Tough Luck -JimtheJib

Ian Slessor said:
Alex is it?

Well done!
Let's get the technical stuff out of the way.

The score was heroic. Nicely done, Justin.
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i'd just like to give a shout out to justin. not only did he do a great job but he worked really hard. he sent me the first version and we discussed. And this went back and forth until it was perfect. Thanks again Justin.

Ian Slessor said:
The audio in places was very good and in others, frankly, I lost what they were saying as the actors either mumbled or the score overpowered the dialogue.
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I'll definitely have to work on that for next time. ive been hearing several people with similar complaints.... In this short i tried something new. i used a mic stand instead of a person. i think it worked alot better that last time when i used a boom and operator. In one scene i used an operator and a boom and in fact the audio was of less quality. if you listen carefully to the school scene in the beginning you can sometimes hear the boom hitting something. The audio in those parts isn't has consistent in my opinion



Ian Slessor said:
When the protaganist dials the phone, perhaps some sound fx for the dialing and was the cellphone on vibrate? Minor, but noticable.ian
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i purposefully left it out. I don't know why but all of the SFX i found sounded cheezy and they detracted from the feeling and mood. so i guess the cell phone was on vibrate. it doesn't really matter. maybe next time i'll do some foley for on set recording. i just didn't like the way any of it came out so i left it out.

Ian Slessor said:
The costumes were soooooo grade 9. Man. They were something I would have put together at 14. Nice job with the montage of costume sketching and the final result was worth it. The style and the way they were constructed pointed to a couple of kids and mom's sewing machine.
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i was going for that feel. It was really awqward when i went out and bought those costumes. I went to halloween costume store downtown (NYC) where i got weird looks and remarks from sales people. I kept trying to explain that it wasn't for me and that i was making a movie but they just smirked. haha


Thanks again for the comments
 
"i was going for that feel. It was really awqward when i went out and bought those costumes. I went to halloween costume store downtown (NYC) where i got weird looks and remarks from sales people. I kept trying to explain that it wasn't for me and that i was making a movie but they just smirked. haha"

You freak!!!
thats funny, you have to put that in your behind the scenes.
 
JimtheJib said:
i'd just like to give a shout out to justin. not only did he do a great job but he worked really hard. he sent me the first version and we discussed. And this went back and forth until it was perfect. Thanks again Justin.
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you are most welcome. I hope the score helped :dankk2::beer:
(remember folks.. on the ballot "Score... #10") :) muhahahahah

/j
 
LOL. maybe i'll do an interview or two and add some bloopers but im incruch time as they say. i have a videography job on thrusday and exams coming up!!!

i wish i had planned more for behind the scenes.

Alex
 
Just watched this one. Initial thoughts:

Pros - Loved the art work at the beginning. I'll be honest, from the start of the action I thought it was going to be a cheesy high school student effort, and I guess it kinda was or appreared to be, but you know, there was a really endearing quality to it. I loved the scene with the costumes at the end where they are complimenting each ohter on their costume choices. It was great. They both showed fear and vunerability, something that always touches an audicence when the hero shows his weakness, but still strives on. Great acting during that scene too. Funny twist in the end as well (no pun intended...)

Cons - Took a lot of time on the phone converstaion. Kinda dragged there. Acting was so so until the end.

Overall - A fine effort with some great hidden qualities and underlying themes. Fun to watch.
 
MiataFilmSomething said:
Just watched this one. Initial thoughts:

Pros - Loved the art work at the beginning. I'll be honest, from the start of the action I thought it was going to be a cheesy high school student effort, and I guess it kinda was or appreared to be, but you know, there was a really endearing quality to it. I loved the scene with the costumes at the end where they are complimenting each ohter on their costume choices. It was great. They both showed fear and vunerability, something that always touches an audicence when the hero shows his weakness, but still strives on. Great acting during that scene too. Funny twist in the end as well (no pun intended...)

Cons - Took a lot of time on the phone converstaion. Kinda dragged there. Acting was so so until the end.

Overall - A fine effort with some great hidden qualities and underlying themes. Fun to watch.
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thanks for the honest criticism. thats what this is all about i guess. learning and getting better for the next fest. I was trying to make this film as ridiculus as possible while at the same time have some valid underlying themes as you mention. the actors were just two kids i randomnly picked from school because they seemed to work well together. Im realizing more and more that actors can make or break a film. (especially with in a 5 minute movie where you only have very little time to captivate your audience)

I think one reason why the acting during the telephone scene didn't work that well was because the main actor with glasses was very late that day. So we shot the telephone scene seperately. The actors couldn't play off of the friendship they had in real life. When they did get together at the end, they really worked alot better and produced great results. i don;t think they had worked with film before so that could have also been a contributing factor.

thanks again,

alex:)
 
Nice Work

Funny and believable world

The actors in the hall were a tad stiff but other than that, great all the way around.

