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Post by Tom on May 1, 2008 14:45:42 GMT
*May be some small spoilers, nothing major* Just finished watching it. This is my complete honest opinion. It is a fantastic film. Very, very good indeed. I must mention that the first time I watched it (when it was available online for a short period) I honestly didn't think that much of it. I think this may have been because I didn't quite grasp the plot. Anyway, on second viewing I can say i thoroughly enjoyed the film. It is truly effecting and (as has been said before) very tense. Praise has to go to performances, every single actor in the film was superb, theres no faults at all. But of course this would be nothing without the great writing. The structure is excellent, and although i'm not I writer, I never would be able to get my head around it! While watching I loved jigsawing all the bits together, I love if when films leave the figuring to the audience, its truly satisfying. It also gives it huge replay value. Only criticisms I can think of: Some of the sound is a bit off... Particularly the car scene between Bobby and his siste.. you can really hear each sound clip fade in and out. For the most part of the film the sound is fine though. Also the scene with Bobby and Murphy (an excellent scene btw, one of the best in the film) for the most part it's just one shot, which works wonderfully, but when it cuts to another angle the exposure on the shot is very different. I'm not sure if this was intentional? But it does look odd. I wouldn't worry about these small faults though, the script, performances and other factors raise this film above them and almost make them irrelevant. A couple more things i'd like to mention. I love the first cafe scene, where Gerry notices Anya. Where everytime he looks she just looks away. And also the scene of Gerry walking round with his book. That shot with the "Life" graffiti was beautiful, and fitted perfectly. Was that Graffiti already there?`if so lucky stuff really. Anyway, i love the film. I hope you can get a release in the UK. I'm gonna start recommending it! Ha ha! I just posted as you did. Wow. That's ace. Thanks for taking the time on it. The audio was caught on £20 mic and a minidisc, and I'll hold my hands up and say, I cocked up some of the audio recording. My own fault for trying to do EVERYTHING! ha ha. Luckily, Jonny saved most of it. As far as the scene with Murphy, dude, I was exhausted. I'd had a blazing row with my (now ex) girlfriend the night before. Been sat up til 4am trying to learn all the dialogue (I really struggled with getting that down along with everything else) and just shot the scene where I confronted Penny about an hour earlier. Philip Clayton Smith (PCS as I know him), kicked ass. He really was sharp and because of the time constraints, I told him we were gonna shoot it in one take. Of course, shooting outside with no lighting rig or audio set up meant that we had our backs against the wall when conditions changed. Which they did - it was cloudy, then bright, then windy and then it rained! So it was a case of cross cutting to solve that. We shot the second draft - it just felt right. And of course, we threw chunks away and adlibbed lots. In truth, making it was a real lesson in how NOT to shoot a movie. I'm a bit of a wreckless director, but somehow, I think it works. The actors really are all great. And they all worked for just £60.00 a day. Of course, my mum was one of the biggest heroes. She did a 100-mile round trip to shoot her one scene (and she did it in one take), all because I couldn't find a convincing actress to play Dawn's mum! As you can imagine, she's very happy to tell all her friends that she's in a movie in the States. Ha ha. It is a difficult sell as a movie, and I know that a lot of have been surprised by what it actually is all about. But I think the biggest buzz really is to see that people out there do get it and that despite it's £1,600 budget, it's standing up. Let's hope that Cannes gets it a UK distributor. |
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Post by Tom on May 1, 2008 14:51:56 GMT
Man! I'm still waiting! Argh! Can't believe it! I have a feeling that Rocket might be on the main film - after the credits. I'll email Vanguard and find out what the deal is if not. Anyways - I know you saw it a time ago, but let me know what you make of it. Tom. I watched till the end of the credits, basically cos i love that song over them, gonna be checking out this Belly Of The Whale band, forgot to mention above, but the music for the film is great! Fits perfectly. Anyway, got to the end... and it went back to the credits. I'll double check though bud. Right now infact. Hey man. Belly of the Whale is basically a front for Jonny Hill (his IMDb has him listed as a German folk singer! Ha ha. It's a different one to that guy). But if you like the music, you should be look at the Wanato MySpace (another front for Jonny - he uses loads of different names - don't ask). You can find it here: www.myspace.com/wanato He also did the music for Rocket To Mars (a variation of the main theme is on his MySpace). And I know that he's always looking to do music for other films (he did Icharus for nothing), so contact him if you want awesome music. He's also one of the nicest blokes in the world. And check out You Judas on iTunes or in HMV. That's his band, and they're fucking ace. |
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Post by shindig on May 1, 2008 15:03:06 GMT
That music's hitting the spot. I just had to remind myself the player was running. Atmospheric.
As for my script, I'm 3 pages into the second draft. The story's undergone so many revisions I've found it hard to motivate myself to get back on to the wagon. I don't want to binge it like my first draft because it just drills my skull in.
Hospital Romance is very loud. I like loud.
