What are your thoughts on Betrayalfest overall?

Richard J. Johnson

Richard J. Johnson

Joystick Member
I have seen some beautiful films and the presence of the DSLR's is crazy. I am enjoying myself so far. There are a lot of films without dialogue in this one as well. I don't know how I feel about that but at least they looked good.:happy: I have watched every single film except for "Voices in the Dark", It will not play on my computer for some reason. Great job to everyone. I have my favs and I have to go in for second viewings.

I was just curious to see what you thought about this fest.
 
So far, I find that the stories are more attractive this time around. I have been sucked into almost all of the ones I have viewed (About 25) more than ever before. I thinking moreso, the quality is through the roof this time as well. Maybe it's because of the DSLRs, but overall, a lot of these look VERY pro. A little unnerving.

On the whole, I think I have at least 5 of the top ten picked out.
 
I have 7 that I just love so far. But I have to check out a bunch a second time.

I have also seen some great story telling as well. Some endings I simply did not see coming.
 
I've seen some great stuff.

but...

Most stories take too long for something to happen, if something does happen, or they're confusing and pointless.

although...

maybe I was just grumpy from staying up for 30 hrs straight and then watching the movies. :)

The image quality on the whole is better than any previous fest. Thank you dslrs.
 
I agree somewhat on the dragging middles. I think because I was so immersed in the good films, I didn't care as much. A few times, during some of the ones that needed som work, I was more aware of lag.
 
I watched all the shorts and have to agree, the quality seems high across the board. The technology is definitely there now to make it happen for pretty much everyone. The weakest link on a few films is audio but in my experience when you compress stuff down really low it also has an impact on audio, not just image quality. I think when a lot of them hit vimeo/youtube the audio will be much better.

Overall the only complaint I had was story on a few of them. And I think that will be the case with everyone. You'll like some stories that others won't like and vice versa.

When you watch all of them though, many of the stories are very similar. A guy shows up and doesn't shoot who you think he's going to shoot. Or you shoot him, I shoot you sort of shoot off thing. It's seems sort of generic and easy, everyone was almost doing it. So I think for stuff like this you really got to consider that ahead of time and try to do something different and consider what you are putting out there. Just because you can shoot it doesn't mean you should. I also think it will work if you have a good backstory or can make people somehow care about the characters before you kill them off, which isn't easy with a 6 minute time limit. Movies are suppose to be emotionally driven, it's the foundation of storytelling. And a lot of the films were very visually stunning but lacked emotion, at least to me.

However I think because of a lot of the generic stuff, things like having a hitman show up on a split screen, or some talking cones, or a talking computer, a time travel tower, have a chance to really stand out. You got to ask yourself, what are you the only one to have? Those films are the only one to have a split screen, some talking cones, a talking computer. My film was the only one to have a sex scene out of all the ones I watched. Zaza's had a girl airboxing topless. It's so easy to get caught up in the slushpile of shorts out there. There's got to be something different in it, something that not everyone is doing or willing to explore. You read the comments on something like Lawless and people say stuff like it's "ambitious". Because it is, it's different and he's pushing the boundaries and exploring things that aren't done often. That's always been the biggest advantage of independent films, is that they don't have to answer to any generic audience standards or rules. They can go far into directions that are unexplored and that's their biggest advantage. Just my thoughts.
 
I think the stories in general are better, but I really think the visual quality has taken a step up as well. Lots of DSLR stuff that looks amazing. In some cases better lighting design would've greatly helped, but I think with cameras like the 5D and 7D natural lighting has lost that distinct "amateur" feel that's sticks out on older SD cameras.
 
Production design is failing all across the board. It's the one thing that we tend to skimp on but it's the one thing that makes a film feel whole. Whith good production design, you dont notice it at all because for once you aren't thinking to yourself "I wish he would have done something about that ugly white wall..." Some others have GREAT detail paid to the production design and that helps push those films forward drastically. Sure more of them are using DSLRs, but it's the same as using a RED: if the lighting isn;t right, or the set design isn't right or your locatioon just plan sucks and you don;t believe it... it's not going to matter what camera you shoot on.

I'm seeing a lot of good looking films here but I just wish there was a little more thought in some cases as to what we're going to be looking at in picture.
 
