One of Those Days is a short film produced by a GUST student and his friends (Good Mango Productions). According to the movie description it includes comedy, action, some serious drama and an ending to remember. I watched the film and didn’t really like it. In the email I received from them they had mentioned they submitted the film to a bunch of festivals including Sundance so I ended up sending them a pretty critical (but constructive) email. If you’re entering a film to Sundance the very least you could do is scout better locations for your scenes. Its a short 5 minute film so it wouldn’t be too difficult to make every scene visually stunning. Some of their locations like the office, apartment and bathroom are just horrible.
BUT, end of the day it’s pretty cool that they actually took the time to create something they love so much which is why I’m sharing their film here. It’s their first attempt so I’m sure they’ll just keep on improving. [YouTube]
20 replies on “Short Film: One of Those Days”
this is really really bad and horrible Mark.
i don’t know why i even follow this blog anymore, move this to the B side.
Dont then.
Mark isn’t really that good at writing or criticism, but at least he’s making some sort of effort.
jeez thanks
its not their first attempt…
It’s really not that bad. I actually enjoyed it TBH.
This is acutally Good man.
well, if you went through this movie, you might as well check ours out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc3snWwNd0Y
thanx
Never in my life have I seen a critic that only states “the setting was horrible” and ends on that note.? Not sure how that would mean anything to the overall quality of the film. The acting was good, the music was sweet, had a nice flow of emotion.
Good luck to the film makers, so far a promising start!
Whats a good story or great acting if the presentation is horrible. Obviously the visual presentation of the film is important or else movie makers wouldn’t spend big bucks getting the best DOP’s they can afford.
Fantastic attempt, full marks!
Bad story, I dunno how you say it’s good story the line should go like this!
__/\_
the line of story was like __-
there is no ta93eed to reach the climax, the climax suddenly popout which is controversy since it has nothing to do with the anything before, since it is mainly about the dude who play guitars.
I give it -5/10 that means lower than zero.
BioFilms short movie have at least good story, although I give 3/10. and that from me to hobby short films not bad at all.
Honestly, people like you crush other’s dreams. Ok i’ll admit some of your criticism was constructive but the rest was horrible and a bunch of negativity. It was a delightful short film I liked it but yeah they could improve on certain things. They should continue if they’re motivated and dedicated. Good luck you guys.
Also you guys stop attacking Mark, it’s his opinion and he isn’t a movie critic for your to criticize his criticism.
What a small world. I actually know the guitar playing dude.
This isn’t their first video but its definitely not the worst…..Although this is pretty bad…like oh em gee bad….like you guys should stay home for awhile and not let anyone see you kind of BAD!
yeah it isnt their first video either, but not the worst. Haha i know the dude playing the guitar too 😛
What Mark does is that he keeps things black and white. He is clear with his opinion. He either likes or doesn’t like. That’s not to say we have to agree. On this post though, I agree with Mark’s critique; though not his particular choice of words.
As a concept ‘One of Those Days’ is a cute idea for a short film. In a nutshell it is about Letting Go. Moving On. Sadly, it fails to deliver on most levels. However, the choice of locations (which Mark highlights as its biggest flaw) isn’t really the issue. Technically it is the lighting, (or lack thereof), that makes the locations look cheap. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Making a short film is more than taking a camcorder out with a story idea. It needs to include artistic choices. The film-maker should manipulate what the lens records to help tell the story written on the page. There is more to film-making than stitching together scenes from a story so as to engage the viewer.
There was no evidence of ‘artistic creativity’ in ‘One of These Days’ and that lies at the heart of the movie’s flaws for me. It felt that the scenes in this movie were simply Conceptualised, Acted and Filmed with very little thought for how to amplify the story’s base notes or embellish the details.
Working in the Arts I know that this is probably not the case . I am sure that many hours of discussion were had, and many artistic choices were made. But if they don’t show in the finished product then it all becomes wasted effort and needs to be chalked down to experience on life’s Learning Curve.
And, in nuthell, that is what this movie is. A learning experience. For, while the idea was good the execution was poor. While the acting was fine, the finished product looks like very little attention was paid to the artistic choices: camera angles, shot selection, lighting, colour, costume etc. And, while the music did add some atmosphere, it had no emotional curve to underline the arc of the plot, as a good film score should. (Though to be fair the plot itself had little emotional curve.)
This was not a tale of Love Lost, it was about Letting Go. But to make it work as a film an audience need to not only empathise with the emotion, they must sympathise with the lead character. In this movie the audience knew nothing about the relationship at the heart of the story and so ultimately didn’t care enough about the character’s journey or destination.
There is so much more story that needs telling. It needs re-storyboarding to build an emotional curve each side of the scene where the SMS is received at beach. It needs more and better creative/artistic decisions about the elements that distinguish filmmaking from home movies: (lighting, sound, location, costumes, colour palette etc.) In short, to be a film, it needs every shot to develop the story and, (through its composition), build the audience’s engagement with the world you, the film-maker, are creating for them. If you can achieve these things you may well have a concept on your hands that could really work.
‘One of These Days’ is not a “horrible” film. It is not a film. It is a home movie. But, in these guys hands, it has as much potential as with anyone to become a very festival worthy short film. It simply requires some more homework, some more time and – most importantly – some more creativity.
Keep trying!
That was a well thought out and effective critique Tim!
😄Thank you!
the dude playing the guitar was actually in a galaxy s3 concept ad also filmed in kuwait!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfxgerTSviw