"Song of the Whippoorwill"

Very cool BTS! Man, you got flags and sh*t?? Jeez, I don't have that. :embarasse

She's looking pretty sexy in a old-fashion kinda' way. Great!
 
Nicely shot, well acted.

It felt to me like it dragged a bit at points - as she was going through her different "faces," it felt like it took a forever to say what that face was, and her description really didn't add anything to what was going on on-screen. Maybe if it was a little tighter, it might have worked better for me. Or maybe I just wasn't feeling the beat of the piece, that's entirely possible.

Overall, it felt like a very nice visual poem. I get the story - it just doesn't really speak to me. Still high marks, though.
 
Thanks for the comments Tom.. that's what I like best about these fests...there's lots to learn from it!
 
Wanted to drop back and comment on the nudity. Firstly I thought nudity was not gratuitous and served the story well. We were looking at a woman, showing her strengths and frailties - and the important part of that is she is a woman, I thought ZAZA managed to capture that rather poetically.

The only thing Id say to you zaza is when she was the "lover" the hands covering herself wasnt exactly on the mark for me, I think her nude, coat rack with mans jacket and she is like a vine growing on it, Ive got an image in my head that's hard to put in words. BUT, when I say not exactly on the mark, Im not referring to the nudity aspect.
 
Yes I thought long and hard about how I could present this woman as a lover...and after a little back & forth decided that it was perfect just as Alex had written it. Sometimes we tend to over-think ourselves and take what should be a simple, natural scene and complicate it.

This was always meant to be a living nude...a classic nude painting come to life...a fragile yet unashamed woman presenting her body and soul to her partner....
 
Nice shot of Giselle. I've always said she has that 40s silver screen look - in a Maureen O'Hara kinda way.



maureenohara2.jpg

​
 
It's clear this lady has been hurt, but is moving on. It must've been a breeze to shoot :) Seriously, I'm not the biggest fans of 'talkies'. I appreciate you trying to spice it up with the costume changes, but essentially she's still just talking. And the nudity, albeit edgy, really felt unnecessary, don't get me wrong I do like gratuitous nudity, but this film was much better than that. Overall it did look good and Gisselle did a great job.
 
Chris_Keaton said:
It's clear this lady has been hurt, but is moving on. It must've been a breeze to shoot :) Seriously, I'm not the biggest fans of 'talkies'. I appreciate you trying to spice it up with the costume changes, but essentially she's still just talking. And the nudity, albeit edgy, really felt unnecessary, don't get me wrong I do like gratuitous nudity, but this film was much better than that. Overall it did look good and Gisselle did a great job.
Click to expand...

Thanks for stopping by Chris. As far as a "breeze" to shoot...not so much. I had one day to get everything I needed, Giselle had to come up from the city so that "day" was about 9 hours. I was lucky enough to be able to move the bulk of the gear the night before, so that saved a bit of time. It's a lot of work when you're a one-man-show.

As far as the nudity... I think Noel says it best......

Noel Evans said:
Wanted to drop back and comment on the nudity. Firstly I thought nudity was not gratuitous and served the story well. We were looking at a woman, showing her strengths and frailties - and the important part of that is she is a woman, I thought ZAZA managed to capture that rather poetically.
Click to expand...
:happy:
 
ZazaCast said:
Thanks for stopping by Chris. As far as a "breeze" to shoot...not so much. I had one day to get everything I needed, Giselle had to come up from the city so that "day" was about 9 hours. I was lucky enough to be able to move the bulk of the gear the night before, so that saved a bit of time. It's a lot of work when you're a one-man-show.

As far as the nudity... I think Noel says it best......


:happy:
Click to expand...

I meant 'easy' as sarcasm.
 
Hey Zaza,

I think nudity is a very tricky thing to have in a film. While I agree that it didn't feel gratuitous or just thrown in, I still think it didn't have the right quality.

I put nudity in the same group as a certain type of comedy. A comedy stops being funny if it looks like the person falling down actually gets hurt (I guess that is debatable to you saddists out there) :) So in the same way there is a certain type of nudity that makes the viewer feel uncomfortable and voyeristic, as opposed to the type that feels like art and part of the story.

Similo is one of my favorite short films and is a great example of this. You feel as if you sharing in a beautiful moment and not a stranger watching.

EDIT: That being said I don't think you were way off the mark either. I appreciate the unique nature of your entry. I can definitely remember which one was yours. :)

I remember watching your entries in previous fests and you have improved greatly over previous entries.

Just my thoughts. Best wishes!
 
