The Odd Squad

Excellent work! You managed to compress an interesting and complete storyline into 6 minutes and you did it with flying colors. The dialogue felt very real to me even though there was some crazy stuff going on on screen at times.

I was really impressed with your camerawork here. I really loved the one shot of the little girl at the end, magnifico! You are improving greatly, how have you found the time to practice so much? I was happily shocked by the cinematography.

I will have to read here what tools you used for all the car scenes, but they were well put together and again, shot very good.

The lead with the scruffy voice was a perfect bit of casting. I think his partner didn't seem like a realistic match, but who cares (that kinda odd partnership has been done successfully million of times so who cares, odd, ha ha, get it? har har)

You worked in some effects and humor there and I found both to be funny. I felt some serious Troma vibes there at the end, wasn't expecting that. Not sure if I liked all of it, but damn you pulled a shocker on me.

My parting thoughts would be that this thing just oozed a cool vibe, and that's gonna make it stand out amoungst the others for sure. Dood, keep it up!
 
There are so many nice elements going on in Jack Daniel Stanley's ODD SQUAD I barely know where to begin.

This film is very well thought out and the planning is evident in the final product. The choice of aspect ratio and the comps are wonderful. The second we see a starfield and hear a voice over I'm into this.

The lead was just so perfect it was sick. The score is wonderful, from the spacey score to the bass riffs and of course the 70's horns and 'guitar wow wow'

The lingo, the lines; all of it is perfect. The sound design and score.

Any changes I have are purely budget related; pro titles, pro CGI, pro make-up FX

There are some memorable shots in this piece, the girl of course. I loved the tranny when homeboy looks into the rear view and then it changes...........

You are indeed the real deal jdanstan!

Inspiring work.
 
+1 bonus point to "The ODD Squad"

+1 bonus point to "The ODD Squad"

OK after posting my review, now I am going back and reading the rest of this thread and ...
jdanstan said:
THREE: This one isn't fair -- definatley not visible in the windows compression and I'm not sure you can see it on a regular monitor -- but it's John Lyons Hunting Camp DVD, its right next to Barry's Book.
Click to expand...
...you kick azz! I am honored to have a little piece in one of JDoodStan's flicks (I totally missed all 3 when I was watching!). Thanks man! :thumbup:
 
Envision said:
Darn work got in the way ... otherwise I was hoping to be the first to comment in your thread ... would have been impossible though, since John started it for you! :) Good thing too, since it's already got 13+ posts already!

I've only read the first post (Hudson's) so if I repeat anything, forgive me.

So, I Loved it, with a capital L. Like John said, very cool, hip feel to it. I'm assuming this will be unique in the feel/vibe compared to others. Some of the FX were ABSOLUTELY top shelf as well ... to the point I tried pausing as often as possible the second time through to catch stuff. Really great work, Jack ... you do all that yourself?

The music was perfect ... only complaint would be the transition at about 3 minutes in ... just too quick, and would have preferred something more organic.

Also, as a critique, I noticed the ADR ... specifically when we see the ODDD Squad with the blue alien near the beginning.

Otherwise, great actors, and incredible dialogue/scripting ... by far, for me, that was the strongest aspect, though the whole thing was strong all the way through.

The low gravelly, 40's style detective voice was perfect. Some nice comical stuff too, especially with the lady in the warehouse, reminding me of THE MASK, as her hand turns into this huge anvil.

The co-lead, looked like David Arquette (sp?). Cool.

Many parts brought a smile to my face, and I cared about the characters enough in that short bit of time to hang & wonder if he was going to report the kid or not.

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to see the extended cut of this. Great job. In my tops list.
Click to expand...

thanks -- but there is no extended cut, lol. this was written shot for shot and story boarded pretty much as shown...

actually yeah a few things should just take a little more time as you mentioned, but no new scenes will be added - the DVD version will probably be 6:30 before credits.

here's the boards for scene one followed by the script ... we had to flip the staging left to right on set for the light, but its still pretty close:
SMALLStoryBoardPG1.gif

SMALLStoryBoardPG2.gif

SMALLStoryBoardPG3.gif
 
sweeeet, I think this is the best one I've seen so far. Can't say I am surprised though. It was very interesting to watch, it had a great atmosphere, I actually believed in your world and didn't have to try too hard to suspend my disbelief. The story was pretty swell too.
 
MojoTrancer said:
This film had me smiling from start to finish. It had its own flavor. And what a tasty flavor it was. The 70's exploitation look made it even cooler. It almost had a color-reversal film look in places. And the freeze frames were in just the right spots. One of my favorites so far.
Click to expand...
hey man I'm glad you liked it

got the look by cranking the chroma and then cooling it off 2 points top account for dvx magenta shift

thanks man!
 
A picture is worth .... well you know the phrase. And here's the proof: I'm at work, so I can't listen to the sound without causing a stir ... so I watched this for the first time w/o sound. And it pulled me in and kept me there for the entire length. I knew what was going on by the actions, and the acting, and the shot selection. The story was well defined and I had a vested interest in how it was going to turn out. It was a great thing to see! And I mean, SEE. Can't wait to experience it with sound!
 
