"Stupendous" a Beyond Reality Picture

Enjoyed this one start to finish. I think your interviewer and your hero were so well matched. Both really brought a lot to the story. Nice acting that never felt like acting.

They deserve some kudos.

Fun story all around. Love the 'groupies'. Very funny.

alex
 
Hey, Armisiano, I enjoyed your film. I thought it was very funny and even though it was a comedic piece, you could really feel and identify with the hero's pain. That would be very tough. His whole costume and everything and they way he stood in it had me laughing. When he gets up to leave the interview and his cape swoops by the chair - I don't know if anybody else thought that was hilarious, but I did. I also liked the effect of him getting knocked out of the sky. I just keep wondering what kind of ending would be better here. Haven't come up with anything, but it seems like there should have been more of a resolution. I don't know - could just be me. Good job.
 
armisiano said:
I will finally come out and admit it, yes, Magnolia was a big part of the visual influence for this. I also watched a number of Barbara Walters interviews on youtube to figure out set dressing and to see what kind of mics were used. Though the mics our characters are wearing are merely props/costume pieces, I noticed that even now Ms. Walters lapel mics are quite large and obvious.

Shooting all those shots for the opening sequence was so much fun. My personal favorites are the makeup brush collecting powder, LOVE THAT SHOT, and then the silouette or Stupendous being powdered as we rack to Diane Laude.
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I knew it! Haha, really though, I'm just such a PT Anderson nut that if I hadn't identified the influence, I would have slapped myself silly. I thought you did it very well without doing a shot for shot reproduction.

Those are all great shots. That whole sequence was terrific.
 
great casting -- especially for your superhero!
definitely see you put lotta time/effort into this project from day one. great job!
like someone said earlier it felt cut off, but that's a good thing..wanted more.
sound issue was minor for me..don't even worry.
 
Great job on this one. Most of the jokes landed well and it had great production value. Good job casting too, Stupendous had a chin the looked like it could cut through glass. I agree that the ending needs to be changed to something with more resolution, but that being said I really felt the pain as his tears rolled.
 
so funny and so random, the look on the reporters face had me feeling just as uncomfortable as im sure your superhero felt. it was easy to sit through and very funny.
 
I really enjoyed the interaction between reporter and mr. stupendous, he really looked pained! I thought you handled the story very well, it was both funny and sad.
 
So I put my favorite movies on DVD so Jessica could watch and we're here viewing again. And dude, on DVD that weird glitch is completely gone. Plays perfectly and has me going WTF?


Stupendous looks great on the TV screen by the way, compression and all, it still looks GREAT.

Edit: Jessica is LAUGHING her ass off over here.
 
puckthemad said:
So I put my favorite movies on DVD so Jessica could watch and we're here viewing again. And dude, on DVD that weird glitch is completely gone. Plays perfectly and has me going WTF?
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Is it not the most bizarre issue in the freaking world? See what I mean? The sound is perfect. Ugh.

puckthemad said:
Stupendous looks great on the TV screen by the way, compression and all, it still looks GREAT.
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That's the best part of television sets, they make standard def look AMAZING.

puckthemad said:
Edit: Jessica is LAUGHING her ass off over here.
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Oooohhh... she's the super cute one from Falling Up, yeah? Awesome. Make'em laugh, it's the true way to someone's heart. :happy:
 
Oooohhh... she's the super cute one from Falling Up, yeah? Awesome. Make'em laugh, it's the true way to someone's heart. :happy:[/quote]

You boys. I swear...

Okay but seriously, I laughed so hard i think a little pee came out! I was nearly hysterical...

One question....where do you FIND tights and cape for a grown man? Is there a superhero shop nearby?!

*MUAH*

Just lovely.
 
Is there more to this? Seems like it ended when it was just about to begin.

Props and costumes were great!!

But I felt like you spent a looooooong time on one joke. All of those cutaways should have been like a quarter of their length. Like the one with the cat up in the tree should have been boy pointing, cat meowing, cut. As they were, none of them actually made me laugh because they just dragged on.

Those bits should have punched me in the gut and ran. As it was, they showed up, gave me a limp wristed slap and then stood there. I knew I was supposed to be laughing, but I wasn't. I would suggest taking a look at Arrested Development. They are masters at that kind of thing. Absolute masters. And eveything I just mentioned can easily be fixed with proper comedic timing in the cut.

I kept wondering why he is doing this interview. Or why he's not working a LOT harder to make himself look good in this interview. Presumably, he's going on TV to help his image because he's "fallen from grace." But he doesn't put a lot of effort into it.

Even in comedy - especially in comedy - characters need strong motivations. His seemed pretty flaccid. Might have been nice to give her an agenda too. She was sort of snide, but she's in the damed thing so long, it might have been nice to think about her a little more as a character and give her an ax to grind maybe, or something.

And like I said, the end felt like it should be the beginning. He's been humiliated. The new kid is taking his fans. Seems like this should be the lead up to him trying to make his big come-back. Over the hill super-hero with no powers tries to make a come-back. Now, that's the movie I'd like to see.

Is there more you just didn't have time to put into a 6 min film?
 
