DVC 6 Feedback - Eric Gan (The Prophecy)
 

Okay, guess I'm up today. First off, let me apologize if I wasted 3 minutes of your life. But hey, it's only 3 minutes, right? This is my first DVC and really the first time I've directed/produced anything.

I knew I was in trouble because by Wednesday, we still didn't have a script locked off. We had 3 or 4 scripts written, but I thought they were either too cheesy, or not possible to do within the next few days. I finally sat down and banged off this script and decided it was either this, or the wall of shame.

We shot for 5 hours on Thursday, I edited for about 4 hours on Friday, and my music guy scored it on Saturday.

Going into the shoot, I knew the day-for-night scene was going to be tricky. I knew I needed to keep the background dark, but I just had too many things to worry about (it was only myself and the actors at that point). I didn't take enough time to line up the shots properly, thinking, I'll fix it in post. Of course, I was kicking myself in the editing room.

The one thing I'm quite please about is the lighting in the fortune teller's room. It was shot in a small apartment with white walls all around. We threw up a couple of blankets and bedsheets and made it look fairly moody. Wish I had more props though.

Hope this is a passable entry. I sure had a lot of fun making it. Thanks for your feedback.

wooowy wow. Some great camera moves. Gypsy lighting was EXCELLENT. Then you get to the car at night... mmmm didn't work for me, not sure what you can do with so little time. If you make a mistake like that, there's no real way to recover from it, no time to reshoot. Audio was great too. Then back to some more awesome camera moves. Then I got lost. not sure who was what. But all in all it looked really great. The first scene blew me away. Man I have some work to do.

Woof. (had to keep Michael's "w" thing going, plus that's what I say when something really hits me) :) Eric, that was excellent. Yes, that first scene was jaw-dropping in its beauty and I really, really liked all your camera moves.

For me, it could have ended with the death, but that's just cuz I'm a lazy thinker sometimes and I thought that killing scene couldn't be topped. What a psycho!

Your work is amazing. I can't wait to see what you do next.

Way to go! The fortune teller was a bit over the top, but the premise makes up for it in very short time.

I didn't like the day-for-night either, I'm sorry to say. Looks like your whites got clipped in some areas (the headlights and windshield, for example), and then just turned into amorphous gray blobs when you lowered the brightness. But then, it's never easy to make that trick look natural, is it?

I also fall into the camp that would be happy with the death scene as the last. I'm not sure I understand why the girlfriend takes over for the original fortune teller, or what kind of relationship they had (did she work for the girlfriend, setting men up for this kind of thing?). Without more explanation, I think it would be best to just leave it at "it was her!".

I would have liked that first scene better if the floor lamp behind her had actually thrown a little light on her rather than only the chair. All of the light is coming from the left side, but you see the lit lamp off the the back right. I'd rather have take the lamp out entirely. As for the day for night thing, no it didn't really work, but it was really ambitious to even try, so good for you. I bet you'll do it way better next time and that's the point of these things. Very nice camera moves and editing.

Story-wise, I'd have been satisfied with ending at the reveal of the GF being the killer, but the ambiguity of this ending is fun as well. Were she and the fortune teller in on it together? Did she go back and kill the fortune teller too for being a "witness"? Unanswered questions leave you thinking.

I can't say much that hasn't been said: nice moves, shame about the day-for-night, don't understand the ending. Still, very watchable!


-j

Well (Starts with W), I was thinking it went like this;
the girlfriend is also a fortune teller and she knows when someone has some money to throw her way, she sets them up and takes them for a ride, literally, figuratively, as in the old gangster movies - Bugsey, take Mr. Smith here, for a little ride.

That's how I could take the story I suppose, or how I might have played this idea out. Perhaps it was just an accident they ended up at the first fortune tellers place?

Lighting - I second the comments here. Everything was crisp and pretty well done on the indoors scenes. The day for night stuff looked more like a sunrise I suppose with the nice blues in it. Had some vignetting in there too someplace. WA Adapter?

Overall however, very nice indeed.

Sean

Lots of good comments on this one already. GREAT lighting at the opening, the interior car at night didn't work.

My favorite shot hasn't been mentioned. As she climbs on top the driver the cut is down to the rear wheel. Why is the cut to the rear wheel? Then the shocks start bouncing.

I don't watch any teen horror movies, so maybe this is a well established convention, but I thought it was a great visual.

On the script, and acting side. I think you have to establish relationship before the audience cares about the outcome, but it is hard enough to tell anything in 3 minutes. I really didn't care that she killed the guy. Perhaps he was a rotten lover. Seems like reason enough to strangle him.

Oh no! I made a movie that nobody gets. Something I promised myself never to do. I blame M. Night. Shyamalan! Every time I think about a suspense or supernatural tale, I feel inclined to put in that damn twist at the end.

Okay, I'll explain my thought process for the sub-par plot of this film. There's a "spirit" that's going around killing people. It takes over people's bodies (implied when the fortune teller touches the girlfriend's hand) and makes them do crazy things. This spirit is uses the guise of a fortune teller to meet his next victim. Hence, the final scene where the girlfriend is now the gypsy.

Does that make any sense whatsoever? I guess not! Oh well, I take away a good lesson learned in shooting day-for-night, which I think makes this experience totally worth it.

hahaha, I think we all learn something with these. Mostly what not to do.

I didn't get that story from your short.

I thought she was a man killer that just hated guys but liked sex!?!

Don't be down though, I really loved some of you scenes. Really great camera work.

Welcome to the club, Eric! Several of us have been there before.

I thought exactly the same as Michael on this one. Thanks for the explanation.

And I agree with him on another point: Your eye for nice shots is quite good, as is your work. We'll see you next time!

Eric,

for roughly 10-15 hours of work that was incredible!!! As stated the day to night was troublesome and it was nice to see your trademark glidecam 2000 shots! As others have stated, loved the mustang rocking was introduced. Classic.

Hmm now I need to enter this contest... looks like FUN!

again, entertaining stuffs.

Michael