| Welcome to the Super Champion Film Zone. We hope your visit is dope. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, creating a personal blog, feeding contents, filling the database, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Films I've Directed. | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: May 3 2015, 12:23 AM (862 Views) | |
| reesepd | May 3 2015, 12:23 AM Post #1 |
![]()
Paul Reese.
|
Been making "no-budget" films - short and feature - since 2008. Many aren't even available online (60+, actually) anymore, but here are a few - even if the quality of the uploads are blegh... Would love to hear thoughts! Thanks! ALICE (2015) HOLLYWOOD (2014) NIKKI (2014) PAZUZU (2013) CLEANERS (2011) SNAKE (2011) THE GRANDSON (2011) THE VAUGHN SISTER (2010) Edited by reesepd, May 3 2015, 12:31 AM.
|
| He's got the fire, and he walks with it... | |
![]() |
|
| javierquintero | May 3 2015, 05:22 PM Post #2 |
|
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I've started 'The Vaughn Sister'. I'll let you know when I finish it. |
![]() |
|
| reesepd | May 3 2015, 11:11 PM Post #3 |
![]()
Paul Reese.
|
Thanks. Coincidentally, you picked my least favorite from this batch. Haha Edited by reesepd, May 3 2015, 11:12 PM.
|
| He's got the fire, and he walks with it... | |
![]() |
|
| reesepd | May 15 2015, 04:56 AM Post #4 |
![]()
Paul Reese.
|
Hey Javier, did you manage to get through that one? Hopefully it didn't scare you off. Haha |
| He's got the fire, and he walks with it... | |
![]() |
|
| javierquintero | May 15 2015, 07:27 PM Post #5 |
|
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I need to watch the last three parts of it. I'll give you comments soon |
![]() |
|
| javierquintero | May 18 2015, 06:25 PM Post #6 |
|
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Reese, I finished "The Vaughn Sister". Thanks for your patience. I've had some extra-work sometimes and some other unexpected responsibilities in the last days. I chose to watch your first film and your latest one because I want to check your evolution in terms of techniques and concepts. My approach is obviously subjective. Time In some shots you give us time to contemplate landscapes or characters moving (the girl walking, for example) or the two guys talking while on bed. My impression here is that compositions could have been much more powerful. In general, framing is an aspect that I hope to evolve somehow in the next seven films. It is difficult to say this is the "right" or the "wrong" way to do it, but in some shots the eye needs to follow some directions or patterns across filmspace. This is of course related to the camera positions. During the billiard game you have a master shot and sometimes you go to close-ups and then go back to the master shot again, but once again, compositions make this transitions between shots more uncomfortable. Sound As a foreign viewer, it was difficult for me to catch some dialogues that I consider that are important for the plot. Maybe it was because of the position of the microphone or other devices making some noises at the same moment (fridges, etc). I understand that in some films, direct sound is intended to challenge the viewer's attention, but I think this condition was predominant in your film and that took away meaning instead of adding it to the mood or communication among characters. This is something I would like to see improved for the next films. Acting The three people are evidently beginners, but it doesn't mean they can't follow instructions on where to move to or how to follow some marks across the space, or the amount of gestures they can use to communicate or to complement words. Drama I miss some ways to catch the viewer's attention in terms of drama and character construction. If we know a bit more from the characters and what they want, maybe we as audience would be eager to play more and to try to anticipate what is coming, even if we are wrong. Some true or false clues about the upcoming events would stimulate more our participation as viewers with the plot. I appreciate your work and the general freshness it has. I'll watch "Alice" looking forward to these aspects in regards to your process and I'll be back with more comments. Edited by javierquintero, May 18 2015, 09:24 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| HAL 9000 | May 18 2015, 08:39 PM Post #7 |
|
Hey Javier, I have watched Alice on MUBI and thought it was a decent film. I have yet to watch these other films listed here. I'd be interested to see what your thought are on that film. It would be interesting to see if we come to the same conclusions. |
![]() |
|
| javierquintero | May 18 2015, 09:23 PM Post #8 |
|
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Great, Hal. I'll watch it and we'll comment it here. All feedback is important for Reese's process
|
![]() |
|
| reesepd | May 24 2015, 11:25 PM Post #9 |
![]()
Paul Reese.
|
Thanks for watching, man. Just knowing that you committed to that 100+ minute piece of work says a lot. It was my first film where I was really flirting with what I would like to do within my own restraints as an amateur, no-budget, no-resource filmmaker when I was eighteen. If I made that story nowadays, it would have been executed much, much differently.
