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Well, it has to be shot somewhere, and it is nice to know. Quite alot of films state where the 'action' is taking place, but does it really matter? It's just to keep you informed. It's always nice to know, no matter how little.
Just my own opinion.
 
gabriel said:
I think that is exactly the problem of the plot of your short

everybody seems to be complaining about the flat story of your film. your short is visually stunning and solid concerning the story. of course you feel offended because for you it has A LOT of meaning. but the problem is that the audience can't see into you and does not see what you see. all the audience sees is what on the screen.
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First, there is a big different from make a film to watch a film, Gabriel. When I go to the cinema I try to forget the director and concentrate my mind only in the movie. After I anlayse the film. The quote that you put is about my experience like SPECTATOR. I think a film maker must join himself and the audience. And of course, we try to shot this short film with this in mind.

Second, Gabriel don’t put words in my mouth that aren’t mine. Please, can you copy when I’ve written that I (zacharias) feel offended?

gabriel said:
and i think the ONLY mistake you made was not to put everything you think about this subject on the screen. you have your own thoughts while watching it and we don't know about them.
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Third, do you know what are my thoughts? Then, why do you know that I was not to put everything you think about this subject on the screen’. If you are talking about my analysis of the V.O. Could you copy the sentences and details and explain me why do you think i'm wrong. In this way, we could talk about that and probably it would make me better to the next time (no irony).
 
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macgregor said:
Sorry I missed your question.

The lense on the G35 was almost always set at f2.8. Then i adjust the camera iris, which only works as +/- light, not affecting DOF.

I trust the LCD because i know what i am getting with it, even when somethimes it "lies" (at cloudy days it looks very dark).

I turn on the zebra for a moment just to check everything is in order. But it is annoying to me so i turn it off while recording.
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No problem, thanks for the input.

What was your experience like using the G35 as far as composition goes? I assume that the G35 does not flip the image - so when you are using it you are looking at an image that is upside down and flipped right to left. (This is one issue, that for me, made framing my image more difficult when using a 35 adapter- especially when it came time to follow action, like in a pan.)
 
zacharias said:
Does anybody know why we placed the action in Antartica?
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My only thought as to why it is placed in Antartica, is that the polar ice camps have melted, hense we see no ice / snow in the short, flooding the rest of the earth, and this is now an inhabitable part of the earth. But to be honest I do not know why it is placed there.


zacharias said:
Maybe this is a silly question... but I have my doubts... there are someone that think is not necessary to put 'antartica.summer.the future'.
And I ask myself if is not necessary this title to know the action is in Antartica.
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Unless there is some back story you are trying to communicate, like I just suggested, then it is unnessicary. If there is something that you are trying to communicate other then just location and time, then the title sequence might want to be rethought. This short could have easiliy taken place on Mars or some other planet in the future, and it would have kept the same feel, IMO.

Personally, I like the title sequence, I just feel that it sets me up for a different movie. When I saw it, I was expecting a postapocoliptic / futeristic, action sifi movie. I did not feel disappointed by the title sequence, it was more like a feeling of "Oh, this isn't that kind of movie, it's a love story."
 
macgregor said:
i use a magnet to flip the image upside down. Dont you use it?
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Yeah, I use a magnet to flip it the correct way - from upside down to right side up, but what really throws me is the right being on the left, and the left being on the right. With more use, I think I'll gte use to that, but it always takes me a minute to be able to follow the action in a pan. I'll be looking at the LCD screen and want to follow the action on the screen when panning, but since the image is flipped right to left I start my pan in the wrong direction. One of the things I do to try and overcome it, it so set my framing up for the start of the shot, and then not look at the LCD while I pan.
 
Well you may have never said that you feel offended but I guess you put a lot of work not only into production but into the screenplay too. that would make it natural to feel offended when somebody comes along and critisizes your work. in fact everybody is praising the images and the only negative criticism is directed against the screenplay which was written by you. now tell me that you are happy about that. i wrote that you felt offended because i myself would be too. sorry for not beeing 100% precise :-)

about the things that you know about but the audience does not:
The other day mi brother told me a story.

