Ronald

Hey Mike, sorry its taken a while to get some time to watch this - I liked it! For a 48 hr fest this is fantastic! Had quite a few laughs throughout it.

Here are my notes though and I know some of these may not exactly apply due to the nature of the fest. So my apologies if I'm being picky, but I thought go for more notes than less :)

1st cut seems a little out of place, either stay with the wide or wait to cut at the dialogue and make the angle a little more different on the Medium.

More coverage - shot right before "well **** me" seemed like it could have more angles. Still worked, I just think some more covereage there would help.

Would like to see Ronald's arms look deader.

Love the park swinging. Other jokes landed well too, but seeing Ronald's physical struggles is hilarious. Love Johnny getting knocked down too.

Pacing seems a little slow. Not enough story to guide from one scene to scene. Love all of the zombie jokes, but could be more to tie them all together. Almost feels like a reel of funny moments when dating a zombie.

Ha - brain/cauliflower! Awesome!

She should be more upset when Johnny dies and then she can flip to not caring.

Wouldve loved to see them all just get in the car and back over him and cut at the "oops, guess we should've moved him out of the way"

Also not completely sure about Johnny's acting. His lines just felt stilted almost like English was a second language or at least he wasn't completely familiar with a relaxed delivery. Didnt notice any sort of accent though, so not sure what it is. Not terrible, the others just seemed much more natural in their roles.

Camerawork and lighting looked great. All handheld? Seemed very stable. Not easy with such a small camera.

Quite entertaining and very refreshing. I'm not a fan of the zombie/horror genre, but seeing it as a comedy is great.

Keep up the good work!
 
Thanks, Jeff.

I shot without a crew so coverage was a bit limited during the one day shoot. Some handheld, some dolly, some tripod.

Glad you got a kick out of it. We had a lot of fun making it. :)

Thanks for taking the time to watch.

Mike
 
For a 48 hr film, it's darn good. It's a relaxed comedy, which is refreshing. Many of the shots are really nice, but a few more CU's would play better I think, especially on the small web version. I got some good laughs in there.

You could've put a cucumber in his pants or something to play up the 'always hard' joke.

I kinda wanted a bigger ending, especially since the zombie ate her boyfriend, but all-in-all, very enjoyable and fun.
 
Thanks, Tim. :)
Yah, it was a little rushed of course but still a lot of fun. Always nice to squeeze something lighthearted in once in a while.

Glad you had a few laughs.

Cheers,

MAH
 
The Festival takes place tomorrow. I'll let you know how I do.
Hopefully we'll get a lot of laughs and come out with a prize. I'm also hoping to get some behind the scenes footage and interviews.
I'll post them here when I do.

I posted this in the café but thought I would add it here since it also directly relates to 'Ronald'.

I did a CBC radio interview yesterday that went really well. Actually, I did two. :)
They put me in the middle of another interview by mistake. One "Mike" didn't show up and I was early for mine so they assumed I was him.

Luckily I knew what they were talking about and was able to contribute. :)

Here are the interviews. Listen to The Room interview first and you'll see what I mean.
This is how it happened... I showed up to CBC radio about 10 minutes early.
As I approached the front entrance a woman is leaning out the door, she looks at me and says, 'Are you Mike?'
I reply of course... 'Yup'. She looks at me like she's a tad annoyed and says... 'Hurry!'

We bypass security using her card. Run through cubicles and take some sort of short cut through the building. I'm thinking... what the hell!?
I must be late? I thought for sure they had said eight o'clock. She opens the booth where the interview is already going on.
Sits me next to the other guy who I assume is supposed to be the other filmmaker since I knew they were going to interview two of us for the festival.

My butt barely hits the seat when I'm asked the first question. I had missed the entire introduction so I had no idea.
You'll notice a slight hesitancy from me and then I roll with it.

When the radio host plays the first audio clip from The Room I cover the mic and tell him that they have the wrong Mike.
He waves my off like I'm crazy and we continue on. Later I found out he thought I was just nervous.
At some point during the interview I believe they tell him via his headset that he's interviewing the wrong guy.

I'll let the audio clips fill you in on the rest. :)

THE ROOM INTERVIEW

RONALD INTERVIEW

MAH
 
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ZazaCast said:
Classic... just classic! Best of luck Michael.
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Thanks. It was pretty surreal.
For about 10 seconds I just thought they were talking movies while waiting for me to arrive. Then I realized what the hell was going on.
I never got to hear the opening so I had no idea it was all about The Room when I sat down. :grin:
 
jonE5 said:
pretty cool, some nice shots, what was your workflow? what did you edit on?
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Thanks.

Edited on Premiere Pro, CS3. Captured directly from the HV20.
Not my best looking work as the entire project was extremely rushed and no shots were really planned. It was all pretty much run and gun.

We had a lot of fun with it though.

MAH
 
YAAAAAAYYYYYY!! First Place!

 Not my best short but I'm happy with what I pulled off in <48hours.
It was a 72 hour festival, but not for me. My Mother was in the hospital when I made this so I spent Friday with her.
Shot it on Saturday and handed it in on Sunday.

Ronald received a lot of laughs from the crowd so that made me very happy.
The cast also seemed to have a good time.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to watch and comment.

Cheers,

MAH
 
Great stuff for a 48 hour film fest. I know lots of people that come out with 48 hour film fest stuff and it's total crap. Of course you have a talent, so it's no surprise.

I agree with others that you need more coverage (obviously you didn't get it due to time constraints), the pacing was slow with little story/conflict to drive it forward, and the ending felt a bit flat. But aside from that it was hilarious and well done!
 
Thanks, Jon! Yah, it was just me as the one man crew so I was just concerned about getting enough shots in one day to make something cohesive. :)

Everyone seemed to like it though. We'll find out who got the 'Audience Favourite' in a day or two. There wasn't many of us there so we were seriously outnumbered by some rather large crews/cast in comparison. You never know though.

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated.

MAH
 
Congrats Mike.

Looked good and had some clever writing. I can only imagine the polish of your productions when you start working with a crew.

Good job.
 
congrats on Ronald winning two awards...that is fantastic. Is there somewhere online where it can be viewed in its entirety?

I would love to see it and was the silicon mask made custom for the film?
 
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