Come check out Enigma in its first public viewing! It is part of the Dances with films festival (www.danceswithfilms.com)) Enigma will screen on Tuesday June 9th at 5pm. If you like Sci-fi, come check out our new film!
shareWatched it on Amazon Instant Video. Sorry, was not impressed, although I can see a lot of work went into it. Nadia Salamanca was the one good thing in that movie, what can you tell us about her? Is she going to continue acting?
What was the point of the game at the beginning of the movie?
What happened to the murderous alien's body in the end?
Why did the murderous alien seem to want to just play with the girl at the end?
I'm assuming all of this was done by the little friend ... the Pillsbury Dough futuristic weapon ...
And then just to be ominous you threw in that the jerk military guy kills
his own niece to test this "weapon".
I gotta say, lots of interesting effects, and a lot of work to go
through for a movie without a very good plot. Better luck next
time, I can see you guys have talent, but I don't know how you
got so many high ratings for this movie without stuffing it with
unfair reviews from your friends?
Hi Bruce.
Well, first off, thank you for watching the film. I'll answer you questions below. Believe or not, we have lots of people who enjoy the film who are not just our friends. The beauty of art and film is that we all get to enjoy different things. Just because you didn't like something, doesn't mean everyone shares your opinion. They have a right to enjoy it just as much as you have a right to dislike it.
This was our first film together and we learned a lot. We had no budget, it was purely funded by ourselves and we are proud of what we pulled off.
Nadia and her husband started a wonderful company called Elevate, you can find more here..
http://elevate.us/
Now for your questions...
1) No game at the beginning, just a day in the park. It was more for our film festival audiences that didn't know it was set in the future, just was a fun way to introduce the ships.
2) We state during the opening sequence that the alien was found dead in the corridor. We wanted our audience to make that connection later, but in retrospect, we needed a shot of her dead in the background.
3) We liked the idea that these creatures would learn from each of the bodies they take over. With the Engjneer, it learned the mechanics of the ship and where it would be most vunerable, with the alien, it learned fighting skills. Essentially, its like a cat toying with its prey. Plus, it was more interesting to have a fight scene than to just kill everyone easily.
4) The General was just a very typical archetype. Yes, evil and out for glory. We weren't trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to make a fun film.
Hope that answers a few things. Sorry you weren't impressed. Films are never an easy thing to get through, I'm proud of our cast and crew. As for my brother and I, we learned a lot and are applying it to our new film. Hopefully you'll give us another chance down the road.
-Matt
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the response and the answers. I'm all for new ideas in science fiction, but I see little science fiction these days and mostly fantasy that has no basis in fact or reality - like "Alien" for example. There are times when I can overlook that, say like if there is some other compensating aspect of movie or series, like "The Walking Dead" that is something different from a plain zombie movie, which I have been over since my late teens. I felt your film was influenced quite a bit by "Alien". I don't think we will ever find any life form in the galaxy that can change its basic structure to integrate alien biochemistry or memories ... but then again, you never know.
Sorry I am pretty hard to impress in terms of movies. I am impressed that you actually made a movie, that's a respectable accomplishment on its own. I find films that just add features or facets that are in other movies that the public are statistically likely to enjoy or respond to ... well I have a hard time calling that art. I hope in your future efforts you get to the point where you are not just playing musical chairs with already established memes. Good luck.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the amount of art that goes into even a little film like ours.
Here's a look at the making:
http://www.enigmathemovie.com/insideLook/bts.htm
People are very quick to judge filmmakers. Perhaps because it is put out there to be judged. Every story is pulled from old ideas, you try to put your own twist on things, or even just have fun with successful ideas. There is room for all.
Independent films like ours do the best with what we have. Which is usually not much. I'm always throughly impressed with someone that can make it over the finish line. Its a difficult road, trust me. You don't always get exactly what you had envisioned, but you certainly learn a lot along the way. You grow, and try again.
Also... the universe is pretty big...there just might be a Phobos out there...maybe he's already here!
-Matt
Just saw your film and all I can say is WOW!!
STRONGLY factoring in your extremely low budget and time involved, it was a masterpiece. It reminded me of an episode of the New Outer Limits, in story quality and effects. If the New Outer Limits opening had been tacked onto the beginning, I would never had known it was an indy film. I loved the opening, not original, but definitely not used enough in bigger budget sci-fi films.
I only had one problem with it, and it was (upon a second viewing) my fault. I didn't understand the ending, until I watched it a second time and heard that the prisoner was found dead.
Also the acting was a little lacking, but completely excusable with the budget you had (I read it was 50k).
I see why this film won so many awards. It's a shame that you got such a low IMDB rating, but considering that it is in the six range, that is absolutely stellar compared to other low budget films, so if the the low rating disappoints you, I don't think you are looking at it right. Gets an easy 8-9 in my book.
You even managed to cram a tiny bit of character development in that 43 minutes. I can easily say this is THE best sci-fi low budget short film I have seen in a long time. If you look at my profile, you can see I watch a lot of TV and films, (so to those others reading this) I am not biased towards or affiliated with the film. Ignore the negative reviews, they are film snobs that never take a budget or other factors into consideration. The 20+ awards this got, were WELL deserved.
Do you have any others, I see this was put out four years ago. Anymore to come?
Oh, one more thing. I have watched the firefly movie and series. I didn't associate it with your film until I saw the critical reviews. I thought it stood up well enough on it's own to not initially see the comparison. Rip-off, is an obviously blatant copy. This wasn't in my book. It stood well on it's own.
shareI, too, found Enigma to be entertaining - with clever twists and an impressive completeness to some of its narrative threads. Great work - I look forward to what the Shumway Brothers have in store for the future.