One man, one camera, one day.

Sorry about the video quality. Had to use a Hi8 camera. Let's just pretend I wanted that early 80's video look.

All comments, critiques, questions will be cheerfully acknowledged so please feel free. Win, lose or draw this is a wonderful idea to raise money.

Good luck everyone!

Just watched it... very good stuff! I wish I had more shots/angles to look at thoough. Maybe have the guy turning the dial on the safe, cut back to the guy in the bed... "wait for it", cut back to the last turn of the dial... *click*

You know the rest.

I guess I just wanted to see a tad more variety in the scenes.

It really held my interest though. Very well put together.

Mike

yeaaahhhyyy, that big guy makes a return. hahahaha. I love that guy. Anyway, at first watch the angles seemed a bit odd to me. but second watch and I liked the angles. Simple yet effective. I got hooked on the eye shots, and grew to love them. nicely done.

The shots of Ike standing by the bed (Mike and Ike, very cute; where are Good and Plenty?) were a little tight for my liking, I'd pull back a touch.

I'd remembered someone mentioning having to shoot Hi8 for this contest, but until I read your post, I didn't know it was you. It has its fair share of grain, yeah, but it doesn't look bad at all.

Unexpected laughs are the best kind, and "wait for it" had me rolling. "BOOM!" was the first thought to enter my mind after you said that, but the blast was satisfying nonetheless.

I do think the "Memories" theme was a little weak, however. We meet Ike in what I take to be a bar in the beginning, but never find out how this job led from a guy with a cool, calm demeanor in a nice, clean suit with slicked-back hair to a jaded, kinda-sorta depressed hathead dude in a wifebeater, hanging out getting drunk by himself. He didn't seem too affected at the thought of killing his own brother at first, I'd like to find out more about how it all happened. Did the reality of what he'd done hit him later? Did he never get the money, and fall on hard times? Was somebody in charge a little irritated that he lost his partner? That kind of thing.

Nice job on your short. The 80's look? Yeah! Now if we could just get a "chunka...chunka...twang...chunka...chunka...twang" Man, it must be past my bedtime.

I liked your sound on this and the voices were very bold and clear. Seemed to lend itself well to feel of your film. Noted a black frame or two in the middle of the film. No biggie, just wanted to see if it was a compression issue.

Interesting choice of shots with the extreme close ups.

Jay Barlow was great too! With the combination being 12-25-6 and the title being Last Christmas, I was wondering if that was specifically for us? :)

Best wishes~
Bradley

Dennis:

This film held my attention. But "Bar" scene, as I thought you were trying to convey, with binball in background, looked like a kitchen to me... Need to be darkened down I think and accent lights placed. That kind of disturbed the illusion. But as the rest of it went on, I think it came off real well. And for this format, Hi8 does just fine, and no apologies needed...

Are you a Michael Madsen fan? Because Jay pulled it off nicely. If I closed my eyes I would have thought Michael Madsen starred in your movie. Great use of close ups to create tension.

Thank you very much for the comments. I really appreciate them.

@ Hugh
A quote from Jay: "Michael Madsen, really? Sweet! I've been told the late Chris Penn ala 'Reservoir Dogs'. My diet must be working!"
He's a wonderful guy to work with. A bit like Frank Sinatra, hates to do more than two takes, but at least he doesn't send some big goon with brass knuckles to your house if you ask for more.

@ Chris
Ah I know, I'm sorry, the sound effect said "Casino". It was supposed to be a casino but we didn't have much time to set it up. That's actually the bar in my basement.

@ Bradley
I agree, 80's porn music, I have to get some, it's just too funny not to. A black frame in the MOV or WMV version? The combination was specific to the contest yes. When I test screened it with my wife and a bunch of friends, only one other person caught that little detail. ;)

@ Robert
I agree with you, very good critque of the story. Yes the theme was weak and it seems really tacked on but, I went with it. Had to cut a lot for just a three minute super short and much of what I had in there ended up in the recycle bin. I was more worried about pacing than theme this go around. Using a Hi8 camera, I didn't worry too much about winning this one.

@ Michael
Thank you! I was going to flip the room around and place the camera outside shooting in through the window but it was too cold out.

@ Mike H.
You've hit the nail on the head; it would have been much better. Thanks for the honest critique. It seems to be a running a thing with me I think. I have to move the camera more.

Thank all very much. I really appreciate your honesty and feel free to comment on anything else. It's one of the best ways to learn.

Dennis -

For some reason I've always liked mobster themed movies...Some girls like fast cars, I like mobsters...what can I say? Anyway, the actor you had playing the guy with the gun pulled it off perfectly...I totally thought he WAS a mob boss...

The only thing that bothered me a bit was that the closeups seemed just a smidge too close...at times they seemed a bit out of focus...I really liked the approach of just showing his eyes, his hands, his mouth though it made it really dramatic...I would've just come out a little tiny bit more...

Other than that...great fun flick!

-Jamey-

Thank you very much for the comments. I really appreciate them.

