alec said:
Pretty cool part, this seventh one.
I like how you went mute during the beating and I like the shot where our hero cracks the other guy's skull with the metal bar.
Comments are going to include: tables with tools are too clean (and yeah, they are) and lack of action in last minute (he doesn't seem like he's been caught and now has to find his way out of the camp).
Still: I love it. Gimme more.
I have a lot of fun with sound design, it's probably my favorite part of post-production. I also have a blast recording my own sound effects: the head crack sound you heard is actually a couple different clips laced together of the sound a claw hammer makes when smashing a water mellon.
As for the tools, I agree the table looks a bit clean, but everything in this movie looks a little too clean. Part of the reason is the color correction actually makes things look a bit better, and that there's only so much detail a crappy 8mm video camera will pick up: if this was high def, you'd probably see that the table was dirtier than it looks on youtube.
Along the same lines of the overly clean complaint: it's hard to get unpaid actors to wear clothing that is really disgusting, or to rub mud on their faces. Some of the costumes I was able to get really gross, others had to be basically clean, depending on how dedicated my talent was. Also, generally speaking I don't have much time when on these shoots: I personally built this set, and dressed it, and lit it, and of course when one person is doing all that work it can become easy to overlook the small details. I try my best but sometimes it can't be helped. One plan I have for future episodes is to get a lot of fine ash from a wood stove, and just blast a lot of it into the air on set, so that it settles in a fine coat over everything. I got the idea from reading
The Road, in which most everything is covered in ash.
As for the ending, I felt like I wanted the action/violence in this scene to escalate to it's peak, then drop back to normal in preparation for the complex action sequence that is the next scene. Also, I wanted to emphasize the fact that Gray is back to business as soon as he's murdered the torturer: nothing fancy, just finish the job and get out. You mention it feels like he doesn't feel like he's been caught: I meant to imply that he's completely calm and collected at this moment, fully aware of his situation but not panicking.
Doesn't necessarily mean that I was successful at implying that, that's just what my goal was heheh. If the filmmaker is required to explain their movie to everyone who watches it, that's a pretty bad film maker, unless of course it's their goal to confuse people.
Very nice, looking forward to the next part.
