DVC 10 "I'm Sorry" by Travis Johnson

[Travis Johnson]

For my film, I wanted it simple yet scary so I used all available resources right at my fingertips. We shot this in one night in my garage. I wanted the room to resemble a basement and really wanted to shoot in the basement in my parents house but it was way too small. Creating the set was fun, as my dad helped with construction and I did all the design work, including the great blood all over the walls of plastic.

All of the cast and crew are good friends of mine. The actress is a local model that I've worked with before on some photo shoots for album artwork. The husband in the film is actually her boyfriend. The killer is a good friend of mine that just came in and winged the part. He has never acted before besides with elementary school plays and myself and the crew agreed he did a damn good job.

The three minute time limit caused me to cut out quite a bit of stuff that added to the film. I will be editing a extended/directors cut edition if you will this week.

And to add this film was shot with a Sony VX2100.

[Josh Chesarek]

Very nice. I am now glad that I decided not to use infidelity as a mechanism in my short film now. I would not have done as well as you did. Very gritty. The setup for the basement was very well done. Nice and messy. Made me wonder how many people he had in there before her :) Hanging mirror... did he make them watch what was happening to them selves?!? Nicely done :)

[Meryem Ersoz]

"it's only a movie...it's only a movie"

i HOPE that it's only a movie, that one scathed my retinas, dang. i thought marco's was freaky, but this one was like somebody's 8mm snuff film dragged out of a cardboard box from a filthy crawl space. whew. good job. i think!

[Lorinda Norton]

Oh man, Travis….this is the very type of movie I was afraid we’d be watching. I absolutely HATED it! (LOL! That’s a compliment, given the fact that we were supposed to be scared.)

You did a great job with it. I should be watching it again to look at finer points, but I’m sure you won’t mind if I pass…

:)

[Dick Mays]

Travis,

You could make exploitation films. Got a knack for it.
I liked the jerky camera that was obviously her POV as she woke up in the basement. The white backdrop gave a stark look to the profile shots. Some good creepy dialog, "We've only just scratched the surface."

And the importance of the ring held before her face. See, here is a victim who deserves her gruesome death. Biblically it was stoning. In the modern era it is death by meathooks.

Good screams too, in the closing credits.

Dick

[Travis Johnson]

Thanks for the comments!

I really want to expand on this story and so do the actors and the crew so you may see more of this story in the future. With the mirror that was a small idea that myself and a friend of mine had while tossing around different elements. We really wanted to add in some actual torture, and with that mirror we were going to have him actually pulling her teeth (not literally of course lol). I'm really wanting to implement more blood and gore effects into a expanded version. I also have some plot twists that I really want to use but we'll see how further writing goes.

*pats Meryem on back* its ok.......shhhhh..................shhhh............btw its not a movie!!!!!! /cue thunder and lightning!

@Dick: Another person told me that they think my thing should be horror, especially of the exploitation sub-genre. I do really really enjoy the old 70s exploitation flicks, hell they're one of the main reasons I got into film making. Evil Dead, I Spit on Your Grave, Dawn of The Dead, Zombie, Day of The Dead, Last House on The Left, etc.

Oh look my 100th post! \m/

[Marco Wagner]

I really liked the setup of this one - no words, just a guy sitting and his chick running out on him. What a nice surprise in the end, ooof, the teeth first, man! I was scared, for her, lol

[Bradley L Marlow]

The stiil photo has now come to life!

I liked this film. I will echo the sentiments already stated by our fellow filmmakers. Nice little twist at the end too.

Jenn did a great job in her role, as well as Chris and Russell.

Well done!

[Bruce Foreman]

Yup.

This one is downright scary. I kept telling myself it was just a short movie, but one of the things I do in real life is teach women liscensed to "carry" how to defend themselves against creeps and sociopaths.

I often have to convince very trusting women just how evil some can be. This movie would do just that.

Your people's acting was superb, your cinematography and visuals built tension, suspense, and terror on the part of the woman.

[Travis Johnson]

Thanks Bruce. When I think of being scared I think of being put in a situation where you have no idea whats going on around you. The fear of surprise and being vulnerable at that time is something I drew from. As I had said before I really would have liked to implement scenes of torture, not just actual gore itself but blend in devices that tortured the psyche more than the body.

[Branden OHara]

first post.

I had tons of fun on the set helping travis with this one(camera operator). After seeing the raw footage i was impressed with the cc travis did to give the mood the film needed. I thank everyone for the feedback, and I can't wait to get to work on the next challenge. Thanks travis for letting me help you.

[Travis Johnson]

w00ts you finally got your confirmation email lol

But yeah thanks man for helping out and thanks for the compliments. There was definitely a great vibe on set and hopefully I'll be working with this cast and crew more in the future. I also can't wait for the next DVC!

[Chris Barcellos]

Travis:

Very nice job on this one. Well edited. Difference in sound levels and room sound did detract a bit from an otherwise great film.

[Travis Johnson]

Yeah I wasn't too keen with the audio and this was the first time using the RODE videomic on a improvised boom pole. Learned a lesson though.