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Joe:

I had to double-check what I was watching here because I just couldn't believe that this was a Zaza film. Wow man, this is light-years ahead of your previous work. The rise in quality to this from your TwilightFest entries is huge and impressive. Not only that, but there's a real difference in the approach and the point-of-view. What I saw here was total 180 from what I expected to see, you've created a whole new style for yourself.

The film is really good and interesting to watch. There's a real texture to it that I haven't seen out of you in the past. I found myself really engulfed in it.


ZazaCast said:
Thanks folks, just wanted to address the typewriter comments. You see, the typewriter is the woman's weapon (Remington) as she shoots(each of the keystrokes is a shot) her beau down. (that cheating bastard!) If you watch closely, you'll notice that she is part of the typewriter. Understanding this is very important to the story in my eyes. Lucinda is baring her soul....:happy:

...and a little more!
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Even still, I still I think there's a little too much typewriter in the beginning. Trimming this down a touch would really help the pacing early on. The music is great.

I don't know if the nudity was necessary, but I didn't think it was inappropriate. I think you could have gone either way with that; didn't make a difference to me at all.

I wasn't totally in love with the voice acting in the beginning, but I liked it much more as I progressed through the film. I started to appreciate that it didn't have a professional voice-over smoothness to it, but instead it was a more conversational, plain voice. The lighting was superb in my opinion!

Very nice job, I'm telling you brother!

John
 
Hey man, I finally made it, sorry it took so long. Anyways, I liked this a lot, I would be curious to know the process that led to you doing something like this, since it is so different, has that been covered in your thread?

Here are a couple things that stood out to me, it seemed to me that on some level she must have been confident in herself and each of the aspects of her personality, so the shyness of her covering herself during the lover sequence was strange compared to the nonchalant nudity of the fighter scene, as the covering of her privates you kind of associate with a timid, unsure lover. It's possible that if she had been clothed during the boxing I never would have made that association. But that is me reading way too deep into this thing most likely. Also, the thinker scene seemed to slow things down a little too much before the end, maybe it just needs to be shortened a tad? Since theres little movement in that scene you are really waiting for something to happen.

But she was great and you did a great job putting it together, congrats!
 
Interesting and unique film. Essentially it's a monologue film, which can be tedious, but you managed to use strong visuals to carry it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for that era, and for nice macro photography. It reminded me in a very general sense of The Fall.

However, it did feel a little loose. I felt like there was often too much silent build-up in those moments between introducing her different personas, that detracted from the overall tone. This is not a letter of apology, but one of moving on, and I felt like it should have had more drive. Whether that means a shorter overall film, or just a quicker pace of editing (more shots), or even more personas/message, I can't say.

The nudity. Just accidentally scanning the posts above this on my way down the page (I try not to read them before my own thoughts), I can tell this must be a hot-button issue. I honestly can't pin down my own feelings on it. It certainly didn't feel exploitative (although some of the earlier shots where she's just barely covering herself, teasing towards camera, did lean this way a bit), but it also didn't really affect me in any way I suspect you intended. Again, I think this may have been a question of editing, as you hold on that shot for quite a long time and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be thinking. Personally, if I was going to attempt the same thing, I think what I would try to do here is assemble a match-cut montage of her boxing at the camera wearing each of her different outfits, as well as nude. Flash-cutting between them would elevate the urgency and build towards the actual climax, as well as developing on your central theme. But that's just my idea.

There's really only one other thing I wanted to comment on: the cinematography, which was a little uneven. Overall I really liked the black box presentational style and (as mentioned) the macro shots, but the quality of some of these shots seemed to vary a lot. The macro shots were really nice but sometimes I felt like you were wracking focus just for the sake of wracking focus. I think if you could bring all of the material up to the quality and simplicity of your better visuals this would be a very visually strong picture.

Anyway, congrats on doing something different. It's hard to make a single character thought piece work well, especially when limited to the constraints of real physical production. This shows promise!
 
-nice shots

- very nice story

Nothing much to say actualy. Maybe little more sounds in the "a reader, a fighter, a lover, ...." parts ? Just small sounds..not to much... of action (turning paper, hitting, sissling cooking pan....)
 
John LaBonney said:
Joe:

I had to double-check what I was watching here because I just couldn't believe that this was a Zaza film. Wow man, this is light-years ahead of your previous work. The rise in quality to this from your TwilightFest entries is huge and impressive. Not only that, but there's a real difference in the approach and the point-of-view. What I saw here was total 180 from what I expected to see, you've created a whole new style for yourself.

The film is really good and interesting to watch. There's a real texture to it that I haven't seen out of you in the past. I found myself really engulfed in it.

Even still, I still I think there's a little too much typewriter in the beginning. Trimming this down a touch would really help the pacing early on. The music is great.

