ChillyZebra (11th May 2010 05:49)
I discovered this film also while watching the Fxhome awards. Gratz on the nomination.
I really enjoyed it. Just getting a 30m "short" together is awesome. The story was very good, and many of the shots (especially the whole b/w beginning) were really nicely done.
I liked the way you burnt out the blue-screening in the car with a background sun though, rather than the (far too common) blurring out.
Like others have commented, I felt it was a little longer than it should have been. Much of the lead up, especially the car, and some of the forest scenes could have been condensed. It's hard when you're also the editor, there is no-one that you have to fight with to get your scenes included =) But you really need to look at it with an objective eye, what is EACH scene adding to the story.
The scene where Johanna thinks they hit a girl though, I think exemplifies the "too much talk" problem. If she REALLY thought they'd hit someone, she probably wouldn't have sat around chatting in the car as long as she did. Personally, I think that scene could have benefited by having an image of a girl that looked like Johanna's sister, as we saw her later. It would have helped strengthen the fact that Johanna was tormented by it, as well as subtley introduced the idea of ghosts in the forest before we found that out.
The only other thing that no-one has mentioned, was I felt the sound often was a problem. When Johanna is getting her bags downstairs, the rustling is completely overpowering. Very often, the prop noises were way too prominent. In the forest, there was a great part where the ambient noise dropped way down, before Johanna saw the kid the first time. But then later on, Johanna talks about there being no sound at all, yet the ambience noise was as loud as ever. Also, there was so much essing and popping in most of the dialog that I found it very distracting. It seemed like the whole car sequence was ADRed, as well as many other parts. It really needed a better pop filter and more de-essing I thought.
Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed it very much.
Garrison (19th Aug 2009 05:47)
Sorry I didn't get a chance to look at this sooner Red, but this is a huge production from you and kudos for the work going into it.
I agree with the choice of shots in here as they are varied in many good ways. It doesn't get too boring visual-wise.
The suspense was done well as it was a slow burn feeling.
The acting of Johanna was very passable in this and Thomas' varied from credible to almost sleepwalking through certain parts. I didn't get the feeling that he felt like he was in any danger.
After seeing the before and after shots I could really appreciate the work in grading and compositing that you've done.
Some of the music fit nicely (like the piano at the 25 minute marker) and some placement of music was rather odd (like the music at 9:50 - from VCPs Pro Scores library).
The audio needs to be leveled out better. At moments the dialogues level is fine, then the next, the music or sounds of bags drown everything out.
Regardless, this was quite an enjoyable ride and am thoroughly inspired by the effort you've put out by this Red.
