The Knocking - Mike Pedro & Jon Sheets

The term 'Cougar' comes to mind with the first lady...grrrrr!!!

Liked it! Question...was it supposed to be night time...b/c the blinds tell me that it is...then you show a cut scene of the wife getting out of the car...daylight...tisk tisk...lol liked it though!

Rogan

PS email/PM me your thoughts on the script I sent you and if any of your Austin crew would wanna help. Talk to you later about it!
 
Yes, slightly strange but effective. Some of the framing seemed a little off with heads getting chopped off a bit but that can easily be forgiven. I may watch this one again more closely.

Thanks for that.

Cheers!

Mike
 
i liked it. I think your male lead had one of the best performances of the fest. I liked how he played it subtle but real. His dialogue was very fluid and natural.
 
The movie ended and all I could think was 'interesting'. Was hoping for more, like the guys motivation. I did appreciate his sinister looks to clue me on something devious. Camera, shots, lighting was all really well done.
 
Dustin R. Rogan

Yeah... Maya played quite the cougar -- In fact, I seem to remember Jon and I cracking many a cougar joke on set... :)

About the time o' day issue... Actually, it was supposed to be a darkening sunset, or late dusk, in which case it makes sense in a "stretched" sort of way... however, yeah, the interior scene where Julia peaks out the window definitely seems to suggest a later time. It was one of those things where you sit down with all your footage and, oops, there's a bit of discontinuity. In this case, it was due to ultra-tight shooting schedules.


Susanne G.

As much twist and thrill as we could put into a 6 minute thriller. :) Glad you liked it.


Michael Anthony Horrigan

Glad you enjoyed it enough for a second go-around. :)

"Chopped Heads," in the way we executed it, was mostly a by-product of tighter character shots, and a desire on my part to get away from "perfect shots" where the characters are perfectly framed with every bit of the bust and head visible. It doesn't always work as well as I'd hoped, which is something I'll definitely address for the final cut of the film, but yeah, that was the theory behind the madness. :)


EduardoMiguel

I *could* be biased, but I agree. Out of the ten or so males who auditioned for the role, Rob was the only one who seemed to nail the idea of "sinister but subtle." His character, Frank, had to be likeable up until a certain point, otherwise it just wouldn't have worked.


Mobie540

Again, glad you enjoyed!

Concerning Frank's motivation... Frank is what Jon and I call "the Twilight Zone devil," a character who serves as the catalyst of someone's doom. In this case, his motivation isn't clearly specified, though it would appear that he makes use of his involvement in these "happenings" in order to cycle through females (for lack of a better phrase). Is he directly responsible for what happens to these women? If so, how is he doing this? We felt that the answers to these questions weren't as important as the fact that he's a willing participant in the apparent demise of "adventurous" women.

Hope that helps. :)
 
This was creepy and though I didn't understand why there were women getting trapped, I did think it worked well. The reveal of the woman seeing herself was freakin creepy!
 
Cool concept, though not thoroughly explained. I gathered the upstairs apartment had something to do with a time warp, what with her seeing the wife come home, which wasn't supposed to happen for three more days? But then she goes and sees herself, and gets locked in... Didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And with the ending, I wasn't sure if he was actually married and that was just his convenient way of getting rid of the women he slept with so no one would find out, or if the whole wife thing was a story and he was luring them into this trap.

The lighting could have used a bit of work -- the interior of his apartment looked a bit yellowish and flat. Musical score was great. Shot structure and editing was smooth. You definitely nailed the suspense aspect, and the twist was cool even if the viewer doesn't get a full understanding of what's going on. Oh, and one minor gripe -- when she enters the upstairs apartment the first time, I don't think she would close the door behind her. If you knock on a door and it's open, I can buy that maybe you'd explore inside, but I think it would be done with the door wide open so as to not arouse suspicion.

By the by, if you want more feedback, I'd suggest you PM Larry, since there was no link to your thread on the viewing page and I had to dig to find it.
 
Thanks for the heads up Duff. Great to hear from another Virginian! My folks live in Charlottesville. Went to college at UR.

Thanks for the great feedback. See above for Mike's explanation.

cheers,

JP
 
Lots to like about this.

Music was perfect. Also love the switch to B and W. Nice!!

A few things ...

