Mark Harris
Pain in the ass
updated my post
Rich Spencer - "The Seeing"
- Thread starter rich_s
- Start date
Matt Sconce
Veteran
Matt Sconce's Review of The Seeing
SPOLIERS POSSIBLE!
Script
Absolutely positively flawless in my book
Acting
I believed the actors and was concerned for the girl...then the guy....then the future of woman kind!
Cinematography
I agree that this is one of the best Visuals of the fest. The colors, lighting, framing, everything was great!
Editing
Worked perfectly with the shots! Well done!
Score
Very minialistic. it definitely worked with this short. I liked it!Overall Impressions
This is in my top 3 for this festival hands down. I loved it!
SPOLIERS POSSIBLE!
Script
Absolutely positively flawless in my book
Acting
I believed the actors and was concerned for the girl...then the guy....then the future of woman kind!
Cinematography
I agree that this is one of the best Visuals of the fest. The colors, lighting, framing, everything was great!
Editing
Worked perfectly with the shots! Well done!
Score
Very minialistic. it definitely worked with this short. I liked it!Overall Impressions
This is in my top 3 for this festival hands down. I loved it!
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
The Seeing
Script
Very good, but the ending confused me. Why did he start writing in another book? Were all these people just in his mind?
Acting
Great actors, I believed them both!
Cinematography
WOW this is where this film stands out. It has top notch lighting and camera movement here. Justin has a style to his lighting and it is really great for the dramatic genre. Nice work
Editing
Some of the cuts between her holding the blade and him holding the blade didn’t work for me, they felt kind of jarring and unnatural. Maybe that’s what you were going for, not sure.
Score
Subtle, fit the piece well.
Overall Impressions
This film is top 10 for me, I really enjoyed it. The main qualm I have is the script. So many of these films try to be really deep and clever, but wind up to be too confusing to the viewer. Maybe it’s the 6 min. time limit, I don’t know, but nevertheless, great entry!
Script
Very good, but the ending confused me. Why did he start writing in another book? Were all these people just in his mind?
Acting
Great actors, I believed them both!
Cinematography
WOW this is where this film stands out. It has top notch lighting and camera movement here. Justin has a style to his lighting and it is really great for the dramatic genre. Nice work
Editing
Some of the cuts between her holding the blade and him holding the blade didn’t work for me, they felt kind of jarring and unnatural. Maybe that’s what you were going for, not sure.
Score
Subtle, fit the piece well.
Overall Impressions
This film is top 10 for me, I really enjoyed it. The main qualm I have is the script. So many of these films try to be really deep and clever, but wind up to be too confusing to the viewer. Maybe it’s the 6 min. time limit, I don’t know, but nevertheless, great entry!
VersuS
Veteran
Last movie I saw, so I dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing for The Seeing...
I liked the story even though it went were most of dvxusers went, the guy/girl who is imagining things...The Shining.....what a school it has been .....
As Matt said and cant add anything else...cinematography and editing worked perfectly well in The Seeing. You had a great location and you planned your shots well and that showed in the movie.
The acting was not the best, nor the worst...I enjoyed the girl more than the guy who in the transition in the end at the back of the car (from crying to smiling) was a bit unnatural...still that's hard for an actor to do anyhow...
Sound was great for me! And I liked that a lot!!
The blood was awesome, probably amongst the 10 films that had Realistic Blood in this fest and that's sad for a horrorfest...
In the end he caresses the girl in his lap and we see he's alone on the monitor...I know again its hard to do 2 takes on this and make it the same but his head for example on the monitor was leaning towards his right side and that didnt happen in what we were watching...
All in all, I ll be watching it again
I liked the story even though it went were most of dvxusers went, the guy/girl who is imagining things...The Shining.....what a school it has been .....
As Matt said and cant add anything else...cinematography and editing worked perfectly well in The Seeing. You had a great location and you planned your shots well and that showed in the movie.
The acting was not the best, nor the worst...I enjoyed the girl more than the guy who in the transition in the end at the back of the car (from crying to smiling) was a bit unnatural...still that's hard for an actor to do anyhow...
Sound was great for me! And I liked that a lot!!
The blood was awesome, probably amongst the 10 films that had Realistic Blood in this fest and that's sad for a horrorfest...
