Fractal Hunt - ID# 194
Morton East
Comedic Narrative
Entry Description
A curious student comes across a magical calculator that reshapes reality, but something unbeknownst to the student comes to claim it.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/23 10:53 am - You are doing some really interesting things with your camera. The camera work and edit give this film a fun energy. Obviously, the Yoshi kills are awesome! You were able to capture a video game aesthetic through your filmmaking. Really nice work. I wasn’t clear on the calculator part, which hurts the narrative. I know the calculator does something, but I’m not sure what. The ending is cool, but I was hoping for a resolution instead of a to be continued. How does the story end? Keep making movies! You have some serious skills!
- 4/22 1:58 pm - There are some really creative shots with the POV Yoshi and the stop motion Yoshi in motion. I definitely felt like Yoshi was a character. Your freeze frame of Yoshi and your split screen of the character was fantastic. Also, your use of Fish-eye and regular lenses was a nice choice that could have gone further for the Yoshi POV all being in Fish-eye. This narrative needed a jumping off point, something that set the stage for the story and then helped the viewer understand the motives of the good and bad guys, the hunt, the world they existed in, what’s going on with the calculator, and why multiple characters were coming in and out. There was just no story to invest in aside from Yoshi going after a kid. The “To Be Continued” doesn’t help on a narrative that is a stand alone project. Is this part of a larger sequence of stories that all work together? If that’s the case, we would need a recap of previous episodes in the beginning of the film to help me become more invested. Overall, this was very ambitious and fun to watch, keep exploring this creativity. But start with World Building; who, what, where, when, and why.
Judge 1
Positives: Really cool use of stylized shots and special FX to liven up the film! This looked like it was a ton of fun to make! Reminds me of some of the stop-motion stuff I did when I was younger. It is a challenging thing to do, but always fun. I particularly liked the freeze frame shot! Great work! Keep at it.
Improvements: If I'm being completely honest, I'm not sure I was aware of the story beyond the obvious: guys being hunted by a Yoshi plush toy in a virtual scenario of some sort? Admittedly, I am old and there may have been some subtext or references I'm out of touch with, but the straightforward interpretation was a tad thin for me. Anything you could add to this that would strengthen the audience's interest or concern for the characters would help. Comedy doesn't require too much of an emotional investment, but anything you can do to flesh out the characters would service the overall narrative. I realize this is even trickier without dialogue. Keep making movies!
Judge 2
Positives: The story seemed so simple at first but by the end it felt like it was something more akin to the Matrix or Inception. That's a hard thing to pull off! The camera angles and editing definitely added to the urgency of the story. And the uniforms work really well. If they weren't intentional, they could have been!
Improvements: I think most of the shots could have been a little shorter. Some of the best sequences were the ones that cut quickly. I liked that the story was difficult to understand... but it would have helped to explain things a little bit more. I was confused at points. But overall, this was a strong project. Definitely more cerebral than most entries.
Judge 3
Positives: the editing + chase sequences were cut together really well. you clearly had a vision in mind that i think is strong, but i can tell factors like location + lighting inhibit you being able to fully be stylized in the way it was intended. i think this piece has a lot of potential to be stronger with improved cinematography!
Improvements: the lighting was pretty rough. the flourescent overhead lighting was fairly distracting and didn't feel intentional for atmosphere. the editing + sound design feels very stylized, i wish the production design and framing represented that better.
Judge 4
Positives: Love the elements of mixing stop motion and varying camera angles/shot sizes The visual language you're establishing with the camera is great! The POV and wide angle perspectives is a continuous theme.
Improvements: Music can be a wonderful thing, but we don't want to have it as just a filler to space. The transitions between 2 & 3 minutes had several music changes that pulled me out of the story! Music is like a large ship, it can set the tone but takes times to change direction.
Judge 5
Positives:
Improvements: