DVC #3 "IRIS The KILLER" - Feedback
 

Dear friends,

I see that Dylan suggested we each start a thread for our short films. So, here we go.

Would love to have your feedback! Please feel free to comment here and if there are any questions at all, let me know. I'll be sure to answer.

Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the film.

Sincerely
Brad

Bradley,

The photography looks really really good. The rhythm in which you time the spitting and the drinking are absolutely disgusting (but in a good way...). I'd love to have seen some interaction between the two characters and Iris, so that the two storylines would get more closure - but that´s just me.

Once again, nice photography, nice cutting, nice concept. I liked it a lot.

Hugo

I think this short is brilliant! It tells a story and the pictures are AWESOME. The characters are good and the spit-drink-smoke routine is great. And the ending... clever! I love it. Not much to mention except that in the beginning there is a ride/cymbal that gets cut off too fast. That's all. Very well done.

Beautiful Photography.
 

Loved the start with the lantern wicks, babbling brook, and aspens. Those were aspens, right?
Was that shot with a DVX100a? The color's are soooo.. sweet.
Where did you shoot it?

Ditto. I liked the fact that the lead was an urban legend and that there is no direct interaction. The part about being visually impaired, interesting that he's one of the best photographers alive. I'm not sure what you are telling us about your feelings toward photojournalists with this angle but I have a few ideas.

Then again, maybe I missed something? I only watched it once so far.

Sean

"Nuttier than a two-timing ex-wife with a bi-polar disease"

I laughed so much after that line I about cried... I don't know why... (Actually I do, but that's a bit personal) :)

I really liked it... It looks great and the dialogue was great. I liked how it was based off a legend as well. I know in the town I grew up in we had a "Crazy Mary" and everyone thought she was an insane killer... (I think she was blind too)

-Josh

Thank you Hugo- much appreciated! I had toyed with such an idea but in the end, thought it would have more impact to keep Iris (the urban legend) separate from Bert and Chuck.

Thank you very much Fredrik! I appreciate your comments. Please forgive me for this next question for I am brain dead at the moment...lol.

You mentioned: "...in the beginning there is a ride/cymbal that gets cut off too fast." Not sure I follow the meaning of ride/cymbal. Can you tell me more? I'm very interested.

i would have liked to see how these two parallel stories overlapped as well. feels more like the beginning of a larger story than a clear resolution. still, i like the contrasting interior/exterior spaces. pretty cool design for such a short film.

this is just me, i'm sure, but if i have to listen to that same garage band loop in an indie video one more time....! that particular one should be banned, it has been used so many times. also that little reverberating loop used in the closing sequence. i have probably heard one or both of these used at every single film festival (seven or eight of them, i'd say) that i've attended this year. over-exposure kind of flattens the music's impact.

this isn't a direct criticism of y'alls film, btw, more like an observation on the potential repercussions of garage band on every mac. shoot, i've used it myself in my own video and feel that i will have to go back, for the sake of my own sanity, and replace it.....

Thank you Dick! Much appreciated.

Yes...those were some beautiful Quaking Aspen trees just turning yellow. I posted a small description on where and what at this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...7&page=3&pp=15

However, to answer your questions directly, this was shot on a Canon XL1-S. The mountain scenes were filmed up on the Big Horn Mountains in Northern Wyoming at an elevation of 8,000 ft.

Very nice job with the shots inside the test, especially CU's of Iris' face.

Spill the technical details - camera, settings, lighting, post...

BRADLEY L. MARLOW. I'm keeping an eye on the name and the man. He's an amazing storyteller, visual and lighting artist, is just nutty enough to keep things really interesting :) .......the list goes on and on.

As for this movie, it's multi-faceted: poignant, funny, intelligent, quirky. Great work, Brad!!!

Thank you very much Sean- I really appreciate the winner of DVC2 commenting here and taking a moment. I'm with you on the "no direct interaction" but...you know that. Certainly respect the opinions of others however.

Wanted to explore some depths about misconceptions and rumor along with a tragic but hopeful character more than make a strong personal statement about photojournalists-though can see how that might come across. Care to expand on your take?

Simple really. If a visually impaired person can take noteworthy photographs, so miuch so that they would be used by major news organizations, then it goes to say that a blind photographer is apparently better than the bunch of photojournalists out in the field. Seems to say you have a dislike or distrust of photojournalism. I think that's about right but I will say photojournalists have stayed truer to journalism than the folks that deliver the evening news. Especially on a local level. I quit watching news because, for some unknown reason, it seems to have become OK for those unbiased bastions of journalistic integrity to give me their opinions. Opinions aren't journalism. In fact they are anti-journalistic.

Then again, maybe I'm just reading too darned much into that part.

I'm a bitter 16 year veteran of NBC and local news. Does it show?

Sean

Edit - sorry, dragging it OT again. I'm good at that.

Dear Meryem-thank you soooo much! I REALLY appreciate your comments...especially the one about the Garage Band deal. I was completely unaware that this was an overused loop (or mix thereof).

Given that I live out in the sticks where there are no film festivals (that I'm aware of) and we are "culturally challenged"...lol...this comment really helps me to be more aware and careful. Thank you.