Oh, yeah! Man, the sound effects and the V.O., music, etc. were awesome! So, the film had more - but not an entirely different - feel to it after watching it w/o sound, then listening w/ sound. Maybe I'll try this technique more often!

One suggestion for the sound - with the headphones on, I had to adjust the volume a few times, as the dialogue (minus the V.O.) was mixed rather low compared to the music.

REALLY enjoyed the acting in this film!

I didn't see anyone ask how you did the readout on the ODD scanner, or tester in the first scene?
 
mrpunch said:
A picture is worth .... well you know the phrase. And here's the proof: I'm at work, so I can't listen to the sound without causing a stir ... so I watched this for the first time w/o sound. And it pulled me in and kept me there for the entire length. I knew what was going on by the actions, and the acting, and the shot selection. The story was well defined and I had a vested interest in how it was going to turn out. It was a great thing to see! And I mean, SEE. Can't wait to experience it with sound!
Click to expand...

That's an interesting f*kn' idea. I don't have the time to watch them all again (athough I can think of a f*kn' couple I would have preferred to watch w/o sound) but in a weird f*kn'way it's cool you watched this entry like that. Definitely forces you to concentrate on JDoodStan's f*kn' beautiful images.
 
Last edited:
I think that's a neat idea too... and to do so in reverse... watch with ONLY sound... then watch with ONLY picture... can tell a lot about a story.
 
OK new system now -- respond to one catch up post for each new post -- or conversation gets stale.


Peter Murphy said:
sweeeet, I think this is the best one I've seen so far. Can't say I am surprised though. It was very interesting to watch, it had a great atmosphere, I actually believed in your world and didn't have to try too hard to suspend my disbelief. The story was pretty swell too.
Click to expand...

Well big compliment that you didn't have to work too hard to suspend disbelief given that the world was sooooo out there, and not just in terms of departure from reality, but also tone, etc.

THANKS MAN!
 
Rasquachemedia said:
You da man again!!!!

i've only seen about 10 so far. had a late start and don't have time to see that many per day. i was already excited about seeing yours before it even dowloaded. very much worth the wait.

again, i haven't seen that many, but this was definately the very best so far. did you score this thing too?

can't wait for the bts stuff and the dvd version

by the way i'm going to pm you later on some other unrelated stuff.

but again, congrats on another great film.
Click to expand...

thanks man -- hopefully I will have time to do some good BTS

didn't do score this time around .... noooo way I coulda done that and all that
compositing for the first time ever

the music was royalty free which I paid to use
main theme
http://www.royalty-free.tv/rmstream.php?Cat=FB00660

theme at end
http://www.royalty-free.tv/rmstream.php?Cat=BS00492

obviously from http://www.royalty-free.tv

the rest was apple loops and from my personal design library

Glad you enjoyed it ... no, you da man!
 
EJ Pennypacker said:
I thought this movie was groovy. The scene in the warehouse where they find the coke is very CSI - which is very good in my books.

Nice job!

EJ
Click to expand...
thanks EJ

of course you are referring the Euridium - a drug that allows mutants to pass for for human for periods of time

yeah I just figured out how to do some CSI CC while working on this scene allthough I used mostly green where they use yellow and blue
 
NBCshooter said:
LOVED IT, MAN! Well, you didn't disappoint this time around either! Great actors! Great gags! Great music! Nice daylight exterior photography! Seeing this tells me you're no one-trick pony. Versatile, funny, clever, whacko. I'd just LOVE to see what each of us do with a $1 million budget. There are some talented folk around here, and you are definitely near the top of the heap!
Click to expand...

Thanks man, means a lot from a real pro like you, gotta get to your thread soon -- oy so much to do!
 
mrpunch said:
Oh, yeah! Man, the sound effects and the V.O., music, etc. were awesome! So, the film had more - but not an entirely different - feel to it after watching it w/o sound, then listening w/ sound. Maybe I'll try this technique more often!

One suggestion for the sound - with the headphones on, I had to adjust the volume a few times, as the dialogue (minus the V.O.) was mixed rather low compared to the music.

REALLY enjoyed the acting in this film!

I didn't see anyone ask how you did the readout on the ODD scanner, or tester in the first scene?
Click to expand...
cool litmus test to have a fresh audience get the story and vibe from just the images since, well that's the way film supposed to work -- meaning telling the story visually ... so that's greaty to hear.

Also glad you dug it -- and yeah -- this was a tough mix -- generally I try to have most things between - 6 and -12db with explosions etc. at -3 or just under 0.

In this I was trying to get the VO to sound different from the dialogue and wasn't liking the results I was getting with EQ so I may have overdone the VO to dialogue drop. Will work on some more for DVD

Thanks for constructive comments and again glad it worked for you!
 
BrianV said:
Dude, I'm a big fan of zooms in movies, as they get a bad rep. You, you used them. And used them well. Groovy goody gumdrops. Rock on.
Click to expand...
ha thanks man

I think if i was doing something very slick I would think twice
but sometimes it just adds something and its better than a static shot
but Dirty Harry was my principle research for this and they had a lot of low budget stuff -- like instead of using a crane to go from high to low ona tall building they just tilted from up the top of the building to the entrance on sticks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top