The Way Home (Church, Family, XH-A1)

Hobbes00

Hobbes00

Well-known member
Hi guys!

Would like to present a short film I directed for an Easter service for a huge local church, here in Singapore.

We shot the XH-A1 with Canon wide-angle lens adapter on HDV. Edited and colored on FCP.

This is my first time dipping my legs into this kinda genre, the script was strictly based of one couple's real life experience.

The Easter service was attended by about over 4,000 people (First time I had such a huge audience for my film premiere :P)
They screened the film and then they had the real couple to come on stage and share their story. Many people teared (I hope it's a good thing!)
http://vimeo.com/7250033

 
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I see more talent here than a lot of movies of this nature. You're great with visuals and understand how to tell a story visually. And this isn't overly sappy. I also understand this is a short and things have to move quickly, but I would've like to see more time spent on him. Four years is a long time. Was his dilemma that he felt he couldn't go back home? She may have forgiven but did she still love him? Did he still love her. The children are four years older too. I would like to see some truer emotions. I've been doing a lot of research on adultery for some of my projects and this film makes it all look too easy and cut and dry. After four years the sense of numbness to him should've been pretty thick.

Personally I have problems with films like these, where a person totally screws someone around and then comes back as if nothing happened. He should've had to work for it. He stole four years from her and his family he'll never be able to return. I'm all for forgiveness, but I'm not into this get out of jail free card. I prefer to see people work on themselves and make tough decisions hers was tough but his was, "I miss my family, so I'll go back home." This simply doesn't seem like it's enough for me. I would've preferred to see him come back and her be married again or something. He chose to walk out, let him deal with that in some way.

I must admit I love the fact that Christians are doing art in Singapore too by the way, that's awesome. But I just have a thing about movies like this, where the couple always get back together no matter what the circumstances. You can forgive snake for biting you but it's still a snake. I'd love to see a film like this where the person says, "I forgive you, but I can't be with you." (For those who don't know in Christianity adultery is serious is a major ((some may even say the only)) grounds for divorce.

The guy does nothing to show that he's changed nor has he given her a reason to forgive. As much as God loved David he still punished him for his adultery. Films like this seem to give a message to a$$hole husbands and wives everywhere that if they cheat on a Christian spouse forgiveness is obligatory no matter how much of a skank they are as a person, but even when Jesus forgave He said, "Go and sin no more." We readily forget the "sin no more" part.

Then again I produce action and horror films and no matter how religious the subtext may be, in some religious circles I'm no better than a satanist with a video camera, mainly because I don't do films like this, so what the hell do I know. Other than personal points, the film had excellent production qualities and a great story.

-Nate
 
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nice quality production, David. Nate made some good points.... but then this was a church production and there is so far you can go with drama.LOL

I also liked the kids at the beginning and end commenting on the magazine story. It was kind of modern.
 
G'day guys, thanks for taking your time to watch the entire film!

Nathyn, thanks for your comprehensive comments, I have to agree with some of your pointers - I guess I did a bad job portraying the wife being reluctant to forgive in the bedroom scene...

I have to agree in such adultery cases esp. when children is involved, it can get really emotional. I have to share that my dad left my mum for another lady afew years ago - and it wasn't easy for everyone. What made it worst was hes a church leader.

I must say a lot of acting did hit "the" spot - because the way the "wife" acted really reminded me of how my mum would speak/act. I know it may be a bit "plastic"... but when your husband leaves you for someone else, your entire world becomes 'plastic n numb' - Pardon my lack of vocab.

For this story, we had to stick really close to the script because this is base of a true story. So the greatest compliment was when the couple came up to us and told us how real each scene were to them...

And in the film, I purposely left the part when they finally got back together... I left it "open ended" - Because like you said, not everyone will forgive.


Yo filmman: thanks for the comments! I felt the starting and ending scenes did help take off and land the entire story nicely - gonna abuse this concept for my next films :P

etrust: Thanks mate, I'll get back to you about the technical details on the audio side - I hired my friend who does freelance sound.
 
Sound devices: Mixer, Sanken cos-11 lavs, Octava and Sennheiser boom and Lectrosonic wireless with a good boom-pole and lotsa love!
 
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