Dreadylocks:
Initial viewing -- stupid smile, get off my face. Playful and fun, shows why craigslist postings are dangerous. Fun twist at the end and the hint of the police vehicle was a nice touch.
Visuals (3) - loved the shadows up against the wall in the first sequence, the editing of the first sequence was fun with the jump cuts to build some suspense which turned horribly playful (in a good way). The middle section could have used a couple more shots to really draw us into the building romance before it turned sour. LOL'd at the inappropriate turning point of the story.
Audio (4) - clear audio (no dialog, making it easier), and the timings of the beats in the soundtrack were quite good. Could have built up to the shift from the first section to the second a bit longer here by over laying some strings building to the opening of the second section. The "great pumpkin" bit was fun and apropos to the holiday.
Creepiness (3) - Hard to fit creepy into this, but the opening was good in building expectation. The score would have been a bit higher here given some way to infuse the middle section with a little ominance (is that a word? Maybe pending omonosity, ominousness?).
Story (7) - I personally like the thought of not knowing how an innocent posting on craigslist can be so risky. Fitting this much story into 1.5mins is actually quite a feat!
Total: 17 points
Suitable Planet:
Initial Viewing -- Good vs. Evil, ambitious, epic scope, iconic bad guy. Some audio issues and hand tracked effects jumped out… and it's over time for the competition. Good use of locations and props to increase production value.
Visuals (4) - Nice variety of shots, especially in the action sequences. in the prologue, the first few shots were differently colored than shots down the line. The police force was definitely in the zone in their acting. The SFX could have used a bit more time (tough under these timelines) working into the world (hard lines at the bottoms and not blended well into the shot). The night scenes in the woods could have used a bit more light in the background, but the actors were visible and exposed well. Dialog scenes could have used a bit more reaction shots during dialog (J and L cuts) to allow for pacing adjustments and less ping pong dialog. All in all, very ambitious on the deadline presented and well done for that timeframe.
Audio (3) - Audio was legible, but had quite a bit of hiss in the background during the dialog scene. Hard cuts stand out a bit and pulled me out of the viewing a bit, which is too bad given the scope of the story you were telling. Music was spot on, but again wasn't messaged into/out of from section to section. Dialog capture at the beginning sounded much better than the apartment dialog scene.
Creepiness (4) - Enough time to linger on what was happening and build suspense gave the luxury of building an unknown and allowed the creepy to come through. Some makeup on the bad guy's face could have really sold that costume/character (he looked a bit clean for the part). I loved the shot of the swat guy dragging his way out of the barn and the bad guy stepping over him. Great locations, though I'd like to have seen a little more of the barn (although it's probably surrounded by modern conveniences that had to be framed out, the framing seemed a touch flat to me and some depth could have added to the creepy). Nice dark moody lighting throughout as well.
Story (8) - Epic. Angels and Demons fight for power using the souls of mortals. Quite a bit of VO to give the audience the plot which seemed a bit unnecessary to me as most of it was covered in the dialog scene… or the use of VO could have carried with much less of the dialog scene to give the story and keep us moving forward. I loved the family connection and actually think that could have played a larger role/been explained better as to why that family was important in this battle between heaven and hell.
The overtime will take a point away from you here though, sorry.
Total - (19 - 1) 18 Points
Flicker Pictures:
Initial viewing - Giggled with delight throughout. I've had nightmares like this that recur and change subtly each time. After a while they do become something you consider commonplace while dreading. Neat to see that same discomfort captured by someone else (mine has to do with ghosts coming out of the furnace… don't ask.
Visuals (5) - Fun, wonderfully rich and consistent footage that never faltered or faltered. Good choice of angles and enough variation to keep it interesting… you have issues that you need to deal with BTW
Nothing really stuck out as out of place and the repetition kept me captivated and looking for the variation each time.
Audio (4) - Well captured, easily understood and no peaks. I was missing a touch of ambiance from the recording though… but adding a touch of room echo could easily fix that. Music fit perfectly!
Creepiness (3) - after the second, a bit more comic than creepy, but the doll appearing everywhere was a treat each time. The suspense was built really well in each and that moment of waking just before the climax of each segment was really well done.
Story (7) - A woman is trapped in a recurring nightmare and vows to take control of her nights by force. Really enjoyed the repetition and the variation in each. I found this exquisitely fun.
I'm subtracting 1 point for submitting after the deadline.
Total - (19 - 1) 18 points [fixed math]
Don Patterson:
Initial reaction - Full disclosure, I work at one of those attractions, in fact just got done a couple hours ago… and you're a bit of my nightmare there, the customer that goes nuts… that said, it disturbed me a bit personally and worked for me as a scary thing. The editing could have been a bit faster in each of the vignettes, but the initial gun prep portion was really quite haunting.
Visuals (3) - Rich consistent colors a bit lacking in the darker tones (perhaps too crushed in the blacks). Great set design and props. The framing could have had some variation during the killing sequences and a bit of variation in the actor's reactions wouldn't have hurt either. Perhaps on set replacing the actual established real weapons (!) with airlift would have allowed you to show the assailant traversing the haunted attraction a bit (nice plug in the middle, BTW) to give a sense of realism to the event. Lighting and set design in your 'house is a bit better than ours
Audio (4) - Aside from the on camera echo in the initial "gearing up" scene, I didn't find anything particularly out of place in the audio, the echo became expected after that and blended into the background a bit. The music was a cool tune throughout that did a good job blending and smoothing out the slightly disjointed action beats (good choice).
Creepiness (3) - The choice to show kill after kill in fundamentally the same way became a bit repetitive after the first couple and could have used a bit of buildup in the first one or two, which I then expected to come a bit faster. The initial gearing up lead-in was quite lingering and made me wonder what was going to happen next. In this case, seeing the assailant may have helped the suspense a bit as we could have spent time wondering what he was looking at.
Story (5) - Seeking revenge on his tormentors, a man lays his wrath on the ghouls at a haunted house. This story has promise as a feature (quite frankly)… A "Funhouse" style horror film could be made around this concept. It's a perfect low budget concept for expansion. The story here, however, doesn't seem fully developed as we don't see the events leading up to the first scene, nor do we see any consequence as an ending, this really just plays as a middle portion of a full storyline… although a good one that could potentially tap into the season and the horror niche.
I'm subtracting 1 point for submitting after the deadline.
Total - (15 - 1) 14 points
RayW
Visuals (4) - Well edited, great job keeping the abductor unknown. It felt a bit too bright to me (but that may just be an aesthetic that I like). The shutter speed seemed a bit fast making all the motion choppy like the gladiatorial scenes in "gladiator", it was slightly odd, but may have lent to the overall effect. I can see why this took a while… although the shooting wouldn't necessarily have taken all that long, there was a lot of care taken in the edit. No cuts stuck out and they were all germane to the effect you're trying to get across!
Audio (3) - A longer loop of the baby cries would have been less noticeable and helped sell the viewers connection to the doll as a representative. There were a coupled of hard cuts in the audio track as well as the music that can be messaged to disappear (look to the waveforms).
Creepiness (5) - Does this dial go to 11? I had already marked this as creepy until the statistics started rolling at the end! It actually went right past creepy after the first shot and skyrocketed into disturbing once we got to the woods. You should seek professional help
Story (9) - As a PSA, this is brilliant! As an intro to Criminal Minds, this would work.
I'm subtracting 1 point for submitting after the deadline.
Total - (21 - 1) 20 points
But where's yours? I thought you had a dog in this race...?
Great photography and editing. Only change I'd make would be to have it in stereoscopic 3D. This short belongs in a 50's B-movie line-up!