My first production!

Salacious, why did it bore you? Was the content uninteresting? Would you have preferred a quicker pace?

Could I perhaps see something you've made to get a better idea of your notion of "exciting"?
 
Salacious, why did it bore you? Was the content uninteresting? Would you have preferred a quicker pace?

Could I perhaps see something you've made to get a better idea of your notion of "exciting"?

Modern Day Myth, thank you. :)
 
Hey,

I really liked everything up until Samantha comes down the stairs, it seemed to lose something after that, im not quite sure what though.

Saying that you had soem really nice shots in there :D
 
Salacious, why did it bore you? Was the content uninteresting? Would you have preferred a quicker pace?

Could I perhaps see something you've made to get a better idea of your notion of "exciting"?

Modern Day Myth, thank you. :)

it just seemed pointless to me to be honest, if you said to me that this was an ad for something, then yes i would have said its not bad, but for a short.. no, i just didnt like it, it was cheesy, creepy, seedy, predictable and the action sequences were just a turn off.

then again im english so this type of thing doesnt appeal to me.

just wasnt for me i sat through it thinking is this a porno, then i thought is it a thriller, then i thought its just a seedy perverted old man who was gonna bang another mans woman then in the end acts like a paedophile.

for these reasons im out.

and to answer your question, i am in pre-production of a ten minute short which is a sci-fi/fantasy.

im not to say that mine will be better than yours all i said was that yours bored me.

some people hated the dark knight rises, i loved it, guess its called marmite.
 
I agree with the pacing comments.

The bigger problem is that it's not clear whose story it is. I think that's why it feels a bit "boring" - it's unrelatable.

Well shot. Hit & miss lighting. Decent actors. Overall quite good production.

Merry Christmas!
smiley_santa.gif
 
Your pacing and script was off the mark.

I remember there was something really early that irked me in regards to the music. It might have been the first fade out.

If I remember right, your action cutting was a little off.

Other than that, I thought it was a great first job. You're ahead of the curve.
 
Now that took a pretty dark end huh? hahaha.

I thought it was pretty good. Pacing wasn't really a problem for me. Acting could be a lot better though! Good job.
 
I'm gonna chip in, I liked it....

apart from: the 'awkward hand' putting the record on
The drowning in the bowl and the Dad's reaction after santa left.


I am also from England (I don't see how where you are from would dictate personal taste),
I thought the end was funny as well as creepy;
Santa travels the world sneeking into peoples houses enticing them to like him with gifts he may aswell be a sexaholic at the same time.
But part of me thought... maybe it should have just ended with the wink, followed by the girl saying 'wow santa' (without the crying man).


Like I said, I liked it.
 
I was rather impressed for a first production. Your sound design is quite a bit off. Samantha's foot falls on the stairs didn't sync up with the creaking. The music was rather loud at the beginning then faded really quickly as the camera panned into Samantha's bedroom. The thumping of Santa's boots on the roof was incongruous with the crunching of the snow. The actor who played Daddy was not very convincing. I thought that the rest of the actors did a fine job. The actress that played Mommy really sold that backhand from Santa. The only note on that particular part would be that Santa sustained cuts and bruises but Mommy and Daddy didn't. Also, there's no real fight between Santa and Daddy before the eggnog incident. Santa is tossing Daddy around like a sack of laundry and Daddy, who had been fighting, just takes it. That bit took me out of it. I would have found it funnier if Mommy had told Daddy that she and Santa had been carrying on since the Christmas before Samantha was born. The ending really was creepy as hell. I liked it.
 
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Wow. Pretty good looking. Nice job. Agree with many comments above, but not all. After the backhand, I was kind of expecting Mommy to spit a tooth out, and kind of disappointed when that didn't happen. ;) Impressive for a first film!
 
But part of me thought... maybe it should have just ended with the wink, followed by the girl saying 'wow santa' (without the crying man).


Like I said, I liked it.

This is my thoughts exactly.

I really quite liked it, I thought it had different tones in it and gave something new. :)
My problem with it was after the wink. I thought the acting from the Dad was really pretty good, I just think if it were the girl's story we wouldn't have seen as much of him and concentrated on her and santa for the last of it.
 
It's interesting to see everyone's take on this piece. I have gotten reactions across the board, as one might expect. Different specialties will draw the eye and ear to different aspects. For instance, most of what we might call the "common audience" that I have shown this to did not like Daddy's acting.

There is an author I like named Sam Harris. He often says that responding to criticism is challenging. If you refuse, you run the risk of your work being run into the ground. If you say too much, you appear to be apologetic for what you've done and weakness ensues in that regard.

I'm not quite sure how to respond. I discovered that shooting action is much more difficult than I imagined. Had I known, I would have scheduled a rehearsal well before we shot. The idea that Daddy does not fight back against Santa is that, since Santa is magical, his power is immense. This didn't quite translate. Part of this had to do with the fact that our actor could not make a fist -- something we discovered once we began shooting the scene. I will be mindful of this in my next production... there's more violence in what comes next. Surprise! (Though don't expect anything for at least another year)

Many people have said they would have like the ending to have been at the "Wow, Santa." line. I feel that this would have been a cute ending. I certainly did not want to be cute, I wanted to make the audience uncomfortable. I wanted the viewer to be a little disgusted. There are those, of course, who found it riotously funny. They are a small demographic, but they are who I would call my peeps, yo. If we most recall the peak of the experience and how it concludes, then this is what we must focus on most. Samantha can't get off scot-free. That's too easy. Sorry, Samantha.

Also, sound is really hard. I think sound may be the worst thing that ever happened to film, followed closely by the introduction of color. ;)
 
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Sam Harris? Are you kidding me, Dawg?! Nice.

Well, it's not like you had a fight choreographer or stunt performers. You do the best you can.
 
ssavant.... that was .... beautiful... :)

loved it!!!

The entire time, something or the other kept me confused, and I liked that feeling.

There were a lot of cuts that introduced me to details in the scene, including the record player and dipping of the finger and the pouring of the milk. I enjoyed EVERY bit of it. I thank you for those parts that you obviously took some pain to include.

Beautifully done!!!
Merry Christmas!!!
Have a wonderful 2013!!!

Aveek

Edit: I also enjoyed the music. I thought the choice was impeccable. I also winked at the screen right before santa did because I wanted him to wink, and when I saw him wink, I was like "this guy is my kind of filmmaker." Great job, once again!!!:clap:
 
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