First viewing: great, really like it man. I’ll be back later today, will write properly, but if you’re online now, just want you to know: really cool.
better than that. I seek the words: no superlatives, they are bullshit: it’s a good good film.
A comment from GINA.
Thoughts (you can feel free to put them int he forum if you would like)
1) The music often brings me out of it. I think it would actually be stronger without a lot of it. This may have to do with familiarity, as soon as I heard the song from Wild Tigers I have known, I stopped thinking about your film and thought about that film. Also, it comes and goes so sporadically that I was constantly readjusting (maybe this is your point?)
2) You have some great image composition and work well with your actress. She is comfortable with the camera and that helps the flow of the piece and makes the text not seem obtrusive.
3) The text I actually liked too – in some ways it makes the overwhelming music work…
4) I liked watching her – but the mysterious man not so much. He seemed to take me out of the world you had crafted and made me think of the ridiculousness of the Williamsburg hipster’s (where I live) – maybe again this was your point? I laughed when I saw him..
5) Tell me what you were trying to do – what were your goals? And feel free to not pay attention to anything I said – I’ve been out of it lately – the heat and I are not good friends.
Did the music bring you out of it? I chose most of the songs in the movie by coincidence. I was listening to most of them during the shoot and they fit the mood I felt about the city and the characters and about loneliness. That was my goal with this picture; to portray the emotions I’ve felt living on my own in LA. I’d originally conceived a pair of scenes of people elaborating on the themes of loneliness I wanted to explore, making this a more narrative based film, but it felt overwrought in my head so I instinctively chose to make a tone poem. If that’s what you call it. I wanted to show her being very isolated and in the streets as well (empty escalators, elevators, residential areas, empty laundromats) and if a couple people slipped in that’s okay with me too.
And I can’t help if the mysterious man reminds you of Williamsburg hipsters. I’ve never even been to NY! As far as we designed him, in LA eyes, he’s a mix between a bum and a cheap LA pimp. We had shot a scene of him wandering down the streets and she’s following him everywhere. Eventually he leads her to an alleyway where he has a confrontation with his prostitute. The girl watches and is stunned and runs away. I cut that out for technical issues and because I decided to cut most of the narrative scenes out. I kept a brief clip of the prostitute in the final film.
If the music cut you out of the film (personally, I chose wild tigers the song because I feel it’s an injustice when a song is in a bad movie so I like to think I’m free to use it) because it’s sporadically goes in and out. Yeah that’s the idea. I wanted sound in general to come in and out very abruptly. I can understand if it works or if it doesn’t work with some people. What about the mood? Did you get a sense of the girl’s or the author’s loneliness?
Maicol Andrés Ordoñez
To any of you who like short films or japanese women or feel a little bit isolated in modern metropolitan culture or like great music or miss movies made in black and white or love cinema; those who have it scrawled all over the walls of their minds.
Well. I present to you all a movie I made with such an appreciation. In order to remember that making films is loving cinema completely. I’m very excited about it and I’m very happy to be telling everyone on TA about it. This is nice.
My short film HYPNOTCHKA:
http://www.vimeo.com/1149406
I dedicate this film to G A R A G E. The brand-spanking-new cinema collective coming soon to TA. We’re like toast, we jam up, we jam down, and we’re very tasty.