watch Six Feet Frozen

Hey everyone.

I'm new to the forum. My name is Joe Boyle. I am a 19 year old filmmaker from Davenport, Iowa. I run Lemonus Productions, an independent filmmaking company. You can view more information at http://www.lemonus.com

I finished my latest short, which I wrote/directed/edited about a month ago. It is entitled, "Six Feet Frozen." It is the story of a mentally challenged gravedigger in a small town in the Midwest US. He is searching for love and acceptance to help warm his frozen soul.

"Six Feet Frozen" stars Travis Shepherd, Amy Cronkleton, Chuck Rubovitz, and James Lawson, and was filmed over a period of 3 days with a budget of approx. $500, mostly for travel/food/motel.

Recently, it won an Award of Achievement at the 2005 Iowa Motion Picture Association Awards.

You can view it here. (WMV, 33:14, 22.6mb)

If you like what you see, you can purchase a copy of the "Six Feet Frozen" DVD for only $5, including shipping at the Lemonus Productions website. The DVD contains cast/crew bios, director/cast commentary, production notes, and animated menus.

Any comments or criticisms, as always, are appreciated. Thanks for taking a look.

Joe
Lemonus

Lemonus, I didn't have time to view the entire film (as of now), but I watched the first few minutes. I really liked the opening sequence. I liked the way we never saw the digger's face, and from the VO we get that he's slightly slow, but he is intellegent in his own way.

I promise I will view the entire thing later.

Poke

Downloading the whole thing now to watch in the morn.

I just watched it. Sad he's considered a .. oh never mind.

I just watched it. Sad he's considered a .. oh never mind.

Click to expand...

Please share the rest of the thought.. I'd like to hear what you have to say.

This has a lot to like about it.

I'm fairly impressed that you managed to get the filesize so small, btw.

Starting with the bad stuff:

Sound is pretty dodgy. On-camera mic? Lots of wind being picked up, as well as other ambient noise. Not a killer issue, but it's noticeable.

Colour matching from scene to scene was iffy, especially when cutting between "girl on bike" and "digger in graveyard". White-balancing maybe? Hard to tell.

The acting was hit-n-miss. All of the actors had their moments when they were doing well, but it wasn't consistent. The old man was my fave, btw.

Oh yeah, the opening scene with the candle reminded me of one of those Shakespeare comedies where everyone misses each other by seconds... which can be funny. Here it looked as though the actors were waiting off-camera (well, obviously they are) for their cues. Very stagey.

A few blown-out shots... live and learn.

The biggest problem is the length. You have a thirty-three minute movie that is no longer than twenty-three minutes, at most. You could easily cut 10 minutes out. It's possible to maintain a decent pace even in slow-moving material... get back to the chopping block.

______

The good stuff:

Great scenery. I need to visit Iowa.

Good use of angled shots, to keep things interesting. Bowl of milk through elbow... don't know why i like that one in particular... just do.

The VO of the old man was great. I loved the sound of his deep rumbly voice. (Subwoofers help, I guess)

I like the "flashy" transitions you used a lot. Especially the one when it transitions from night to day as the camera is panning.

Though the film didn't really have any "twists" as such, it did a good job at evolving in unexpected ways. I was expecting a "Of Mice & Men" rip within the first few minutes. However you kept it mostly original, and overall I thought it was a pretty decent yarn. There are a few things that didn't come off as credible, such as Otherwise, I thought the story was very good. The end has been done before, but you made it your own and it worked well for your flick.

So... cut out 10 minutes and it will be even better.

Good film, regardless.

zensteve, thanks for the remarks. just a few thoughts about them:

i actually used a sennheiser me66, but it was just outrageously windy most of the time. no zeppelin, only a velour senn windshield. but point taken.

the color matching was actually meant to be that way. if you notice, when he is alone in the shot, it has a cold frozen look to it, i.e. blue casting. when she is in the shot, it turns warmer. it was meant to be intercut so closely so that the audience could pick it up, escpecially when
not sure which blown out shots you speak of, maybe the girl riding the bike? well a couple were meant to be, just to represent her being so bright compared to his dull life.

thanks for the compliments too. very good critique. just what i like to hear.

joe