Lady X: Episode 15 released!

[John Locke]

Lady X rolls into San Luis Obispo, California, USA and discovers a small town with a dark and somewhat seedy underbelly. Upon finding her operative "neutralized", she must decide whether to complete the mission herself or find a "local" to get the job done.

Watch Episode 14 now! Go to http://www.ladyxfilms.com and click the "Current Episode" link.

The Lady X Crew

================
Episode 15 Details:

Directed by: Barry Goyette
Produced by: Barry Goyette
Director of Photography: Barry Goyette
Assistant Producer: Kaila Ford
Written by: Barry Goyette

Best Boy: T. Shane Gilman
Boom Operator: T. Shane Gilman, Colin Westerfield
2nd Camera Operator: T. Shane Gilman
Foley: Larry Kim
Loan Shark: Phil Newell

Still photos: T. Shane Gilman
Graphic Design: Julia Rose West
Loft Photographs: Barry Goyette

Principal Cast: Michelle Aragon (Lady X); Damon Castillo (Jack Quincy); Colin Westerfield (John Walker); Mark Chambless (Mark); Dave Hicks (Leeds); Tomie Shikama (Girlfriend); Jonathan Burch (Blackman); Kaila Ford (Waitress); Alex Sterling (Dan Lewis)

Lady X Skateboard double: Emily Bruner

Music: Dominic Castillo
Songs: Getting the Girl; God, The Devil, and You; Cruel Love; Cruel Love (Lie Love It Mix): Music & Lyrics by Dominic Castillo. Performed by Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants. <http://www.dominiccastillo.com>

[Dylan Couper]

Great work, probably the best photography yet.
I think definitely the best acting yet.
Story was reasonable, but not outstanding.
Music was superb, although some of it felt like I was watching a music video instead of a movie (not a criticism, lots of movies are like that these days).

Now....

Tarantino much????? :)

"You know what I eat now?"
"A Royale wit cheese?"

I was waiting for them to bust that out in the breakfast cereal scene. It's good to emulate people you admire, I suppose, and it was well written. Put a big grin on my face.


So is it the best Lady X episode yet? #4/5 has been my favorite so far (except my own of course), but this is a worthy contender to replace it. Hmm... I'd better watch it one more time. :)


"Give me the laptop or I will strike down upon thee with great vengence and fuuuuurious anger!"

[Imran Zaidi]

Excellent, excellent, excellent! By leaps and bounds my absolute favorite thus far. It's the only one I'm giving a 5 out of 5 so far.

In order to be constructive, some pluses and minuses:

Pluses
Good acting, great photography, great steadicam usage with a very creative LadyX intro. The whole film gave off a distinctly Californian vibe, which is the main purpose of the project.

Minuses
The ending was sorta abrupt for such a big buildup, though I imagine that's due mostly to the time constraints. In the diner conversation, the lead character was framed differently than the person with whom he was talking.

Again, my favorite thus far. The bar has been raised. Great job Barry!

[Keith Loh]

Barry, that was the most complete Lady X so far. You probably put together the best combination of shots I've seen and somehow within that seven minutes you had space for all the actors to make a show of it. My hats off to you.

The only negatives I perceived was that I didn't really think the Trix / Pulp Fiction monologue was clever enough. Somehow it needed some punching up.

The audio mix was a bit low, anyone else think so?

[Barry Goyette]

Thanks to all for your comments so far...I'm off on vacation today so this will be my last chance to respond for a few days.

Thanks Dylan for noticing my feeble attempt at channelling the great Quentin in the loft scene...I've never tried to write anything like a screenplay before, so I had to start somewhere, and I figure if your going to rip somebody off, it better be someone you admire. That scene has always stuck in my mind as one of the most exciting pieces of writing (and showboating) in recent film history.

