Thoughts on TimeFest

i think there are some good points brought up here. It's nice to know that people like your film or think it was OK or good or whatever, but praise doesn't improve skills as much as constructive feedback does.

You don't have to agree with the feedback but just to have it out there to see someone elses opinion is great.

I do agree though that giving the same criticism as the last person 20 more times doesn't really accomplish anything.
 
I agree with you Chris. This thread needed to be posted. I don't see why people don't want constructive criticism. It is absolutely necessary to improve. Take the harsh with the nice and try to learn from them even if there is nothing for sure to learn. Makes you a better person and filmmaker.

One frame of thought I have never agreed with is the "stop criticizing/talking/being opinionated and make a film then talk" You think major Hollywood studio's devalue the opinion of movie goers because they have never made a film? Of course not. Their whole existence depends on the opinions of these non-filmmakers. Should we allow only people who make films for DVXuser fest to vote.? Of course not. So why try to devalue their(our) opinions because they didn't make a film? Ridiculous.

Back on topic.

I did find some of these films unbearable. So I skipped large portions of those films. A huge problem I noticed is pacing. I came to the realization that a lot of the films contained shots the served no other purpose than to say "hey I composed a nice shot with a tree branch in the foreground". A lot of shots brought forth no new information relevant to the story. That's the point where viewer attention starts to stray.

The other big problem I noticed was some shorts starting out with long 1-2 minute montages and or credits. Not even going to explain why this is a problem in a 6 minute short. Should be obvious.

But these opinions don't count because I didn't enter the fest
 
Last edited:
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Telling someone that their sound sucked twenty times over is not being constructive.
Click to expand...

.....or the american accent. :crybaby:

No, I was prepared for much tuffer reviews.
When I realized how bad my messed up greenscreen sceen and some VFX will be, I thought everybody wil tear us appart for that.

So I was pretty surprized of the benevolent reviews.

Frank
 
Hey Chris ,

I'm glad you started this post. I was thinking the quality level of the festival would be a lot higher if all the filmmakers were entering with top notch amazing screenplays. And maybe a screenplay that matched the experience level of the filmmaking team.

I'm definitely gonna check out your website because that sounds like just the place to hunt for such things. I think we all have a tendency to fall in love with our own ideas and lose objectivity when it comes to our own writing which is why its good to get coverage on your screenplay and let people trash it. Maybe like 'American Idol' only for scripts. " ... no dawg your writing is pretty bad... ya its pretty bad..."

With my own story I did several rewrites but never did get it to a place where it was getting A RECOMMEND from all my readers.

If we are building stories with faulty blueprints what do we expect the result to be. Maybe part of the next fest is to have a vault of good scripts on that topic to choose from. Or at least a memo to everyone pointing out some websites where they can find some scripts ... or partner them with a writer who can help them develop the idea that they have.
 
This fest was much like the others. A couple of exceptional films, a few good ones, a majority of average ones, and a few... well, we just won't go there. :evil:
 
STYLZ said:
Back on topic.

I did find some of these films unbearable. So I skipped large portions of those films. A huge problem I noticed is pacing. I came to the realization that a lot of the films contained shots the served no other purpose than to say "hey I composed a nice shot with a tree branch in the foreground". A lot of shots brought forth no new information relevant to the story. That's the point where viewer attention starts to stray.

The other big problem I noticed was some shorts starting out with long 1-2 minute montages and or credits. Not even going to explain why this is a problem in a 6 minute short. Should be obvious.

But these opinions don't count because I didn't enter the fest
Click to expand...
Not at all, of course your opinion counts.

I have watched all the entries and only a handful have overly long title sequences. Not a big deal when you think of how many entries there are, but go in each thread and post your comments there. They will either disagree or learn something, these comments mean nothing here.

My nitpick with this entire thread is that critiques are best left in each individual thread. Posting negative comments that blanket the entire Fest really does nothing to help. It has also become a regular thing here each fest.


Cheers,

Mike
 
Last edited:
Blaine said:
After reading so many of the reviews, I'm beginning to think THIS was LoveFest...:Drogar-Love(DBG):
Click to expand...
everyone loves them some Rogan arse!!! and a big fish jumping...

fishjumpdustinnakie.jpg


Hugs and kisses...

Rogan
 
STYLZ said:
I came to the realization that a lot of the films contained shots the served no other purpose than to say "hey I composed a nice shot with a tree branch in the foreground". A lot of shots brought forth no new information relevant to the story. That's the point where viewer attention starts to stray.
Click to expand...

Haha, that's one of my major gripes -- as filmmakers, we tend to get caught up in the details and lose sight of the real purpose of film: to tell a story. Racking focus seems to be an indie favorite, and as such we see it with much more frequency among our six minute shorts than one might think reasonable. I'm not saying this technique can't be used properly, I'm saying people seem to view it as "Ok, how can I cram a rack focus in this short?" as opposed to waiting for a narrative opportunity that is facilitated by a rack focus and using it effectively.

Another is dolly shots. Great tool, but it shouldn't call attention to itself. While we filmmakers all might think dolly shots are really really cool, the general audience doesn't care, they just want to follow the action on screen. I hate when I see really ostentatious camera movements that pull your attention away from what's happening on screen -- that should never happen, unless the camera itself becomes part of your narrative structure.