Nicely done armisiano! Loved the lead's performance as well as the other cast members. I really felt for the guy. I wouldn't mind seeing a feature of this.

There's a lot to like here. The opening sequence was great. Image was really crisp. The score was good. Well written. I really don't have anything bad to say. Had a lot of fun with this one. Great job!
 
With so much going on with the super hero genre these days, I really enjoyed your take on it.

A small note, but i really liked your colors in all of the non-interview scenes. It's subtle but i think it goes a long way.

Really nice and self contained. It was really enjoyable all the way through!
 
It's Frost/Nixon meets Hancock! (That's for your DVD box)

I really enjoyed this, as I thought I would. The costume was fantastic, the shot of him getting struck by lighting was fantastic as well. The acting was strong all around. As was the directing/editing/cinematography.

It would have been amazing if we could have seen more of him with his powers. Maybe as part of the interview she could have shown clips. (I realize how technically difficult this would be, but with your effects expertise, I had to suggest it).

With how detailed the film was, I thought the news on tv wasn't as accurate as everything else (Of course, I work for the morning news, so I'm probably watching more carefully than others).

Another thought, I thought a great ending would have been him being so angry and frustrated by that news broadcast, then looking down to see he's hovering over the chair. (But I like happy endings)

Two great entries in a row! Can't wait to see what you do next!
 
jasonthewho said:
It's Frost/Nixon meets Hancock! (That's for your DVD box)
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HA! I'm using it!

jasonthewho said:
It would have been amazing if we could have seen more of him with his powers. Maybe as part of the interview she could have shown clips. (I realize how technically difficult this would be, but with your effects expertise, I had to suggest it).
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Actually you wouldn't believe how difficult it was to do all that crap. (I'm referring to the lightning sequence here) I might even make a special feature for the DVD just showing how much had to go into it all. I don't do special effects, but I saw that image in my mind with such detail, and I knew how funny it would be, it's like a bit from an old Warner Bros. cartoon. Thanks though.

jasonthewho said:
With how detailed the film was, I thought the news on tv wasn't as accurate as everything else (Of course, I work for the morning news, so I'm probably watching more carefully than others).
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(Sigh) Yeah, I know. (Sigh again)

jasonthewho said:
Another thought, I thought a great ending would have been him being so angry and frustrated by that news broadcast, then looking down to see he's hovering over the chair. (But I like happy endings)
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Believe it or not I was SO close to doing something like that. I wanted him to stare at a soda can, SO intensly, and then immediately as we cut to black we hear it open and maybe a "Woohoo!" Out of him. But then I can't turn away from the mean jokes, they just crack me up, because immediately I think, "Wait, it would be so much funnier if he CAN'T do it, no matter how hard he tries. And then he decides to try to open it regularly, and cuts his thumb on the mouth of the can and yells out in anger and pain. HA!"

Which I then wanted to do, but the sun was going down, it was scheduled to be a very short shooting day, so it's okay. I was pushing the time limit anyway. Note how fast my credits have to roll by. Anyway, thanks for all the feedback, glad to hear you enjoyed it. Yay! :)
 
hahaha. funny stuff man. I literally lol'd through out. especially when the grandma walked across the bench. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a big laugh but it got me.

nice effects. especially the manhattan skyline thing where he just falls haha. I'm not sure if that's difficult or not but it was pretty sweet. nice shots also. I like how there was like out of focus equipment with the interviewer in focus behind. awesome lighting. and the on screen TV stuff at the end was nice. good job sir.
 
Nice film, nice ending! Def. not a hollywood ending, which we need more of!

Great acting, and the audio was perfect.

The news reports looked good as well. Maybe adding some banners and some text at the bottom would help more.

Robbie
 
Anthony, there were & are SO many things about this movie that I really, REALLY love! I'm going to cover those first, and then rip on you for the things that didn't work.

First, your marketing/graphics for the film are AWESOME! Your poster is among my favorites, choice of font, etc. all really make me want to SEE the movie. NICE.

Your shot choices, the cinematography, editing/timing, etc. ALL really REALLy solid! Loved it. My absolute most favorite shot is the same as your poster ... that exterior of the city blows my mind. Insanely well shot.

Acting. Loved it. The guy was comical, had some GREAT facial expressions, and did a great job of giving me some belly laughs, as well as just feeling SO sorry for him. Nicely done.

Now, I've not read the other posts in here, so forgive me for repeating what I'm sure others have mentioned already. ADR. What the hell happened?! This would have rated SO high for me, had it not been butchered with such obvious ADR. So I'm curious to know what happened to force you into that situation. Now, ADR doesn't have to be a bad thing, and truth be told the voices actually sounded good (which is tough to do when not actually IN the moment, like they are when in production) .... it's just that darned timing issue is what killed it, making it quite noticeably out of sync with their mouths. :cry:

Hmmm, crap, and now I just saw Robbie's comment above (right before hitting 'post'), and he's saying the audio was perfect? Hope I'm not the first to rip you a new one on the ADR/audio.

The SFX and music were solid, from what I recall as I write this....just not the dialogue/timing of the ADR, sorry.
 
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