Producing : Producing HELP!!! by Jack Murphy

It's a good movie, but it's not horror. The horror genre places the characters in a world where violence is not taboo. In horror, the villain does not consider himself a criminal, he justifies his cruelty. And the author's task is to reveal this topic, to show the world in which the villain lives and perhaps the reasons for his cruel perverted nature. in fact, you filmed the beginning of an action movie about the punisher.

DT Houston thank you so much for the great ideas! I shot it with a Canon 80D!

Hi Jack! some impressive suspense shown here. nice job. I have a couple nitpicks about the plot and some of the acting, but it’s definitely scary in moments. (yes, it’s a horror film.)

Mike Boas thank you so much for the kind words and the ending of your comment gave me a grin... haha. I would love to hear your nitpicks! What about the plot and acting? Would love to hear just to get better! Thanks!

DT Houston thank you for that comment. I added you to be apart of my network and would love to talk to you even more! Just let me know!

Hey Jack Murphy just gave it a watch. Subscribed to your channel from all three of my accounts. I would agree with DT Houston above, so no need to repeat all of that. If this were a feature that we covered on our podcast - or in a short film collection episode - here are the fine points we would have adressed. 1. Lighting. You captured a very dark, moody, cold atmosphere which is great. In a couple of the solo shots with him on his own, I would have suggested a focus light on him. Not head on, but maybe from right or left profile to highlight at least half of his face against the background light. Would add a little power to the visual, and make him stick out even more to the audience, bringing him closer to us. 2. Sound levels. Only thing I would mention is perhaps tone down the music track a little. I would reduce it by -3 dB just to take the edge off of it. It would still be bold. 3. SFX. This is just nit-picky of me. When the hammer is falling, I would have used something with a little more "squish" mixed with the crunching. As a horror/slasher fan, I just love the squish. Beyond that, we would have said the examples to learn here for beginners are; direction, editing, shooting. All terrific. Particularly working in small spaces, you kept it all together. Often small space shooting can become visually disengaging, not here though. Great job on this. Keep it going, keep evolving, keep creating.

Since you asked, my plot questions have to do with why the murder took place and why Andre will take away the body. At first, it seems to be a crime of passion (based on the way the lead talks to himself). Later he texts Andre "I have the body." That indicates to the audience that the murder was premeditated. When Andre shows up, he's annoyed that there's no body... and that he wants to get "paid." But this isn't explained. So if you want us to know what their arrangement is, you haven't given us enough information.

Acting notes... The woman in the hallway (an R.A.?) is not bad, but her first bit of dialogue goes on too long and starts to repeat, which comes across as awkward acting. Editing that down would fix it.

Andre's acting is not the best. He stutters over "dead body" which might be possible to correct with editing or an alternate take. But in general he doesn't come across as intimidating. He should have more of an urgency. What does he need the body for? Money? Who does he owe money to? What's he going to do if he doesn't get it? These are things that the actor should be thinking about and acting when threatening the main character.

As I said before, the camera work, editing, and suspense work well overall. Keep at it!