In the end he caresses the girl in his lap and we see he's alone on the monitor...I know again its hard to do 2 takes on this and make it the same but his head for example on the monitor was leaning towards his right side and that didnt happen in what we were watching...
All in all, I ll be watching it again
Yeah, the idea was that he had done this before and after having finished with Sarah will move on to the next girl. Didn't really want to emphasize that point since at that moment we hadn’t even revealed Sarah yet. That element was meant to be a little icing. If people got it, cool. If not, well, that's cool, too.Brandon Rice said:
Dude, this is one of those little things that just stands out to me and I wish I had more time to get perfect. Unfortunately, we had to shoot when the shop was closed and we simply ran out of time. It was 5:30am and the coffee shop was opening so we only had one take of that monitor. It's just one of those little pitfalls of independent filmmaking. Shoot what you can in the time you're given and hope it works.VersuS said:
Thanks for the feedback guys! :beer:
snodart
Veteran
Thanks for all the cinematography comments guys. It is always good to get feedback to grow from. I can't take all the credit though since Rich had many of the shots planned out before I came aboard.... though we did resolve a few of them on scene out of necessity.
I have to give Rich some major props for adapting and overcoming various problems. If a shot wasn't working out... instead of hanging on it for hours, he did that right thing (in the case of these fast paced fests anyway), and found another solution. And many of those solutions were for the better I think. It is not easy to let go of something if you have played it out in your head many times prior to shooting. Anyway, kudos Rich.
I have truly begun to fully understand the importance of lighting and how every tiny bit makes a big difference. A good portion of the on set time was spent moving and adjusting lights... which is no easy task with a small crew. Everybody was great to jump in and help get it done though. So a big thanks to everybody that was on set moving lights!
One of the key things that I took from this project.. The next time I shoot, I will have a dedicated focus puller (when using a 35mm adapter). I should have learned my lesson with CACHE, but shooting this drove the point home to me. Even if I have to hire and train a high school kid to do it... I will have somebody to pull focus next time I shoot a project. Rich even offered to get somebody before we started, but... "Na, I can do it" I said. Don't get me wrong, it is possible to jib up, pan, and pull focus all at once... but it is just too risky to chance missing a good performance because the image losses focus or the framing is off. Anyway... just another reason why these fest are so great.
Thanks again for the comments!
I have to give Rich some major props for adapting and overcoming various problems. If a shot wasn't working out... instead of hanging on it for hours, he did that right thing (in the case of these fast paced fests anyway), and found another solution. And many of those solutions were for the better I think. It is not easy to let go of something if you have played it out in your head many times prior to shooting. Anyway, kudos Rich.
I have truly begun to fully understand the importance of lighting and how every tiny bit makes a big difference. A good portion of the on set time was spent moving and adjusting lights... which is no easy task with a small crew. Everybody was great to jump in and help get it done though. So a big thanks to everybody that was on set moving lights!
One of the key things that I took from this project.. The next time I shoot, I will have a dedicated focus puller (when using a 35mm adapter). I should have learned my lesson with CACHE, but shooting this drove the point home to me. Even if I have to hire and train a high school kid to do it... I will have somebody to pull focus next time I shoot a project. Rich even offered to get somebody before we started, but... "Na, I can do it" I said. Don't get me wrong, it is possible to jib up, pan, and pull focus all at once... but it is just too risky to chance missing a good performance because the image losses focus or the framing is off. Anyway... just another reason why these fest are so great.
Thanks again for the comments!
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
This movie works on so many levels. I've just watched it again and love the combination of serial killer with MPD or a the very least a compartmentalized brain. I'm sure there are things you might do differently but I'm hard pressed to give you any constructrive criticism. I think you made great choices and hit a homerun with this one. There was nothing in this that made me feel cheated.
I loved the story as well as the execution. You succeeded in establishing a creepy atmosphere without "gadgets".
Your actors did a great job. I'm assuming by the quality of their performance they are professionals?
I loved the story as well as the execution. You succeeded in establishing a creepy atmosphere without "gadgets".
Your actors did a great job. I'm assuming by the quality of their performance they are professionals?
Brandon Rice said:
Brandon, thanks for the kudo on the score because your comment is what I have hoped to hear - subtle - fit. Although I put in more than 60 hours on it alone, Rich and Matt gave me invaluable direction and final mix decisions. How fun it has been to be given creative license that includes the collaborative methods we used as a team on the sound. We had good tools to work with, albeit, not always exactly what was specified. Cost or last minute un-availability of a supercard added to our outdoor recording challenges. There is no ADR, although I think we're going to do a little post festival + a 7.1 mix. We used Sennheiser and Octava shotguns and Countryman wireless theater lavs and a Kork DX32 record studio deck. The mix was done on Sonar 5.2 using KRK Rokit5 near field monitors. Sound source was a combination or original recording and some library stuff for Foley. Because the mix has a lot of sub-aural stuff in it the low stuff disappeared in our first mix when played over headphones or low cost speakers. At the last minute I added heavy shelfing below 80 Hz and compression to the low end stuff and overall mastering compression to the whole mix to get all the sound into the reproduction range of narrow bandwidth speakers/headphones. We had a better more smoothly compressed mix but couldn't get it uploaded by the deadline. Thanks again for you honest evaluation. How nice. No syrup.
:dankk2:
Review | POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT! I watch the movies first time around strictly for enjoyment, second and third for review.
Hey guys. Unexpectedly great. I like this one and it's easily a top five in my book. I don't think it's flawless, but it's one of the most solid productions here.
Script - I like the concept. I'm not going to judge it for the saturation in this fest at all. As tired as it is, again, it's all about presentation and it's presented nicely here. I think it's length is just about spot on. Can't complain about it at all. I get what's going on. Predictable, but decent.
Direction - Very clean framing. Great angles on just about everything. I didn't see anything that stood out as bad. Which makes it pretty good.
Acting - Your gal was pretty weird. A little over-the-top at times but I liked her when she became the "killer" for a bit. Your male actor showed a lot of faces. His comforting one toward the chic was weak, his psychotic one at the end was pretty on.
Cine/Lighting - NICE! Things were filled out really well in every scene, from the Ghostbustermobile to the inside of the shop. I think you guys did a really good job lighting this SOB, it's stands out as the best asset of it all.
Editing - Clean! How's that for one word fits all?
Sound - Subtle and clean score. Heard what I had to hear as far as the voice goes. I think compression muffled things just a tad bit, but nothing major. It's simply because I have on headphones and can hear it.
Special Effects/Art Direction/Wardrobe - Pajamas, blood, business suits. Best part to me was the Ghostbustermobile with the constantly bleeding Wheat Scythe/Sickle a close second. Nice. Monitor trick was a neat little addition. Made him seem all the more insane.
Scariest Moments - The body moving in the back of the vehicle. That's always weird and creepy to me.
Overall consensus - The concept's a little tired, the delivery is great. I easily put this up in the top five for being so complete and rich. Great going, everyone.
Hey guys. Unexpectedly great. I like this one and it's easily a top five in my book. I don't think it's flawless, but it's one of the most solid productions here.
Script - I like the concept. I'm not going to judge it for the saturation in this fest at all. As tired as it is, again, it's all about presentation and it's presented nicely here. I think it's length is just about spot on. Can't complain about it at all. I get what's going on. Predictable, but decent.
Direction - Very clean framing. Great angles on just about everything. I didn't see anything that stood out as bad. Which makes it pretty good.
Acting - Your gal was pretty weird. A little over-the-top at times but I liked her when she became the "killer" for a bit. Your male actor showed a lot of faces. His comforting one toward the chic was weak, his psychotic one at the end was pretty on.
Cine/Lighting - NICE! Things were filled out really well in every scene, from the Ghostbustermobile to the inside of the shop. I think you guys did a really good job lighting this SOB, it's stands out as the best asset of it all.
Editing - Clean! How's that for one word fits all?
Sound - Subtle and clean score. Heard what I had to hear as far as the voice goes. I think compression muffled things just a tad bit, but nothing major. It's simply because I have on headphones and can hear it.
Special Effects/Art Direction/Wardrobe - Pajamas, blood, business suits. Best part to me was the Ghostbustermobile with the constantly bleeding Wheat Scythe/Sickle a close second. Nice. Monitor trick was a neat little addition. Made him seem all the more insane.
Scariest Moments - The body moving in the back of the vehicle. That's always weird and creepy to me.
Overall consensus - The concept's a little tired, the delivery is great. I easily put this up in the top five for being so complete and rich. Great going, everyone.
Paul Coleman
Veteran
This is great, great work. It seems to me the director was thinking everything through; especially the inner states of the characters. For me, that's where the fear comes from.:beer:
SPOILER!!
When the actor is crying near the trunk of the car, I love how he goes from heartbroken to kind of 're-organizing' his face and thoughts to get back to his 'work'.rogar-Evil(DBG):
>> Ok, since you have a pro sound tech-- is there any rule for how loud the loudest sound is compared to the dialog? It seems to me that many of the films in the fest will have an amazingly loud sound that is 5 times louder than the dialog.
Basically I turn down the volume so my ears don't bleed. Then I miss the next two lines of dialog. Then this repeats as the next loud sound explodes. And then I miss the dialog and...:huh:
SPOILER!!
When the actor is crying near the trunk of the car, I love how he goes from heartbroken to kind of 're-organizing' his face and thoughts to get back to his 'work'.
rogar-Evil(DBG): >> Ok, since you have a pro sound tech-- is there any rule for how loud the loudest sound is compared to the dialog? It seems to me that many of the films in the fest will have an amazingly loud sound that is 5 times louder than the dialog.
Basically I turn down the volume so my ears don't bleed. Then I miss the next two lines of dialog. Then this repeats as the next loud sound explodes. And then I miss the dialog and...:huh:
Matt Sconce
Veteran
People need to normalize their sound. they need to make sure that when the loudest sound hits, it does not peak out, and that they do not need to readjust their volume, before submission. That way the loud noises will be just right.
Matt Sconce
Veteran
Oh, and to get back to the flick. I think you guys know how much I love it! It is a favorite in my book.
Darkline
Veteran
I really liked this. It was just like the start of an x-files episode or something.... it was that polished!
I really liked the silence of this film, it had the confidence not to assault the audience but just create an atmosphere of unease for the first minute or so.
All I could say was that the ending became obvious quite early on, but aside from that I cannot fault anything else. Very well made and very well paced/edited.
I really liked the silence of this film, it had the confidence not to assault the audience but just create an atmosphere of unease for the first minute or so.
All I could say was that the ending became obvious quite early on, but aside from that I cannot fault anything else. Very well made and very well paced/edited.
jpbankesmercer
Director Mod
Acting: Loved your leading man. Girl good too.
Script: Very interesting.
Direction: Fantastic. Some lovely work with the actors here and nice shot choice. Also the overall build-up of the story.
Music: Loved the heartbeats, music kept everything flowing.
Editing: Tight.
Lighting: Superb! (What adapter you using??) Even the dark areas were popped enough to see what was going on.
Loved: Opening shot - great reveal/ character introduction, locations, the look of the film, the note books, the scythe, CTV of him stroking no-one (Very nice, my fav bit:thumbup: ), pacing and the leading man, (he’s very good).
Hated: Not much here. Errrm… Maybe more explanation on why he was doing it.
Overall: A very well executed film in all depts. Look forward to more of your work.
J.P.
How did you get the blood dripping from the scythe, did you use a tube? Great short one of my favs. Just because of its simplicity no bravado approach.:thumbup:
Script: Very interesting.
Direction: Fantastic. Some lovely work with the actors here and nice shot choice. Also the overall build-up of the story.
Music: Loved the heartbeats, music kept everything flowing.
Editing: Tight.
Lighting: Superb! (What adapter you using??) Even the dark areas were popped enough to see what was going on.
Loved: Opening shot - great reveal/ character introduction, locations, the look of the film, the note books, the scythe, CTV of him stroking no-one (Very nice, my fav bit:thumbup: ), pacing and the leading man, (he’s very good).
Hated: Not much here. Errrm… Maybe more explanation on why he was doing it.
Overall: A very well executed film in all depts. Look forward to more of your work.
J.P.
How did you get the blood dripping from the scythe, did you use a tube? Great short one of my favs. Just because of its simplicity no bravado approach.:thumbup:
TheatreGuy
Veteran
Hey Rich, great job on your film. I loved the story and the twists.
My favorite moment was when the guy turn to her (at the car) and had the sickle in his hand. NICELY DONE!
