Xixax Film Forum

Creative Corner => The Art Gallery => Topic started by: matt35mm on May 09, 2012, 10:41:09 PM

Title: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on May 09, 2012, 10:41:09 PM
My previous short film, I'm So Sorry to Hear About Henry (http://www.vimeo.com/matt35mm/imsosorrytohearabouthenry), was a practice run of sorts for this upcoming film (same cast/crew, and just wanted to get something quick under our belts before doing something more ambitious).

So we went straight from working on Henry to working on this. We've recently wrapped (more or less), and I've cut together a trailer that I will include on my DVD for Henry at Cannes.

You can view the trailer at: http://vimeo.com/41858552

Also, you can follow updates on the film at www.facebook.com/itfeltgoodtohavethispain  I'll also be putting up some still images from the film as I edit. With this one, I'm trying to build up some anticipation for the film instead of just throwing it out there, so hopefully the Facebook page and this trailer will help with that. Please "like" that page to follow along with new info about the project.

The film itself is probably about 2 months away from being finished (the trip to Europe is taking 3 weeks out of time that I'd be spending on post production), but since I have the trailer I figured I'd start this thread about it now.

Hope y'all enjoy.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Jeremy Blackman on May 09, 2012, 11:24:49 PM
Looks good! Do you know about how long the film might end up being?

I fixed your Vimeo link.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on May 09, 2012, 11:47:27 PM
Thanks!

It should end up being around 12 or 13 minutes long.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: pete on May 10, 2012, 12:57:21 AM
gorgeous images dude.
I'm editing something else so I can't have the sound right now. but those shots are super pretty and packed.

matt also just a heads up - the cinematographer I use lives in Austin and he's one of the best, no qualifier needed. if you're ever looking for someone for your future gigs - check him out (http://vimeo.com/36313118). I've seen similar vibes from a lot of his work as well.

can't wait to see it dude.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: diggler on May 10, 2012, 10:26:18 AM
Nicely edited trailer! I love the last shot of the tree suddenly standing still.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on May 11, 2012, 12:08:39 AM
Thanks so much for checking it out, and for the kind words.

Pete, I hope someday I can afford to work with a cinematographer. At this point, I'm totally not able to afford to pay for one and I don't personally know anybody who would work for free that would do a better job than me. But it's still good to know his name, because who knows what the future will bring in terms of projects. And I like his stuff.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on April 04, 2013, 02:59:31 AM
All right, well I finished this movie last November and have been submitting to festivals, and not making it publicly available because some of the festivals I've submitted to request that it be a regional premiere. We've gotten into one festival so far (Fresno), but there's still basically a year's worth of waiting to do from all the festivals, and I'm not terribly patient.

So I'm gonna cheat a little and put the private link to this movie here for a few days, because I always like sharing my work with you guys. I guess having it up temporarily allows me to justify it as not being public. And also, isn't The Art Gallery section not available to non-members anyway? So fuck 'em! (EDIT: I just tested this by logging out; turns out non-members can see it now. But whatever. Fuck 'em!)

For some reason the Vimeo version looks good on some monitors and bad on others--I guess because there are a lot of dark images. Or maybe I'm just doing Vimeo wrong.

Anyway, enjoy.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Pubrick on April 04, 2013, 04:57:06 AM
it's true, the film is very dark visually and i get a lot of artifacts in some shots.

i like the melancholia reference. and i liked how the tree stopped moving.

bit long for my taste but hope it does well in the festival circuit.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Just Withnail on April 04, 2013, 09:02:23 AM
Nice work!

Spoilers


Agree it's a bit long, but then again maybe it had to be in order to sustain the turn it ended up taking. Ballsy move with that ending! Not sure it completely worked for me, but definitely interesting. A lot of interesting stylistic choices as well. Like P said, the tree stopping was great. Also really liked the cut to white, that revealed itself as the burnt out sky. The crash was very well executed and the gore was just hidden enough not to feel gratuitous and still feel horrible.

Nice natural acting as well. And the lighting in that scene where the girl talks about her childhood is just gorgeous.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: ©brad on April 04, 2013, 12:16:47 PM
Loved it. Some of your most beautiful images yet. You're getting better with every film. And I personally didn't feel it was long. P is right it definitely has a Melancholia vibe.



