DVC 6 feedback, Dennis Khaye, "Allegory of the Cave"
 

It's a comedy (I hope). Shot with a PD 170, edited in Vegas, rotoscoped kitty in Photoshop, sound sweetened with Pro-Tools. Constructive citicism is always warmly accepted and highly valued. Please feel free to ask anything you'd like. Hope you enjoyed it.

Oh yes...it was really, really funny! An excellent story, and your actors did a great job.

On my PC, the (hope I get this right) interlacing on the QT was a problem, but it in no way took away from my enjoyment of the movie. I thought it was hilarious, and there's only one thing left to say to you...

...Nah...I won't say it. ;)

Great writing, and great job, Dennis!!

What a neat movie! The two cave men are great! (Especially the husky fellow. He has great potential. I’d like to see him in a buddy movie!) Excellent cave lighting contrast. This was most definitely a character driven movie and very entertaining.

on man, I laughed my a$$ off. took my by complete surprise. when that cat shadow thing walked by and they reacted, it cracked me up. Very funny. great timing of the jokes and punch lines. going to watch it a couple more times. I didn't even get a chance to notice any of the camera work cause I was laughing.

Reminded me of Monty Python. You just have to go with it. The cavemen walking out in to civilization, no knowledge of the Sun, and perfect English!

Great reaction shots. Great cleavage shot. I loved the buddy relationship between the two cavemen, and wanted to see more of their interaction.
I expected the heavy guy to start yelling, when the one guy started crawling off, like Tom Hanks in Castaway, "WILSON, WILSON!"

Glad to see them back together in the end.

Very funny.

You've got a real gift for comedy. The forced-perspective cave is just the kind of thing that tickles the back of your brain and makes the outright jokes that much funnier. I love it when the flasher storms off. I agree that the casting of the two cave dwellers was perfect. Hilarious movie.


-j

Thank you all very much. Jay (stocky caveman) and David (the flasher) were both very easy to direct. Memorized their lines, hit their marks, listened carfully and performed. It's wonderful working with professionals.

@ Linda: Oh come on, now you've got me wondering what it is you were going to say?

@ Dick: Exactly what we were going for. A little Python influence for sure.

@ Jay: Grog (the caveman that escapes) played by Matt, we were between takes and he comes up to me worried that he's playing the caveman too 'mentally challenged'. Well that got us all laughing and the next twelve takes turned into giggle fits. I liked what he did with the character and told him not to worry. Actors can be so fragile at times.

When the Goth kid walks away, the de-interlacing in the trees is caused by me. Couldn't be helped, I needed one more step in that direction but all those takes had either the boom or the reflector in the shot so I choose one and zoomed in on it. I had no idea it was going to render that badly though. I would have left it alone had I known.

We had to ADR all the cave stuff. Sound effects and all. We somehow got horrible feedback and dropping of sound from the china laturn hanging over the camera. It was on a dimmer so maybe that was it. I'll have to run tests to be sure.

That's me on the lettuce crunch. I think that may be my ADR'd sneeze too. My claim to fame on this one.

Don't be afraid to hit me for the bad things, it's the only way I'll learn.

Thanks again you guys.

That's just it--there's nothing bad to tell you! It's that good! :)

Just being silly earlier. What was the prevailing sentiment expressed in your movie? Made me laugh every time, so I just wanted to carry it into the feedback, just for fun!

Ok I laughed so hard I woke up my wife....thanks alot!! No seriously, this movie was really good. The facial expressions, the dialoge, the kittie. All freakin funny! One of my favorites so far.

When the flasher says "I'm too old to fall for that one, but look at this!", you crossed the line; I'm not terribly annoyed, but the jump in angle was a bit jarring. That's about it as far as criticism goes, though. You're most definitely in my list of favorite films so far. The actors all did wonderful work, and like everyone else, I like the chained up caveman best. Great job on his hair, by the way, I was laughing as soon as I saw that!

Ok, I was finally able to get though it without my eyes watering from laughing. The intro audio is a bit muffled (up too close on the mic). The ADR is good, especially when the stuck caveman goes "ahhh" and his lips go "oooo". That cracks me up everytime, like a chinese film. The interlacing is pretty bad, as well as the compression. It would be great if you could export it again to correct for this. Better yet, just send me a DVD so I can watch it when I wake up every morning hahaha. The jungle music is great. The camera angle and edit when he runs up to the goth kid is very good. Very natural feeling. The jump cut on the flasher is a bit jarring perspective wise. (i'm trying to be nit picky here). this must have been a laugh fest while making it.

All you folks that do comedy are the comic relief to my dark side. Yin to my yang I suppose.

What they said.

I have nothing to add that hasn't been said about this one other than this is really fun. Well done. Rivals some or Lorindas comedic pieces (See previous contests)

Good buddy vibe there.

Food fight!

Sean

@ Linda: I've noticed the 'fun' side of your stuff. Thanks for the compliment. ;o)

@ John: Some people say you can't train cats. Have they never heard of tuna? LOL

@ Robert Martins: I crossed which line? Good taste? I didn't mean to offend anyone, it's just a gag to follow the caveman who's seen a woman for the first time, the flasher flashes and, well, he's seen that before.

@ Michael: I think the VO audio was a bad combination of compression and my EQ settings. Live and learn.

@ Sean: Thanks for the compliments. ;o)

No, no, I'm sorry to be vague, I meant the line of action; the camera is on one side of the two characters, then jumps to the other side, reversing which person is on which side of the screen. It's slightly jarring, though easy enough to deal with. I just think things would have looked better if you'd kept the camera on one side or the other of the two men.

Where is that line of good taste? Ha ha. Robert was just conserving words; it's usually called the 180 degree line.

See http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...80+degree+line for a detailed explanation. :)