"The Arrangement" a Robert Eldon Film

Very nice! First film I've seen in this fest that did a good effort at showing the start of a real relationship!

I love your opening frame, a great way to start with such excellent colors. Good choice of location. Too many of these fests take place in someone's apartment or on a street corner. Your actress is really quality

Oh, and the title threw me for a loop. I was thinking of a very different kind of "arrangement"...
 
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RobertE said:
Justin,

Your arse has been MIA on this forum a lot last year. Hopefully things have settled down for you so you can 'join in the fun' and make a movie! :)
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ha!! I was MIA cause I just became a new Papa this past December. Having a baby, moving to a new house, deadlines on other feature projects.... (a gf who thinks DVX is silliness, etc.)

Ya. no excuses. I'm in the next fest for sure damnit!

/j
 
Robert - Nice work.
Well set up and well paid off.
It had a nice feel to it, and overall was very well shot.
I liked the punctuated dolly move as they went from arrangement to arrangment - nice way to keep it all in shot, keep things lively without drawing too much attention to the camera.

Overall I think you did a great job changing it up given that the whole thing is one location - didn't get visually repetative or boring - your blocking was well handled.

Storywise my only issue is that I could see the ending coming from pretty far away....
now don't get me wrong, I liked the ending - I just don't want to anticipate it while it's still a ways away. I think the pace could be picked up a little and that would give me less time to think about what might happen - some of the dialogue was a little slow in delivery, wiht a few too many moments of silence for my taste - these are the moments that I start thinking "okay, where do I think this is going." I think if the pace was picked up substantially I'd be engrossed in the piece and go along for the ride wihtout seeing the end as clearly.

But at the core this is a solid film with a nice and sweet story of love.
It play naturally and believably - which in my mind is a huge accomplishment for any film.

Nice work - keep it up
:thumbsup:
 
Nice Colors and opening.

Sweet simple story.

Liked the contrast with the nice guy and the skeevy guy. Also liked the contrast in scoring here.

Once or twice when there was no scoring I heard the room tone drop out between lines of dialogue.

Not much else to say except that the cast was charming and I enjoyed it. :thumbsup:
 
Nice job man. Enjoyed this one. Casting was good and the actors did a good job. (liked her facial expressions and the main guy's posture was really good.)

Technically it was well done. Of course the color was good and made the visuals pop and the audio was decent.

While the story was slightly predictable, it was well told, charming, and never felt forced. Very good film.
 
shawneous said:
Very nice! First film I've seen in this fest that did a good effort at showing the start of a real relationship!
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Shawn,

Thank you for the review. Ha! I haven't really thought about all of the different takes on relationships! I've been looking at the films from the perspective of 'Love'.

I love your opening frame, a great way to start with such excellent colors. Good choice of location. Too many of these fests take place in someone's apartment or on a street corner. Your actress is really quality
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Thanks for the comments regarding the opening and the location. I agree, that with so many films concentrated in one fest, it's good to have a different location! Although, there was another film that took place in a flower shop!

I know that Jane has been checking out the thread, so she'll be happy to see your opinion of her acting talent.

Oh, and the title threw me for a loop. I was thinking of a very different kind of "arrangement"...
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You know, I had thought about the possible different meanings that one could get from the title. Curious, what 'different kind of arrangement' were you thinking?

Thanks for stopping by with your comments, I appreciate it and congratulations on your baby (Red). I've been following your adventures with Red on RedUser.net.
 
Edgen said:
ha!! I was MIA cause I just became a new Papa this past December. Having a baby, moving to a new house, deadlines on other feature projects.... (a gf who thinks DVX is silliness, etc.)

Ya. no excuses. I'm in the next fest for sure damnit!

/j
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Justin,

I didn't want to mention the details. I left that up to you. :)

Has your gf seen some of the entries? This is quality stuff on the DVXuser Forum.

Maybe we can hook up for the next fest... whatever it may be?

And thanks again for composing the score for "The Arrangement", It's adds a wonderful layer to the film and I really appreciate it all the more knowing that you had other feature projects going on. :beer:
 
Luis Caffesse said:
Robert - Nice work.
Well set up and well paid off.
It had a nice feel to it, and overall was very well shot.
I liked the punctuated dolly move as they went from arrangement to arrangment - nice way to keep it all in shot, keep things lively without drawing too much attention to the camera.
Click to expand...