He is 25 years old. When he was 21 he deeply fell in love with a girl. His first love.
That was 3 years ago. It is finished now.

Now he tell me he doesn’t think about her, he almost doesn’t remember her. But there isn’t a moment where he doesn’t have the feeling that he is missing something.

Is it posible? Can you miss someone that you don´t remember?
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this quote of yours lead me to write what i wrote but now i kind of discovered that it is not the case :-) i kind of have the problem with my script right now so maybe that's the reason for misinterpreting the situation :-)

you are right you did put everything on the screen that you thought about this topic. i rewatched the short and now i have descovered my real problem with the script.

the whole theme of the love of your life who forgets you is interesting too. like for example you found the love of your life but through an accident he or she loses his memory. will he fall in love with you again? that is interesting but allready the theme of films in the past.

in bladerunner one of the questions is. can androids feel love?
but your film is asking (in my opinion). when the love of my life is an android and this android gets destroyed. will the following model still be the love of my life? will he fall in love with me "again".

there are two twists in your story:

first - the man who is dying in her arms is an android

second - the man in the car is the same model as the allready dead android

I hope you agree with me till this point.

I think the big problem is the first twist is kind of cliché --> bladerunner
and the second twist does not work.

it does not work because it does not pose an interesting question which is: Will he fall in love with me again. will it be the same as with the first android?

the answer is. odds are as high as with any other model of android. because the android she just bought CAN NOT remember her. consider me as unromantic but this is a fact :-) of course you can say. it's the love of her life so they were made of each other so they will fall in love again it does not matter what happens but i don't believe that.

Can you miss someone that you don´t remember? --> no

your brother is missing "a" girlfriend not his first one. or maybe if he has a girlfriend now he is missing the excitement of having "the first" girfriend just like no kiss will be the same as your first one.

of course this is only my opinion.

my point is there is this concept of "the love of your life"
which i find interesting concerning humans because it is romantic. but thinking about a woman is loving a machine which breaks down then she buys the same model again and will that model love her the same way as the first one did?? wow that is not really interesting to me. sorry for saying that but it's true.

I really thought deeply about your short know and I understand your point. but i feel like this whole android thing is pressed on the story just to make it sci-fi (allthough you may not wrote this script for sci-fest).
I think the story of your brother in the present would be much more interesting than observing the difference between two models of androids. your brothers story is about humans. it is more simple and more understandable and you connect with the characters more easily


I mean your theme is "can you miss someone you don't remember" right ?
why does the voiceover tell us the theme? shouldn't the movie do? concerning your sentence "movies are not written but rewritten" you read a lot of "how to write a screenplay" books too. if the voiceover asks us this qustion then why do you do the film at all? why don't you simply ask the question in this forum of another or somewhere?? would be much easier and less expensive.

and then is your story really THE BEST way to pose this question?



don't get me wrong I love sci-fi and i love androids :-) and i LOVE bladerunner but I do not "love" your last twist.

i hope that helps...
don't take it personal i really wouldn't invest that much time if i did not like your screenplay. I do but i think it could have been better.
 
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macgregor said:
mmmm, what 35mm adapter are you using?
i see the image as it is. :I
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Nice! That's got to be helpful.

The adapter I used was the Letus35.

Yesterday I just looked at and tested the Letus35 Flip- which flips the image so that it is recorded correctly. It was nice to be able to view the image correctly.
 
yeah walt and I both have a lettus but when flipped left nad right are the same in the viewfinder as the real life image -- wierd walt, PM me on what you are doing to flip and we'll see if we can straighten it out, though I have e feeling we just misunderstood you.

Ok -- real reason i came to this thread:

Great film guys. Stunning imagery. Drew me into what was going on emotionally. My jaw kept hitting the floor with each new image.

you Eurpeans wiill feel differently I suspect, but the booby stuff was a little gratuitous IMHO, woulda been just as good / effective without that shot but with the rest of the love making.

