It was really a 2 maybe 3 but because some of your cast and crew decided to "cheat" and vote it a 10 (as u admitted in other threads) i had to vote lower to even it out.
That is kind of unfair... just because what the cast does should not make you vote a one to even it out. I am sure if you made a film and your cast was behind it they would do the same thing. Wouldn't you agree. It is not like I asked them to go vote it a 10. I even sent out an email and mentioned to them several times if you vote for it on IMDB vote fairly. The fact I admit the votes are possibly swayed by cast lets those know I am willing be forth right an honest about how the cast & crew would treat a film they worked on.
ok the reason why this was a bad "movie"
First we will talk about the sound since you urself are a DJ and it's the one thing i thought would be alright. some scenes u could barely make out what people were saying. the best example here was in the shelter when the FEMA or homeland or whatever guy (we'll talk about him again later) and skinny white trash guy were trying to settle everyone down. Plus the weak sound effects used for the guns/machineguns. I mean c'mon ur a DJ buy a good sound effects CD
Yep, the sound is sh!t in some areas...I agree 100%. I didn't have a sound guy until halfway through the shoot and we had to use a shot gun mic at times... That scene you described at the time it was filmed sounded good through the headphones but when I dumped the footage something went wacky. I have been trying to figure this out until this day, but without the proper ADR equipment or resources I am kind of stuck.
I did buy a Sound FX disc set and was pissed when I blew $100 for it and ended up what I ended up with. Luckily just before the theatrical release I was able to find better sound FX and replaced a majority of them... The Machine gun sounds are still a bitch and half to find decent ones unless you spend $$$$ which at the moment isn't happening.
Being a DJ really has nothing to do with sound. As a Dj you spin music, the clubs I worked at had sound systems installed by professional tech's. Plus what I hear through headphones in a club is much different then you would hear on the floor.
However, I do agree the sound needs work.
Second was the camera work more noticably the lighting. OK OK i know about the super low budget and what cameras u used from the trivia section on IMDB but there was entirely too much lens flare. i know thats hard and sometimes impossible to avoid like in the traffic scene but there were alot of it elsewhere in the movie. Also in the scene where the two fat guys park and exit there car to go shooting was wayyyyy too bright and also the scene where the kids were on the trampoline. Adjusting the F-stop or using a filter is an easy way to fix that. Also be careful filming the same set of scenes at totally different times or even days. When u two were getting ready for traget practice the scene kept changing from sunny to overcast to sunny to overcast depending on the camera.
The blown out scene you are talking about is actually addressed in the commentary. the DP was unable to shoot that weekend and since I was new to the process and we had to get it done I had to take over. It didn't look as blown out on the monitor as the raw footage did when i dumped it, so i crushed it contrast to take the edge off and it work a great bit. You should of seen it before. Since the DP wasn't present, I gave myself the "additional photography" credit so he didnot get blame for the way overlit scenes.
The gun scene was all filmed within a two hour window... The damn sky kept going crazy on us... As soon as we were ready to shoot the sun would duck back in and then suddenly appear again. Because of the tight schedule... this wasn't an option to come back and re-do. Again another item I believe I addressed in the commentary. You wanna see a bad mismatch of lighting and scenes check out F13 part 1. In some scenes the film is shot in the dead of winter while others are in the middle of summer.
The traffic Jam lighting and graininess was done purposely that way, right down to the cameras used. It could have been a little better lit I agree, but when you have 6 hours of night time each day for 6 days to do X amount of sequences you kinda have to push it. Why some scenes look better is that we went back out to the street a year later for some pick-ups and I wanted the DP to use the Sony VX2000 which a majority of that sequence was filmed with he said the DVX100 would be better. His experience is what I trusted and it was a bitch matching it up... But again inexperience played a role on my part. I don't regret using the DVX100, but once i watched the dumped footage I should have insisted on it.
Thomas Fant is also the guy who deserves the credit on a lot of the cinematic feels most of this film has. He did a fab job on no pay and busted his ass with no crew to work with. Believe me him choosing the DVX100 was a good choice for overall quality it just doesn't match the original TJ footage.
Third the acting was laughable at best the ONLY good actress was the Mother. Good being a relative term comparing to the other people in the movie. THE worst was the FEMA guy and i'm sure u as well know about this flaw. I understand he may of been a relative or a investor in the movie but as the director u should of done what was best for ur "movie". The girl over acting about not getting directions from the toothless gas station guy was a close second in "annoyingness" and what was with the little girl asking for help to find her MOM and the guy saying "would u ask a toothless guy for directions or to find ur mom"? I literaly LOL
the toothless guy scene was meant to be funny. I did that un-purpose, but again listening to the commentary would explain the actors and actresses in most roles. The FEMA guy actually did two roles, he was the police dispatcher and I brought him back as the FEMA guy. While again no one is professional, I think a lot of people set their sites that $11,000 films need to have the caliber of acting like a scorsese picture. Of course there is going to be subpar acting in no budget indie films, it is to be expected.
Fourth was the "Script" C'mon be honest there wasn't a script. there prolly was an outline and possibly even a storyboard but there wasnt really a script at least not one that was used alot. The reason why i know this to be true was the fact espicailly when the two fat guys (yes i know u gary are one of them) were talking you two would would constantly talk over each other and thats the biggest no-no when it comes to dialouge. All you guys did was call each other a *beep* and "ur a hardcore partier" and "ur stupid no ur stupid"
That scene was not scripted, if referring to the dialogue in the car after the opening credits. However, in terms of hanging out with real people and knowing them for 3+ years and knowing their family and party habits, that is actually more on par than the crap I see in Hollywood fair where some guy claims he partied all night then flashing back to him puking in an alley somewhere. The other guy Brian, whom you refer to as Fat guy #2, he actually isn't fat, however, if you must use the term yes I am fat and if thats a problem then maybe you should have turned the film off. Every film wants to have pretty people, you try to the EVERYDAY joe thing... someone you would actually see walking down the street, and people act like you are doing them a disservice. It seems like if Brad Pitt isn't cast... then a movie isn't watchable. I dunno about you but I am sick of seeing pretty people in horror films, and them going through the entire film without looking worn out or beat up.
Last but not least was the fact that most of the characters were either Nameless or not established. The viewer has to have at least one person to whom they can identify or feel sympathy for. The only characters name i knew was the mothers michelle conner and i only remember that one because when u two went to her house to look for her you called out her full name just in case there was another michelle in her house lol. oh yeah Sirius the dog was the other name i remebered cuz i figured u guys named him after the sat radio company.
The dog... I think he was named before Sirius existed... it is Brians dog, and I believe he is named after the cloud not the radio station. To be honest I can't remember why they named him that, but trust me it wasn't after Sirius Radio since we are both XM users. LOL... I know Brians name is mentioned, Mine, and Kevins. I also know the Shelter director identifies himself to the crowd as Tom Anderson, and the head Military guys address one of the soldiers as 'Abel'. Dave is never mentioned by name as it is not really necessary to the plot of the film, I just named him Dave because when i was doing the credits... Dave sounded better than "Only Traffic Jam Survivor Wearing White T-shirt." Even cutting it down to White-T-Shirt guy seemed kind goofy so I just used his name.
We all use our real names because being none of the leads aside from Dave ever acted before it would be easier to remember our real names as opposed to being in a scene and trying to remember... Hey Rupert or Jim Bob or whatever. Plus it made it feel more natural to us and made it feel more real.. at least to me.
i wont complain abouut the plot holes like others did in these posts i just wanna know the answer to two questions
1. Why did the landlines and cable go out well b4 the expolsion?
The original script for Deadlands was one year after the start of the outbreak and was deemed to expensive to shoot. When revised to an outbreak script the original version sent to the copyright office had a scene explaining how a terrorist organization was systematically shutting down key parts of the infastructure in 5 major cities before unleashing a powerful bio-chemical weapon. I have scenes written in detail of the city being blown apart and rescue crews going to find bodies left and right all over the place and as the clean up began... the bodies started waking up. Instead of trying to fake filming those and looking like crap... I just abandon that section of the script in favor of the Radio Dj reports which is you listen to closely explain what exactly is happening.
The DP suggested we film the Terrorists plotting the Baltimore assualt but we ran out of money and time, and in retrospect I would have loved to film it, but it never happened. When I had to revise Deadlands to an outbreak script I wanted to capture the things you had never seen in a zombie film.
Traffic Jams, Shelters, people on the road trying to find safety and family. Now I would have loved to see tons more panic in the TJ sequences, cars exploding as written in the © script, people trying to drive their cars away and crashing and hitting other people etc etc, but when you have x amount of dollars you have to scale things back to the bare essentials. Deadlands is really a concept film. In that I was hoping to make a zombie film of all the things I would like to see be done in a real big budgeted zombie film in hopes of someone catching the film and seeking out the original screenplay or somehow getting the scratch together to do a bigger budgeted remake.
After editing it together and showing it to people outside the cast & crew I was getting some great feedback, in which people caught onto what I was trying to do but understood the inexperience and the resources were not there to do it. However, they did get the concept of the project, and that was what I was hoping for. Not everyone is going to see past the acting and certain other elements, but when you go back and look at it after reading this I guarantee you will open your eyes a lot more.
2. In the first scene in the basement why did he fat guy look at his wrist and say it was time to go when it was obvious that he wasnt wearing a watch? Was it a homage to caddyshack 2? when chevy chase did it
Bingo... plus I am that guy. I am Gary. When I scripted that scene out I was watching a Chevy Chase film that night...and I caught him doing it and I am a huge Chevy Chase fan so it was my nod to Chevy. I know I didn't give it the justice he did, but wanted to honor him nonetheless.
Thank you for reading my post and b4 to tear me a new one remember you asked why some people voted it a one and u also asked for a detailed reason why.
Also i didnt spell check this so i dont want any childish remarks like "well ur an idiot u spelled so and so wrong"
I will be the last one to judge spelling, especially on an internet message board... well I have done it sometimes, but I am not overly anal about it.. I am glad you explained your reason, but admitting that it was at least a 2 or 3 but giving it a 1 because I mentioned the cast probably voted it a ten is really unfair in my opinion, but it is your decision and I don't hate you for it... Don't agree with it, but don't hate you for it.
Hopefully the above will help you see Deadlands in a different light and the intentions behind the film.
Also, please anyone else reading this don't jump down his throat or get tough ont he subject he is making a clear and concise opinion with questions needing an answer... I wish more people did this when giving their opinions on films.
Thanks
Dj aka Gary
I am located in New Jersey so if u want to either kick my as s or invite me to help in the sequel (since i obviously think im an expert in my own mind) i would be happy to do either.
If you are willing to come to Maryland to help shoot a film... and work for $5.00 and a bag of cheeto's... You will never get a NO from any of us.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=71742049
reply
share