What's worse is that the problem is self-serving. When the aforementioned occurs, it seems 90% of the feedback is, "Wow, awesome dolly shot!" as opposed to comments and critiques on the story and how it was told. I'm not belittling the importance of cinematography, just saying in traditional narrative cinema, it isn't and shouldn't be the focus. It's completely different if you're talking about experimental cinema, but if you're making a narrative, the story should reign supreme over everything else.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who just has someone point the camera at the action and hopes they posses a modicum of sensibility, so take whatever you want from it. Just know that I can't help but laugh every time I see an unmotivated dolly shot or rack focus that calls attention to itself.
 
Yes Duff and that is how I voted. How good was the story and how time was used in it. I don't look at the camera. Some of the HV20 stuff was really good. Everything does not have to be perfect for me.

I think the fest should be fun. If you can't take some negative feedback you should not enter. My film was full of rookie mistakes. People were nice and pointed out some of them. It will help when I do my next film.
 
I was surprised that Rogan cropped this frame given the amount of time and effort he obviously put in to get the tats below his waistline:

roganass.jpg
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Not at all, of course your opinion counts.

I have watched all the entries and only a handful have overly long title sequences. Not a big deal when you think of how many entries there are, but go in each thread and post your comments there. They will either disagree or learn something, these comments mean nothing here.

My nitpick with this entire thread is that critiques are best left in each individual thread. Posting negative comments that blanket the entire Fest really does nothing to help. It has also become a regular thing here each fest.


Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...

Wow I thoroughly disagree that the comments mean nothing here, but I do agree they would be more constructive in a films discussion thread. Reality of it is some people don't have the time or patience to comment on all/most films. Does that mean they shouldn't voice productive observations?

Hopefully you are not referring to me in regards to blanket stetements. Actually I don't think anyone made a blanket statement. Just not specific.

At anyrate I think threads like this help this community grow as a whole and helps individuals grow if they want to. It's all what you want to take away from it. I certainly don't agree with trying to silence or discourage threads like this..as long as it's kept "professional" and constructive.
 
STYLZ said:
Wow I thoroughly disagree that the comments mean nothing here, but I do agree they would be more constructive in a films discussion thread. Reality of it is some people don't have the time or patience to comment on all/most films. Does that mean they shouldn't voice productive observations?

Hopefully you are not referring to me in regards to blanket stetements. Actually I don't think anyone made a blanket statement. Just not specific.

At anyrate I think threads like this help this community grow as a whole and helps individuals grow if they want to. It's all what you want to take away from it. I certainly don't agree with trying to silence or discourage threads like this..as long as it's kept "professional" and constructive.
Click to expand...
In this thread they are pretty much useless. I think you know what I meant. Mentioning things here and not pointing out who was at fault is pretty pointless. The people that some of these comments are related to may not even see this thread. No names are being given anyway?

If you can take the time to criticize here, why not do so in the appropriate thread?

As I said... the comments here are blanket statements since they are not directed at anyone in particular.

Hopefully you see where I'm coming from now.

STYLZ said:
I certainly don't agree with trying to silence or discourage threads like this..as long as it's kept "professional" and constructive.
Click to expand...
Never said that at all.

Again, I'm not trying to silence anything! Just trying to direct it so that it becomes worthwhile.

Mike
 
Last edited:
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
In this thread they are pretty much useless. I think you know what I meant. Mentioning things here and not pointing out who was at fault is pretty pointless. The people that some of these comments are related to may not even see this thread. No names are being given anyway?

If you can take the time to criticize here, why not do so in the appropriate thread?

As I said... the comments here are blanket statements since they are not directed at anyone in particular.

Hopefully you see where I'm coming from now.

Never said that at all.

Again, I'm not trying to silence anything! Just trying to direct it so that it becomes worthwhile.

Mike
Click to expand...

Future DVXfest entrants/filmmakers might be reading this thread and learn from it, that's all I'm saying. Definitely not useless.

All good though.
 
STYLZ said:
Future DVXfest entrants/filmmakers might be reading this thread and learn from it, that's all I'm saying. Definitely not useless.

All good though.
Click to expand...
Very true, and I agree with that. I guess I just think that it would be more constructive to tell them directly.

That's all.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Very true, and I agree with that. I guess I just think that it would be more constructive to tell them directly.

That's all.

Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...

I agree with that. There is no guarenteeing that specific people are going to read this thread, so the best bet is to leave feedback in their threads and not over generalize the entire fest. What Chris did was point out some things he saw a lot of, and that's okay, I think we should use this thread to discuss two things:

1) Thoughts on the fest as a whole
2) Dustin Rogan's interesting tattoo on his ass/his willingness to strip down
 
It's absolutely legitimate to open a thread to discuss the overall impression of the fest. Just as it is to open a thread asking when the voting is going to be over.
 
I guess I'll chime in since everybody else has. I haven't watched all of the films, but I'm pretty close to being done. True, there were alot of first time filmmakers in this fest. and I think that's part of what this festival is about. Getting people off their butts to make a film; to learn, grow and mature. While there were numerous films in this fest that were less professional than others, there seemed to be way more entries than those festivals in the past. I was very impressed with several of the films here, because I have watched these filmmakers grow and it's amazing. I've actually become a fan of several filmmakers here and I think that's what this forum is all about.

We share knowledge with each other and help each other in any way that we can to help improve our visions as filmmakers come to fruition (come to life). I know I've grown from entering the previous two festivals and my skills (at least I think so) are much better for it and I don't think I would have been able to learn and grow as much as I have as a filmmaker so fast if it wasn't for these festivals. Constructive criticism from your peers - man, you can't beat that and where else can you get that? If you do a film for film festivals and screen it for the cast and crew and just send it out, what have you gained? Win or lose here you've definately walked away with something you can't put a price on - knowledge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top