RED SHOES by Susanne Gressmann

Nick:

Thank you very much for watching, enjoying and commenting our film. We are very pleased for all comments, because there are very helpful for us. You are not the only person which was irritated with the old lady scene. I gave already an explanation before. Here is the answer:

Yes, the scene with the old lady is a little weak. At the beginning of the scene I wanted the audience to think that the old lady needed help to cross the road. In reality she is a bit of an old rascal who is attracted to Jonas (MC) and his red shoes and wants to have a little fun at his expense. This was the meaning of the last part - as he runs off down the street, she watches him go with a triumphant smile and then folds her stick (which she never needed in the first place) and walks briskly off. Maybe this scene doesn't really work because I originally envisaged an older looking lady with a curved back like Quasimodo. This would have allowed us to show her old and bent crossing the road and there would have been more of a contrast when she folded the stick, straightened her back and walked off.
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Susanne
 
Thanks for the explaination, sorry I didn't go back and find it. I think it wasn't clear because you only had 6 minutes. Maybe if you had shown her without the cain first, then unfolding it and complimenting his shoes in a dreamy fashion right before asking for help. Then she could fold the cane like you already have.
 
Nick,

Thanks for coming back with further comments. Maybe it did need something at the start of the scene. Just having the old lady looking at Jonas with obvious interest before approaching him might have helped.

Jason
 
In the past few days, DVXusers Ben Sliker and Justin Kuhn sat down and chatted over AIM while simultaneously watching the same TIMEFEST films. We call them, "The AIM sessions". Here's their thoughts on "Red Shoes"

This is a 'special edition' of the AIM sessions, Assistant Director Brad Mate has tagged in for Justin from the crew of JAM. Please excuse the stupid out of order time stamps by iChat.

Hope our humor translates well :)

spesliker (12:09:46 PM): we should do red shoes first
spesliker (12:09:56 PM): they are european and losing internet after the 11th.
spesliker (12:20:56 PM): you got red shoes up and ready?
TheBrad84 (12:20:52 PM): yep
spesliker (12:21:12 PM): 3
spesliker (12:21:13 PM): 2
spesliker (12:21:14 PM): 1
spesliker (12:21:15 PM): go
spesliker (12:21:30 PM): best alarm clock EVAR
TheBrad84 (12:21:17 PM): homosexualalarmclock.com
spesliker (12:22:14 PM): if Ronald mcdonald made love with a clock, that's what the child would look like.
spesliker (12:23:20 PM): the black flashes ... ick
spesliker (12:23:45 PM): this is like the scene in sandlot when he puts the converses on.
spesliker (12:24:23 PM): what a DICK!
spesliker (12:24:32 PM): SHE'S A CRIPPLED OLD LADY
spesliker (12:24:41 PM): OH SNAP, SHE'S NOT, SHE IS?
TheBrad84 (12:24:29 PM): or is she?
TheBrad84 (12:24:46 PM): steal the bike. you know you want to
spesliker (12:25:10 PM): that train's not going so fast, he could have caught it
spesliker (12:25:34 PM): that's the problem with these europeans, they haven't seen enough "jumping on the back of train" westerns
TheBrad84 (12:25:27 PM): lol
spesliker (12:26:22 PM): obligatory stand in by crew member with cell phone.
TheBrad84 (12:26:41 PM): oh man, remember the last time the germans met with the japanese....well nevermind
spesliker (12:26:59 PM): lol
spesliker (12:27:52 PM): very simple concept, but it never really carried any weight to it.
TheBrad84 (12:27:50 PM): yea it was a little too cutesy
spesliker (12:28:15 PM): and what was with the old lady?
TheBrad84 (12:28:08 PM): where was the time element?
spesliker (12:28:36 PM): i was expecting the old lady to come back into the fray
TheBrad84 (12:28:27 PM): yea
spesliker (12:28:47 PM): he was late for a meeting
spesliker (12:28:50 PM): TIME
spesliker (12:28:52 PM): CLOCK
TheBrad84 (12:28:40 PM): meh
spesliker (12:29:24 PM): final thoughts?
TheBrad84 (12:29:58 PM): besides teh black flashes adn some editing issues i thought it was solidly shot and acted. didnt really pack any punch for me. was very matter of fact
spesliker (12:30:49 PM): i had some issues with framing, there's a lot of open space in a lot of the shots, which is fine if it's motivated, but i didn't really see any
TheBrad84 (12:30:46 PM): true
TheBrad84 (12:33:23 PM): one last thing i want to say about red shoes. the ellipses need to be worked on. there were a couple times where an action was shown that we really didnt need to see in order to get to the next shot. like the shot of them beginning to walk across the street. that wasnt necessary and the fade in and out seemed like they didnt really know if htey should include it or how to include it correctly
spesliker (12:33:57 PM): good critique there.

