My killer horror short for tv production class....a success!!!

[The Black Death]

http://users.rcn.com/dsreiner/

That's right, and it can be downloaded that directory. It's called The Present, and involves the Velveteen rabbit, haunted dolls, scared girls, and of course, a BBQ! All the music is original...

The movie is about 9:30 long, and the file is about 44 megs.
Download and post thoughtS!

[Mattster]

Can you give a little more info about the plot? Is it one of those abstract films that "most people won't get?"

[The Black Death]

Originally posted by Matt85
Can you give a little more info about the plot?
Basically a girl reads/hears stuff and gets scared when some of it seems to apply to her new present. It's a short movie, the plot is pretty good though..I don't want to say too much more, just watch it!

Originally posted by Matt85
Is it one of those abstract films that "most people won't get?"

Hahaha, no it is not. It is actually coherent!

[Deaddevilman]

Interesting. The music was good. All it needed was a little nudity.

[puddytay]

I'm going to be dead honest. On stuff of this matter I usally think negative. But I can only say one thing bad about your little film. I think you should have done away with the velvatine rabbit thing. Instead just stuck to the doll idea. But I know what you were striving at there but it wasn't presented in a way for us the view to make sense of it.

The positive
I thought you did a really good job on the filming. Specially with the quick cut shots. I really see alot of potential here. Also the music was really good. I like how you tried to throw in the a few special effects. What was with the light exploding I didnt get that? Were those you parents in the film? I loved the part where I presume your mom and dad were in the kitchen and says things happen and then more things happend that was priceless.

How old are you? Just wondering.

[The Black Death]

Originally posted by puddytay
comments


:) Thanks! I found it amazing how much the music helped the movie. I was working on this movie till about 5:30 am this morning for an 8:40 class (and i had another one at 7:45). I would have tried to polish the whole thing up a little more but I was really pressed for time, and now its finals week, so I'll fix it up a bit more later. By about 3am I had the movie in its final cut without the music, and I was actually pretty disappointed. Putting in the music was like magic and seemed to make everything work, much to my amazement!

hah, and as for the lamp...
we originally started shooting that scene with the lamp, but then it spontaneously exploded when we weren't filming. It looked really cool, so I made the now nervous girls get closer to the lamp and plug it back in... nothing happened, so we continued shooting that scene with the lamp. There were actually 3 lamp explosions, and the only one I got on camera was the one that looked the coolest. I thought it looked so cool in fact that I shot those 2 extra lines of total cheese to work it in :D

Yes, those were my parents, and that scene was improvised. And I'm 17.

[Trucci]

Great job dude, I liked it a lot. The music was very effective. The acting was superb especially considering it being a student film. Indeed the lamp explosion ruled. The music sort of sounded like the music in Manos: Hands of Fate.

Keep up the good work.

[r_burgos2003]

Great movie. What can I say, you have a talent. Maybe you should sell copies...I'm good with the coverart in case you need a hand ( http://www.geocities.com/r_burgos2000/fakecover.html ) <-----some samples of my "work"

[Atmims]

Pretty cool. The story and music were good. I liked the Velveteen rabbit idea. For being 17 you did great.

[The Black Death]

Thanks for all the great comments! Keep them coming!

[tenebre]

not bad TBD.

criticisms: The upside down shot was not needed and distracting. Some of the film was a bit incoherrent. and the editing was a bit choppy. You are not doing a bad job though.

some suggeestions for you to try:
1. shoot it in widescreen. you can do this by using electrical tape. you can just measure and creat whatever aspect ratio you want. it is great prctice and doesnt make you have to buy really expensive camera.
2. try some dolly shots.. several ways to do this. wheelchair is the easiest.
3. try some motion in your diaglogue shots , ala steady-cam effect.
4. dont try to be overly "arty" with your camera placement. a simple shot can serve a purpose often times better than an extravagant one.
5. dont cut from one close up to another of someone's face. that is very "porno" style.

all in all pretty good job.. email me if you want some more info on how to cheat "pro" techinques ona budget. I pretty experienced at that. i paid for dolly track one time (sheesh!!! its really expensive) but there are tons of ways to cheaply simulate really cool effects.

[The Black Death]

bumpadoo!

[Trucci]

Hey, I have a question. Did you use any camera stabilizers? I mean like a cheap 20 dollar hand built one or something. I'm guessing those were hand held shots, but I was just wondering.

[The Black Death]

Originally posted by Trucci
Hey, I have a question. Did you use any camera stabilizers? I mean like a cheap 20 dollar hand built one or something. I'm guessing those were hand held shots, but I was just wondering.

For some shots I used a tripod, but all the others I just held the camera with my extreme low budget camera stabilizer hands. :)

Are you asking because it looks really unstable or really stable or what..?

[Mattster]

I thought it was pretty good. I'm a big fan of the whole killer doll theme. I have some suggestions though from one young filmmaker to another:

1. I got kind of distracted by the music. It seemed to overpower a lot of the action and didn't quite fit. Most short films seem to work best with subtle or nonexistent scores.
2. Try to focus more on getting your story told rather than trying to scare people. I know from personal experience that if you're a high school kid with no budget it's kind of hard to make something even remotely scary.

Where are you going to college?

[Trucci]

I was just wondering when you decided to use your hands and when to use the tripod.