The Small Multiple

Great stuff Daniel! Really liked this one. I thought the acting was top notch and I liked the twist at the end. Didn't see that one coming. The only drawback for me was too much voice over. I would have liked to have seen some of the information communicated differently, but hey that's just me. Again, great job, one of my top 5 favorites.

cheers,

JP
 
JP,

Glad you liked it dude! It is a lot of voiceover for such a short piece...although I think it might have been difficult to communicate such a complex concept without it. When I edited this short version I ended up cutting out a lot more dialogue than I did VO because it seemed to tell the story better. Also, when my girlfriend watched it without all of the VO in place she was super confused! :D

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

Daniel
 
Well, you had me watching from the beginning to the end. This was a wonderful little film. I think I’ll have to watch it again to full understand the premise though. Visually stunning, superb soundtrack, excellent actors… This is definitely one of my favs of the fest. Thank you for the inspiration.

Congrats on entering.
 
This is a very nice and well executed movie. The music fits the theme very well. The acting and directing are superb, one of the best in this fest. Congrats!
 
The cinematography really stuck out to me in this film in a positive way. It has an excellent visual style, one of my favorites of the fest. I felt like I was with the story until the very end, and then it got a little muddied. I think I know what happened, but I'm not sure. Otherwise, excellent job!
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for taking the time to offer useful comments! I'm kind of curious Justin and Krestofre (sorry, don't know your real name) what aspects of the story were difficult to grasp? I would like to know what your take was on the story based on what elements you did understand... :)

Thanks again for posting!

Daniel
 
In the past few days, DVXusers Ben Sliker and Justin Kuhn sat down and chatted over AIM while simultaneously watching the same TIMEFEST films. We call them, "The AIM sessions". Here's their thoughts on "The Small Multiple."

This is a 'special edition' of the AIM sessions, Assistant Director Brad Mate and 'Woman on Bench' Marie Hartsell have joined the chat from the cast and crew of JAM. This is their fifth "4-person" review.

