Striker presents "The Mark"

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One has to kill the other, or does he?
To be shot on HVX.
Director: Stephen Holland.
Director of Photography: Stephen Holland.
Editor: Ian Wills.
Visual Effects: Ian Wills.
Writer: Stephen Holland.
Producer: Stephen Holland.

Actors - Ian Wills (Did an excellent job, Thanks dude) and Jim (good actor).
 
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Hey guys thanks for your interest. I'm dp on this and we're ramping up now with the project - man I can't believe March is gone already. We did some location scouting yesterday and it should be easy enough to get what we want, 99% sure this will be set in cane fields. Script is almost locked too.

Ian
 
Hey guys, the story has changed a little and its more about one guy trying to kill another, but there's a twist. The one who is to be killed has his own hidden agenda. It's still called The Mark. Just it,s now a little different. Decided to make the story more interesting. With a better location and more action, I've improved on what I had before.
 
Ok, we just shot the short. Editing furiously now.

Here's a quick poster, 1920 * 1080.
 

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Hi Stephen Holland here. Well the shoot is done. Ian Wills ended up being in the film as one of the guys, so I ended up being Director of Photography. He helped out with setting the camera up, but I ended up directing and working the camera to get the shots. It was hard work. We used a made up fig rig to put the camera on, so I just had to look over at the actors, direct and then line up a shot. It went well. Everyone got sunburnt. That's Australia for you.
 
Interesting film. Nice concept. Simple. Might have been told (and I use that term purposefully, because this was a dialogue piece) in less time, but regardless it didn't drag for me too much.

I liked the location. Very nice. I did notice some rather odd artifacting at the beginning with the corn stalks (originally I wondered whether this was shot in HDV - which can yield artifacting - but I see it was shot on the HVX). Was this due to looping at the beginning to stretch or some other reason? Ro were you trying to match to the jump cuts following?

I thought the editing could have been tightened a little between the actors' dialogue (on the shift from one to the other actor). Seemed a little too much time in between lines. But that might just be me. Maybe even try an overlap here and there between the sound and the visual cut.

I really despise people that say they saw the ending coming, but I saw the ending coming. Sorry. I so hate myself now. With a piece like this, I would have taken the "expected" ending and flipped it on its ear (like, what would have happened if both clever operatives had managed to take all the bullets out of the other's clip - they both would have been standing there unarmed ...).

And I so like to see actors in these shorts where the age fits the character. Nice job.

Having said all that, I enjoyed watching this and appreciate your entry and giving us the chance to comment.
 
Hey Dahopafilms, I'm not sure what that artifacting was you were talking about but I had big troubles with compression, which I'll definately get right before next fest. thanks
 
Standard Disclaimer: I've yet to see a bad film so far in this fest. Congratulations to every film maker, everyone did a great job. All my comments and criticisms are meant to be constructive and helpful and in no way am I trying to take anything away from what you accomplished.

Good: I thought the script was really good, had a nice twist. Enjoyed the older guy's acting once again (glad to see he wasn't in jeans this time).

Not as Good: The directing/cinematography and the acting of the younger agent didn't do the script justice. Would have liked to seen more interesting framings and more close ups to help build the suspense/tension.

Sidenote: The older guy really seemed like he could have acted in the movie Snatch.
 
Nice location. Didn't really do it for me in the suspense department. Clever story, simple, I like that. I think the editing needed to be tighter. I liked the veteran spy guy. Wish I had him for MY film. :)

Good job. Thanks for screening.
 
My Thoughts:

"Hitmen of the Corn"

I really liked the older guy's performance and the location was friggin' awesome! Sooo many times I've run through those cornfields and would give anything for a spot to shoot 'In there'. I think that would have made for an interesting editing and perspective instead of them conversating 'in the clear'.

I wanted to cut that dude's pony tail off.

Audio.. Would love to heard some ADR with that, but I guess that's what happens when you have hundreds of corn stalks swaying in the wind. It was almost as bad as hearing wind in the mic. Perhaps some contrast on the visuals as well? Take down those lights and bring out those greens.

Music. BRING IT UP! Pump that volume when the dramatics hit. Make your composer feel proud to work on scoring your film and give him some screen ear time besides the cap toy gun sound fx and wind through the corn stalks.

Looking forward to your next entry.
/j
 
Just finished watching ... was cool to see the same older male actor that was in IN THE MACHINE ... he's by far the strongest in both pieces, and actually quite good.

You picked a TOUGH spot to film for audio, due to the wind blowing & the cornstalks being right there ... so EVERY time you made a change in angle, etc. you could hear the cuts. A location like this almost always insists on ADR later, unless you're able to mic it incredibly well. For this situation, since you only had the two talent the entire time to work with, it would have been ideal if you could have mic'd them individually with lav mics under their shirts ... It would have done worlds of good for your audio!
 
This was a clever way of shooting an otherwise standard Talking Heads scene. I really liked the older actor, I swear I've seen him before in films. He's got that weightiness that only comes with years of experience. Or at least it seemed so to me. The other guy was... well, he's not an actor, right?
 
Actually the excessive corn swaying in the wind was my bad (the editor's), that's a wild track up too high. The audio was taken with a sony ecm-674 shotgun and rycote windsock and I was pretty pleased with it. n I also didn't dissolve audio cuts in and out.

Was just a rushed entry, that's all.
 
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