"Here. My Explosion..." Trailer I
"Here. My Explosion..." - Written and Directed by Reid Gershbein - Web Site
("Here. My Explosion..." will be released online for free in June, 2009)
Wow! What a movie! (Full disclosure: I wrote, directed, shot, edited, scored, etc the movie.)
I don't know where to begin because this movie is really a cinematic masterpiece. I can honestly say that this film belongs in a Masterworks Series of the greatest artists of all-time.
The writing is just fantastic and amazing. I really felt that the film was following real people who knew, lived, and breathed with each other for many years. This is probably because the editing is so phenomenal too. If this film doesn't win an Independent Spirit award then I will be shocked.
The story follows a character named Sera, who is played by the amazing Eleese Longino, whose world is slightly altered by the fact that strange things happen when she drinks coffee. This is such an obvious plot device that I am truly amazed that this wasn't a staple of the Great Greek Trajedies (or at least Shakespeare should have used it). Sera is an artist who works a day-job and embraces the existential nature of life by creating art pieces and burning them. She has geared her life around ...
Honestly, I could go on about the characters, plot points, blah, blah, blah... But, I'll limit the scope of this review to the overall awesomenesss of this film as an everlasting artistic achievement. Otherwise, this review would probably rival The Lord of the Rings in length.
In one of the Gershbein's tweets, @thraveboy, he discusses how Spielberg was shadowing him to get directing tips and how Gershbein said that it was important to wear fancy shoes. Well, let me tell you, Gershbein must have been wearing some fancy shoes indeed! This is manifested in so many subtle and broad artistic elements of the film that arrange (and deconstruct!) themselves to create an emotional experience unparalleled in the most primal and enlightening experiences. And that's only 15 minutes into the film!
Music, music, music = Perfect! Yes, I know that in such an objective piece like this it is sometimes difficult to use such as colored term, but it fits. John Williams has found his successor. End of story.
When describing the cinematography of a film it is common to use terms of taste such as salty, sugary, bitter, etc. Let's just say that the cinematography of this film is like a perfectly cooked medium-rare steak from the most succulent pieces of cows from Argentina crossed with the world's tastiest piece of Toro sushi. That really says it all, doesn't it!
The power of this film is drawing me to watch it again (for the 379th time) so I will continue this rolling epic of a review later. To be continued!
(If you'd like a DVD screener of "Here. My Explosion..." to write an amazing review of the film just ask @thraveboy on the Twitter.)
"Here. My Explosion..." - Written and Directed by Reid Gershbein - Web Site
("Here. My Explosion..." will be released online for free in June, 2009)
Wow! What a movie! (Full disclosure: I wrote, directed, shot, edited, scored, etc the movie.)
I don't know where to begin because this movie is really a cinematic masterpiece. I can honestly say that this film belongs in a Masterworks Series of the greatest artists of all-time.
The writing is just fantastic and amazing. I really felt that the film was following real people who knew, lived, and breathed with each other for many years. This is probably because the editing is so phenomenal too. If this film doesn't win an Independent Spirit award then I will be shocked.
The story follows a character named Sera, who is played by the amazing Eleese Longino, whose world is slightly altered by the fact that strange things happen when she drinks coffee. This is such an obvious plot device that I am truly amazed that this wasn't a staple of the Great Greek Trajedies (or at least Shakespeare should have used it). Sera is an artist who works a day-job and embraces the existential nature of life by creating art pieces and burning them. She has geared her life around ...
Honestly, I could go on about the characters, plot points, blah, blah, blah... But, I'll limit the scope of this review to the overall awesomenesss of this film as an everlasting artistic achievement. Otherwise, this review would probably rival The Lord of the Rings in length.
In one of the Gershbein's tweets, @thraveboy, he discusses how Spielberg was shadowing him to get directing tips and how Gershbein said that it was important to wear fancy shoes. Well, let me tell you, Gershbein must have been wearing some fancy shoes indeed! This is manifested in so many subtle and broad artistic elements of the film that arrange (and deconstruct!) themselves to create an emotional experience unparalleled in the most primal and enlightening experiences. And that's only 15 minutes into the film!
Music, music, music = Perfect! Yes, I know that in such an objective piece like this it is sometimes difficult to use such as colored term, but it fits. John Williams has found his successor. End of story.
When describing the cinematography of a film it is common to use terms of taste such as salty, sugary, bitter, etc. Let's just say that the cinematography of this film is like a perfectly cooked medium-rare steak from the most succulent pieces of cows from Argentina crossed with the world's tastiest piece of Toro sushi. That really says it all, doesn't it!
The power of this film is drawing me to watch it again (for the 379th time) so I will continue this rolling epic of a review later. To be continued!
(If you'd like a DVD screener of "Here. My Explosion..." to write an amazing review of the film just ask @thraveboy on the Twitter.)
That selective focus thing u r doing with video is interesting. Done in post?
- S
Posted by: Sujewa | May 13, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Yep. Totally done in post. I describe the post-process here:
http://www.royalbaronialtheatre.com/blog/2008/09/flip-camera-tilt-shift-visual-experiments.html
Posted by: Reid Gershbein | May 13, 2009 at 11:26 AM
Nice movie. I really like what you have done with the imaging.
Posted by: Nicole/MadlabPost | May 17, 2009 at 01:59 PM
My bad, I meant to say "imagery", not imaging.
Posted by: Nicole/MadlabPost | May 17, 2009 at 02:09 PM
Thanks!
Posted by: Reid Gershbein | May 18, 2009 at 10:33 AM
DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to be mean at all - this is an opinion of a professional trying to help)
I'll say this as nicely as possible, being a producer (not a home-grown, backyard wanna-be) I would never, ever, show this to a soul. I would go into greater details as to why this is the pinnacle of why filmmaking should be left to professionals, however I believe there is a character limit.
What's the story?
If there's no story - that's fine, but WHY am I spending my time watching this?
The "Tilt-Shift" EFFECT, was basically - what - a blur vignette and some super saturation in Final Cut Pro? I guess at least you didn't use iMovie, that's a plus at least.
My personal favorite was the really long shots (if you cut down all the worthless seconds spent on various random shots of San Francisco and just used the footage that attempts to tell us the story - it would be 5 minutes long.) To top it off you didn't even cut out the sound of you handling your camera for those shots... I mean please?
Rather than tell you how awesome it is - I'm going to encourage you to actually do some pre-production, write a script, plan your shots, and give us something worth watching. Otherwise you're just a hack - not a filmmaker.
Posted by: James | May 26, 2009 at 08:38 PM
Awesome! Thanks so much for posting James! It's great to get lots of different opinions. Thanks a lot for watching my artistic piece and I'm glad that you had such a strong opinion of it. Fantastic!
Posted by: Reid Gershbein | May 26, 2009 at 08:57 PM