didn't even realize this was shot on a red at first but now I get the pun in the title lol. I did like this take on an old fairy tale. the one shot I didn't like was the one of the wolf's leg in the foreground when he has the woodsman trapped because it looked so fake but I understand the limitations of trying to get a realistic costume. the mask and cape were convincing though I thought. good job.
 
really good film! liked your take on the story and where you took it. some great outdoor shots!

maybe it was a bit long for me and maybe it was a bit predictable but this is nitpicky. maybe make the guy talk to red and try and get to know her, through this dialogue you can make us wonder as to who might be setting up whom with the wolf. or maybe even make us think that the man might be the wolf. i think there is potential here for a really great film!!

that said i really liked it, congrats!
 
Good job directing... there were plenty of really nice shots!.....the only thing I thought looked a little weird was the boy did not really look scared when the wolf approached him. Overall though I thought is was good!
 
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