SPOILERS


That crash made me jump out of my seat! How did you pull that off? How long was production?
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on April 04, 2013, 05:28:39 PM
Thanks y'all.

SPOILERS

The exterior of the car crash was done as a composite shot. First shot was seeing the main car driving toward the intersection, then panning over to see the other car. Then we did a separate shot of the main car whizzing through the intersection. I composited the main car running through the intersection on top of the shot of the other car.

Then we cut to the interior, which I basically did as a frame-by-frame thing. I shot at a very low shutter speed and moved the camera around while exposing each frame, to get that blurred motion look (as it would look if something was happening very fast). I had them slowly move backward into their seats, which looks more like they're flying out of their seat when the footage is played backward. Then I did a frame by frame of the airbag popping. I added blood and shattered glass digitally.

I love coming up with stuff like that. I wrote it because I knew I could make it work, and that it would be effective. And it didn't cost anything!

As far as production, we'd shoot for small periods of time over the course of about 1.5 months, more or less only shooting one scene or two scenes at a time, or sometimes only part of a scene. The movie bounces around a lot of locations, and it worked out better for us to shoot one location at a time.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: xerxes on April 04, 2013, 09:38:33 PM
Excellent job, Matt. I thought it was really fucking great.

SPOILERS

The crash looked awesome, as everyone mentioned already. But my favorite part was the blown-out shot and the cut to the shot of the girl  silhouetted against the sky. Good stuff there.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on April 05, 2013, 03:06:29 PM
Thanks! Really glad to hear you dug it.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: wilder on April 05, 2013, 03:51:23 PM
Wow this felt like a really big step forward for you. I loved the lighting in the shots with the girls doing their make-up in a mirror. WHITE/NEUTRAL FLESH TONES (or rather non-yellow flesh tones), so hard to come by in things shot on video. For the most part, the performances felt more spontaneous and naturalistic than your last thing, as if they were moments you happened to catch rather than orchestrated. I loved the girl's subtle expression as her hand was held as she was being led away from the party. While I appreciate the attempt at the more experimental storytelling aspects of this short, I agree it's a little long and I'd be curious to see what it'd play like if you cut out the monologue bits and went through the party/traditional narrative bit straight, which I felt was really well done and engaging even without your more stylistic flourishes. I think it could stand on its own. Being from Austin maybe you're absorbing a bit of Malick by osmosis.

I was SUPER JARRED when the crash happened, even though we knew it was coming. Really well done. I bolted upright in my seat and went "OH FUCK!". Awesome. The blood/aftermath was also fucked. Black blood. So effective. You're obviously growing with each new thing you do, and I'm even more excited now to see what you produce next.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on April 08, 2013, 01:44:46 PM
Thanks! I always really appreciate your thoughts, wilderesque.

The next thing is a feature film that I'm shooting right now. It's going to be nuts. I might well ask you to take a look at a rough cut sometime in the Summer/Autumn for some notes.

Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on April 29, 2013, 11:21:26 AM
In the midst of a really stressful solid week of shooting, I found out that IT FELT GOOD TO HAVE THIS PAIN won Best Short and Best Cinematography at the Fresno Film Festival. It really helped me feel like maybe I knew what the hell I was doing.

Making movies is a goddamned roller coaster. It's a constant mix of fun and dread that makes you want to barf your guts out.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Just Withnail on April 29, 2013, 11:32:59 AM
Congrats man!
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on August 26, 2013, 03:23:21 PM
For those who didn't see the film while I briefly had it up here, we'll have our online premiere on No Budge, an independent film site curated by Kentucker Audley. It's a great site with some wonderful shorts and features, all available for free. It's the same site that THE CONFABULATORS debuted on.

