.static Dramafest Entry

My wife and I really enjoyed this one. It did not seem as technically sound as some of the of other videos I have watched so far but the story and acting were great. From a technical standpoint I noticed a few shaky shots that didn't seem like they needed to be there (like one during the phone conversation). There were also one or two cuts during the phone conversation that seemed a little awkward. That being said, I liked what you did with the TV, shakiness, and sound to build the tension during the last half of the video. The actor did a good job, he was much more convincing than some of the other videos I have seen. The story line was great. I am not a big scary-movie guy, so I am not familiar with other movies out there, but my wife said the plot was similar to The Ring. Excellent job, one of my favorites so far!
 
6th review:

I know the description of what is drama trancends the plot, such as a great episode of Battlestar galactica i just watched on Uni. HD had amazing drama while taking place in space. But this really felt like it was pushing the acceptable and almost unspoken point of the drama fest, getting people to stray away from the comfort of science fiction, and horror , and just a scare in general as it is what appears to be the fave of the amatuer along with guns, drugs and young cops and tough guys.

that aside and accepting the out there development of the story: The set wasnt natural to me, i have to use my own items as props as well, but try to use them non distractingly, the mounted LCD felt out of place in an accused drunks and currently drinking mans place. the garbage felt very placed and almost like a play. The crumbled papers and placed beers were very unnatural. Some of the cuts and edits i wasnt fond of.

The acting went from weak to maybe acceptable, but unnatural all around. The shot on the tv and the view he had looking out from tv land itself didnt match the angle his body was laying. Im also not a fan of people talking to themselves, i dont notice that i do it , i asked others, they dont as well, so in a movie i just find it somewhat funny.

thats it.

maybe i should give a disclaimer before i get warned? ( i had to stop reviewing horrorfest because i wasnt being that positive, this is how i feel and i guess ill just post until im stopped again)
 
Cynic821 said:
maybe i should give a disclaimer before i get warned? ( i had to stop reviewing horrorfest because i wasnt being that positive, this is how i feel and i guess ill just post until im stopped again)
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No worries Cynic. If you watch a film looking for stuff to criticize, you'll find stuff to criticize.

As for the mounted LCD screen, it was in the location to begin with and worked perfectly in my opinion. We all worship "drama", we hunger for it and create in our own lives. It gives us an identity, and it is this guys life drama that ultimately ends up landing him in that bastion of drama, the TV screen. So, I think a big old whopper of a TV screen was appropriate. I'll reiterate this several times, but this is all metaphor.

As far as the sci-fi element, I still don't get this criticism. I guess I need to try to be less subtle. It's suggested that he commits suicide, "She might be sorry in the morning." He says that after she hangs up on him, as he is standing with the glass. The odd cut was to imply that it is an internal dialogue. So, assuming that everything that happens in my film is a visual metaphor for an internal psychological struggle (this is just my interpetation) then we see that his solution to his problems gets him nowhere. He ends up in another reality where once again he is observing his lifes drama unfold. It's all cyclical. Ultimately his "solution" to his problems doesn't work, as so often is the case in our reality. We just end up perpetually stuck in the drama. Therefore, the shot in the field is a visual metaphor. It is not supposed to be like he got teleported to some other planet and is looking at a holographic screen. But, apparently that's all that some people saw, or I believe saw b/c of the Sci-Fi critique. Oh well.
 
DVX-Ben said:
He ends up in another reality where once again he is observing his lifes drama unfold.
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That's awesome man. I'm really glad a couple of you guys went out and made things that contained symbolism and metaphor. To be honest I'm a little slow at stuff like that, I think because not a lot of people do it any more. I take a lot of movies on the surface these days because that is all that is there, but now re-thinking your's and even David's I see a whole other light.

I wonder if your sound fxs were done differently and some how show the sounds were in his head (maybe the neighbor walks up to the window after hearing him screaming and it shows him on the ground screaming, the neighbor looks up and see there is nothing on the TV)... maybe people would have compared it more to a psychological drama and not a sci-fi drama... but that's just me playing Monday Morning quarter back:)

Great flick though man and I can't wait to see more from you.
 
Hey Ben, "picky people pick peter pan peanut butter it's the peanut butter picky people pick." I love how you put that in. I think I will use that at the next DWI check point I am stopped at. The first time I watched you film I really liked it. I've watched it about 5 times now and it gets deeper everytime. Not a drama? I think it's all drama, just done in an unconventional way. A fresh and creative way. And I am so glad you did that. I get the feeling that you are big on endings. What I mean is that you like a good ending. For me, that is the most important part of a story. It doesn't have to be big, but for me, a good story should leave you with something to remember it, and for me, that happens at the ending. I remembered .static because of the ending. It left me thinking. It grabbed my thoughts and made me ponder what it was saying. You told an interesting story and in the end left me something to think about. Something very deep. And you did it in a very creative and artistic way. That is good story telling and that is good filmmaking in my opinion. Him looking at his dead self through the same "vice" or "comfort" (either or both) that had become his life. That was brilliant. Cyclical as you call it. I am a fan, I will be looking for what you do next. Is the poster from the last shot of the movie, love it.

david jerome
 
Thanks a lot Jeremy.

It's all about how you view films, plays, stories, etc. You can take the surface angle approach, or the "what's beneath the surface?" approach. For me, I think that no matter what, there is always a lot more symbolism in these things then you would think.

Take your film for instance. What does it mean that you chose a beautiful open air park as your setting? What does the little girl represent? The homeless man? Innocence, poverty? How do those symbolic, archetypal ideas play off of each other? When brought together, what new gestalt do they create?...this is how I look at things and how I try to write my shorts.

Now, I agree that sometimes it's not always that deep, and neither am I. My IMDB credit is for a short film that won some awards at the Virginia Film Festival. That's a premiere festival. But the short is a film noir in which all the characters are condiments. It's a power struggle inside a refridgerator world. Obivously it's goofy fun. But people loved it. So go figure.

The best films work on both levels IMO. I think .static may have failed a bit, but you keep on trying. It's easy when I have it all in my head, it's getting it into other people's heads that's the hard part. Like you said, not everyone watches for that stuff...those are just the differences between some audiences and others.
 
david jerome said:
Hey Ben, "picky people pick peter pan peanut butter it's the peanut butter picky people pick." I love how you put that in. I think I will use that at the next DWI check point I am stopped at.
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Haha, yeah, try it. That was improvised by Hunter. I was about to cut it b/c of some pacing concerns I had with the second act, but I just liked it too much. I was like, eh, a little levity won't hurt.
 
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