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Echo (surrealistic short). Opinion needed. shot with fs7
  • Hi guys

    Can you please tell me what you think of this movie? I can still change things (there is not a lock yet). I know it is not a wide public film, but I hope I can reach some public. It's a story told with lateral elements (bit like the way we dream) Can you tell me what you think? Tips? Thank you so much

    pasw: echo1

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • I'd leave it as it is - seems you've got the surrealist flow working really well. Once the film was over, I wasn't able to figure out exactly what happened, but perhaps you're going for that ambiguity. My instinct says walk away from the canvas.

  • If you want to work more :): I'd tray to edit it down to (below) 15 mins with the following in mind: preserve and play with intensity and magic. Whenever there are elements which are clearly realistic (like in the street, in the group) make sure that the audience keep in touch with the magic / surrealism. In the group you do a good job with that I think. To me the day exteriors (except for the end) are not working as they are graded now as they feel like street shot video (maybe you haven't done the grade yet?). I'd also want some element of sound which wanders about throughout the film. The drone-delay clicks does a bit of that to an extent, but I think it would make sense for you to check out for instance Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive (though I'm sure you've seen them or other films from Lynch) where the sound works really well to sort of establish a foundation / room (boundary) for the story. Don't be scared to make some fast cuts either. Sometimes a glimpse might be enough to tell a part of a story and other times it makes sense to take it slow. I think, if you think about working with intensities in the edit (with a goal to get below 15 mins) then you can make it better (and have more festivals to send it to).

  • Thanks matt_gh2 and RRRR

    @RRRR Very interesting. I gonne look unto that. The grading was done already, but maybe I will do them over. So you thing the streetshot are to realistic? (the intention for me was to have surrealistic and realistic things in the film. So that the viewer on one point don't know any more what is real and what isn't. A bit like the leading role) Thanks for the tips!

  • I think they feel too realistic, yes.. More like cellphone shots than realistic as in street scenery from a film. On the other hand, I think you can play around with the grading quite a lot in the "unrealistic" spectrum as the way you have shot it, it feels realistic as the base modus. (not that you need to make something extreme, but you could easily go to monochrome or near monochrome or punchy colors in-between without it feeling out of place. I would take care to have a soft / low contrast look throughout though, also when the highlights are rather high (blown out). I like the way you have protected the highs in a lot of parts in the film. I'm thinking that I wouldn't want to loose touch with the "magic" in any part, for it to be a more physical experience (though I appreciate you aiming for a fluctuating modus in this sense, between the surreal and the real), and basically that is what I think you could get to work better in tightening the edit and the sound.

  • Thanks for the tips RRRR! I'm going to try that