It'll be available starting on Thursday, Sept. 5th. Tell your friends, children, and life partners!

http://nobudge.com/upcomingfilms/2013/9/5/it-felt-good-to-have-this-pain
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: jenkins on August 26, 2013, 03:45:12 PM
has no one mentioned that audley doesn't have a single speaking line in saints? i can't remember if it's been said, that it was so nice to see his face, and then he's gone and what a bummer. declassified, top secret example of a bummer i experienced

it felt good to have this pain!!! the confabulators and it felt good to have this pain!! to me, exciting!!
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on September 05, 2013, 10:27:23 AM
IT FELT GOOD TO HAVE THIS PAIN is now available on NoBudge. I love what Kentucker Audley wrote about it, too!

http://bit.ly/17zh7ZD

Enjoy!
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Reel on September 05, 2013, 11:50:25 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfqjTD2KdKE&feature=youtu.be
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Reel on September 05, 2013, 02:37:11 PM
Great job, Matt! What a brilliantly executed haunting little film. You really know how to take us on a journey into dark emotional territory. I loved the pace of it, the structure is perfectly weighed out in this short timeframe to make it very rewatchable. You seem to have a command over your visual style that always reflects the exact tone you're trying to achieve, where even if I can't fully grasp the meaning behind it after one viewing, everything seems to be put right into place to allow me to discover it.

From 'I'm So Sorry To Hear About Henry' to this film, I've come to like your two lead actresses a lot. This showcased their acting ability and proves they'd be capable of carrying a feature, so I hope you show this to your kickstarter funders. I'm looking forward to seeing them play different types of roles in YAYB/YANYB where they aren't BFF's so I can judge them separately and on their own merits.




These no budge things are only up for one day, right? GET ON IT, PEOPLE!
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on September 05, 2013, 02:50:57 PM
Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you liked it. This is actually available forever, on NoBudge/Vimeo/YouTube. It's just out now for whoever wants to see it, not a one-day-only thing.

And yep, this is embedded in our Kickstarter page (http://kck.st/14lbkfn) for YAYB/YANYB, along with HENRY. The blonde actress is in the new movie, but the brunette one is not. And some other people are in it who are pretty dandy.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: Reel on September 05, 2013, 02:57:34 PM
oh, I could've sworn the brunette was the one who talks to the spiritual teacher, I guess they just look similar. I even went to look up her name and then stopped myself, like "No, it's her."
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on September 10, 2013, 09:35:03 AM
Saw it this morning and quite liked it. I guess it probably could have been shorter but it didn't feel long to me at all. Short films have a tendency to be experiments that ultimately forget to tell any sort of engaging story but this was effective and emotional and very well made. Unlike the trailer for YAYB/YANYB, I saw this between long renders at my office, with a great monitor and sound system and when the car crash happened, I jumped in my chair.

More than Malick, I'd say Lynch and Bergman are what popped most to my head. Again, really nice work. Congrats!
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: matt35mm on September 10, 2013, 10:09:13 AM
Thanks! Glad to hear you liked it, and it's nice that you saw it on a good setup.

I can't remember if I consciously thought of any cinematic influences while making this, but I'm sure they're in there. I was mostly looking at photographs, actually. There were also fashion videos (like this one: https://vimeo.com/28451200) that were pretty influential. I became interested in the idea of photographing women in the way that a woman would, as opposed to the usual male perspective.

Now, for YAYB/YANYB, Lynch and Bergman ARE key influences, as are Bogdanovich and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Also, the photographs by Sally Mann. It's why we had to make it in B&W, because most of our influences were B&W films and photographs. I wanted that quality.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: ElPandaRoyal on September 11, 2013, 03:44:07 AM
Very interesting. I suppose the Lynch and Bergman influences came mostly from the relationship between the girls. And also from fading to red.

That list of influences you just gave to YAYB/YANYB makes me even more curious. I was gonna ask about why B&W, but I got my answer.
Title: Re: It Felt Good to Have This Pain - Short Film
Post by: jenkins on September 11, 2013, 04:00:20 AM
<3 ElPandaRoyal

Quote from: matt35mm on September 10, 2013, 10:09:13 AM
Lynch and Bergman ARE key influences, as are Bogdanovich and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

continue to enjoy our overlaps. night of the living dead it'd take me a paragraph to explain. bogdanovich, one line: the co-creator of the short i previously described was for a stretch of time bogdanovich's personal assistant. (i asked for december with nobudge, that release time has been received.)