I don't know if the nudity was necessary, but I didn't think it was inappropriate. I think you could have gone either way with that; didn't make a difference to me at all.

I wasn't totally in love with the voice acting in the beginning, but I liked it much more as I progressed through the film. I started to appreciate that it didn't have a professional voice-over smoothness to it, but instead it was a more conversational, plain voice. The lighting was superb in my opinion!

Very nice job, I'm telling you brother!

John
Click to expand...

Thank you so much John, I really appreciate you taking the time to watch & comment!:happy:

chriscurl said:
Hey man, I finally made it, sorry it took so long. Anyways, I liked this a lot, I would be curious to know the process that led to you doing something like this, since it is so different, has that been covered in your thread?

Here are a couple things that stood out to me, it seemed to me that on some level she must have been confident in herself and each of the aspects of her personality, so the shyness of her covering herself during the lover sequence was strange compared to the nonchalant nudity of the fighter scene, as the covering of her privates you kind of associate with a timid, unsure lover. It's possible that if she had been clothed during the boxing I never would have made that association. But that is me reading way too deep into this thing most likely. Also, the thinker scene seemed to slow things down a little too much before the end, maybe it just needs to be shortened a tad? Since theres little movement in that scene you are really waiting for something to happen.

But she was great and you did a great job putting it together, congrats!
Click to expand...
Chris... I fell in love with the script the first time I read it. I know this seems like something very different for me, but you guys have only seen my work created for these fests. Being a fairly creative person, I wanted to create a film based on the deep inner feelings we all have. That's it...

You actually got the 'lover' part right! She is timid, vulnerable and yes, maybe a little unsure when offering her self to a lover..that was the idea. Then, as a 'fighter', she is self-assured and aggressive, again, you got it right... just go with it!:happy: As a 'Thinker'...we take a little more time...to think.

Thanks for the comments... this is the stuff that makes us all better filmmakers!

dougspice said:
Interesting and unique film. Essentially it's a monologue film, which can be tedious, but you managed to use strong visuals to carry it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for that era, and for nice macro photography. It reminded me in a very general sense of The Fall.

However, it did feel a little loose. I felt like there was often too much silent build-up in those moments between introducing her different personas, that detracted from the overall tone. This is not a letter of apology, but one of moving on, and I felt like it should have had more drive. Whether that means a shorter overall film, or just a quicker pace of editing (more shots), or even more personas/message, I can't say.

The nudity. Just accidentally scanning the posts above this on my way down the page (I try not to read them before my own thoughts), I can tell this must be a hot-button issue. I honestly can't pin down my own feelings on it. It certainly didn't feel exploitative (although some of the earlier shots where she's just barely covering herself, teasing towards camera, did lean this way a bit), but it also didn't really affect me in any way I suspect you intended. Again, I think this may have been a question of editing, as you hold on that shot for quite a long time and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be thinking. Personally, if I was going to attempt the same thing, I think what I would try to do here is assemble a match-cut montage of her boxing at the camera wearing each of her different outfits, as well as nude. Flash-cutting between them would elevate the urgency and build towards the actual climax, as well as developing on your central theme. But that's just my idea.

There's really only one other thing I wanted to comment on: the cinematography, which was a little uneven. Overall I really liked the black box presentational style and (as mentioned) the macro shots, but the quality of some of these shots seemed to vary a lot. The macro shots were really nice but sometimes I felt like you were wracking focus just for the sake of wracking focus. I think if you could bring all of the material up to the quality and simplicity of your better visuals this would be a very visually strong picture.

Anyway, congrats on doing something different. It's hard to make a single character thought piece work well, especially when limited to the constraints of real physical production. This shows promise!
Click to expand...

Doug... some great insight here...thank you! I love some of these ideas.
As far as the cinematography, yes, it was uneven and meant to be that way. We are looking into the mind of Lucinda...in the beginning scenes, I went with a nice warm, natural look, as a 'lover' I shifted to the red side like a flushed lover might be in the throws of passion, as a boxer I shifted to the blue, cold side to make it a little tougher...and finally, the 'thinker' should have a glow, like a classic master painting. That was my goal.

I'm not really understanding the wracking focus comment as there is only one shot that pulls focus in the intro...?

dre83 said:
-nice shots

- very nice story

Nothing much to say actualy. Maybe little more sounds in the "a reader, a fighter, a lover, ...." parts ? Just small sounds..not to much... of action (turning paper, hitting, sissling cooking pan....)
Click to expand...

Thanks dre83! As a sound designer, I'm sure you appreciate that I wanted to rely on the score here....:happy:
 
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