Forum Archive Home -> Short Film Competition 2005 -> Feedback to competition entrants
Feedback to competition entrants | ||||||
| daamon posted 2006 Jan 14 16:23 | ||||||
| Well, I would've really liked to have entered but I didn't - I claimed lack of time and imagination. I now feel shamed... :oops:
So, to make amends, I though it only fair that I take the time to watch every entry and to vote accordingly. Irrespective of my scoring, I would like to say "Congratulations" to all the entrants - you achieved more then me just by entering. So "hats off" to you all for taking the time and effort to create your varying films - I enjoyed them all, whether the entrant was "stoned and drunk" ( :o :lol: ), has visions of aliens, lives in the Scandinavian town of Baldrick in Oregon (very funny), has disturbing dreams or just a dull day (great films), is environmentally aware (very thought provoking), or has a French silent film director for a great grandfather. | ||||||
| mats.hogberg posted 2006 Jan 14 17:06 | ||||||
| Hear hear! I enjoyed watching them all immensly!
/Mats | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 14 17:18 | ||||||
Thank you!!! :D You're now on my Christmas card list, that was a very nice post and as one of the entrants, I'm glad other people are having fun watching these. I know I am -- I haven't yet watched them all due to time issues (trying to fix a leaky roof at the moment at home, with occasional breaks to regain my sanity), but seriously I've found something enjoyable in every film, and while I have my favorites ("Wasp" at the moment 'cause I like special effects and suprise endings and this is the director's first film? YOW!!! Man, that's some talent!!!!), it's really the sharing I'm enjoying the most. :) And for anybody watching who gives any of these movies a rating of "worst" ... :| ... y'know, it's a lot easier to criticize something, especially anonymously, then to get up in front of a whole bunch of people you don't know and share something you took at least a little time and effort to put together. So again very seriously I rate everybody who entered (even me!!! :roll:) 5 stars out of 5. Thanks, all! What daamon said!!! :) | ||||||
| jimmalenko posted 2006 Jan 14 18:02 | ||||||
That makes it pretty hard to determine a people's choice winner, if everyone gives everyone 5 out of 5 :wink: | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 14 18:06 | ||||||
Not really, you just give everybody who enters a $500 prize! :D Seriously, is there just one prize for fan favorite? I assume so; I know I could just look up that info but I'm lazy. :) Is there like a top-3 "fan choice" where the winner gets a new car, second place is a set of steak knives, and third prize is you're fired? :P (That's from "Glengarry Glen Ross" for you non-movie addicts!) EDIT: Okay, I'll look at the "worst" rating as, "These are the top-5 favorites from 1st place to 5th place." So even getting a "worst" rating just means you placed in the top 5! :) | ||||||
| fritzi93 posted 2006 Jan 14 18:33 | ||||||
| Ozy, really like your movie. :wink: (Your location is a dead giveaway.) And thanks to all the entrants. Say, when will you post your review on "Wasp"? Awaiting that one eagerly. :sly: | ||||||
| MeDiCo_BrUjO posted 2006 Jan 15 09:00 | ||||||
| I can honestly say that I have enjoyed these films more than most of the movies I've seen in theaters lately.