Luis,

Thank you for your comments. I'm realizing how much time and thought it takes to review the different entries, and while I'm short on time, I'm going to try and comment on as many as I can.

You obviously have a 'filmmakers' eye while watching these. Thanks for the comment regarding the dolly move. I've called that my 'Scorsese' shot and have to hand it to the crew for pulling that off so subtly. It's a very interesting dance to have the camera moving with the camera operator, the dolly operator and the actors all in sync for a long take like that. I've learned to appreciate that in the other films knowing how challenging it can be.

Overall I think you did a great job changing it up given that the whole thing is one location - didn't get visually repetative or boring - your blocking was well handled.
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Thank you for that. I tried to keep it simple, but interesting.

Storywise my only issue is that I could see the ending coming from pretty far away....
now don't get me wrong, I liked the ending - I just don't want to anticipate it while it's still a ways away. I think the pace could be picked up a little and that would give me less time to think about what might happen - some of the dialogue was a little slow in delivery, wiht a few too many moments of silence for my taste - these are the moments that I start thinking "okay, where do I think this is going." I think if the pace was picked up substantially I'd be engrossed in the piece and go along for the ride wihtout seeing the end as clearly.
Click to expand...

This has been commented on a lot and something that I definitely want to work on. I'd like to hear some ideas on how I could have told the story without the audience 'knowing' where it was going. The 'pacing' comment helps.

But at the core this is a solid film with a nice and sweet story of love.
It play naturally and believably - which in my mind is a huge accomplishment for any film.

Nice work - keep it up
:thumbsup:
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Another 'sweet' story comment. I appreciate that. I think when this is over, I'm going to count the number of times that the word 'sweet' was used for this film. That was my intent, so thanks. And I really appreciate the 'play naturally and believable' comment.

Best Regards,

Robert
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Nice Colors and opening.

Sweet simple story.

Liked the contrast with the nice guy and the skeevy guy. Also liked the contrast in scoring here.

Once or twice when there was no scoring I heard the room tone drop out between lines of dialogue.

Not much else to say except that the cast was charming and I enjoyed it. :thumbsup:
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Jack,

I was hoping you would stop by the flower shoppe! Add another count to the 'sweet' counter! :)

Skeevy? Don't know if I am familiar with that term? (Goes to dictionary...) Ah, it means just like it sounds (nasty, sleazy).

I'm glad you picked up on the change in score when the 'pick up guy' enters. It's a subtle bass line that actually can't be heard on a number of laptop pc's. Chalk up that change in score (and mood) to Edgen!

Thanks for the note regarding room tone. I really tried to work with the sound on this and I'm working on it even more before going to DVD.

Thank you for taking the time to watch and review my film.

Best Regards,

Robert
 
Champloo said:
Nice job man. Enjoyed this one. Casting was good and the actors did a good job. (liked her facial expressions and the main guy's posture was really good.)

Technically it was well done. Of course the color was good and made the visuals pop and the audio was decent.

While the story was slightly predictable, it was well told, charming, and never felt forced. Very good film.
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Champloo,

Thank you for your comments regarding the acting. I'll pass that on to the actors. Interesting comment regarding the 'main guy's posture was really good'? What did you mean by that?

I appreciate your succinct comment about the story in very few words and that it 'never felt forced'. I think there's a balance there in the pace and the acting.

Thank you so much,

Robert
 
RobertE said:
...
I'm glad you picked up on the change in score when the 'pick up guy' enters. It's a subtle bass line that actually can't be heard on a number of laptop pc's. Chalk up that change in score (and mood) to Edgen!...
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Well I just got my new reference speakers this week :)
 
yeah I do like em. I've got the smallest M-Audio's you can get that can still function as reference. You want ones that have wood in them and claim to be balanced. This won't give you the bass thump that nice computer system speakers do, but that's an artificial enhancement, reference speakers are like "calibrated" sort of, to put it in video terms. One thing, don't try to push the bass to what you might hear on your home entertainment system or it will be deafening when it is finally played on a system like that. Play some DVD's of similar genre to whatever you are doing on your computer through the same speakers and that will give you a sense of where to mix your low end so it sounds like you want it - ridiculously punchy for a blockbuster action movie, or more subtle for something like the arrangement.

