MONSTERS - a new film - NEW SCENES ADDED

[NGFilms03]

Hey there.
After recently finishing our zombie film, DEAD WEIGHT (which will be up to view soon enough, when the music has been completed), we decided to move on to something a little bit different.
MONSTERS is a film about modern British teenagers, and the Devil. Well, not yet... But it will be. Things are going to get pretty dark by the end of the movie.

So follow the link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2XDAjp7hnQ
- to see a short opening for the flick.
It'd be great to hear some comments and criticisms on this, as we really want to make a film we're proud of.
See ya.
x

[NGFilms03]

Somebody, anybody, come on?
People get more responses asking about a font than actually posting a film these days...

[Firewood_Productions]

I liked it. Cant wait to see more. It had some classic one liners such as "Porking that Little Poon" lol. Excellant Work!

[DarkElastic]

The Good:

Nice shots. Especially the montage at the beginning.
Sound was mainly good.
Acting was good.
A lot of people involved always adds realism to certain scenes.

The Bad:

There was a jump in sound when the lad joined him on the roof.
The smoking was fine in the pub, but everyone in your film smokes and as a non smoker it doesn't look nice. I don't mind one or two.
I hated the black haired, confident character. Unless he goes through an attitude journey I can't see that changing. These characters have certain purposes in films!
There was too much swearing in places that weren't necessary. It just sounded wrong. Swearing is good at the right times.
The music was not yours. I always like people try and create their own, and not steel others'.

I will watch the next section (when you post it) to see what happens, but it needs something to keep people interested. You should hit us with something early on.

Keep going though...

[Moriarty]

Hey NG - nice work there.

Fist, the pros:

I've got to agree with Dark Elastic on some of the points there - the majority of shots were well placed and I liked the quick cuts between the dark haired fellow and his flatmate. It got to a point though where it was reminding me of Clerks for some reason; I guess the dialogue for the dark haired guy made me think of Jason Mewes, so whether you like Kevin Smith films that's either a good thing or a bad thing. When they started talking about the fat f*** with the drugs I started to think of trainspotting - was this deliberate or am I looking into it too much?

Some of the dialogue didn't seem to be in character with the dark haired guy though. Although the acting was good, there was a twinge of it being read from a script. I don't know, it didn't flow as though he would be saying things like 'pimp' etc. I don't know if that's how the guy really speaks - but he didn't seem street enough to pull of the language. Does that make any sense?

Thought the girl talking about her shower holder was hot - is this film going to be a kind of he said/she said male/female battle of the sexes type of thing? I'm intrigued as to how the Devil will turn up in the final edit.

The cons:

I thought the montage at the beginning was a little too long. In order to set up the scene, it could've been a little shorter in my opinion. The music fit well with it, but if you're planning to show it anywhere there's obvious music right issues.

As I said earlier, I think the dialogue didn't seem to befit ceratin characters. Although the dialogue itself was fine - most guys talk about that kind of s***, some of the words didn't seem to flow well from the actor's mouth. It's passable stuff though, don't get me wrong - it's just a little niggly thing.

Some of the ambient sound did jump around whilst on the roof. Sometimes this is unavoidable - but for the audience it quickly severes any communication they have to whats going on onscreen.

Overall though, I enjoyed this and the main thing was that I was hoping for more. That's always a good sign in my books - so keep up the good work!

[kene555]

Good acting, good camera work, good flow. Just didn't like the excessive language, but that's a little thing.

[Frijid]

Typical NGfilms, yet again you bombard your film, with cliches, bad hair cuts and obsessive dialogue that doesn't make any sense.

Where to start, I mean I can see why you haven't had much response. Your effort is way too tounge in cheek to work and flowe naturally. And quite frankley this a terrbile effort.

Just like in most of your films, you focus on a charactor who's always the same emo gobshite, with dialogue that's far to driven to be natural. Sure you're probably inspired by the likes of Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino, but do you have to blatently point that out? Why not remove your tongue from the a*** of writers you'll never be rather than trying to impress us with dialogue you've overdone with sloppy one liners full of crude obscene comments that really make your viewers cringe. It really makes your well shot scenes crumble.
The dialogue was way to contrived and seriously is something that would get gormy fat kids laughing. It seems you want to have the Dark comedy vibe, but it falls flat because the dialogue is delivered poorly and the wit is way to random for anyone to care.