I, at the time, hadn’t any idea what I wanted to do with my framing, so I did very awkward bounces back and forth with wide and close images and I agree that with this, they are quite jarring. I cannot stand many of the shots in this one – most particularly the billiard one where you can see an object at the bottom, or a shot early on in the kitchen where the top of a beer bottle is present. All stuff I learned to pay more attention to in the future. There’s also the fan in the frame during the climactic conversation. Bah. I would have done so much differently in approach nowadays, but it’s interesting to look back on these things.
Thanks to ‘The Vaughn Sister’, I learned of my limitations with sound. From there on out, I decided to focus less on dialogue and more on action and what the viewer sees. For example, in ‘Cleaners’, there’s dialogue that is intentionally inaudible and overpowered by loud fans and music blaring. In other films, where I did want dialogue that was important, I made sure to execute it in a manner to where it isn’t drowned out like it was in ‘Vaughn Sister’.
It was all three of ours’ first times acting, and the film itself was largely improvised dialogue- and narrative-wise. I also learned a lot about that process and applied it to work I did there on out, too – and applied narrative ideas to my future work so that I never lose track or opportunity to apply foreshadowing and other tools into the story’s progress. Thanks for commenting on that, I definitely would like for commenters to make note of the performances since I never worked with professional actors.
Very much agree and thank you so much! ‘The Vaughn Sister’ was more of a dive-in and see what I can do type of experiment. Took a lot from it, too, and it helped me find my voice. If that’s much of one, I haven’t an idea. Haha. Hope you enjoy ‘Alice’. Very proud of that one, even if the quality is, as with all of these, degraded with its upload on Youtube. |
| He's got the fire, and he walks with it... | |
![]() |
|
| javierquintero | Jun 17 2015, 12:39 AM Post #10 |
|
Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I just watched Alice. Thanks for the patience. I have had some busy weeks, but here I am. It has been such an interesting exercise to watch your work. Here are my comments. Please remember these are totally subjective: Sound This was my first consideration when watching it. Now dialogues have become clearer. It does not have to be a rule to follow, but unless that you want any kind of hard noise (machines, nature, music score) trying to obstruct dialogues on purpose or because of narrative reasons, it is better to keep those words audible and understandable. It bothers me when we can hear the wind hitting the microphone during outdoors scenes: you can tell that is not part of the narration. Acting and Time The characters in this story seem to be more solid because they perform daily life actions. In the same way, silence is precisely the element that make them be more believable. Silence replaces the urge to be talking or demonstrating inner states through unnecessary gestures. This, along with the shots of long duration, makes the audience give time to these characters to develop. When she approaches the deer there is some good timing. I am not exactly sure if the camera man (maybe you) was prepare to anticipate how the deer was about to react. I would suggest to train more with the hand-held camera, because one never knows when the action is going to be and when is necessary to walk or run behind it. Drama I had a feeling of constant expectation about she is going to live next. The pattern "she will be picked by a guy some times per day" can be anticipated and we need to see what is in between each ride. So this builds suspense. The last shot, because of the time of the day, the place, her attitude, in fact, gathers all the accumulated tension throughout the small episodes with Alice. Composition I can definitely see an evolution from The Vaughn Sister to this point in regards to what you want to point out to in each shot. What I have to say is that it would be worthy to play more with depth of field. It does not necessarily depends on having specific lenses, but on how you organize different layers of information across the space. Try suggesting different directions or angles inside shot if possible (even in the closed ones) to enhance actions and to guarantee more attention from the viewer. Edited by javierquintero, Jun 17 2015, 12:39 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Filmmaker's City · Next Topic » |








![]](http://z5.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)
8:33 AM Jul 11