On the writing, structure etc...John and Ken will tell you that I ended up in a predicament with the episode...My first cut came out at 10:35 and I was faced with cutting a lot of it from the dialogue, and most of it had to come out of the loft scene, as it was by far the longest segment of the film. In some ways the film is a lot tighter now than it was, but a what got cut was all the jokes, subtext and texture that didn't necessarily advance the story.

Imran- you're right on the framing...I meant to fix that, but didn't get to it before I sent it in. Guess it will have to wait for "TheDirectorsCut".

Thanks for all your kind words (and the pointers). I'll relay them onto all the cast and crew. For almost all of us (including me) this was a first time experience, and everyone worked really hard on some incredibly long days to pull it off. They'll appreciate hearing your feedback.

For now, I'm off to Prague.


Barry

[Jay Gladwell]

I thought the videography was nicely done, although some of the shots had weak composition. The acting was above average.

The biggest disappointment for me was the bad language.

[Dylan Couper]

<<<-- Originally posted by Barry Goyette : Thanks to all for your comments so far...I'm off on vacation today so this will be my last chance to respond for a few days.

On the writing, structure etc...John and Ken will tell you that I ended up in a predicament with the episode...My first cut came out at 10:35 and I was faced with cutting a lot of it from the dialogue, and most of it had to come out of the loft scene, as it was by far the longest segment of the film-->>>

I know what that's like, and sympathize. Our original script was just under 20 minutes, and my first cut of the final script was about 12:00. I got it down to size but Ken must have at least a half dozen emails from me begging for only another 30 seconds. So I cut out the scene I had of Lady X swimming naked in the waterfall pool at the start.

Anyway, I liked the Tarantino aspect, but I'm a fan. You might find others are not so into it.

[John Heskett]

A lot of strong points in this Lady X Episode. So, to keep it short, ditto on the acting and videography. The MIB look was interesting, not sure how it fits in for California. I thought the story was stronger than many of the previous episodes. I have to say that the language really does distract from an otherwise strong story.

[Imran Zaidi]

I think the language is only distracting because nobody else has used any yet. In an of itself, I think it seemed pretty normal.

Hey, look at this way. At least nowhere in the film was there a sign that said dead n***** storage.*







*Pulp Fiction reference to language. Nobody shoot me if you figure out what the asterisks stand for.

[Brian Huey]

Thought it was a great episode, the ending was a bit abrupt like someone said though. I take it that was Lady X taking the laptop, but then it appears they're going to bury the poor fella.

As far as the language didn't really bother me and I seem to remember the f bomb getting dropped in the subtitles of a previous episode (I think it was in one from Germany).

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Huey

[Peter Sieben]

Good work, it shows of that a lot of effort has been put into this movie. The story could be stronger to match with the nice colorized images, overall mood and the good acting. I think most Lady X directors see the project also as a way to improve their filmmaking skill, on a technical level, in the creative area, scale of production, etc.

[Aaron Koolen]

Yeah well done Barry. As everyone has said, the photography was really nice and I was really impressed with the acting. I think, for a first time screen play you did really well. Your episode puts ours to shame on all those fronts (Wonder if I can get everyone to reshoot ours ;) )

And for those that didn't like the swearing, I guess you're not going to like our episode either. But my excuse is that it's showing off some of the Kiwi culture ;)

Excellent job!

Cheers
Aaron

[Tony Teulan]

Just as long as you say 'Feesh und Chups' not to mention having someone ask for a 'bear' somewhere in it, Aaron. :D

[Ken Tanaka]

Viewing Barry's episode perhaps 15 times, as I have during its prep for screening, I am reminded that good cinematographers are first and foremost good photographers. Barry's "day job" as a professional photographer comes through loud and clear in his episode.

As the only other person that's seen his episode in true video format I can also say that the streaming version is a visual weak sister to the real thing. Despite much time spent in collaboration with Barry getting the best possible image and audio results during the compression, what you see pales in comparison to the dv version in richness and sharpness.

[Rob Wilson]

Ken,

Which brings up an interesting question: Will the entire series be made available in native DV format or on a DVD should some of us like to see the "reel thing"?