Redra: A Blood Opera (my short film)

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Just wanted to give a heads up and hope you'd be interested in my twin bro's and I latest work in digital media.

Redra:
This story intertwines with a single blood droplet as images of life flashes before your eyes. A Coup, A Villain, A Son, A Cop, A Love..A Blood Opera.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2038927929

Filmed entirely in Shanghai, China for Stranglehold's Stay True to John Woo contest. We focused on John Woo's philosophical aspects and deep meaning instead of only violent mindless action. Our goal: to create a short film w/ an immersive tragic tale

As just-turned 19 year olds, this is our first live action film (and we've actually received no film training at all).

Thanks for your support!
 
I can't view this from work (blocked by filter) but I wanted to reply to show some interest because I know how long it takes to put a video together. I'll check it out when I get home and toss in my own reply. Good luck in the contest!

Come on people, check out this guy's film and show him some support. You know you would want some feedback if you made something like this on your own!
 
a little too shaky on the camera, but besides that, great
 
Thanks a lot for viewing, i really appreciate it.

Yeah, i tired stabilizing the camera with a self-made steadicam, but after getting some advice from a professional editor, i decided that its better to just add the shake for a stylistic effect rather than attempt to poorly balance my hand haha. But it still pretty amazing what a person can do with a handhelp consumer camcorder nowadays eh?
 
n501078554_59133_5847.jpg

*Updated with promotional one piece
 
Update*
The 25th marked the deadline of the "Stay True to John Woo" film contest and there has been a surprising amount of development in the gallery. Obviously the competition is strong with an outrageous number of professionals who try to trump the little guys with flasy budgets and an insane amount of crew. Lets show them that those dont matter! Please support Redra starting from the 29th.

Also if you really enjoyed Redra and have a myspace account, please leave a comment and show Redra some support.

Thanks a lot for your support!
 
Thanks a lot :D, it took a miniscule budget, a lot of favors, and an unimaginable lack of sleep to achieve this. I really appreciate it.
 
For a bunch of unexperienced young adults without a budget, that's amazing! You certainly nailed the style.
 
I was watching the video, and close to the end, I was so ready to come back here and post, "Where were the doves?" But there they were, at the very end, totally catching me off guard. Kudos.

Was this just supposed to be a teaser with no actual follow up, or are you going to make a short movie out of it?

Also, some criticism. Trailers that only have musical scores and no dialogue work sometimes, but with something like what you did it'd be better to put a few lines in there. Right now it's somewhat disjointed and ends up looking like a bunch of scenes that only have vague relation to each other. You should at least get some words in there to segue from scene to scene. Right now as well, aside from the blurb written about, "a cop, a son, a coup," etc., if I just watched the trailer I'd have no idea what the film was about. I would've assumed it was something about the Chinese mafia and someone was betraying them from the inside, based on the fancy suits and the scene where someone from the SHPD flops down a folder and some pictures. I assume I'm pretty close but I could be wrong. And I won't know unless you tell me. :) Plus, there's some stuff that comes out of nowhere, like the kidnapping or the scene in the rain where the woman walks up to the guy standing there and holds her umbrella over him. I have no idea if that's a flashback or what's going on. So, words. Put some talking in there. :)

Also the gunfight scene's a little dark. Maybe it's supposed to be, but you might want to consider lightening the scene a bit.

Good overall job though, especially for being your first film and having no experience. You caught my attention, and I'm a blood opera/tragic hero genre fanatic, so thumbs up. :thumbs:
 
very cool. i could have done with slightly less shakiness and flashes to black though. still an amazing job.
 
Darkside55 said:
I would've assumed it was something about the Chinese mafia and someone was betraying them from the inside, based on the fancy suits and the scene where someone from the SHPD flops down a folder and some pictures. I assume I'm pretty close but I could be wrong.
Click to expand...

haha well actually..you got the story down pretty much right! I was actually trying to achieve a more artistic value w/ this film and a lil David Lynch ambiguity with audience interpretation. I had created versions both w/ dubbing, subtitles, word transitions. But after consulting w/ two very experienced directors who's been in the business..way before I was born lol, they said that the movie worked even better w/o dialogue so I left it that way.

I recommend all viewers to watch it in a very linear chronological sense after the flashback begins w/ the father in the office. The only possible confusing time is the flashback w/in the flashback (IE: the sensual scenes). But yeah, this short film was created for the sense of rewatching it over and over again as the scenes are very detail orientated.

The greatest regret and disappointment however is that I wished that there was more time allowed. The short film contest called for a maximum of 2.5 min..which is barely enough :\. But hey, i hope you all enjoyed this film :D.

again thanks alot for the comments and critiques!
 
Contest constraints? Enter what you have, but why not just make a short-movie outside the contest?
 
We used the technique of fast cutting to different because we wanted to simulate that sort of feeling where the character would have an intense flashback of the key points in his/her life that led up to the final moment, death. The character could almost lucidly grasp his/her situation of what was happening in each event before suddenly moving on to another scene. The feeling that you could almost never figure everything out...unless you experience it again, and again, and again.
I wanted to catch John Woo's philosophy of bonding, goodness in people's heart no matter who they are, betrayal, heroic bloodshed, righteousness, and people triumphing over impossible situations no matter what the outcome...all under the strict guideline of 2.5minutes.

Again, thanks everyone.
 
very cool film, I certainly couldn't be arsed to put this much effort into a movie. Some really cool scenes and images - a little crazy and disjointed seeming but then again I know nothing about film making. Keep up the good work I say!
 
Hi everyone!

Would like to update everyone on the current situation of the contest. The top 10 films have been posted (available to vote at www.myspace.com/strangleholdgame) and the winning film revealed (leaked actually...official publication will be in August where it would premier on spike TV).

Although we didnt make it to the top 10, we did make it to the semi-finalist phase! Thats a total of 16 videos out of 400!

You can view the other videos here:
Grand prize winner:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2039371201

And missing top 5 videos (including ours):
http://forum.myspace.com/index.cfm?...&MyToken=eaf778fd-8ff7-41bf-b001-b52daac56d6e

Again, we would like to thank you all for your support!

PS: I would like to add though, if your interested, that there is some drama currently going on the contest concerning the top 10. It seems three of the videos actually void contest eligibility but the sponsors arnt doing anything about it.

Ah well..we had a great time though! and will definitely be updating everyone on our future video projects
 
For a first try..Dayum.

I'd watch this as a full movie.
 
Only one thing: in the flashbacks, I was hoping that they would be viewed as if you were looking through the blood, so instead of just watching the blood droplet falling intertwined with the flashbacks, put the flashbacks in the blood droplet itself...if you can get what I'm saying.

It's hard to describe what I mean here.
 
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