'SOMNIA' -- an OND UGLE FILM production

That was the first film my wife had to actually cover her eyes... it scared the crap out of her! The sound had some issues but that can be fixed. The story resolved really nicely. I loved how you transitioned from sequence to sequence, that was very creative. I like the framing on your shots they really gave me a sense and scope of the location. The film had a great look, I didn't miss the bigger sensor of the DSLRs at all. This film is a winner.
 
REVIEW!

I definitely liked this one, it was fun to watch, really drew you in.

What I liked - You had some really nice shots, the shot down the row of books of her studying, the silhoutte of her getting under the pipes. The story was concise, and though left open ended, it was in a good way. You had a pretty cool location with the pipes which is sweet, and the first ghost/person she sees made me jump.

What I didn't like as much - Audio-wise you were saved by the fact that it wasn't recorded in English and was therefore subtitled. I could barely hear their voiced in the library. Though that sort of makes sense, we would of course still want to be able to hear them. There are a few things that are a little cliche but they don't make or break something for me, so they aren't a huge deal. One other thing, though the girl, then long haired man, and the arms are creepy, I would have rather have had the one younger guy be the one popping up everywhere in the pipes room. Basically those other 2 or 3 characters were sort of irrelevant other than to get me to jump or scare the girl a little. In the grand scheme of things story-wise I think the girl/man/arms distracted from the main plot.....though they were still good, and yah that girl really gave me a jump.

All in all a solid film, fun to watch!
 
European films are kicking some butt! I really liked the style of this one. The music was top notch as well. It REALLY added to the feel.
Great cuts. Very well put together. Good pacing. I would have liked to have seen the last shot linger a bit longer. Or a cut to black before the credits hit us.

The actress was great as well. Sweet location.
Was this all shot with natural light? Or how much did you light some of the scenes? What was used?

Cheers,
 
I have to admit this entry kept me guessing. When I thought it was going nowhere with expectant expectations, it quickly was cut away by a tricky edit. The 'asleep/dreaming' aspect has been a tactic many times before to try and scare a viewer into thinking a false sense of reality. They get used to one and abruptly pulled to another.

There really wasn't much of a story but rather a 'what if' scenerio. I would have liked to see a few more locations, or perhaps a little more dialog between the two characters. Especially the male lead as he just shows up at the end. boOOOOOM! End of movie. What?! Why is it the end already? Who is this guy and why would he want to kill this girl? Develop your evil guy a little more and give us a reason. All while not giving away the end of the film. Add another character to show the twist.. resolve it. end it. Don't just leave me hanging there is a ill-fated story of a girl who falls asleep at the library and walks to the basement without a reason. Sure. it's a cleverly badass location, but let's give that location a reason for existence. Not to exist because it's got big pipes and wires.

There were a great aspects in the film technically, but not nearly enough to justify a solid story.

I'm anxiously awaiting your next entry to see a massive improvement. I know you've got it.
/j
 
This was a good watch and i enjoyed it, particularly the camera work and editing. When the girl is in the basement and she sees the scary girl, that was a well done scare, I watched it a few times to study your technique. Good stuff. When the girl then starts getting stalked by the tall guy, I got confused as to what the story was.
I love the shot of her in silhouette hiding, really nice! And you had a great location and used it well. I didn't understand the story or the characters motives that much,
but the vibe was there, it was fun to watch, and it was well directed. Thumbs up!
 
Hey! This was the first short that got my blood moving. And when the hands reached out of her hidey-hole and grabbed her I smiled because you got me. I see that you embraced this challenge. Great job! And I loved that location, really loved it. The switch from the library to tunnels looked cool, but did have be guessing for a while, but I watched on. This is one of my top three so far.
 
SPOILER REVIEW: Do not read further if you haven't watched the short.

The good: I like the way this was shot. The angles, the lighting, very well done. It also had the best "scare" factor that I've seen so far out of the ones I've watched. I like that it wasn't too complicated, either. Simple concept, done well.

The not as good: I don't know why, but I didn't really connect with the protagonist. I know I should have, but I didn't and I don't know why. It sounds bad, but I was thinking, "I'm not too worried if she lives or dies." Also, the coloring of the whole thing fell a little flat with me. That's a taste thing, though, so it's very minimal. Lastly, I feel like using a dream is kind of an "easy way out" of explaining things, even with the twist at the end (I wasn't a fan of the movie North for just such a reason).