When the woman looked out the window from the upstairs, it was day, but when she ran downstairs and looked from the man's apartment it was clearly night.

I know of no woman who walks into a strange apartment and closes the door behind her. Also, in the second visit she closes the door as well, but then the door is seen closing by itself as she runs to escape. Technically, the door was already closed.

The first time she walks past the stairs, the second time she walks up the stairs.

Not sure I got the 9:00 ref.

That scene where she sees (herself?) screamed Blair Witch.


This had a nice, creepy feel. I gotta admit you got the hairs to stand up on my neck.

Alex
 
I'm so confused. Was that her upstairs? So i get it that it was haunted, but then the dude was in on it?

The thing that really bugs me is that no normal person just barges into a stranger's apartment like that.

The acting was good and the camera direction was good, but the lighting was painfully flat.

In all a good effort, I wish I 'got it' better.
 
I agree with everything people are saying here. The story is confusing. The room is evil, but how exactly? Why didn't it swallow her the first time? Why blue tones for the room the first time, and B & W the second? And all the other questions asked by everyone else already.

Some very well executed creepy moments, and you manage to maintain that tone throughout. Music and sound was good, and performances were very good. Overall a very solid film.

I too am a Virginian turned Texan. Holla!
 
Answers! maybe.

Answers! maybe.

Hey all,

Yeah, the lighting could have been better. Neither Mike or I are lighting guys so we had to do it ourselves with a borrowed light kit.

As far as the room goes, what we were trying to convey was that she gets trapped after she sleeps with him or commits the sin. We could have communicated that better. But hey, it's a learning experience right? We did learn a lot on this one, and we're looking forward to the next fest!

cheers,

JP
 
I liked the nice creepy feel of this but hated the lighting. Please do yourself a favor and learn to light or find someone who does because that would have made this so much better. You had an interesting story that was hard to watch (in his apartment).
 
I kind of got like a twilight zone vibe, like he had this evil apartment upstairs where he could get rid of his women after sleeping with them. Or maybe I was projecting :)

I guess there was not really an explanation to the room upstairs, but I put one in place, so it got my mind working. That's not bad.

I read some comments on the lighting, which I guess did not strike me as bad as some people are saying.

Overall, I felt like the shot choices were pretty good.

I thought the actors were good too, esp the female lead.

I felt like her turn away at the beginning was way over-blocked. She could have stayed real close to him and only averted her eyes and the camera would have read the same thing out of it. But now, that blocking makes it look like over-acting.

The sex scene(ending of sex scene) felt pretty faked. I know it's weird to ask actors to do that stuff, but you kind of just have to do it and remind them that if it looks fake, the audience is only going to think they can't act. So they might as well just do whatever it is with the same sincerity as the rest of the film.

Anyway, I enjoyed it.
 
Thanks for the constructive feedback Mark, much appreciated. Yeah, I think after watching The Moment After by Cazcam, our sex scene seems pale in comparison.

Good feedback on the blocking in the beginning, will note that for later.

BTW, kick ass job on RPDM, really great shots and great use of variable frame rates.

best,

JP
 
You scared the heck out of me. Cool story but I think it needs more explanations about what is wrong with the room upstairs. The lighting is a little bit dark. Acting and directing are nice. Good jobs!
 
Hey,

Just caught the flick. I really really enjoyed it. The tension was great. The part where your lead looks out of the window and freaks (music cue and all) felt weird to me but otherwise, I thought you did the mood perfectly.

Loved when she saw were self. Had me freaking out. There's something unnerving about the subltely creepy/tensely horrible that strikes me as scary. Great work there.

Lighting was a bit dark for my taste but I don't think it was bad. Just dark.
Was the knocking suppossed to be on the floor or the door? It didn't sound like door to me but I would have liked it to be to mirror her slamming her hands against it at the end.

I like this piece. If what you said was true about killing women who are doing less-than-honorable deeds, then I don't buy it. I would have liked that bit stressed JUST a tad. Or that the killer even cares about that. Because he doesn't seem to care. And I would have liked to seem him care, just to get that sense of motivation in there. I think a line here or there would do. Otherwise, he just seem complicit to me.

But otherwise, I dug this film. I think you got the creepy factor down and the story actually felt like a story. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with next.
 
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