Won my first award in cinema

[Funky--K]

hey guys!!

I'm a digital arts student, in Porto, but my course includes film classes, photography classes etc...

This year, there was this short film competition called 4.40. Basically, they give you a theme, and you have exactly 40 hours to make a 4 minute max short filme.

The theme they gave my team was A Mistake and a Photo Camera

Most of the other teams were going for the "artistic, no one understands us, pseudo-everything" crap, but we went the "cheap entertainment" lane!

Here's what we were able to pull off in 40 hours:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWMKsxPeOk

We won the Audience's Choice Award, which basically means, all the juris wanted us to lose, but the people love us

 

[The Don't]

That was pretty good, I'm impressed.

You know that first girl that got camera'd? Post a pic of her tits.

 

[The Don't]

Please ignore my repulsive behaviour.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Well as SG's premier film critic and darling of the culture world I suppose you've been eagerly awaiting my opinion, so here it is...

I'm gonna skip the computer game section because its appalling and **** and ruined the movie, but as to the real bit...

Your cameraman has a very good eye for a shot - difficult to see on ****ty youtube quality but he seems to have a knack for finding just the right angle and the result is very aesthetically pleasing. I like the film less and less as it goes along - at the beginning you had the option of maintaining the dark, cool, "moodiness" you had established well or taking it lighter, you chose the latter and I think you shouldnt have. I found the speeded up shots distracting and rather silly, but when you slowed it back down it had genuine grace of movement. You were let down by your actors who were competant enough when it comes to the actual "acting" parts, but the subtler aspects, such as when they were not the focal point, seemed contrived and forced. I felt some of it had a real JLG feel about it and I wish you'd maintained that - you showed us aspects of your town which was great - why couldnt you have brought that much more into it a la Godard round Paris - it would have added far more depth to the visual experience.

It's good - well shot and well directed, let down a little by actors and style.

 

[The Don't]

That's what I was trying to say.

 

[goal_machine84]

Good short film m8....but Sir_Didier_Drogba summed it up nicely

 

[Tom]

That's what I was trying to say.

Haha Tom

 

[Hopeunited]

I like! Good work mate.

 

[CarlosDanger]

I liked it.

Light-hearted and not too heavy. Good job on getting a story across in 4 minutes with a little scope to it. The fight part was somewhat silly, I agree, but overall I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it.

Nice work man!

 

[Funky--K]

Well as SG's premier film critic and darling of the culture world I suppose you've been eagerly awaiting my opinion, so here it is...

I'm gonna skip the computer game section because its appalling and **** and ruined the movie, but as to the real bit...

Your cameraman has a very good eye for a shot - difficult to see on ****ty youtube quality but he seems to have a knack for finding just the right angle and the result is very aesthetically pleasing. I like the film less and less as it goes along - at the beginning you had the option of maintaining the dark, cool, "moodiness" you had established well or taking it lighter, you chose the latter and I think you shouldnt have. I found the speeded up shots distracting and rather silly, but when you slowed it back down it had genuine grace of movement. You were let down by your actors who were competant enough when it comes to the actual "acting" parts, but the subtler aspects, such as when they were not the focal point, seemed contrived and forced. I felt some of it had a real JLG feel about it and I wish you'd maintained that - you showed us aspects of your town which was great - why couldnt you have brought that much more into it a la Godard round Paris - it would have added far more depth to the visual experience.

It's good - well shot and well directed, let down a little by actors and style.

hey dude

thanx for the critic, very accurate, but no offence... our whole point was to go against those pre-conceptions

that's the reason why we didn't win the main prize, it was all too wrong! none of us have that artistic vein, that abillity to make "the beautiful"

so we simply went for the "mix it up" aproach. Simple script-write. We wanted a dectective-mafia-film-noir meets buster-keaton-fast-comedy meets cheap-entertainment-videogame-fight. we just wanted to tell a funny story in 4 minutes that was easy to understand and entertaining to watch...

as for the actors... :amika: hehe, no chance. we're the actors. in 40 hours you don't get much better than that. a few friends helped, none of us has any acting school whatsoever. I'm the afro guy with the CBGB t shirt

note this was all in 40 hours, which is 10/15 hours max of real work... so much more than this is quite complicated

 

[didy]

hahah very nice, i enjoyed it.

 

[Sir Calumn]

that's the reason why we didn't win the main prize, it was all too wrong! none of us have that artistic vein, that abillity to make "the beautiful"

Come on man, have some self belief. THere were some beautiful shots in that and some real potential - you'll never get anywhere pissing about trying to make "joke" or "fun" films or dont take it seriously. You had a golden opportunity to have a go at making a really nice little short, and you got some of the way, but in the end it was your lack of ambition, not lack of talent, that held you back. What you've done is useless to you in terms of adding to your portfolio, of having something to show when you are trying to put other projects together, and that's a real blow because that's what you should be aiming for given a project like this.

Check out a guy called Abbas Kiarostami, the guy makes incredible 3 minute shorts, pure genius. What camera did you shoot with?