spesliker (9:36:52 PM): the small multiple ?
happygobo (9:37:01 PM): sure
spesliker (9:37:06 PM): brad?
TheBrad84 (9:37:19 PM): sure
spesliker (9:37:32 PM): ready?
happygobo (9:37:40 PM): ready
TheBrad84 (9:37:45 PM): yes
spesliker (9:37:46 PM): 3
spesliker (9:37:48 PM): 2
spesliker (9:37:49 PM): 1
spesliker (9:37:50 PM): go
spesliker (9:38:00 PM): SMEAR!
spesliker (9:38:12 PM): nice eye
spesliker (9:38:19 PM): lighting doesn't match the next frame
happygobo (9:38:22 PM): I like a nice sexy eyeball
spesliker (9:38:44 PM): it is me, or does this guy look like the blond guy from "real genius"
TheBrad84 (9:38:52 PM): hah
spesliker (9:39:17 PM): i can't even do 5-dimension geometry.
happygobo (9:39:23 PM): what are the other 6 dimensions, enlighten us
spesliker (9:39:30 PM): this guy is wicked smart.
happygobo (9:39:35 PM): props for art direction
spesliker (9:39:50 PM): why is everyone time traveling with antiquated equipment?
TheBrad84 (9:39:59 PM): someone's watched Pi
happygobo (9:40:01 PM): you can tell he's smart because of all the hardware he's got up in here
happygobo (9:40:08 PM): time travel on a budget apparently
spesliker (9:40:14 PM): i'm going to go bust apart my cb radio and travel to the paleolithic
spesliker (9:40:28 PM): BE A MAN FRANK
happygobo (9:40:31 PM): this does remind me of Pi.
TheBrad84 (9:40:47 PM): what face is he making?
spesliker (9:40:53 PM): the licking of the lips is a little weird.
happygobo (9:40:54 PM): yeah, bite your lip, that'll make her believe you
TheBrad84 (9:40:54 PM): is that the manning face?
spesliker (9:41:00 PM): MANNING FACE.
mariaperky333 (9:41:08 PM): did anyone see the black thing on his forehead?
spesliker (9:41:13 PM): i'll have to post a picture of manning face so they know what it is
1214696884.jpg
<-manning face.
happygobo (9:41:15 PM): missed it
happygobo (9:41:29 PM): this is a little thin
spesliker (9:42:07 PM): that's BA
happygobo (9:42:11 PM): spinney magnet....
spesliker (9:42:12 PM): probably just a magnet
spesliker (9:42:25 PM): what is with the jumpy frames in these flicks?
happygobo (9:42:25 PM): cool lookin yeah.
happygobo (9:42:38 PM): that's what happens when you travel in time
spesliker (9:43:03 PM): that's a creepy cellar.
spesliker (9:43:21 PM): couldn't he work in the office?
happygobo (9:43:38 PM): mad scientists only work in certain places
TheBrad84 (9:43:42 PM): all mad scientist work must be made in cellar.
TheBrad84 (9:43:48 PM): damn you ninja, snipe my comment.
happygobo (9:43:51 PM): nice
TheBrad84 (9:44:12 PM): besides the pouty face, not bad acting or vo
happygobo (9:44:18 PM): truth
happygobo (9:44:22 PM): good art direction
happygobo (9:44:29 PM): nice twist at the end
spesliker (9:44:36 PM): the science has some scratch head moments.
happygobo (9:44:47 PM): yeah it's a little dense
spesliker (9:45:00 PM): unless we are talking about simultaneously alternate realities here.
TheBrad84 (9:45:18 PM): the story for me definitely gets lost in the science sometimes. thats why i mentioned pi. the science takes over teh story at times
spesliker (9:45:35 PM): good call.
happygobo (9:45:42 PM): I don't see how you're gonna catch algorithms off of an expression.
spesliker (9:46:06 PM): it makes my head hurt just thinking about it.
spesliker (9:46:30 PM): marie passed out from the science.
TheBrad84 (9:46:35 PM): i just think it goes too far into explaining the science. its a movie, we'll buy it if its half believable. stop trying so hard to convince us
happygobo (9:46:46 PM): she was blinded with science
spesliker (9:46:51 PM): that's a good argument.
happygobo (9:46:51 PM): SCIENCE
TheBrad84 (9:46:52 PM): *HIGH FIVE*
happygobo (9:46:52 PM): TIME
happygobo (9:47:04 PM): high five!
TheBrad84 (9:47:09 PM): nice dolby reference
happygobo (9:47:20 PM): i do what I can
spesliker (9:47:33 PM): NEXT
happygobo (9:47:57 PM): got it
TheBrad84 (9:47:59 PM): otherwise i liked the look of the film and it was an enjoyable watch. will have to rewatch later

We really liked this film, but I think Brad said it perfectly, we felt like you tried too hard to convince us of the science, but since it's a VO, really easy to fix that if you wanted to. You had some issues with smear and edge blur sometimes from the 35mm adapter, but nothing too bad. Great job with this film, nice balance between quality story and quality technical filmmaking.
 
Loved the "Manning face" comment! I've noticed that is a trait he does every time he acts (I've worked with him on other pieces)! Funny you guys picked up on it. :)

In fact someone that I showed the film to noticed the same thing and said it made him "seem too young" to them and kind of took them out of the moment...interesting. It is funny what people notice! :D

Thanks again for the "AIM Session"!

Daniel
 
Hey man,

Just caught the flick. Whoa, just whoa. Forgive me for not combing your thread to see where stuff has been mentioned. Sorry for re-addressing something that's been mentioned.