Your opening montage went on far too long and I was bored after the first minute. It would have been better If it was going somewhere and it devolped. But it was just random, and full of way to much random stuff that does make you lose interest easily. Maybe this has something to do with not seeing the whole, and maybe this has relevance later on in the plot. But you really needed to have some sort of structure to the montage.

And last but not least......What the fock is with the smoking. As another failed attempt to make your charactors come off cool and edgy you thought you'd shove a cigarette in every scene ?....The main charactor annoyed me enough with 'wanna be' attitude and sucking on his nicotine while spouting his gob with stupid over the top dialogue is what really has the extra kick in this diaster. I constantly had the urge to punch him in the face.

Overall, you have the ability to do a lot better than this. I'm pretty sure you got Jizz worthy over 'Skins' and tried to incoperate that, but you'll never make an impact or be proud of any of your work unless you make some serious changes. Then again I cannot do any better myself and I am a virgin

-Frij

[NGFilms03]

Thanks a lot for the comments, guys.

But, Frij, if you could just clarify some points for me?
- How were the characters 'emo'? Were they sitting in the corner, crying, cutting themselves or such like? Because I missed that bit...
- And about the smoking... Sorry, but what? That is the most ridiculous criticism, ever. The characters smoke. End of. Why? They just do. Does it really p*** you off this much every time you see a movie with someone smoking in it?

And guys, I'm so glad that a lot have you have said you dislike the black-haired character, Aaron. That's what we were trying to do , you'll see why later on in the flick...

Thanks again, anyone else got anything to add?
Here's a little promo poster we threw together:
And there's new scenes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUO_i62Yo2A
After the short scene with the girls in the park which you've already seen, there's about 8 minutes worth of new ting. Hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think to these scenes. Bare in mind, as we shot and edited this all yesterday, it is very roughly cut at the moment.

[NoRemorse]

I'm pretty sure you got Jizz worthy over 'Skins' and tried to incoperate that, but you'll never make an impact or be proud of any of your work unless you make some serious changes.

-Frij

I'm pretty f*cking proud of it as it is, actually. In fact, I've never been prouder. We've recieved pretty much great reviews across the board, so I guess Frij must just have weird taste in film or something. Whatever. I really love it. To be honest, big judgements on stuff like the characters can't really be made yet, as nobody knows where the flick goes from here. Trust me though guys, by the third act, everything will make a lot more sense. Everything in this film has been carefully thoughtout within the context of the rest of the story. Nothing is gratuitous. Everything has purpose. Seriously. We've been writing this film for two years. We've got A LOT of notes.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words.

- Emo Gobshite.

x

[DarkElastic]

- And about the smoking... Sorry, but what? That is the most ridiculous criticism, ever. The characters smoke. End of. Why? They just do. Does it really p** you off this much every time you see a movie with someone smoking in it?

The way I normally work criticism is for one statement listen to it, take it in, but keep with my personal opinion. If a second person says the same I will discuss it with people in the Group and make a decision. If a lot of people are saying the same, then more than likely others will agree with them, so I take what they are saying and consider that this is a major annoyance to them and will effect my film.

It's not one character, so far it’s been every single character and it just looks bad. But it’s your film!

p.s. Nice poster. Except the statement underneath the title, it looks like theft (from The Automatic song) and you don't need to do it.

[NGFilms03]

The tagline is a reference to The Automatic song, yes, but not really theft. We thought since the song was such a big hit, it would be something people could connect with. Popular culture is referenced quite heavily in our film, so we thought it was inkeeping with the style to do it on the poster aswell. We're not intending to sell the film anywhere, so it was our understanding that we were not infringing on any copyright? The same goes for the music we have used, although we will be adding an original score eventually.

[DarkElastic]

The scene in the dealer's home was good. It was shot well with there drinking and his singing, very funny. But, one major problem that you should look into for future projects is lighting. One moment the lighting is fine, then they're in shadow. The other thing I noticed was sound. One shot was fine and another has a camera hum on it.

I still don't like the excessive swearing, but I will keep with it. Your dialogue for Bret wasn't too good, very Corny.

There was some very nice subtle revealers in there that I liked. Keep it up. But if I was you I would complete the film before posting anymore, so the full thing will give us the complete impact.

[NGFilms03]

That's our plan now, yes. The next thing you'll see will probably be a trailer of some sort. We just wanted to show a little more so people can see that it is going somewhere after the somewhat meandering beginning.
Thanks for the comments and support.

[smokeythebear]

Im digging the movie too, I just like the whole feel of the movie.Im not trying to be mean here but if you dont like movies where people smoke or whatever dont watch it, cause every movie has a audience you have to find them.

[ctbullet]

loved it, loved it

there are so many cockey punk emo kids at my college and the black haired dude reminded me of everyone one of them, therefore very realistic

the swearing is very true to the culture, as is the smoking so i think its is completely necessary and not excessive

looking forward to the final vid

[Kentertainment]

the swearing is very true to the culture

Not in Utah! Actually, that's a major lie.

Anywho, I'm not going to dwell on much because what needs to be said has already been said. I will say this though, the thing I notice about your films that single them out from everyone else's films is that you give your films filmier filmic feel by the use of B-Roll footage. I'm talking about the people in the park, the city, and they all transition well. Your music levels are lowered enough that we can hear the dialogue but are then raised again over that B-Roll. So, I guess what I'm dwelling on is the editing, which is always stellar in your films.

Also, those smiles creep my out. Kind of remind me of pedosmiles (pedophile + smile).

[rhys]

The good:
The editing was done well and the characters were done well (actually just makes me thing its u guys, dunno if your normally emo or not). Ummm... i didn't watch too much cos it actually got too damn boring.
The bad; (I'm going to tell you in a really blunt way, prepare yourself.)
It was boring, the song was alright but it got VERY annoying. Mainly it was boring. Id say cut down the alcohol night down to about 30 seconds or a minute. By the end of that i was just too damn bored to watch the rest. Sorry bout that.

[NGFilms03]

Hmm, maybe you're right and the bar scene can be snipped a bit.
So Rhys, you didn't watch any further than that opening montage? Or am I misunderstanding you? I'd appreciate it if you'd check out the rest and let me know what you think to that too...

P.S.
I reeally don't get this 'emo' thing... Where's this come from?
And Kenny, the smile is supposed to be creepy!

[Nba185]

the emo guy is scary.. Like it though

[rhys]

Yeah I watched it, its not too bad. But there is so much smoking. If the chicks are supposed to be hot they shouldnt me smoking, unless there supposed to be dangerous. But u know, everyone at a party smokes so thats alright. A few times through it the sound just cuts out when the rest of your audio has noise, so chuck some of ur noise into that blank spot. If you cut down the party a bit, it would actually be managable to watch.

[NoRemorse]

Man, those chicks are hot BECAUSE they're smoking.
Smoking makes you cool. FACT.

lol.

x

[rhys]

Man, those chicks are hot BECAUSE they're smoking.
Smoking makes you cool. FACT.

Um.... no! They smoke like hill billies and the fact that they are smoking makes them so much less appealing. It would be hot if they were more like Milla Jovovich style smoking, but that would imply that they are 'dangerous'.

[NoRemorse]

Meh, whatever floats your boat. Point is, the characters in the film smoke no more than people do in real life. I mean, so far you've seen the first act, which is set over one day. Aaron, who is the heaviest smoker, has only smoked four cigarettes, and two in the pub the night before. If anything, he's a light smoker compared to the amount actual smokers smoke. Anyway, he's not smoking gratuitously. As you said, smoking makes a character dangerous. Danger is Aaron's middle name.

x

[kene555]

I liked the second part too, good editing. The kid with the black hair is what we Americans call emo:



His style is definitely emo, and you can find more about here

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo_(slang)



Anyways, looking forward to more of this. Keep bringing it.

[NoRemorse]

Damn, that' one snappy-dressin' cat! I like his style!

Emo's a little different over here. Your only emo if you cry all the time and slit your wrists and sh*t. Otherwise, you're just a scene kid.
So yeah, the black-haired dude (me) is not emo. He's scene. It's the lesser of two evils.

x