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EXILE sci-fi movie is...done!

Yeah when it comes to text interviews I like to keep them short and sweet.
No prob man, if you want to send me more films I will review that as well.
 
Well, the other day I received my covetted 1 of 5 copy of EXILE...tonight I finally got the chance to pop it in.

Bravo! I really enjoyed it. Not many films on such a low budget, with such an ambitious story and concept could pull off an entertaining feature. Huge kudos for completing this, and completing it with obvious passion. Clearly a ton of B, S & T went into this project.

Great job with the ton of composite work and CG effects. You had a truck-load of FX shots, and everyone of them lent well to the story, and drove the point across. For a home, micro-budget project, I was impressed with the shear load of FX shots and inserts. Kudos again.

Of course there is much I could pick on with the film...but honestly, I didn't mind the less-than-stellar effects, or any number of shoe-string production bits...that wasn't the point of the film. This film doesn't pretend to be driven by Weta or ILM...how the FX were handled were appropriate and simple.

I also very much enjoyed the BtS...I love seeing how things come together. I've worked on many films, and I've totally been in the same circumstances as you in terms of small crew (I love it actually), so it hit home in a good way.

What I liked about EXILE the most was the story and editing. You guys really put together an entertaining, clear, easy-to-follow story...both by a solid script, and quality editing choices. I never found myself confused, and it was effortless to follow what was going on.

You clearly have a hard-working team. Thank you for finishing this labor-of-love. My family and I really enjoyed that.

I'd be interested in workin on any future features you have planned. Please visit my Myspace for my full resume, clips and reels of my work. I'm all about working with cool, hard-working teams. (www.msypace.com/m1chaelreed)

Thanks for my copy of EXILE. It sits proudly on my shelf of DVDs, nestled in the SciFi section.

Cheers.
 
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Thankyou, M1chae1 - both for your great feedback, as well as the offer to work together in the future! I'm glad that you got to watch the movie with your family and that they had a fun time. :cheers:
 
lol. THE AWAKENING looks fun also. Some really cool shoe-string special effects there...clever. And your lead is...easy on the eyes. Let's just say she's in shape.
 
Just finished pix edit on my feature and ran across Exile while waiting for it to render. Gave it a second viewing and thought I'd better post my long overdue review.

Overall, this was a pretty good idea for a sci-fi movie. Some sophisticated plot elements, which I always appreciate. It was obviously crafted by a seasoned filmmaker; tightly edited, good pacing, NOT full of errors in screen direction (like so many low budget flicks).

SF is always a tough genre to tackle in the post-digi world because expectations are so high now for special effects. The CGI in Exile, while skillfully rendered, are nevertheless primitive enough that they took me out of the movie. Without a team of experienced animators working for weeks, it's a tough hurdle to overcome.

The script, as I said, was sufficiently compelling, though some of the dialogue was a bit too "on-the-nose". The actors did a credible job with most of it, though. On both viewings I was impressed by your wife's performance, albeit in a minor role. She came across as very natural.

Your two leads carried the story well. Despite what others may have said, I thought your male lead played the blindness very convincingly. The android character never quite worked for me, not because of anything the actor did but because I didn't feel like her look was developed well (the designer in me, I suppose). I love that hairstyle on women, but it didn't feel right for this character. She should have been sleeker, I think. Also, it seems like any heterosexual male stranded alone on a planet would design his female companion to be as sexually appealing as possible, not dress her in an Air Force mechanic-style jumpsuit (the perv in me, I suppose).

I kept wanting the alien to play some deeper role in the story, kind of like the sandworms in dune, but that's just a minor quibble. I think you could have left out the wide shot showing the whole alien, especially since it was a daytime shot. It didn't hold up to the closeups.

Lastly, I think it might've been cool to do a little color grading to make the alien world look a bit less earth-like. I don't know what post software you use, but Apple Color can do some pretty amazing stuff.

Small stuff, mostly. Good job, Mike, and best of luck with this and future projects!
 
This thread still lives! Thankyou, for that belated feedback, 2001 Productions! I totally agree that the android should have been sleeker. I originally had an experienced makeup guy lined up. He was going to air brush Reyna's face and provide cool contact lenses. Unfortunately, he dropped out of doing that. By the time the shooting started, no crew was available for the Utah shoot. A lot of things that I wanted to do couldn't be done in that time frame.

I agree that the creature closeups are much better than the more revealing shots. I tried to keep the wide shot short - just enough to satisfy those who would have demanded to see the beast, had I not shown it. My original plans called for 6 legs and no fur. It was supposed to walk around like a spider/scorpion hybrid. I wanted to digitally remove the performers' legs, so that it looked like the 6 skinny legs were holding it up. Because of the schedule and makeup guy switch, the monster was never completed.

I did play around with color grading - Magic Bullet Looks and even After Effects sky coloring, but I really lack those skills and was out of money to pay someone else. The idea of asking someone to do that much free (or deferred) work didn't seem like the right thing to do. My rep supposedly had a buyer, so I dropped the color grading and got the movie to her as it is.

A few months later, I look at the movie and realize that I have to stop biting off more than I can chew. It's hokey, but at least it's fun. I'm actually planning on a very sparse horror flick, for around $1,000, that just uses real world settings (houses, desert, etc.) Nothing too cheesy. I will get back to sci-fi, again. You guys have given me a lot of great ideas, as well as the makers of ENIGMA, which showed that you can look fantastic on a budget. I love their idea about painting everything black and to let the light and shadows define the scene.

Thanks again, 2001 Productions.
 
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