I have seen so many good films in this fest. I am taken aback by how to approach the voting. Some great stories, some great camera work or lighting or sound, some with all of the above. Some with great VFX work and some with simple effective acting and dialog. Sure is tough rating these and I've only seen half of the films. I will watch all multiple times before voting I owe that to the great effort made by the filmmakers in this fest. Loving it so far.
 
Bigmagic said:
I have seen so many good films in this fest. I am taken aback by how to approach the voting. Some great stories, some great camera work or lighting or sound, some with all of the above. Some with great VFX work and some with simple effective acting and dialog. Sure is tough rating these and I've only seen half of the films. I will watch all multiple times before voting I owe that to the great effort made by the filmmakers in this fest. Loving it so far.
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You aren't ranking the films AGAINST each other... rather rating them on their OWN merit. You could have 8 films that you think were a 10.

Please read here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=202441
"You are strongly encouraged NOT to try to *rank* the films as you vote. The system does a great job of taking care of that.

1 is worst. 10 stars is best in the rating system. Please approach the rating from the standpoint of merely providing that individual filmmaker indirect feedback on how his/her film was received by you on a scale of 1 to 10. you can have multiple films rated the same. That is completely fine. You watch a film, you think it was an 8 out of 10 stars, you rate it as such, and you move on to the next one. rinse and repeat. View and rate the films individually as much as possible. The system is at its best when you do this."
 
I wonder... there are a lot of voice overs, is it because the sound was so bad the director decided on the very last moment to do a voice over ?

Or was the voice over planned from the preproduction ?
 
ZazaCast said:
You aren't ranking the films AGAINST each other... rather rating them on their OWN merit. You could have 8 films that you think were a 10.

Please read here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=202441
"You are strongly encouraged NOT to try to *rank* the films as you vote. The system does a great job of taking care of that.

1 is worst. 10 stars is best in the rating system. Please approach the rating from the standpoint of merely providing that individual filmmaker indirect feedback on how his/her film was received by you on a scale of 1 to 10. you can have multiple films rated the same. That is completely fine. You watch a film, you think it was an 8 out of 10 stars, you rate it as such, and you move on to the next one. rinse and repeat. View and rate the films individually as much as possible. The system is at its best when you do this."
Click to expand...

I understand the ranking system perfectly. That doesn't make it any easier. If a film that I love has a flaw sometimes a big one, I just kind of get stuck on where to rate it. For me I think story comes first, so something about the story has to interest me, all the lighting sound and VFX won't matter if I don't get it or wasn't at least a little drawn in. I am not rating these against each other, I am struck by how much time I am spending watching each film. Normally I could move through them with a more general rating. I haven't seen a 10 but I've seen a ton of 7 thru 9s. The presence of so many quality films has affected my thoughts on ratings but I will rate each one on its merit and I loved yours by the way.
 
Overall, I feel infinity less emphasis was placed on story, more on the cinematographic syllable.

That being said, the Callaghan Top 5 is forthcoming...
(along, of course, with my fav bits o' dialogue)
 
Rodney V. Smith said:
Production design is failing all across the board....

I'm seeing a lot of good looking films here but I just wish there was a little more thought in some cases as to what we're going to be looking at in picture.
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I agree, especially in regards to my own entry. This is something I intend to remedy in the future.
 
When I'm rating a film, I pretty much categorize it as "would I want to watch this again?" or "what was the overall enjoyment factor here?" If it's a comedy and there's a flaw in the filmmaking (bad sound, or awful acting, or whatever) but the overall experience had me laughing so hard I fell off the chair -- then that film gets a 9. If there's no flaw, it's a 10.

But if the flaw is so egregious that it damages the enjoyment out of watching the film, then it doesn't matter how good the cinematography is or how good the acting was or how good the musical score was -- if I didn't enjoy it and wouldn't watch it again, it gets rated way down.

The way I look at it, these are films. They're not acting reels, they're not cinematography reels, they're not vfx reels. It's all about the whole homogenized experience.

Lousy craftsmanship but an intellectual, thought-provoking story? That'll probably get a 7 or higher. Masterful craftsmanship but a pointless story? That'll probably get a three or a four.

Masterful craftsmanship and a great story? That's a 10. Lousy craftsmanship and a pointless story? That's a 1.
 
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