The monitor of the table was a very cool effect. Me being picky would have liked the action of the man tighter to the action in the screen. (his arm position was very different in the two views.) But I loved this effect. Nice, nice, nice!
Great cinematography and camera work. I saw some very polished and pro look stuff in this department.
I was not a fan of the male actor. I am sorry, I hate to be critical here but his body and arms felt so tight. Just not natural. I am an actor so I tend to be overly picky here. The guy did a good job, I would like to have seen him be stronger.
I felt that the direction of this film was very good. At first, I didn't understand why he would approach that car the way he did, but in hindsight now I do.
Very good job with this. I liked the story a lot.
Congrats on your film!!!
Ted
My favorite moment was when the guy turn to her (at the car) and had the sickle in his hand. NICELY DONE!
The monitor of the table was a very cool effect. Me being picky would have liked the action of the man tighter to the action in the screen. (his arm position was very different in the two views.) But I loved this effect. Nice, nice, nice!
Great cinematography and camera work. I saw some very polished and pro look stuff in this department.
I was not a fan of the male actor. I am sorry, I hate to be critical here but his body and arms felt so tight. Just not natural. I am an actor so I tend to be overly picky here. The guy did a good job, I would like to have seen him be stronger.
I felt that the direction of this film was very good. At first, I didn't understand why he would approach that car the way he did, but in hindsight now I do.
Very good job with this. I liked the story a lot.
Congrats on your film!!!
Ted
Kholi said:
FINALLY! A review of the audio that found something wrong with it and identified it right on. Our original mix was done on a Sonar 5.2 system with pro near field monitors. It sound great. However, when we listened to it on PC type speakers, and even decent headphones, all of the low frequency stuff and quiet foley disappeared. There was no time left to remix so, in deperation, I compressed the low stuff 9:1, pulled down the loud bumps, and the compressed the whole mix 6:1. This made everything audible on low end speakers but it pumps a little at the threshold. Post festival we will have a release that has a stereo remix, with about 3:1 compression and shelving below 80 Hz, that sounds right on TV and PC speakers as well as high end stuff. We are also doing a home theater quality 7.1 mix for audiofiles with systems that can produce all the frequencies. Here's hoping the 30 min quick super compressed fix we were allowed to upload will hold up. By most comments it has so far. Thanks, again, for your golden ears.
snodart
Veteran
jpbankesmercer said:
Thanks. We spent some time with the lighting, so it is nice to know that it was noticed. The adapter is the Snod35. It is a vibrating GG DIY job. I'm putting out a Snod35 do-it-yourself DVD in the next few months. It will come with several of the required parts and cover in detail how to build it. Website is in the works but will be at snod35.com once complete.
TheatreGuy said:
Thanks :beer: Haven't made it to ID yet.... I still have a ton to watch.
Thanks again guys.
Mark Harris
Pain in the ass
snodart said:
Now I just think you're an ass. Not only was the camera work very nice, but it was all on your OWN 35mm adaptor????? Stop rocking so hard, man.
How much cc went into this? It looks like not much, but it might just be subtle...
Answer to your audio question
Answer to your audio question
Paul, I knew a guy once who's ears actually bled when acosted by loud sound pressure levels. So I empathise. To answer you question, there is only one rule, what your ears hear. All the technology takes second place. We do try to balance the overall sound to believable levels. By that, what you see and what you hear need to agree. Therefore, if a close up or nearby surprise is required that may include a momentary loud sound in comparison to the average level. In our uploaded release we use heavy compression which is what you may have experiences with The Seeing. Please read my previous reply to Kohli that covers the technical audio issues we dealt with at the last minute and what we intend to do about it post festival.
Answer to your audio question
Paul Coleman said:
Paul, I knew a guy once who's ears actually bled when acosted by loud sound pressure levels. So I empathise. To answer you question, there is only one rule, what your ears hear. All the technology takes second place. We do try to balance the overall sound to believable levels. By that, what you see and what you hear need to agree. Therefore, if a close up or nearby surprise is required that may include a momentary loud sound in comparison to the average level. In our uploaded release we use heavy compression which is what you may have experiences with The Seeing. Please read my previous reply to Kohli that covers the technical audio issues we dealt with at the last minute and what we intend to do about it post festival.