Anyway here is what I got. Almost 80% because my space is limited (again they are the smallest you can get away with) and 10% because my budget is limited.
AV30's
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileAV30-main.html

Get these if you have the space / extra 50 bucks
AV40's
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileAV40-main.html

These are not the absolute best and there are ones that go up to $500 on the same website ... but they are what you want to get over the just for fun computer speakers that are bass heavy and not balanced.

I do serious mixing with headphones and then I would reference the speakers and compare back and forth.
 
Nicely shot and directed. Camera moves were well executed. Lighting and colours were really good. Acting was great, though I had to watch a second time to "get it".

The story was predictable from the outset, but still sweet enough to induce coma shock.

Great film!
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
yeah I do like em. I've got the smallest M-Audio's you can get that can still function as reference. You want ones that have wood in them and claim to be balanced. This won't give you the bass thump that nice computer system speakers do, but that's an artificial enhancement, reference speakers are like "calibrated" sort of, to put it in video terms. One thing, don't try to push the bass to what you might hear on your home entertainment system or it will be deafening when it is finally played on a system like that. Play some DVD's of similar genre to whatever you are doing on your computer through the same speakers and that will give you a sense of where to mix your low end so it sounds like you want it - ridiculously punchy for a blockbuster action movie, or more subtle for something like the arrangement.

Anyway here is what I got. Almost 80% because my space is limited (again they are the smallest you can get away with) and 10% because my budget is limited.
AV30's
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileAV30-main.html

Get these if you have the space / extra 50 bucks
AV40's
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileAV40-main.html

These are not the absolute best and there are ones that go up to $500 on the same website ... but they are what you want to get over the just for fun computer speakers that are bass heavy and not balanced.

I do serious mixing with headphones and then I would reference the speakers and compare back and forth.
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Jack,

Thanks for the info. I suppose that I should start a different thread to talk about reference speakers. I've had my eye on the m-audio BX5a, but now I'm going to have to find out the difference between those and the AV series that you mentioned. You say they have wood in them? Interesting. Thanks for the note on playing DVD's of similar genre. That's a great idea!

Best Regards,

Robert
 
Well those are in a waaaay different league.

Maybe between the AV40's and the BX5a's is like the diiference between an A1 and an HPX500, or maybe it's the difference between an HV20 and and HPX500.

The diff between the AV 30's and vs the BX's would be like HV20 vs. Varricam.

The BX's will be a nice investment done right the first time. I got the 30's for budget and space limitations.
 
Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Well those are in a waaaay different league.

Maybe between the AV40's and the BX5a's is like the diiference between an A1 and an HPX500, or maybe it's the difference between an HV20 and and HPX500.

The diff between the AV 30's and vs the BX's would be like HV20 vs. Varricam.

The BX's will be a nice investment done right the first time. I got the 30's for budget and space limitations.
Click to expand...

Oh! I thought there might be a difference with the AV's being 'reference' speakers and you mentioned the wood. Nice analogies. Ha! Thanks! :)
 
pmark23 said:
Nicely shot and directed. Camera moves were well executed. Lighting and colours were really good. Acting was great, though I had to watch a second time to "get it".

The story was predictable from the outset, but still sweet enough to induce coma shock.

Great film!
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pmark23, Thanks for the nice comments. Any critique? Add another 'sweet' to the sweet counter.

Ha! Warning: Watching "The Arrangement" may cause or induce coma shock from the sweetness. Side effects may include onset diabetes, cavities, a general feeling of 'love' and/or dizziness. Do not watch more than 2 times every four hours.

Thank you pmark32!
 
RobertE said:
Oh! I thought there might be a difference with the AV's being 'reference' speakers and you mentioned the wood. Nice analogies. Ha! Thanks! :)
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Well they are all "reference" speakers (which means balanced with a flat response - I think) and all have wood (at least from the AV30's up) both features missing from just for fun gaming speakers.

And those analogies are just guesses. But that's my sense of the speakers.

Nice job on the film again. :thumbsup:
 
Sorry Im catching up, but better late than never.

Very sweet entry. For my tastes a little too sugery. But thats just me.

His character was pretty strong, nerdish, struggling to talk to women etc. Hers though I found a little flat, and I was thinking to myself why does she keep saying arrangement? I know its the title of your piece, but once was enough. Just seemed a little unnatural.

Shots were pretty much all from the same side of the room, which made it seem a bit non dimensional and from time to time the lighting was a touch flat.

Overall a nice, touching piece.
 
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