First and foremost, this is a really spectacular short. I love it. LOVE IT. Strong acting, cinematography, set-design (holy crap, man, that set is fantastic. LOVE IT.) This movie looked beautiful, sounded beautiful, acted beautifully. And it's dense in all of those ways I can't express it enough. I think next time I watch one of your movie's I'm gonna wear a helmut so my brains don't get exploded out of my head.
Secondly, I think the science worked (in that it doesn't pull me out of it). I think it's weird and might have missed something when he talks about building a machine that can see/calculate/whatever the small multiple and show the various alternate universes but can't actually do the traveling? Then he builds the machine that will let him travel there? Interesting. I guess it keeps from using up all of your resources (whatever that may be). That just stuck out as being weird.
And you know, the VO worked for me. Sure, I think if you had him recording himself/some practical/grounded in the film reason for him to be doing it it would have worked better for me but overall, I thought he acted it beautifully and so, I'm okay with it.

Yeah, those are actually my only bones to pick (actually, I don't dig your opening titles or the fast cut out. I would have preferred a fade or something slower. But those are just personal tastes and things that you can fix should you so desire). But man, I loved this piece. Fantastic work. Hope to see much much more for you. One of the best in the fest for my money. Wonderful work.
 
Danielleus, thanks for the in-depth review and comments!

I really, really like the idea of his VO being a part of some recording or something!!! A great idea! I'll have to contemplate that...could add a really cool element!

Again, thanks for the feedback (and I really enjoyed "North")!

Daniel
 
This is the movie I've been waiting for. Throughout all of Timefest I've been waiting for a really solid time travel flick... and here I get a really fantastic one! Totally surprised me, but a completely welcome one.

I think you really nailed the human element in this story... the acting was really great for the most part [wasn't a fan of his first confrontation with Catherine... but his final scream... chills!] and it definitely helped to ground this character in reality. I personally really liked the voice over -- I think if done right it can serve to bolster the film and that was certainly the case here ["...the death of a rainforest..." line coupled with the image is great... ] One minor gripe... I think I heard the term "Small Multiple" too many times. It might only be three [from my count] but that's a lot for a 6 min short. But like I said, minor gripe!

While admittedly, I don't think I understood every tiny little bit of the film, I still felt really satisified. I liken this to Primer -- another film I felt was very heady and though it got a bit convulted by it's end, it was still fantastic work.

Excellent cinematography, fantastic set design [that lab is awesome], cool music and sound design, nice vfx work and great editing. This quickly jumped into my top 3 films.

Thanks for your effort with this. I'm sooo glad I got my time travel fix!
 
Just watched the film. Great job. I loved the voice over, the guy had a great voice for it. The acting was pretty good. I loved the lighting, writing, and cinematography. Great stuff. One of my favorites in the Fest.
 
I'll be quick since this is the last day. Great work! The acting was good, the pacing in the narrative was fantastic, it would swell up with the score and really keep me interested. The shots were lovely. Good job and good luck!
 
pia12254 said:
Hey guys,

Thanks for taking the time to offer useful comments! I'm kind of curious Justin and Krestofre (sorry, don't know your real name) what aspects of the story were difficult to grasp? I would like to know what your take was on the story based on what elements you did understand... :)
Click to expand...

Sorry for taking a while to reply. I wanted to watch the film again before I addressed your question and finally had time to sit down and review it. After a second viewing I would not say that there were any aspects that were difficult to grasp, and on the second viewing I picked up all the clues to answer any questions that I had upon my first viewing. It's a dense film that demands an audience that has a great attention to detail, or it demands repeat viewing, and there's nothing wrong with either of those things.

***Spoilers***

Where my initial confusion came from was I kept expecting a shift in time to take place, not a shift in dimension. So when you cut back to the main character and he's alone, I didn't get it at first, but it was my fault. You explain all the necessary elements in your film and upon the second viewing I had to go and rate this film higher.
 
An excellent film. Good story, great cinematography, set design, score, sound and editing. There was just one point where the acting of the main character (around 02:44:20) took me out of it a little, but it's a very minor point. Altogether a great film. Thanks,

Jason
 
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