Boz, you demented &%#$@*&^%!!!
Like I said, I am a big girl. I can take a bad review- but yours is not a bad one at all. Just technical and style issues and questions. Thank you.
I will answer each one as you put them:
The opening shot is a dolly from left to right, then a guy mowing his lawn from left to right, then a right to left dolly? Was this intentional? Just wondering because it seemed really jarring to me.
It was purposeful on my part. I wanted to give the impression that we were looking at a whole neighborhood, not just a street. You are not the first person to ask me that one.
After the sound effect of the needle across a record player, I think there should have been some silence instead of starting right in with the inner garage music. Maybe establish it better that we cut to inside the garage by showing us a little bigger shot of all the tools he's about the load up with or something like that.
This is a question of personal style. I still like this just as it is. My one problem with this section is that in some formats, there is not enough light. Most of the time, it looks great, but every so often... Another issue we have on it is a missed comic opportunity- we should have done a shot of him zipping his fly.
When the garage door went up, why didn't you tilt up with it, perfect spot for one of those physical wipes. Unless you don't like those of course.
I like them fine, but I don't know how my DP could have done that with his steadicam rig since he was quite literally lying on the ground to get the shot we have.
The man jumps from in front of the hedge to behind the hedge. I think it needed a shot in between there.
That is why we did a dissolve in the edit. I actually really love that transition myself. Feels very cinematic to me. But I don't think we need to spoonfeed the audience everything- I like to let them think now and then.
Squirrels tails don't move in sweeping motions. They're more jerky and I really think it could have been more fun if the music matched the jerky tail. I understand you wanting to make it look and sound like the shark in jaws but I think something unique would have been better.
Ah- this is a problem of both style and substance- the tail could not move in the way a 'real' squirrel would because it was a stiff, wired, taxidermied tail- we make do with what we have.
The direction of the tail bothered me too. Seemed like the critter was stalking away from the man instead of toward him. Not sure if it was the curve or the movement or both but I got the sense the critter was moving away.
As to the "jaws' motion- think of it as a dorsal fin, which would inch back and forth as the shark snuck up. I love the motion myself, but again, you are not the first person to say that.
As the poor man gets dragged away, his one hand is on his tool belt as the other one flails away. I think it would have been better for both hands to be flailing.
Again, working with what we have- he's on a skate board being drug- his hand was there for 2 reasons- #1- it held the toolbelt up so it didn't fall under the wheels. #2- it helped very much cover the fact that he was on a skateboard.
I thought that it helped his character as well- showing that the squirrel may have gotten most everything else, but he was hanging onto that belt!
Nothing comical about those screams! Wow, seemed real to me
I was hoping for something more astonishing in the end. Like a bionic squirrel or maybe a demonic squirrel, a collection of heads at the base of the tree, a shot of the squirrel taking the poor man to hell. Just seems to fizzle out in the end story wise.
We were adhering to concept here: the idea being that the audience never sees anything of the squirrel but the tail. It's stylistic again- not dragging the audience to the conclusion, but letting them arrive at their own. The whip pan up the tree was slowed immensely to show that he would be up in the tree. We are working on the final greenscreen shot to have his head 'drug' into the tree for better effect ( you can then safely assume that he's being saved for the winter).
OMG love that music, very nicely done. Except for the screaming man, the acting was right on par with the tone of the movie. The sound and pictures were terrific. A nice fun little film that seemed to be on the fence about being a light comedy or a dark comedy.
Again, style differences. This is why Tarantino didn't make Titanic.
Many filmmakers, many styles. This is supposed to take you from a fluffy cartoon feel to a freaky dark Burton thing. That's exactly what we were shooting for. I thank you on behalf of Arya Kumar for the music. He's a genius.
Most everything you mentioned got a great deal of discussion in pre-prod, production and post. We made decisions on nearly every one of these items with a great deal of thought.
See, told you I can take it.
Now go %$#@ off!
Just supposed to be a little bit of fun & fluff to while away 2:37. 
