DVC #8 - Bill Gardner "The Remote = Control"
 

Feedback thread for my film, in case anybody wants to comment on it.

Cheers, everybody,
Bill

Bill:

Love the concept, including the reverse logos and text viewed from back of screen.... Always wondered whether someone could be watching from the other direction...... Also, time span, and life stages were nicely woven into this short. Great film... with great production values, as usual...

Hi Bill!
 

I'm honored to be the first to comment. :) lol...Well done!

I believe you have captured the sad state of affairs in the typical home today. Enough said. (Don't want to give anything away for those who haven't seen it yet)

Great use of props to show all the situations i.e.,. the bachelor, the single woman, the newly romantic couple, etc.

Loved some of the dialog/writing most especially the bit you did at the end with Viagra. lol Hilarious. (I absolutely despise drug company commercials and you did a great job slamming them).

Zoe - was that your daughter? She did a great job! Plus, the RailHeads rock dude!

This one was a lot of fun, and very interestingly done.
I agree with Chris, great production value!

Looked great!

I laughed quite a few times.

Nice work,

Mike

What a crafty, original idea! That kid can act, too! I can always tell when a movie is good because I smile through the whole thing. Clever way to use television to show their relationship’s progression (and regression) and how it is affected by who maintains control of the remote. SPOILER: However, the end was a bummer. I wish you ended it on a better note.

Thanks for the nice comments, folks.

Yes, Zoe is an attentive 3 year old and is one of my 3 kids. She has a twin brother, but he's not quite ready to focus on the instructions of the director yet. :) Maybe next time (or next year?)...

An unrelated side note: if you want to see a bit more of Zoe (and Alex, my oldest son [kid vampire from the Love Bites/Sun Burns films), you can check out http://www.wrgardner.com/film/KidWars

Bradley: glad somebody noticed the props. I wasn't sure if folks would notice that detail. After he moves in, the plants start to go away, etc., etc... :)

Re: the ending. Yeah, we went back and forth on this. We had another ending which was where he turned on the TV and another "Match-You-Up" ad was on, and he jotted down the number again. I think that this could have been funny if they didn't have the little girl, but with the kid it seemed a little too harsh.

Perhaps we should have ended with one last scene after he "makes the final call" where they're happy again sleeping in the bed? :)

Cheers,
Bill

Ha ha.. loved it! :) Very smart props and the reverse text was a nice touch to.

I had some problems downloading the files but the youtube-viewing worked better.

Could you not get the download started or did the download crash in the middle? And did you try to save it locally or did you just "click" the link and use your media player to open it?

Any data you can provide on this would be helpful, and if others had similar problems please let me know.

Thanks,
Bill

Bill, I looked at it on the YouTube stream, because I had issues with both the .wmv and .mov files. When I clicked to try to stream down or clicked to try to save as a target, I got bad results. I got a small file downloaded in the target attemt for both, but the download was only 20 kb or so, and when opened just showed some code.

Yeah, I got the same results as Chris. Just two small files. And I right clicked and used save as.

Bill,
Good one. Good idea with the reverse text, nice off camera dialog from the commercials, good wrap around "Circle of Life" story.

Overall: Well executed, good idea. I liked it and saw nothing negative to comment on.

Sean McHenry

Funny
 

I loved this one! Great concept and everything, well done!

Now I am wondering what the TV sees in my house..... Probably my wife on her gateway laptop and I with my dell laptop sitting on the bed. :)

Entertaining movie, Bill! Tell me, did you and your friends have a GREAT time doing the voice work? :)

Yep. :)

Bill

i enjoyed your film a lot, i particularily enjoyed how you told the story without the need for the two characters to communicate verbally. it's challenging to do that and you did it well, their body language and actions more than made up for it. and like it was mentioned previously, you did a great job showing how time has passed.

Thanks! Chalk that compliment up to our actors, who pulled off the emotions without any lines!

Bill

Bill,

Awesome job! I loved this short! So funny watching the relationship battles simplified into 'who has the control'. What were your quicktime compression settings, really clean.


The shots were nice. The actors did a great job. And really your post-production was great, the audio, the supers, everything was flawless.


Loved it.

Hey Bill,

Great film! I love how you showed the progression of a relationship through the eyes of T.V. Very clever! It makes me wonder what my T.V. thinks when it watches me? haha! Anyway, I loved the backwards text and the voice work was awesome!

Jamey*

Well Bill, you know I'm already a fan, but I really loved this little gem. Especially the reverse SD vs ?? supers etc. (although I immediately questioned the 16:9 screen that has rounded corners :).

I already told you I found it depressing but clever. If I were going to change something, it'd be the end. I'd make the couple discover compromise, in a funny way. She'd change the channel to something girly, then she'd fall asleep next to him, and he'd change it to wrestling or NASCAR, all the while holding her next to him. Just for 5 seconds, then cut to black.

I'd also throw in a quick shot of the cat sneaking in to claw at the sofa when they're not around.

Still, nicely done.

Great idea, and very well done. Will be tough to vote in this contest.

I very much liked this film. I did think the husband was going to call a dating service, order girls gone wild or divorce lawyer at the end (girls gone wild advertise a lot during late night sports shows), but a well executed piece, creative, well-acted (which make it stand out) and memorable.

As has been said, this was a very effective use of non-verbal communication. A lot was said with a few gestures. And the changing sets told a story on their own. The acting was excellent. Only thing I didn't like was the ending which seemed a downer, but then again not everything has a Hollywood ending.

I would say for the guy the ending was more of an "upper". :)

This was fantastic. All I can say.

I would submit this to some more film festivals.

Jeff

DO NOT READ THIS POST UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE VOTED!!!!






REALLY!!! I MEAN IT!!!!






OK, did you vote? Yes? Keep reading. Didn't vote? Stop, don't keep reading!!!





All right. A few folks were disappointed with the "downer" ending of The Remote = Control, so I've recut the ending in a new version. This version doesn't count for the DVC8 competition, so if you haven't voted yet, DON'T LOOK AT THE NEW VERSION and only judge the original version!!!

Now, if you have voted, I'd be interested to hear if you think the new ending is an improvement. I've sent this to a few folks already and most seem to prefer the new ending. Regardless, if you have the time, I'd really be interested in hearing if folks like the new ending or not.

The new version can be found at
http://www.wrgardner.com/film/RemoteControl

Note that the original, DVC8 version is still available at the initial links Dylan posted. I haven't changed anything there.

So, if you have an opinion either way, I'd like to hear it. And if possible, just send me an email with your opinions rather than clutter up this thread (click on my name to the left of this post and click on "Send email to William Gardner").

Thanks much!
Bill