Chapter 4 - "Crimson Nightmare"
directed and edited by duno written and scored by jorel director of photography lance Oliver: guy with phone
Scoring
Judges' Votes
You nailed it all around on this one. Great sound, Great shooting, Great editing, and a clever story. I really like how you got the cell phone back in the story without having to work to hard to do it. This was a really fun piece to watch. Great job.
With the opening line in "Crimson Nightmare," "Nothing is what it appears to be" one must follow a dizzying story with nice circular camera moves and dissolves that add to the dreamy atmosphere. The music, red dress on the femme fatale and lines like "bleeding that beautiful shade of red," and "nothing is that black and white," all add to the film noir feel. The red dress, red lipstick and black and white background all fit nicely.
The story becomes far fetched with the addition of Oliver the hacker who has an algorhythm into the human mind. Even so, the opening is so strong that one is carried along with this leap in logic. The cell phone as controller is a nice touch. Our femme fatale, in red and surrounded by black and white delivers what may be fatal blows in deaths by cell phone. I was so struck by the way it opened, the language and the cinematic touches that I had to give "Crimson Nightmare" my vote.
The competition is quite strong. "Moida" shifts into film noir with a funny Humphrey Bogart style detective and shameless pandering to the judges that still caused me to laugh out loud. I give "Moida" a close second.
"Should You Succeed" and "It's Come To This," were contenders and had noir atmosphere in spades.
Guess our discussion in class is "What makes Film Noir?" While it does not fall into what would be considered a classic representation, it may actually be closer to the intent of those who originated the movement. We will talk.
It is difficult not to be engaged by some of the video work and overlays here. The addition of color certainly works to heighten the emotional impact. I am also aware that you had to do some serious editing to reach the 2-minute window. That hurt the story development some, which did feel a bit jam-packed. This is, however, the kind of work I have been expecting from you. If the other judges agree, then we will see if you can maintain the momentum and retain the title for the last couple of weeks.
Congratulations to the team. Excellent production value. The camera work is nice, although the spinning effect is a little overdone and dizzying. Nice editing. Good story-telling. Although this isn't 100% film noir, I appreciate your adaptation of the genre.
Comments
Nice work. You obviously put a lot of time in to this one. This is by far your strongest submission yet. I liked the style, way to stand apart from everyone else. My one personal problem is with the story, I just don't like science fiction twists. But overall you did an excellent job, I would not be surprised if you win.
I was expecting all your submissions to be like this. Excellent work and so far, the top of the class.
I feel this one was shot the best (so far, one more still to come). Excellent job of keeping just the red. But I feel in terms of story, this one is a little weaker. The story was a little complicated and a bit of a stretch. But once again, the cinematography (especially in the beginning) was great!
I really like this one, very professionally done. I guess no one likes sci-fi but good job Joel making the phone that was left behind by Kevin an intrigual part of the story. Much better than spirit casing.
oh yeah the music kills too
Great work, guys. Very stylized, interesting story, you get my vote...if I can vote.
Very well done. I like the leave color, gives it a nice touch. Very stylized, however not much in the way of film noir. It seemed much more "graphic novel," so to speak.
::Side Note:: (in case you care)..I noticed a little spill on the pavement around your actress from your color correction. You can fix that pretty easy with a grabage/junk matte.
This video is much better than your previous ones look forward to the next.
LIke stated earlier, about 10 seconds in you have that red spot on the ground. I like how you guys made the mysterious person into a woman. Mark wasn't too believable but everything else was just great. The best entry!
That chick is hot, gets my vote!
Excellent work, guys! The finished work is much more than I expected to see. Of course the score is great and great job with the cinematography.
Brandor The Conqueror is appeased
Editing was very well done, and I am curious to see where the sci-fi storyline leads. My vote, however, goes to the chick in the red dress. Amazing.
This was amazing. The girl reminds me a lot of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell). I can't wait for the next one!!
Good work, but this isn't film noir... at all.
Pretty sweet.
Btw, GET SILLY. (Guess who?)
Hmm, not bad guys. I liked it.
-Janie
The only thing that saved this clip from being a total waste of my time is Annie. She's hot!!
That was AMAZING! cell phones are taking over.
Great job!
It gave me chills, very great work guys!
Not film noir :(
You guys are really awesome!! Keep up the good work~
Just in case you were not aware of what film noir is, "Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression."-wikipedia.com So this video fits all of this criteria. Great job guys. and good acting too.
yeah, film noir is not necessarily brooklyn accents and P.I.s
Your video just stands out from the rest of the field. One thing I did notice that seperate you from the rest of the videos was camera movement. I don't think anyone of them had a moving camera shot. It has all the components of what we define as noir, but with a modern twist. I really like the editing as well. The only thing I have for the video was maybe there was too much packed in there. Otherwise great job over all. This video gets my vote. Oh yeah, that spot on the floor.... Great job guys and girls!
Oh yeah... way not to be boring and cheesy. Some of the entries were totally cheesy. Film noir defines coolness.
This has to be the worst film noir ever made. Better yet the whole video style is crap. I seen better work than this. I also checked out your website DUSOME.NET and it's weak. You guys should try another layout design and could be better with more actionscript.
Have the makers of this clip ever even seen a film noir? There is NO science fiction in film noir. I felt like I was going to throw up during the spinning scene and I couldn't even attempt to focus on the major aspects of the plot which were being presented during said scene. Also, the science fiction plot appears tacked on and I have no idea what on earth she's talking about an no desire to learn more.
at the very least du some managed to give the other two hardly useless scenes where the characters were just dwlinding some meaning and legitimacy. some of the other submissions this week just kill off the other characters and take off on some strange left wing. good job, du some, for at least attempting to tie things together and give the characters back their importance.
good job with this,
after reading some of the comments on this video, i figured that the assignment was to do a film noir piece?? since everyone had black and white scenes, this was different from what i expected. it made me think of those movies with people playing with puppets and then it comes to life.
@ tuxedo i agree with you, it is an updated film noir piece. if people say it was a sin city effect but what is it if sin city was never made, no one would of known about the effect. i do like the low-key black-and-white visual style with a hint of red in it. It makes it so dramatic and cinematic. It really does stand out from the rest of the videos.
i also like the video by againstTHEclock, it had the best story, good work
I saw so many different camera shots in this that I don't even know how you would of edited this to make it work with each other. As a film critic myself, the dolly shot was my favorite shot with another superimposed video over it that went well with it. i think if there wasn't a time limit to the video, the plot would of made more sense, but it works and i got most of it, i just want more in the next one if they win.
the only thing i didn't like was the color spill on the ground, they should of spent more time to clean it up.
@ gfromcali i looked at dusome.net site and it was actually cool, they do pretty good work.
best entry guys, some really good work overall. I also like the originality of the storyplot. Though film noir generally doesn't feature a sci-fi plot it feels sorta twillight zone(ish) and I am a big fan of that series. The creativeness pushes this video far beyond the rest. good job.