Feedback thread.

Okay, we give up, Hugh, you win......

Edit: (great acting, great scene selection, great camera work, great story,..... on and on and on....)

:)

I agree with Chris. Loved the characters and the acting. Loved the camera work (especially the early shots, like the slow pan across the crime scene). Very much enjoyed the premise of the story.

SPOILER ALERT: I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't understand the ending. He was put on hiatus but his fictional character helped find the killer? Was that it? Or did I miss something? I was all set up for a killer ending (no pun intended) and was confused...

Great work, Hugh!

Bill

Wow, I think this was my favorite of the day, it was well done and the acting seemed good. I too expected a different ending, but overall, I liked it...

WHOA!…..My socks blew off at the opening scene and the awe just kept going. I totally agree with Chris—we give up! You win!!!

I absolutely love the rich, big-budget look of this film. Besides that, your story is first-rate, the actors all did great in their roles—it’s just a complete package.

You all should be really proud of this film. I’m going to watch it again; be back with more thoughts later. :)

Nicely done, Hugh! I heard the one actor stumble on his lines once or twice. But other than that, it's flawless, man. Great camera work with angles, movement, and framing. Which camera? XL2?

-gb-

Way kewl on all levels. I was expecting a tighter full-circle ending. When he yelled "gun" I thought it would go into a Sam Pekinpah slo-mo blood bath :)

Glad they finally got to light their see-gars in the end - a la "Independence Day."

Kudos.

Hugh,

Very impressive production value. I'm inspired to achieve this quality (some day). I like the concept. Really entertaining, kept we wanting to know what was going to happen to him. The ending felt odd though. But overall, nice.

Gee Chris, thanks! Here’s my secret (at no charge): We had tons of fun making it. And that’s pretty much all it takes. Fun, enthusiasm and plenty of food for the actors.

William, you summed up the premise perfectly! He continued watching as the crime was solved even though he hadn’t been at work to know the crime was solved! He had no idea what was going to transpire because he had been forced by that mean old cactus of a lieutenant to take a restful vacation. As far as the ending, well, who needs sound effects when you see the bad guy getting zipped up in a body bag?

Josh, I am glad you liked it and am beginning to think that maybe I should have shown the bad guy getting plugged full of holes? I guess I didn’t want to show gratuitous violence.

Lorinda, I really appreciate you seeing that “big budget” look. You know, I never had that in mind while I shot it. My “big” budget consisted of a bottle of Jack Daniels, Dole Almonds (in bulk from Sam’s Club), Bookers 124 proof small batch bourbon (I knew Bruce loved the stuff), $5.00 worth of gas to fill up our prop detective car, a sandwich tray, case of generic soda and one hard drive that my sound man accidentally knocked off Mike’s hope chest during the bedroom scene when he tripped over an extension cable.  All in all, I got off pretty cheaply.

Greg, Chris the cactus stumbled over his lines more than that (if you watch the behind the scenes short you can actually see and barely hear him drop the “F” bomb during the opening scenes after he flubbed his lines. A riot!) Chris improved his character by tailoring my scripted lines to better suit his delivery style. I tend to write formally so when these jokers read my lines they came back with “I don’t talk that way! That sounds stupid! This is what I’m gonna say and how I’m gonna say it!” It worked. They had total freedom to improvise. Panasonic DVX 100b in 24pa, DV Rack and some good old, 500 watt Smith Victors with CTB gels to balance the overhead fluorescents.

Ron, <<bowing low>> Your Royal Sphincterness, I always appreciate a fellow Peckinpah fan! I wish you would have told me that before I finished. I would have taken you up on the offer to end the movie that way. Although, if the filming dates stayed the same, I might have been caught in the rain that night because just after the last shot, it started raining.

Brent, when you have fun on the journey, your results will surprise you just as my results had surprised me (well, not totally surprised since I used DV Rack on all interiors and knew what I was getting. But you get the idea).

I guess my ending needed a bit of tweaking. Thank you all for taking the time to watch and be sure to check out the behind the scenes short. You can see Bruce drunk, belching and angry at me for plying him with the almonds that he feared just might constipate him the next morning!

LOVED IT!!

The ending was too abrupt and kind of caught me off guard, but overall this was a VERY strong piece of work.

It really kept my interest and the characters were great!

Very nice work!

Mike

I guess my ending needed a bit of tweaking. Thank you all for taking the time to watch and be sure to check out the behind the scenes short. You can see Bruce drunk, belching and angry at me for plying him with the almonds that he feared just might constipate him the next morning!

Naw....No tweaking necessary. The title and your approach gave you tremendous leeway and I think the ending wrapped it all up just fine.

I have to echo all the things everyone else said, in one way your film had a "gritty" reality to it with just the right touch of the surreal that your actors pulled off great. It was good to see "The Rod" again and what a job all of your actors did!

