"Stopgap" - An IENCE Production

Jarred:

I've seen this very concept before several times, but I think you pulled it off pretty well.

Actors were great.

Of course we all wish we had gotten another shot of this or that while we're editing. I said that to myself a thousand times working on Barn Dance.

I really liked the transition to the final shot as he drops to his knees in front of his mother.

Nice job!
 
Im late, so not a lot of detail here for you.

I thought visually you constructed the story well. Your focus pulls had purpose that also served the story and I think on that front you got it. I thought all the things that occurred did help, again, drive the story forward. Personally I think youve got the hard part fairly well figured out and whilst theres some shorts in the comp with more beautifully engaging shots etc the story was hard to follow. Not everyones going to always like your story, thats often down to perception, but if I were you I would separate that from your ability to construct it through images. I liked it.
 
Noel and John,
Thanks so much for your comments. It's greatly appreciated by Jarrard (Director) and myself (DP). It was such a great learning experience for everyone involved. I'm so impressed by everything entered into Twilightfest and I think I have so much to learn from them and others here on DVX. Biggest improvement I could see in the future is lighting. However, due to the number of locations we originally shot at... lighting would have been difficult. Jarrard thought it best to use ambient light and I feel for most shots it worked well. You should see some of the raw footage. We shot our lead actor Billy running while hanging out of the back of a speeding Jeep Wrangler with our camera rig. Lots of other things too.

Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone and keep em coming!
 
Well done here. It was fun to watch and I enjoyed it. great job on this guys. although I do have to agree with an ealrier poster that its basically a "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"remake which strays very little from the original. I actually made this correlation as soon as he made his move to escape and then basically watched the rest waiting to see it all play out. I watched the original way back when i was in grade school and the power of that film stuck with me until now and likely always will. it was part of what made me realise the power of film and storytelling and make me get into it. but not to say that all that somehow takes away from what youve achieved here. its a great short and you guys should be proud of a job well done.
 
I enjoyed this film. I thought there was too much fade to black, but I thought it kept a pretty good pace, had good action and the lead actor did a pretty good job.
 
The cuts to black were used to help transition better between the action. To add to the confusion and devolution from reality that Peyton (the lead actor) experiences in the film. We didn't plan on initially having these when we started filming, it just seemed like a good idea in the edit.

Thanks for your comments Marlon.
 
Darkline said:
SPOILER :
I'd maybe liked to have seen more story about the guy shooting him and the circumstances around that, why? because that could have taken the audiences attention away from guessing the ending if you had wrapped up his wandering around with an alt storyline. Perhaps the resolution could have been the moment the audience discovers 'why' he is getting shot, maybe he stole money or killed someone. In that way you could have his 'final glimpse' as him getting away with it, only to be brought crashing back to reality with the final gun shot in his head. - but thats just an idea and I guess it would have changed this a lot.

Things I liked, the pacing, shot choice and editing. I'd like to see what you guys do with a bit more time on your hands. Thanks for the entry.
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Darkline, thanks so much for watching and for the comment. It's so cool for me to receive comments from people who make such incredible movies. I value your opinion highly.

I think that you've presented a very compelling story, unfortunately we didn't shoot it ;). I think that your arc would have provided a very nice feeling of resolution and circularity, it would've been very exciting. We opted for a simpler script with a probably blameless protagonist. Giving him responsibility for his "possible" end would have made for a very different (and probably equally or more exciting) dynamic.

Your story is similar to the "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" short story, while mine is closer to the Twilight Zone episode. There are a lot of cool directions to go with the concept.

Very glad you liked the pacing, I hate slow moving films, so that's good to hear.

JC
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
I really liked the opening shot. I also liked the shot when he came into the house, that was quite nice. I like what you did with this story wise.

[...]

Get more coverage and you'll be fine.
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Mike,
Thanks so much for the comment. I've enjoyed your movies from the fests, especially The Watchman. I appreciate your feedback. I'm looking forward to "Calls" when I'm past my midterms this week.

Regarding the coverage, I would've been happier with a few more shots, but wouldn't we all be? That said, I did learn a lot about necessary coverage and will use that for much tighter shooting in the future.

As a general response to everyone regarding time for filming, rushed (or not), etc.:
We had a limited shooting schedule, but that's the case for just about every film ever. There are definitely things that could've improved with more time, but I wrote a script that I thought was doable given the timeframe. I think we definitely pulled it off, and I'm very proud of what we did. I would not want any forgiveness for flaws in the film because of some sort of extraordinary shooting circumstances. I'm sure other films in this fest had much tighter circumstances than we did, so our film merits just as much scrutiny and criticism as any other. Thanks for all of the feedback.

JC
 
No Problem King, there was a lot about this I liked and you have to be very careful where to take advice. Everyone on here is a film-maker and you have to stay true to your vision at the end of the day. Otherwise you'd get someone else to make it for you. :-)

I'll look forward to any future work you guys do.

Ps I think I've seen owl creek, is it an old B&W one?
 
No worries, I definitely will. It's the least I can do for the effort everyone's put into making their movies.

JC
 
Nice action and story.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS******


It was a little bit like Jacobs Ladder where the whole story is what takes place in the characters mind at the moment of his death.

Without knowing why, "he must die for what he's seen", it was little hard to buy, but I went with it because you had an action chase scene right in the beginning.

Fun production, and I liked all your posters and imagry, so had to check this one out.

Good job!
 
yeehaanow:
I personally felt not knowing why made it even more mysterious. Well that's me watching it now that the editing and all is done. Funny thing to note, I hadn't watched Stopgap for just the fun of it and to enjoy it until the other night. It changes ones perspective.

We had a blast and it was a great way to end the summer and transition into college life for a lot of the people involved with production.
 
Good production. Had seen something similar to this so before, I figured this one pretty early, but you pulled it off well.
 
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