I really liked the way the score worked against the improbabilty that these two would be heroes. In other words teh score wan't tongue and cheek or cute it represented how the kids saw tehmeselves or how they wanted to see themselves, and that gave it a cool Stephen Speilberg Amazing Stories kind of feel.

One place I thought the score was less effective was in the costume reveal scene.

I kind of wanted to hear a record scratch (not like rap music but like someone bumped the turn table) and then just have them play that scene in silence. The more silence the better because they are uncomfortable and feeling sort of goofy. The score didn't make as much sense to me here because it no longer mirrored what was going on inside them for these few beats. In the character arcs, they begin by imagining themselves as great and then start to put that into action -- so the non ironic hero music (which becomes ironic by its lack of irony) works even though these are just kids and not real superheros ... but when they were having a "uh ... maybe its not such a good idea moment" the score kept right on. I think it would be better both in the story telling and the comedic timing to have it cut out.

the moment played well but the audio problens and score were working against it IMHO.

try notching your vocals up alittle in the 3 - 5 k range which can add clarity

the story -- teh story was good and had a nice punch line

most impressive -- you know how to structure and tell a story.

you have an understanding of story sturcture and payoff that rivals most other people in the festival

Sorry I didn't get to meet you at the DVXuser meeting. Hopefully I'll catch you at the next one.

Jack
 
Alex, I watched this again today and, as MiataFilmSomething said, it truly has an "endearing" quality. Also, just read your comment about how the two actors did better when they had each other to work off of and how actors can make or break a short. You are thinking about all the right things and I am just so impressed by your drive and motivation. Can't wait to see your HorrorFest entry!
 
I thought this was the most entertaining film of all the entries. great job Alex. I laughed hysterically all through it.
 
Great. Job. i thought it was the best "comedy" in the fest. The productin value left a bit to be desired, but the story and humor made me foregt about that by the end. Loved the "Spider-Man" costume origin parody. The dryness of the humor was spot on.
Congrats to you on making a very funny short; and make sure your actors know how funny they were. It takes some balls to get in costumes like those!!
 
sorry i haven't responded ... but ive been very busy lately

Jack Daniel Stanley said:
Nice Work

Funny and believable world

The actors in the hall were a tad stiff but other than that, great all the way around.

I really liked the way the score worked against the improbabilty that these two would be heroes. In other words teh score wan't tongue and cheek or cute it represented how the kids saw tehmeselves or how they wanted to see themselves, and that gave it a cool Stephen Speilberg Amazing Stories kind of feel.

One place I thought the score was less effective was in the costume reveal scene.

I kind of wanted to hear a record scratch (not like rap music but like someone bumped the turn table) and then just have them play that scene in silence. The more silence the better because they are uncomfortable and feeling sort of goofy. The score didn't make as much sense to me here because it no longer mirrored what was going on inside them for these few beats. In the character arcs, they begin by imagining themselves as great and then start to put that into action -- so the non ironic hero music (which becomes ironic by its lack of irony) works even though these are just kids and not real superheros ... but when they were having a "uh ... maybe its not such a good idea moment" the score kept right on. I think it would be better both in the story telling and the comedic timing to have it cut out.

the moment played well but the audio problens and score were working against it IMHO.

try notching your vocals up alittle in the 3 - 5 k range which can add clarity

the story -- teh story was good and had a nice punch line

most impressive -- you know how to structure and tell a story.

you have an understanding of story sturcture and payoff that rivals most other people in the festival

Sorry I didn't get to meet you at the DVXuser meeting. Hopefully I'll catch you at the next one.