I really liked it.

Bravo Hugh! If it's sh#* or get of the pot, I'd say you had a major dumper!

This was an absolute joy to watch. The cinematic quality and production values were fantastic. You put a lot of thought into this piece and it shows.

I enjoyed the outtakes too. lol.

Please tell Bruce, Michael, Christopher and Brian they did an excellent job with thier roles.

Now - help a little hick from the sticks out and define the following words (as they mean in street terms): "Bac-a-la" and "Stu-gatz". :)

This was fantastic. I was glued to my monitor the whole time. I was alsp confused by the ending until you explained it. Such a great a film on all aspects great job!! My favorite thus far.

That was a contest killer !

Too good production value. Take it as a compliment, but when I'll review the entries for my scoreboard, I'll consider the resources you had at hand and 'demand' surperior everything. :)

Mike, thank you. The characters just made this movie. I am so proud of these guys.

Bruce, you fell into the same trap as many people: The Rod wasn’t in this movie! Many people mistake The Rod for Chris Possumato and vice versa. When these two guys sit together at a table, everybody thinks they’re brothers! Personally, I think they look nothing alike. But, that’s because I know them so well. The Rod was actually pissed he wasn't in this movie but heck, who told him to go out of town for nine days? The putz! Thanks for your kind words.

Brad, your compliments are much appreciated since I have always found your cinematography incredibly stunning. Thank you! As for Chris’s street slang Italian, Baccala is rock hard, dried salt codfish. You soak it first before you eat it. Plain and simple. Stugotz is Italian slang roughly translated to mean getting shafted, or screwed or not getting what is expected. “I get stugotz!” I get crap, I get the short end of the stick. I certainly didn’t get stugotz with this bunch. Thanks again, Brad. You looked like you had a ball in Vegas. I recognized your prop glasses from the Memories DVC theme!

John, thank you! There have been so many excellent entries thus far and I know more to come.

Anders, believe it or not, the resources were pretty simplistic. I guess when people see police cars, they think “big movie” because how often do us independents ever get to use such things? I will do my best to refrain from such use again in order to guard against exploitation. Here’s the thing: It was an easy setup because we’re all cops. I want to give credit to those guys in my movie. They seemed genuine because they’re the real deal. Bruce is our lieutenant in charge of our homicide unit. Mike is a detective in our homicide unit. Chris is a retired Atlantic City Police detective and our young, shotgun toting criminal is a second generation Atlantic City Police officer (and a saint to agree to get zipped up in a body bag! Yeah, once he slid inside we made the obligatory "pre-use" jokes). So the real challenge is to get these guys to play plumbers in my next movie. Actually, I finished writing my next movie. Chris is a bartender, Bruce is a former Eastern Airlines pilot and Mike is a real estate agent. I can’t wait to start filming.

Thank you all.

OK, I have to say it then, Hugh, you suck.

How in the world do you get a bunch of uniforms to show up in your short? (Everyone's thinking it but I won't go there).

Excellent. You suck, but excellent. How dare you do such a gigantic opening shot.

Also, I noticed you used the same music I used in a longer piece called "Track 11". (If you haven't seen it, drop by the web page)

Overall: (Hugh sucks) Giant thumbs up!

Sean

: )

Sean, for the first time in my life I'm happy to suck! Sucking is great! I hope I can suck for the rest of my natural life! I hope I suck in my new job after I retire, I hope I can receive the "Suckiest Movie in the World" award, I hope I can be a sucky cook and so on.

You have one heck of a way to compliment, Sean! But I like it. That is exactly how terms of endearment are dealt in the police world, my friend. Check out my previous post and you will see how I was able to wrangle police presence.

As for the music, isn't Smart Sound just awesome?

getting cops up in that flick? sweet! hahah


nice job!

Your actors are familiar with procedure and all that, but they still had to memorize lines and assume roles. I really liked each one and the way he managed his character.

The grimace on Chris’ face in the opening scene told so much about him—it’s my favorite. It’s not always fun playing the harda**, but he did it well.

Mike’s more understated deliveries worked perfectly. I don’t see how he could have played it better, and he added a lot to the movie.

Bruce….well, what can one say about Bruce and his likeable persona? I loved feeling and rooting for him, which is exactly what you wanted. You can tell he’s a good guy in real life, too.

Thanks, Hugh, for wisely using all the resources available to you and producing such a great movie for the rest of us to enjoy. I look forward to the next one, however you choose to do it!

Brian, I was pretty lucky that the two local police chiefs like and trust me. Plus, I proimised not to put their respective departments in a bad light (pardon the pun). And that's pretty much all there is to it. Any DV Info member can probably find the same results with their local PDs if they present themselves and their ideas in a professional manner.