Favorite part: The shot from inside that air conditioning vent or whatever it was, showing her silhouette.

Very well made and executed, though.
 
Looked great, liked the camera work, edit rocked, sound could have used a little tweaking as it was noisey throughout (constent hiss).
I hate to say it, but the second she lays her head down on the desk.... I knew the rest of the story. It was well done, but no surprise...thus, no scare-factor for me.
Keep the coming, I look forward to more from you!
 
Whispers are too quiet. Color is little warm. I didn't get the time lapse. So she woke up in dark - they left her asleep in the library?
Odd cut from library to pipes. She doesn't seem that disturbed for tele-transporting. Even with the funny noises from the dark she still isn't running.
Okay she screamed when grabbed. She doesn't notice the blood on her shirt? She isn't running a 3 minute mile out? Okay - Axe murderer almost to her -
now she runs. Lets see some panic. Guy grabs her - now she is panicking! Sheesh I'd thought they might have to kill her first. :) A dream - cool.
Not sure why the bad guys phone rang . Not bad. Needs more story. Like why? Acting was good. Cine/Lighting pretty good. Good job.
 
The dialogues are to low, so that's why you got lot of noise.... The sound was directly on camera ?

Other raisons for the "noisy" sound could be: - booming from to far, bad pre-amps and actors not speaking loud enough.

And this last one is what I think the "main raison" is. Your actors have to "speak loud"... Even in whispering scenes they have to give there voice a....voice.

Actors (well, good ones, or those who wants to be good) can speak in such a way they give voice, are understandable and yet they give a "whispering" feeling.

She fells asleep...nice...she wakes up... Better would have been "lights go out" (in real time, going out).

She wants to know the time...It was not necessarily to show it to us, because we know it's just late. So that's good. But still...I wanted to know the time just for myself :p

You have some nice shots in it.

Realy good you kept it quiet and then suddenly the "creack, hinch, squack, turning something, plumb, tube, metal, scrape" sound. (choose one :p). It's by having quiet moments that sounds that are stupid, simple makes you scare.

4:40, the "hard cuts" give a strange....feeling... Was it to show something ? Or just for fun ? Or does it fit in the story ?

I think the girl just likes to scream :p....

Nice shots and good way you found to go from the "long hair guy" to the "short hair guy"

Very good ending.
 
I enjoyed this! got me all tensed up. great fast paced editing and camera work! love your poster too. great work!
 
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Props for using library. Thumbs down for having the "I'm all alone in the library" scenario. I agree with the silhouette, that was a nice shot. Do I really understand what the story was about? Not really. It was more a scare film without plot. With a little more originality it might have gone somewhere.

Again, kudos on location and some nice angles on filming. Story, not so much.
 
We want to thank you all for your honest feedback. It has been great hearing everyone's opinions -- we are, after all, here to learn! :).. As a lot of you have pointed out, we did have a lot of problems with the sound; some of it was due to the technical limitations that were caused by the fact that we had to use the school equipment -- Anyway, it has made us smarter and hopefully we'll be able to do a better job on our next project.

:)

I have updated the top post of this thread with a short teaser for our film -- a bit late, I know. Doing this was also a part of our school assignment.

:)
 
I think Michael picked up on this - which is that this film is actually kicking ass in the 'scare' department, and shows a sophistication of sound design, editing, cinematography and on screen action (on a peanuts budget) that actually pulls off what no other film manages (i think anyway!!!) which is to actually create TENSION!

TENSION!!!!

TEEEEENSION!!!!!

Of course the story in this type of setup excuses itself from some relevance - she's dreaming it (or is she?) who knows - who cares? See I think some filmmakers here can forget (with their empirical comparisons) that whether or not exposition is of importance - depends on the story and how it is presented.

This film sets itself up in effect to be like a rollercoaster ride, and excuses itself from requiring exposition to make sense (on the negative side it negates story but again its a sacrifice that has been consciously made here.)

So, because this film lacks some of the superficial bells and whistles that we come to expect of some entries i don't think it will poll as well as it should. After all it looks simple - yet it very simply manages what no other film seems to in this fest.

So good work, ive ranked this one alongside AJ, Matt and Shawn's.)
 
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