The world is full of critics. Grumpy, negative, and generally sour critics. Ask anyone who has ever faced the sting of a critic’s words, and they’ll tell you it hurts.
They’ll also tell you that most critics are talentless nobodies who have never attempted to do anything themselves. Instead, they’ll say, a critic merely sits back and judges the efforts of others rather than create their own art.
It’s a fair call. The internet is filled with fanboys and wannabee critics who piss and moan over the efforts of those with actual entertainment jobs. Of course, most of those people collectively have less creativity than the ball sweat of a schizophrenic homeless man, but that’s beside the point. The fact is that these people are trying to create something to entertain millions of people … and critics do nothing but bitch.
That’s why I’m interested in making my own films. Not content with bitching about Hollywood, I feel I should be willing to, in the spirit of that old cliche, put my money where my mouth is and try it for myself.
So, without further ado, here is a short film I made with several friends for a short film competition. We only had one day in which to make the entire thing, which definitely stressed our limited production. Adding to the difficulty was a little girl making her acting debut, and she wasn’t exactly into the part. I had no time for color correction and other such niceties. I basically finished it right before the film was due.
Anyway, here’s the film … let me have it!!
5 Comments
Pretty well done. Nice concept in only a day. I would say that the woman in the movie seems a little fake her delivery isn’t very strong. I love the creepyness of her tearing the paper and it disappeaing. The little girl actually wasn’t bad I know handling children on camera is extremely difficult. The music is great which you did so good job I always have trouble getting music for my films. I love the comination of the sort of Nosferatu hand combined with The Strangers, Psycho/Halloween, and The Dark Knight. That was creepy and the lack of showing anything in the end accept the smiling girl who is so sweet looking that it is sinister. The sound effects dont work for me. But I guess with the time constraints its not bad the paper ripping was too loud and the stabbing sounds didn’t feel scary but the editing is great and color and black and white worked well. The zoom in on the girl was well done and the creepyness of having that guy just appear in the room was a shock. Really I liked this alot especially since you did it in a day. I would say if you had more time on the sound this could be really good fuck the competition after its done you should go back and redo those sounds and you will have a solid short film here. I give it an A-.
@ Dan – Thanks for the thoughts!!
Yeah, the sound effects – and sound in general – was the main problem. Due to faulty equipment we were forced to use the mic on the camera, which is always a bad idea.
Scoring the music was HARD. Every track was done by myself on my keyboard while watching the film and playing along. It then had to be mixed separately. It’s tough thing to do at four in the morning LOL.
In defense of Trish’s performance, she wasn’t originally supposed to be in the movie. However on the day of filming, I did some insert shots of her and I liked it in editing so I kept it.
I agree that it’s not particularly scary … but we kinda wanted a slightly comedic, over-the-top tone to it.
It was a lot of fun to do. Wish I had more time to really do that kind of stuff.
Good stuff Ray, made a couple of little things myself so I know how many constraints there are. (Ah lighting, doesn’t a big blanket solve everything?)
Great concept though, and I can totally see what you were trying to do with the colours. I also imagine it was tricky to get the girl to sit still for the shots you cross-fade to reveal the tree and the dad – but it still works.
Look forward to seeing what you do with a bit more time. :-)
you should white balance your camera before every shot…the diff in color temprature was a little weird..unless thats what you were going for..
I really like the camera move when the mom goes up the stairs the last time.
WTF? Seriously, what the f*** is this film, dude? Where are the hot chicks? Where are the explosions? Where is the shoehorned-in product placement for the US Marine Corps? Where are the hilarious ‘urban’-accented characters?
Okay, you have a good idea with the girl who draws shit that comes to life. But a f***ing flower pot? Some random guy? Noooo, dude, what you want her to do is draw a f***ing STEALTH BOMBER, yeah! She doesn’t like going to her room, she can BLOW THAT SHIT THE F*** UP! HELL YEAH!
Also, you gotta have the mom be, like, a total, I mean like a TOTAL skank, man, she needs to be smokin’ weed and lying around in like a black pvc bikini and like, totally covered in SWEAT and…
(at this point the comment runs out and is replaced by about fifteen pages of randomly drawn explosions, breasts and explosions which look like breasts)