Susanne and team,

this was a great first step for you guys. I think we got all of our critiques out in the session, so i won't reiterate any of that here. I just love the foreign accents, i don't know why it adds credibility to the acting for me, but it does. That said, even if i didn't know what they said, the gestures and body language, the way your actors carried themselves, was very good. We'd really like to see something from you guys that is more dramatic, and thanks again for bringing some international flavor to the DVXfest mix! :thumbsup:
 
Thanks so much - this was great fun! We appreciated the comments and think most are valid. No more icky black flashes - lesson learnt!!!! Yep - next time we will make a more dramatic punchy film. Maybe we will kill some Europeans, before your country is full of dead people.:evil::evil::evil:
Thanks so much that you did this session before the 11th. Great!

Susanne & Jason
 
glad you liked it. and we don't normally read other people's critiques, sorry if we beat a dead horse in any areas. Cheers! :beer:
 
Susanne G. said:
Thanks so much - this was great fun! We appreciated the comments and think most are valid. No more icky black flashes - lesson learnt!!!! Yep - next time we will make a more dramatic punchy film. Maybe we will kill some Europeans, before your country is full of dead people.:evil::evil::evil:
Thanks so much that you did this session before the 11th. Great!

Susanne & Jason
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You are hilarious! We do kill a lot of people in these flicks don't we?:cheesy: Your film was refreshing. Make the movies that let you speak your voice. If it is a refreshing fun movie, then that is what it is. If you want to launch into the action world, jump on in. Whatever you do I am sure it will be great!:2vrolijk_08:
 
I agree with Matt. Def make the films you want to make. that is the greatest satisfaction to get out of these things.
 
Thanks guys,

Yes, we'll go on making the films that we want to make, but maybe we can find a refreshing way to kill those Europeans.:D
A little aside on the subject of refreshing death: where we are having our wedding party next week (where my mother has a house) is the beach where Peter Greenaway made "Drowning by Numbers".

Jason and Susanne
 
Yesterday we had Ulrich(our main actor) at home. He gave us some dancing lessons for a "damn" Walzer. :violin:Very funny, what one needs for a wedding!

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In case there is still somebody who is looking in the TimeFest threads: 'Red Shoes' will be shown on the 'International Oberhausen Filmfestival'. The film is not accepted for the competition, but it will be shown in the 'Open screening'. The Festival happens from the 30th of April until the 5th of May. The 'Open screening' is at the 1th of May. I am very happy to participate on an important Festival like this one in Operhausen, which is one of the oldest and most famous shortfilm festivals.

Susanne :Drogar-Happy(DBG):
 
Postmaster said:
HEy! Congrats Susanne.

Vielleicht sollte ich mit meinen Filmchen auch mal auf Tour gehen.

Frank
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Thank you Frank :). Probiers doch einfach mal. There are many festivals in Germany. I made a list of them. If you are interest in, PM me. So I send the list, like an attachment, with mail to you.

Susanne
 
jasonthewho said:
Congrats on the screening! I'm sure everyone will enjoy it!
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Thank you Jason. It is very nice to see that there are still some people looking around in TimeFest and comenting on our thread. :Drogar-Happy(DBG): I hope that also 'The five worst days of ......' will be in other festivals!?

Susanne
 
jasonthewho said:
Hopefully! I just wish they weren't all so darn expensive to enter!
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Ok - it is a question of money in USA. I didn't realized that. The german festivals haven't entry fees. Usually it is only a question of the quality of your film, which have to decide a jury. In most of the festivals here you only can enter, if you will be present when they show your film, if the film is not older then more or less two years and if your film wasn't already shown on other festivals in Germany before. The last thing is valid exspecially when the festival is very famous. In Berlin we have the 'Berlinale' - which is a very important and famous festival (nearly impossible to enter in), but there are also other smaller ones like the 'Interfilm'. I think in the 'Interfilm' can also enter films, which were shown before in Germany. At the moment they are calling for entries and after the weekend I will try to enter 'Red Shoes' also there.

Susanne
 
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