I suppose if pressed to find something wrong I could give you a small ding in story, as this was completly voice over driven, and not entirely fresh.

I say entrirly fresh, as opposed to not fresh at all, because it didn't fee like a rehash of anything, and lack of caus and effect plot was not an issue -- that just wasn't this movie -- this movie was a beautiful image and word poem that really worked.

the locations were badass, the actors were great, the comps, pacing, editing, lights, sound were all top notch, everything seemed 100% professional and of the highest quality.

hats off to you gentlemen
 
Hey Zacharias and MacGregor ... how 'bout you guys show some love to the other films and make comments. Whether you actually liked them or not, it'd be nice for the other film makers to hear your thoughts, both good & bad. I know you've gotten out to several others, MacGregor, but with as much time as has been spent in this thread, I'm sure you could take some time & comment even more in the others as well (I know we've not had you in ours yet).

You especially, Zacharias, have spent your entire DVXuser existance in only this thread (all 26 posts dedicated to SIMILO only). As a screenwriter, I'm sure you appreciate when people give you insite on what the story meant to them, how the characters were conveyed, etc. How about doing that for the other film makers that worked equally as hard on their shorts?

Lastly, Waltind, I think the reason that the image in the screen was still off on the left to right, was because the LCD Flip option needs to be adjusted in the menu ... think it goes under Mirror, or something like that ... read about it in another thread a while back, and forgot to tell you about it (it was after we filmed our short).
 
Does anyone notice that SHE actually speaks at the end of the film?

Envision, i will comment some more films but right now i have so much work i cannot write long reviews, sorry.

I really like some of them and i would be glad to work with those directors if i had the chance. ;P
 
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Gabriel, i just read your long last post.

I´m glad that you took that time to review the film. And i think you understood it all perfectly.

I agree about almost all what you wrote. It was a fantastic analysis. Really.

The first twist is a cliche. True. But the 2nd twist i find it new, and it is the important thing on this story. If you dont like, that is ok. But i wish you all like it because that is the plot of the story, and you get to see it just in the last end.

I think the structure of the story is very well done. And that is what get us angry when people say the script is bad and simple.

Just say you dont like it and that the first cliche was too obvious. But we needed that cliche in order the story to work.
 
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yeah sorry for the long post :-)

I would like to know what are your top three shorts in sci-fest ??

and structure of the story is 100% well done. only the plot is not my taste... but I think I said enough about that :-)

i think one reason for people finding it a bit boring is the lack of conflict. there is some but it isn't the i need to kill all the aliens to save the world kind of conflict that some want or like more :-) ....

well i think you can always explain that by being european...
 
Envision said:
You especially, Zacharias, have spent your entire DVXuser existance in only this thread (all 26 posts dedicated to SIMILO only). As a screenwriter, I'm sure you appreciate when people give you insite on what the story meant to them, how the characters were conveyed, etc. How about doing that for the other film makers that worked equally as hard on their shorts?
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Envision, you’re complete right.
But I have a rule. I hope you understand.
Never make a criticism of other filmakers in the same festival. And this is for one reason: If I make a criticism to my competitors, the people never will know if I am honest or envious.
Of course, I'm glad with the opinion of the people to our shortfilm. Any type of opinion.
May be it is a problem with me, I have too much respect to the work of others. But, of course, if someone wants my opinion, ask me directly and I would be glad to answer with an analysis.

And Gabriel, I have to tell you thanks a lot for give me part of your time.
 
hahaha. We got to the conclusion that if you dont like Solaris you wont like this at all. There are no alines, no guns, no action.
 
Briceman, if you look i reviewed some of the works, and i did not publish yours yet since i think it had jerkish motion so i waited until the problem was fixed.
Your film was one of the firsts i saw.
 
macgregor said:
Briceman, if you look i reviewed some of the works, and i did not publish yours yet since i think it had jerkish motion so i waited until the problem was fixed.
Your film was one of the firsts i saw.
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Hm... I think the film plays fine. I haven't noticed anything. It ain't a DVD, but it works.
 
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