Good Job to everybody!. While I can't give everybody a 5, I for sure can't give anyone a 1. It's just a great effort and you have to take everything into consideration. | ||||||
| dipstick posted 2006 Jan 15 10:29 | ||||||
| Wow, some of these guys put some time and effort into thier films. Very nice work everybody. I enjoyed viewing all of them. I can't wait till next year's contest. | ||||||
| lumis posted 2006 Jan 16 02:45 | ||||||
| i think i've got "worst entry" catagory wrapped up.. *dusts hands*, thank you, thank you very much. :lol: | ||||||
| TooLFooL posted 2006 Jan 16 15:56 | ||||||
| am i missing the 'baldrick' theme in some of these? | ||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 16 20:06 | ||||||
A 12 way tie? I could live with that. :) | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 16 21:22 | ||||||
Well, I went the very subtle route in my own entry ("City of Tomorrow"), but if you watch it closely, you can catch a fleeting reference. :P Actually there are two flicks off the top of my head I've seen here that I had to pay very close attention to figure out the "Baldrick" connection. And one where I still don't get it. But I'm willing to allow that the director did make the reference and I'm just not seeing it and so I'll consider them all as having passed that requirement. :) But I will give my "Best Use Of The Baldrick Inclusion Award" to -- "Air Baldrick," for both the length and timing of the use (explicit reference in the title only), and for giving this short film multiple interpretations. Is the "Air Baldrick" a reference to the dog? To the boy? To the game between the two? Or even to the type of b-ball moves shown? Or is it even deeper than that? Perhaps the haunting musical score is "Air Baldrick" (possibly an homage to Bach's "Air on a G String?"), and the scenes of basketball action are intended as a visualization of the non-verbal gestalt of music's overwhelming nature (a la Disney's "Fantasia," Pink Floyd's "The Wall," and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Baby Got Back"?), and/or perhaps to symbolize the emotion, passion, and dance-like interaction of two beings reaching, without words, for things beyond their reach? Brilliant on so many levels. Okay, I'm off to watch more films and do some more reports from the field, check other entries for my reviews and analysis! :) | ||||||
| mats.hogberg posted 2006 Jan 17 01:18 | ||||||
| Oh, City of Tomorrow was IMO one of entries with the strongest Baldrick connection. I too found it hard to find any connection to the theme in some (most?) entries.
/Mats | ||||||
| MackemX posted 2006 Jan 17 11:35 | ||||||
| excellent work by all I think :)
I thought 'The Cunning Plan' had a great Baldrick connection and in my eyes is probably closest to the Baldrick theme with it's reference to Baldrick himself aswell as the actual character Baldrick. I say this because if you take into account Baldrick's avatar is the character from the series Blackadder then it's great how the two were combined. I don't know how many have watched this comedy series but you should as it's brilliant :D. Baldrick's trademark in the series is that he always seems to come up with a 'cunning plan' :D | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 17 11:54 | ||||||
I've seen a few "Black Adders" but (and I mean no offense as I think the writing is brilliant and Rowan Atkinson is an extremely funny and talented actor/comedian), this show just doesn't do it for me, it's a bit "cold" for my taste. But this is just a matter of my personal taste!!! :) Though actually this is sorta relevant to my own "problem" when trying to figure out how to incorporate a connection to "Baldrick" -- I knew that the avatar for Our Own Baldrick (here on videohelp.com) is, indeed, Baldrick from a certain TV series ... but did that mean that the hope was that the reference to Baldrick in our short films should be the Baldrick as seen on TV, or to Our Own Baldrick, who is ... well, to me, in a not-bad-way, he's a cypher, a mystery, a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and smothered in secret sauce. :) Basically, I know nothing about the guy (he is a guy, right?), except he posts now and then, often a man of very few words, content to sit back (in a good way!) and let other people hog the limelight ... :) ... Notice I'm not such a person myself!!! :D Anyway, seriously, this was the one major thing I was trying to consider as I approached any idea for a movie -- how could I really incorporate a reference/homage/whatever to "Baldrick," when I didn't know what "Baldrick" was even about? As a person, that is? Again assuming we're talking about Our Own Baldrick, whom we (or me, anyway) only know as a tiny little icon on a screen? :| That's why -- and this is not a shot at those whose interpretations were more literal -- I didn't feel like approaching this from the perspective of "my" Baldrick having much of a "real-world" connection to Baldrick as seen on TV. So I took something of an oblique route -- because I don't really know Baldrick at all (again with the mystery-man thing), I approached my own little movie from the POV that I would show something of the "impact" of Baldrick in the world, all the things that happened because of him and his actions, but at the same time not really revealing much of The Man Himself because so little is known about him. To me, anyway. So I show you my vision of Baldrick and how so many amazing things have happened because of him and his actions, even as (in my movie) he still remains very much a mystery. :D Oh, and of course, 95% of