Lorinda, I appreciate your attention to detail. In real life, Chris comes off like a hard@** but as per my previous reference, he's a cactus: Prickly on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. This is Mike's debut as an actor and an involved member in one of my projects. Mike approached me one crisp, September evening on the Holiday Inn roof while I shot a colleague's wedding video. As we sipped bourbon and puffed a cigar, he mentioned that he had viewed one of my previous movies and asked to take part in my next. Be careful what you wish for, Mike, you just may get it. He didn't disappoint in his enthusiasm and dedication. As for Bruce, he's an amazing individual on so many fronts. I can't brag enough about him. I'm proud to be his colleague and friend. He's one heck of a homicide detective. And man, can that guy dress. You have to see to believe some of his suits. Describing them here does the image no justice.

I also have to throw a shout out to my dedicated, steady crew who always helps my shoots run smoothly. Tommy, my sound guy and all around grip, is the most unpretentious, dedicated fellow you ever want to meet. And the joke is that he's an actual working videographer who is sent all over the country to interview world famous film stars, sports celebrities and sporting events. He's the real deal! I like him so much that despite my declaration to never shoot another wedding video for as long as I live, I volunteered to shoot his for free in May. Good luck and many happy years, Thomas. Janet LaRocca, my former partner prior to her transfer to homicide, always made herself available as script/continuity girl. Her husband, Mike, a big shot at our local Pepsi distributor, also shows up when he's not playing pool or flying to some far away state for a football game. Now THERE'S a guy I'd like to get in one of my movies. Talk about a real character?

Sorry for rambling on. I know nobody is going to read this but I guess I wanted to honor my actors and crew as a "thanks" for their dedication. Without these guys, there'd be no movie.

That begining sceen was right out of any movie or tv show about cops...such a big budget look on a small budget.

I loved the lighting in the main cop's room...I think the other cop's room should have been just as edgy though, not so evenly lit.

Really terriffic stuff.

I did get lazy with camera settings. I could have tweaked my in-camera menu but I just like to keep everything at -0- and light as best I can. I don't like to keep actors standing around waiting whilst I play with the camera. The bedroom lighting didn't turn out exactly as I wished since the cardboard cookie I used was cheap and too thin to block the light better. I was attempting to use a trick I learned at a lighting seminar but, because of my cheapness, I purchased too thin a square of poster board at Staples. I won't do that again.

A funny anecdote about that scene: Five of us were squeezed into Mike's master bedroom. Tommy the sound man lay on Mike's bed just out of the frame. Bruce sat on the floor at Tommy's feet, reading his que lines to Mike who pretended to be talking to him on the phone. Brian (a non-stop eating machine and the bad guy who jumps out of the trailer), stood right next to Bruce holding up the cookie board in front of the light. Between the first and second take, Brian breaks wind right in Bruce's face. What amazes me most is that Brian made it out of that bedroom without a good ass kicking. Bruce must have felt very generous that night but made a solemn promise to post Brian as the crime scene officer at the next decomposed body he found in Atlantic City. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

I really liked the whole film. The opening was stunning. At first I wondered how you could ingratiate yourself into a real crime scene, and as it unfolded and I realized they were all acting, I was even more impressed. The actors were amazing, this is something that could easily have really been on tv. And I also really liked the techniques- the lighting, camera angles, everything. The ending was nice, too- a bit ambiguous- did he join his partner after seeing the episode to save the day, after being written off as crazy? Very Twilight Zone-ish. I also looked at the other link on your site and enjoyed the background on making the film. Looking forward to seeing more films from you.

These guys did a fantastic job. You know, I guess to be a good detective one must be a good actor. I want to once again thank everybody for their positive feedback because the guys are reading this and are ready to work on another project because of this movie's warm reception.

We truly are blessed. In so many ways other than movie making. :-)

Brian breaks wind right in Bruce's face. .

Thats funny!

Jeff

It would have been funnier to see Bruce throw Brian out of the second story window!

I feel like I'm a day or two behind here, but nonetheless I LOVED YOUR MOVIE!

Great camera work! Great acting! Great script! It was all very natural and very entertaining! I really liked the twilight zone-like concept of him coming home every night to see what happened to him that day on T.V. even after he's forced to take leave for a few days. The ambiguity as to whether he's really crazy and imagining the whole thing or whether there's really some sort of supernatural thing going on is really well executed. I'm totally impressed that you got this to come together in only two weeks! Again, well done. :)

Haha I wondered when I saw the cop cars if you were a cop yourself...I figured this had to be the case! It makes me feel way less guilty for using my work location and fellow employee friends for my film! :) Hey we gotta use the great resources around us when we can, right?

I fully endorse the shameless use of any and all resources. :-) Thank you kindly.