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Post by Tom on May 1, 2008 15:05:07 GMT
That music's hitting the spot. I just had to remind myself the player was running. Atmospheric. As for my script, I'm 3 pages into the second draft. The story's undergone so many revisions I've found it hard to motivate myself to get back on to the wagon. I don't want to binge it like my first draft because it just drills my skull in. Hospital Romance is very loud. I like loud. Well good luck. Honestly. |
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Post by Tom on May 4, 2008 8:59:52 GMT
Another update: We've been made an offer of distribution in Australia and New Zealand! Not too sure if we're going ahead yet as we have Cannes in a couple of weeks, but damn, it's getting there. Come on UK, make us an offer!
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Post by shindig on May 4, 2008 9:14:12 GMT
That's region 2 copies sorted, then. Nah, hang on. Region 4, aren't the Aussies? Maybe even 2 and 4.
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Post by Tom on May 4, 2008 9:52:53 GMT
I think they're 4... not 100% though.
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Post by RydCook on May 6, 2008 19:38:16 GMT
So the "Life" graffiti then tom? Luck or did ya put it there?!
Also, the only thing that the film left me wondering about at the end of the film was the guy in blue.... What exactly does he signify? Maybe a need another watch. But i couldn't figure it out... If you could throw some light on it that'd be cool. Might wanna give some spoilers marks for people.
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Post by Tom on May 8, 2008 14:50:09 GMT
So the "Life" graffiti then tom? Luck or did ya put it there?! Also, the only thing that the film left me wondering about at the end of the film was the guy in blue.... What exactly does he signify? Maybe a need another watch. But i couldn't figure it out... If you could throw some light on it that'd be cool. Might wanna give some spoilers marks for people. Hey man. That graffiti was already there. It was a burnt down school, about 10 minutes from where I was living at the time, and the set-up was just perfect. It's also the same place (but different spot) where we shot the long scene I had with Murphy. As far as the guy in the blue jumper, that's the character of Ralph (wonderfully under-played by my long-time friend Tom Sawyer). **SPOILER ALERT** His character is Penny's guardian angel, which was a motherf*cker of a plot line to sink in with everything else that's going on in there. Ralph is seen before Penny dies, and then of course, after. The idea is that he's keeping her in the house because he wants her to see her daughter before she goes off into the great yonder. He's bending the rules (which he hints at), and even though Penny doesn't recognise her own daughter, Ralph knows it's the right thing to do. There is a clue about it in the scene when they're sat by the wall. Penny comments that she doesn't believe in ghosts (which is ironic, because at that point, she is one), but she does believe in leprechauns, vampires and angels (which is what Ralph is). Obviously, I wanted it to be as naturalistic as possible, so as not to distract from all the other plot lines. Hence, Ralph had to be dressed as normally as possible and in no way all daft and fluffy with massive wings on. Something that I really strived for in the writing was the idea that Ralph and Penny's small love story (which it is), was innocent and carefree. I wanted the audience to actually be glad that she died, because she had such a hard life. She's a real sparrow of a character when she's alive, but when she's dead, she really shines. **SPOILER ALERT**Hope that all makes sense to you man. Cheers - Tom. |
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Post by Tom on May 12, 2008 14:18:28 GMT
So my copy arrived today... WEIRDEST FEELING IN THE WORLD. Unwrapped it and just thought, yeah, this is the result of 10 years hard work.
In a couple of days it's Cannes... Let's see if we can't get this film even further.
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Post by dude on May 12, 2008 15:23:22 GMT
i can fully appreciate what that must mean for you it's a great deal of work put in to a film from the script to the DVD in its' presentation box it's must be great to see the end result of you hard work.
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Post by shindig on May 12, 2008 16:41:58 GMT
It does slightly piss me off that the door to Cannes was open for me. A mate was offering a spot but I turned it down on the grounds that I didn't have a passport and couldn't be arsed. Then a mate of his dropped out because his film hadn't been accepted. Well, shit happens. I won't be able to see him make an eejit of himself unless it makes international news.  |
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Post by jill on May 12, 2008 20:06:03 GMT
So my copy arrived today... WEIRDEST FEELING IN THE WORLD. Unwrapped it and just thought, yeah, this is the result of 10 years hard work. In a couple of days it's Cannes... Let's see if we can't get this film even further. Hey Tom, this is great fella...you must be buzzing your socks off! Alas, I am still waiting for my copy to arrive, but I'm looking forward to seeing it and feeding back to you! Btw, spoilers on this thread please people... Edit: I deleted my last post, but what are you on about Shindig? |
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Post by Dave on May 12, 2008 22:08:14 GMT
Have some more congratulations from me! ;D
Can't imagine how odd the receiving of your own film on DVD in the post must be.
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Post by Tom on May 12, 2008 22:56:06 GMT
UNASHAMEDLY GUILTY PLEASURE... Seeing as it is a real DVD, it had to join my collection... I'm sure the novelty will wear off very soon, but for now, well, I'll play in my sand box. Just have to add a few more movies...
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