Jack
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i;m glad you liked it. a couple of things. ive always wondered what imho and imo mean?

i believe that story is the most important aspect. so i may had neglectd other technical aspects... having said that....

the music at the end was supposed to be the complete opposite of the visual aspect. it was supposed to build up to this anticlimax where the kids fail because the mom walks in. At this point they were supposed to be completely pumped for "battle" however they are the complete opposite. This irony or contrast was supposed to play off the fact that they are complete failures. its almost as if the score is making fun of these two losers. Before it was helping and supporting them.

actually the score here was my doing. edgen or justin had added a more somber tone to reflect what you were saying above, however i cut and pasted the heroic music in from before. i just wasn't feeling the somber tone. It made it seem serious, when it is the most rediculous moment of the entire film.

about the audio... i'll need to work on that for the next one.

ill see you at the next dvx user NYC meeting

thanks



TimurCivan said:
That was aweosme. Seriously Awesome.
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:dankk2:



MsManhattan said:
Alex, I watched this again today and, as MiataFilmSomething said, it truly has an "endearing" quality. Also, just read your comment about how the two actors did better when they had each other to work off of and how actors can make or break a short. You are thinking about all the right things and I am just so impressed by your drive and motivation. Can't wait to see your HorrorFest entry!
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thanks. that means a lot. i'll try to pull i together for Horror Fest. hopefully ill make something! maybe the NYC dvxers could team up! that would be awesome


conradcliff said:
Very funny. Really liked it.
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thanks so much!


concannon said:
I loved this one!!! Great work. I was sad when it was over...I wanted more.
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yay!:dankk2: i would have made a sequel or something extra however the blond actor is moving to florida next year. too bad...


FlintMI said:
I thought this was the most entertaining film of all the entries. great job Alex. I laughed hysterically all through it.
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:) thanks!


soffcore said:
Great. Job. i thought it was the best "comedy" in the fest. The productin value left a bit to be desired, but the story and humor made me foregt about that by the end. Loved the "Spider-Man" costume origin parody. The dryness of the humor was spot on.
Congrats to you on making a very funny short; and make sure your actors know how funny they were. It takes some balls to get in costumes like those!!
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thanks!!! i hope my next one is even better. the reason "the production" value is lacking is because i had only one crew member who got sick the first weekend and couldn't come the next. so i might have overlooked certain aspects or just not done other things but im learning... glad you noticed the spiderman homage/ making fun of how tobey maguire suddenly can draw amazingly well!

yea and a i'd like to give a shout out to my two actors who were great in that they actually agreed to where those ridiculous things. The actor in the cat woman suit was about to kill me. i had 2 omni lights blasting on him. and i kept saying just one more.. and this is the last. he was getting very angry. but the other actor (his friends) calmed him down slightly. the funny thing was i had to reshoot the last scene. it was very... VERY hard to get the actors to come back. i wouldn't want to get back into a suit like that!!?@%

THanks again for all the feedback!
 
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Great score (of course, with Justin on board), and a nice humerous story ... thanks for the entertainment! Especially the end ... priceless.

I really liked of course the opening comic book titles ... I'm a sucker for that stuff, and at 3:42 I loved the pen writing over the images effect ... nice work.

All the camera work & framing on this was really nice, but I'd say where this suffered the most would be in the audio (mic/dialogue ... just a little too heavy perhaps, but could hear it all very clearly), and for the images themselves it would be in the lighting ... really could have used better lighting throughout to bring things more to life or make the images pop, and perhaps some more stylistic CC to liven things up.

Otherwise, great job & enjoyable.
 
Envision said:
Great score (of course, with Justin on board), and a nice humerous story ... thanks for the entertainment! Especially the end ... priceless.

I really liked of course the opening comic book titles ... I'm a sucker for that stuff, and at 3:42 I loved the pen writing over the images effect ... nice work.

All the camera work & framing on this was really nice, but I'd say where this suffered the most would be in the audio (mic/dialogue ... just a little too heavy perhaps, but could hear it all very clearly), and for the images themselves it would be in the lighting ... really could have used better lighting throughout to bring things more to life or make the images pop, and perhaps some more stylistic CC to liven things up.

Otherwise, great job & enjoyable.
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thanks!> im glad you liked it. i don't want to make excuses but i believe part of it is the web compression. the full res version pops a little more and doesn't seem so washed out.
 
JimtheJib said:
actually the score here was my doing. edgen or justin had added a more somber tone to reflect what you were saying above, however i cut and pasted the heroic music in from before. i just wasn't feeling the somber tone. It made it seem serious, when it is the most rediculous moment of the entire film.
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Ya, you guys should have heard the first version. It was a COMPLETE contrast to the first half of the score. Almost cartoonish and really hit the reactions to the two characters. But, Alex and I agreed for the somber part, and ya know, I didn't even realize that it was cut out. Man, shows how much I pay attention. :)

Perhaps when its all said and done i'll let you guys hear the 'first cut'

/j
 
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