THE REPLACER - hybridtheory aka Ben Sliker

Since this has appeared twice already, just want to let you all know that no one on this project has seen Broken, but I do say, i'm kind of interested in taking a look at it.

Thanks for the comments people.
 
Hey - Nicely done! Editing was great, and I also loved how you employed a variety of camera techniques/angles to make the long, drawn out chair scene more visually engaging. The story leaves a little to be desired, though. The concept itself is great, and contrary to an earlier post I don't mind when shorts are a little difficult to "get" upon first viewing. However, the whole story seems to be told in that chair scene - the rest almost doesn't even need to be there. So when you watch that final scene, it's like - who cares? Nothing really seems to happen, it's anti-climactic. Aside from that part of the story, the short is great. Good job.
 
I loved the cinematography in this one...really great look to it! I thought the first act (?) with the various days was a little drawn out.

Loved the basement scene, but wasnt digging the chair. It distracted me for some reason and took me out of the story for a split sec.

Only having watched this once, I am a little confused on the story. I was thinking that maybe people's PARTS were being harvested to keep others going. And that when the guy bumped into the man on the street, it would be a blind crippled guy in a wheelchair. So the ending was confusing to me.

I'll watch it again, good film!
 
conrad_johnson said:
Hey - Nicely done! Editing was great, and I also loved how you employed a variety of camera techniques/angles to make the long, drawn out chair scene more visually engaging. The story leaves a little to be desired, though. The concept itself is great, and contrary to an earlier post I don't mind when shorts are a little difficult to "get" upon first viewing. However, the whole story seems to be told in that chair scene - the rest almost doesn't even need to be there. So when you watch that final scene, it's like - who cares? Nothing really seems to happen, it's anti-climactic. Aside from that part of the story, the short is great. Good job.
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Haha, From now on I think I should give the audience what they want, and it's a slam dunk ending. Thanks for the comments, as I read more and more, ideas keep flying into my head about what I "should" have done.

The beginning montage is there to emphasize the monotany of the man's life. So when something serious goes wrong, that poses a problem. I guess emphasizing monotany is hard to do without being anti-climactic. We've learned a lot through this contest, so keep the comments coming!!!
 
thartley said:
I loved the cinematography in this one...really great look to it! I thought the first act (?) with the various days was a little drawn out.

Loved the basement scene, but wasnt digging the chair. It distracted me for some reason and took me out of the story for a split sec.

Only having watched this once, I am a little confused on the story. I was thinking that maybe people's PARTS were being harvested to keep others going. And that when the guy bumped into the man on the street, it would be a blind crippled guy in a wheelchair. So the ending was confusing to me.

I'll watch it again, good film!
Click to expand...

I think the main problem with the opening montage is that it doesn't have staying power, aka, I wouldn't want to watch it more than a couple times. Again, it was to emphasize monotony, but I've got a couple different ideas about how to switch it up to keep it lively.

Basic story - Christian's one purpose in life (according the replacer's plan) is to run into this man, keeping the replacer's ultimate plan in alignment. Since he falls, he obviously can't do it anymore, so he must be "replaced" to keep things in order.

Sorry you didn't like the chair. When I drew the storyboards, I had a more elaborate wood chair that was more upright, but we're poor college students and we work with what we have. Glad you liked cinematography!
 
I think on a technical level this worked very well. It looked pretty marvelous, you did a good job acting, it was very creative, and the dialogue (considering it's really a villainous monolgue) was solid. I like the idea of this control and this monotonous existence defined by one moment he misses... but when I stop and think the story kinda falls apart for me. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about it, but I don't get why he needs to be "replaced" before the replacer bumps into the guy. I don't really get why it's easier to replace him, presumably through major surgery, then fix him. I don't really get, if this is a buterlfy effect thing, how him being replaced won't mess up the big plan somewhere farther down the line. I don't really get... well, you get the idea. And I'm sure there could be perfectly reasonable explanations for all these things, and I shouldn't expect a sci-fi piece to answer every question. Trust me, I'm generally prettyg ood about suspending my disbelief. But in this case the premise itself, why interesting, seems so contrived that when it was over, I was thinking about these questions rather than the character's existential crisis.