all of my analysis is just tongue-in-cheek BS, but seriously, there is a germ of truth in there! :D EDIT: I almost forgot, there is one actually very, very, very, very subtle sorta "in-joke" that is pretty much impossible for anybody to get so I have to explain it but it really was thought-out by me when I did it: At the beginning of my movie, there's a guy standing next to a sign that says "Baldrick" on it. This was Photoshop-ed by me but it is an actual photo of me standing next to a sign -- which in reality was a Finnish highway directions sign -- taken not in Sweden but just outside Malmi, Finland (which itself is just outside Helsinki). Not that anybody could possibly tell but this does put my little town of Baldrick way up north in Fenno-Scandia! :) I believe that Our Own Baldrick lives in Skelleftea, Sweden? Anyway, that 1-second shot of the "Baldrick" sign was my most blatant homage to Scandinavians everywhere! :D | ||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 17 12:01 | ||||||
I think my entry "The Baldrick" played to the theme quite well, (if I do say so myself) :D | ||||||
| MackemX posted 2006 Jan 17 12:12 | ||||||
I loved the intro theme tune in that and I actually thought I was watching an episode of Blackadder when it started :D @ozymango, the theme can be interpreted in many ways and I enjoyed watching your movie also. I just related more to the cunning plan inclusion as I loved watching the series over the years :D. I saw the Baldrick sign and you had me thinking if such a place existed :D | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 17 12:38 | ||||||
Yup, absolutely, this is why I really liked this challenge -- we filmmakers were given a great opportunity to come up with any connection we could think of to "Baldrick," in whatever way we wanted, and it was and is truly fun to see all the different ways we responded to that challenge! :D A long time ago I got to go to a "creative conference" hosted by a bunch of movie makers (not trying to name-drop here but among them were Will Vinton of Claymation fame, Bob Gale of "Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale" fame, sound editor Walter Murch, indie director Gus Van Sant, and more!) and what made it really cool was the fact that all of these extremely talented people were very down-to-earth and they all had a very hard time coming up with an answer as to what a "creative conference" should even be about! :D Mostly they just ended up chatting away like regular guys ... :) ... but ultimately they did all pretty much agree on one thing: To a person, they all said that they all ended up being the most "creative" not when they had the freedom to do anything they wanted, but when they had some sort of limitation (or limitations) that challenged them to figure out how to do X thing in Y amount of time/money/whatever. That is, they all hated the fact that there were so many things they couldn't do sometimes, due to budget, interest by others, technical limitations, whatever, but in the end it usually turned out that they did their best work when they had all these limitations -- because they had to be creative (whether they wanted to or not!) to get something done on time! :D Anyway, I watch all these movies here and I see tons and tons of creativity -- you've got a camera and a slug, is there anything you can shoot in five minutes? :) Here's a new software program I've got and a camera, I've never made a movie before, can I come up with something? :) Et cetera. What a great bunch of creative people here! :D | ||||||
| Gobs posted 2006 Jan 17 13:09 | ||||||
This reminds me of Dogme 95. It really made the instructors focus on the storytelling. Tons of restictive rules and it all ended up with wonderful creative films IMHO. Bo | ||||||
| lumis posted 2006 Jan 17 18:16 | ||||||
dont forget, you were stoned and somewhat drunk too :lol: | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 17 18:54 | ||||||
Hey, I loved the wobbly opening credit on this! :D A very nice touch. Actually there's lots I liked in this one, I'll post more later on that entry's page. This contest is such a kick! :) | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 17 19:08 | ||||||
| I didn't feel it fair to bump my own movie ("Baldrick - City of Tomorrow") but I just had to post somewhere because somebody voted me a 5!!! Woo hoo!!! And it wasn't me who was doing the voting!!! :D I'm so stoked! You like me, you really like me! :lol:
And even if this vote came from somebody inside a correctional institution, or mental ward, or Enron, I'm still flattered. :) | ||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 17 19:20 | ||||||
| Ooooo, I can't wait. I've been loving your "From The Field" reports. :jump: | ||||||
| MrMoody posted 2006 Jan 18 14:24 | ||||||
| Dumb question #37: Is it OK to post comments in the individual film voting threads? | ||||||
| ozymango posted 2006 Jan 18 14:32 | ||||||
Geez, I hope so, what fun is it if nobody says anything? :| Anyway, so far I've posted a few comments :P and I haven't gotten any notes in return that this was frowned upon or not okay for some reason. Of course, my posts have always been on the very complimentary side (as are pretty much everybody's!) ... not that I think people need necessary to like each film equally but I hope nobody post rude comments. I can take a little constructive criticism, but be gentle, please! :D | ||||||
| gadgetguy posted 2006 Jan 18 15:27 | ||||||
Please do. I can't speak for the others, but feedback is part of the reason I entered. |
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