@ Bradley
I agree, 80's porn music, I have to get some, it's just too funny not to. A black frame in the MOV or WMV version? The combination was specific to the contest yes. When I test screened it with my wife and a bunch of friends, only one other person caught that little detail. ;)

lol Dennis- exactly (on the music) ;)

As for the movie, I have the .MOV version. It is 14MB, 320x240 size and the black frame comes in at the 00:01:42 mark. Am guessing it is a compression deal. Hope that helps.

Best wishes~
Bradley

Thanks for the heads up Bradley I'll fix it as soon as I can.

@ Jamey
Thanks for the critique, I really appreciate it. Usually I do take isolation shots (hand movments, feet tapping, some kind of fidgiting) but this was so short and we shot it in one day. I sat down to edit it and realized I'd totally forgotten to do some of those. Would have helped a lot.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out you guys!

I wish I had more BTS stuff for this one to set to that porn soundtrack. LOL

lol Dennis!

"chunka...chunka...twang...chunka...chunka...twang"

Git 'er done!

Best wishes~
Bradley

Hi8, huh?

Well I got so caught up in the story I could care less what it was shot with.

Jay Barlow is something else. Do I see right that he actually has 3 roles? Ike, Mike, and the guy in the suit wanting to use the pistol? His voice is amazing and in this short has an absolutely chilling quality.

I feel all the things you did with the camera were appropriate to the story and the way the flow went. I was spellbound from the moment he said "No. I don't" after turning away and draining the drink.

Music: Heh heh. I recognize the "Evil Intent" track from the SmartSound "Dramatic Undertones" disk. I tried to picture in my mind as I listened to it when I first ordered a couple of disks just how I might use it.

It works very well with your material here.

Bruce

Hey Dennis, I could have sworn I commented on this movie! I'm such a doofus sometimes (dufus, deufous..not sure on that spelling :).

That voice is so darn sinister it makes my blood run cold. He did an excellent job with his eyes and mouth, too. What pressure, knowing someone is doing extreme closeups like that! But he did a great job.

Your story was really interesting. I had to grin when Michael [sort of] smiled after "wait for it." Part of me was wishing all the other guys had been at the safe when it blew, and that it would have ended with Michael's half-smile, but then the memory would have to have been his!

Nice job, as usual. So different from the caveman movie. It's fun when you guys don't get stuck in a genre.

you've inspired me!

I am now wanting to write a script that allows me to play more than one character on my own! When I watched it, I had no idea that it was just you doing all three! (am I asleep?! c'mon Graham!) Super cool.

I do have to second the comments that the opening 'casino' scene would have sold better with a dark background.
(I wanna say I'd go with that super bright spot on your character from above and use the table itself as a bounce-back, slightly over-expose the spot and have your set darkened as a result, a la 'casino' -- haha!)

Nice work though, have you considered being tested for multiple personality disorder?! j/k

@ Bruce
I cannot believe how lucky I get with Sonicfire. I used it for the Caveman short too. I'm not sure how 'canned' it sounds but having it at your fingertips for events like these is really nice. At least for me anyway. ;) Thanks for the comments.

@ Lorinda
My new years resolution is to not get stuck in one genre. LOL
The closeups seemed appropriate since we didn't do any lighting set ups. All practicals, dimmed overhead incandescent, two 45 watt incandescents and a 60 watt kicked off a bound board. No depth to the room so there really wasn't any need to frame anything but his face. To be honest I didn't think it would turn out well but I was rather surprised when I edited.

@ Brent
Yep, I agree with the 'casino' shot. I have a moleskin I keep with me at all times and I put lessons learned it, that one I wrote in all caps. ;) Yes, I have been tested...I passed. LOL

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Much appreciated.

Wow. No crew? Really? How did you manage all those tight shots with no one behind the camera to make sure you stayed in frame? (sorry if you've answered that already, I'm trying to not influence my comments by avoiding everything that got written up while I was gone.) Good building of tension. The music really worked too. Nothing jumped out at me as needing fixing. Good job.

Smile,
Kris

PS: never mind. you and an actor. that makes more sense. I think Dylan might be right in doling these out in little chunks. I've watched so many my brain is starting to melt.

Actors don't count as crew, at least I hope not. LOL All he did was sit or lie there. Never once did I get a "Hey can I get you a drink or something?" not even a "need a hand with that?"

Actors can be so (insert your favorite condescending remark here)

Of course I kid. I kid because I love. Jay's like a brother to me and I had everything set up before he arrived. Tore the bedroom apart, thank goodness my wife was away on business. We used my 'duck' sheets and pillow cases in case the fake blood didn't come out. Which it did very nicely. My 'duck' sheets are still clean. Much to the chagrin of my wife.

Nice. I find it starts and ends in just the right places for me. I have enough information to make it interesting but can let the rest of the story sort of write itself. When you do the compression, it all looks like Hi-8. Don't sweat it. Besides, the 80s and even back into a sort of 1960s look go with the Mob theme.

I liked it. Yes it is a memory but somehow getting into the memory does seem a bit weak somehow. Maybe it needed to come back to the present at the end to wrap it up as a memory?

Still, nice show.

Sean

Thanks for your input Sean. I usually spend some time writing with these shorts after the contests are over and write them longer. I'll definatly use that come back to the present scene. Thanks again!