In some ways, that's a fairly minor quibble, of course. On many, many levels this is really good work, and it's good to see it. It just left a bad taste in my mind, as it were, as the really interesting concept seemed to fall apart under a second's thought. But that could just be me, like I said, I over think things. ;)
 
I guess i'll throw my hat in the ring and try to answer some questions. i was part of the making of this film and the writing of the script so maybe i can answer some of these questions. first of all i'd like to thank everyone with their comments. it makes us feel great that many of you enjoyed the film overall (even though a lot of you had issues with the story).

i think that the guy cant just merely be replaced isnt because the controllers dont have the technology (because they can take his vocal cords and eyes) but because falling down the stairs has already altered what christian is supposed to do. even if they fix him up, he isnt going to be on the same path as if he didnt fall at all. lets say he just wakes up and miraculous he is unharmed (because the replacers fixed him while he was out), he isnt just going go on his marry way, and if he does the timing will invariably be off. the same goes for if the replacers tell him his fate and what he has to do, knowing his fate (or the fact that there is a control over the world) will change everything for him and the world itself.

but explaining this doesnt really do much because in the end you will see the film and be still have questions which is obviously a disappointment to us, but this can be nothing but helpful in that we know how not to do it for next time.

i think there were two problems that we had in telling our story (and which seem to be the problems for 80% of the films in this contest as far as i can tell) are:
a. 6 minutes isnt a whole lot of time to tell the beginning, middle, and end of a story (especially a sci - fi story that is almost always convoluted). those who tried to tell just one part of a story seemed to fail just as badly because everyone wanted to know what led up to that point or what came after and had maybe even more questions
b. its easy to understand your own story and see it in your film but sometimes very difficult to see what others will take away from your film with no knowledge of your intentions.

ive seen a lot of people being called out on their stories and i think its a good thing because you can have great cinematography and editing or sfx but without a solid story and decent acting the movies fall flat on their faces.
 
Your film's been quite picked over so I'll just touch on the things that cought my eye.

Some of your cinematography seemed overambitious for the gear you had. The first shot of the man exiting the house and getting into his car seemed like a handheld version of a sloppy crane shot. Up until them your camera work was locked and elegant so the shot hit me as funny. I would have panned with him on a trypod to match your previous shots...and when the car pulls away you see all the crap and dust on your lens. Just small thing but as filmmaker we notice this stuff.

Your indoor lighting needs work "That's why I'm hear Christian...to replace you." A single bulb kicking some hard light on the actors would have helped trmendoiusly.

I could'nt figure out why your outdoor backs we're OK and indoor you were grey...I'm sure that bugged you as much as me.

Your audio was inconsistant as far as the levels go "Where'd my keys go" Loud and clear. The man speaking to you in the green chair hard to hear.

Not bad just a few areas to clean up. When you're on your game your film shines when your off it suffers...true of all of us.

Thanks for the entry.

Kip Kubin
 
Hey!

I enjoyed it. I read at the top of this page something about Broken... I don't think its really similar as I thought it was a dreadful overrated bore...Broken that is. I enjoyed your film.

The audio was uneven at times. Some lines were lost.

I liked the opening with the glasses and the clock. Nice shot.

Maybe speed up the other repeats a bit. We get pretty quickly its monotonous. You could move the footage faster. That might help a bit.

Some interesting lighting would have helped the interview sequence.

I didn't find it as anti-climatic as others above have posted, but I had a bit of questions when it was over that the short didnt really explain and frankly I didn't care too much about our lead. We didn't see much of him to really care.

Overall, nice work! Good job!

-Robert
 
THX-1138 said:
The first shot of the man exiting the house and getting into his car seemed like a handheld version of a sloppy crane shot.

Your indoor lighting needs work "That's why I'm hear Christian...to replace you." A single bulb kicking some hard light on the actors would have helped trmendoiusly.
Click to expand...

Being director and actor, I couldn't really see any of the shots until i started editing, I just explained what i wanted, threw some storyboards at my cameraman and said "go". We bought a crane like 2 days before we shot, so ... that was a sloppy crane shot. And as for the lens dust ... that's something you just say "poo poo" when you started logging your footage.

We were actually only working with one light in the basement there, which had a ring inside it to direct it even more. Anything else lit up the room like a christmas tree. I was actually thinking of doing the same thing, but I could imagine the flurry of posts "Where the hell did that light come from?". The shot we got seems like an unfortunate compromise.
 
Ought2bCommitted said:
Some interesting lighting would have helped the interview sequence.

I didn't find it as anti-climatic as others above have posted, but I had a bit of questions when it was over that the short didnt really explain and frankly I didn't care too much about our lead. We didn't see much of him to really care.

Overall, nice work! Good job!

-Robert
Click to expand...

The lighting we were going for was that single light look, so that was really an aesthetic choice. We did alot to direct it down (on me).

Perhaps I should have thrown a shot of me rocking a baby or something in the beginning, throw that emotional pull in there ... it's hard to get attached to a character in 2 min. But I totally see where you are going, I watch it and don't even care about myself. Since we we're going for a monotonous character, I'll chalk that up as a win. :cool:

Thanks for the comments, keep 'em comin.
 
I quite enjoyed this one.
The sound, I thought, wasn't too clear and the picture quality kept changing in some areas. I'm certainly more careful about walking down the stairs now. :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
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