DVC 6 Feedback, Cage, Hugo Pinto
 

Well, mine sould come out either today or tomorrow, and as I've been having intermitent-to-none Internet access, I'm taking this brief online time to write the feedback thread. I'll post feedback of all of the other films tomorrow, Saturday.

Well, this is obviously an unfinished, rush job. After considering dropping the whole thing and hapilly sit in the wall-of-shame this time (again), I reconsidered and still delivered the movie as it was by Sunday at midnight, taking into account that it might at least be useful to someone to learn what NOT to do.

You name it: unbalanced colors and lighting, line crosses, missing reshoots, we have it all, and they're all due to the fact that I only had a good idea three days from the deadline, and got messed up with an overly-complex storyline that I couldn't possibly fit in the 3 minutes limit.

Still, the most obvious piece missing (and for those that remember my "The Visionary", you know this is a big thing for me) is the sound track - not just the music score, but the actual tuning of the dialogues themselves. I neglected the time I had left until the deadline trying to trim the shots, and ended up with no time for sound. Baaad baad decision.

Still, it's a learning piece. I hope you get to see that not as a final submission (although please DO judge it as that) but as a work-in-progress that didn't reach the end.

After the judging phase passes, I'll post a verson with the score fixed and colors corrected - that way you'll see how much our ears influence our judgement of the movie we see.

Best

Hugo

Hugo, I'll be one who watches that finished version. I loved "The Visionary" and was perplexed at the unfinished nature of "Cage." So thanks for the explanation! Your movies are always interesting, that's for sure.

I see what you mean about unfinished, but I'm glad you decided to get something done anyway. Between the two DVCs I've entered so far, I can't count the number of times I've been ready to quit, only to have things turn completely around in no time flat. Always worth persevering, even if you can't finish things the way you wanted to.

I took the story in this as being one of a man who's convinced himself, one way or another, that he can never go out in the sun, for fear of contracting skin cancer or some other such malady. Locked up in the house, he's constantly stressed out about it, and can't even sleep. In the end, however, something makes him decide to take the chance, and he finds it's not so bad after all.

Either that, or he's got some genuine disorder that prevents him from going outdoors, I'm not sure. I look forward to the finished product, though as you mention, I'm going to judge it based on what I see here. I'd expect others to do the same for me, so it's only right.

The way I read it was that everyone was afraid to go out in daytime becaise of health effect, and he decided, as he remembered from his youth, to go out in the day....

Thanks!
 

First of all, thanks guys. It was really a mess to get this finished in time.

I decided to post it anyway so that other people can see how small details can really take time, and how small missing things can really affect one's judgement of the overall piece. As I say, even a bad job (or, again, specially a bad job) can be a good learning experience.

Robert, Chris, Those are two possible intrepretations of the story, and those two fit quite allright. The original storyline was WAAY too complex for three minutes, and got me overwhelmed in footage (that we did shot, by the way). In the end I did an edit for the three minutes with a bit of an open ending/meaning.

Chris, just for the record, your take on it is a bit closer to the original storyline. :)


Thanks once again.

Hugo

I liked it the way it is so far. Sure you can do more but you see, I like the way people read into things in their own way. I always try to remember to ask myself, what did it mean to me? That's what I leave with. On the other side of the coin, you are judged on your works by your intent. If Woody Allen tried to make a serious film and it was distributed and marketed as a serious film but people find it funny, it might make money at the box office because it is funny but it would be a critical downfall as the intent was a serious film.

So, I liked it in it's rather unfinished form. Has an art feel to it this way for me.

I can see this going several ways and they all seem to be workable.

I will say the variations in the dub work was a bit distracting. When I see someones mouth moving I expect the words I hear to match. To do a good voiceover I think you might have wanted to catch the actors when they were not speaking on screen? If they were supposed to match, that's a tricky bit even if they are watching their preformances on a screen while recreating their dialog.

Other than that, I like what you do.

Sean