Thread: Mr. Haunted's House

Preliminary Comments: I posted another video earlier, and did not receive much favorable response from what I remember. I do not expect everyone to like or be impressed with everything I make, but I think receiving some positive feedback, even about one thing in a project, can be beneficial to everyone who makes something. I think I try to do that when I comment on other people's work, and if you can do that I would appreciate that. Please also understand that I am not a professional, I use Windows Movie Maker, and am somewhat new to this. Thank you, thank you!

This is a short film I made in the past couple of weeks.



Thanks for watching.

I thought it was fantastic, the best I have seen, the effects were wonderful, the music sublime, the suspense spine tingling. You don't really want that sort of rubbish do you ? Maybe your right not to post in the user videos section after all.

You clearly enjoy making videos and you actually put some time into them. You need to chill and just let people feed back what they really feel without attempting to constrain it in any way.

I am going to get told of now for putting the boot in

Originally Posted by Shrimpfarmer

I thought it was fantastic, the best I have seen, the effects were wonderful, the music sublime, the suspense spine tingling. You don't really want that sort of rubbish do you ? Maybe your right not to post in the user videos section after all.

You clearly enjoy making videos and you actually put some time into them. You need to chill and just let people feed back what they really feel without attempting to constrain it in any way.

I am going to get told of now for putting the boot in

I have thought about some of the things you've written, and communicated with some other filmmakers, and I think this is a matter about which there can be division.

One filmmaker, much more experienced than me, having learned shooting movies in the 60s, seems to hold the opinion that in a community of filmmakers, our job is not to be critics but to encourage one another upon the basis of what we do that strikes us as good and innovative.

Of course, it should be admitted that filmmaking is an art form from which you can always learn something new.

Anyway, I do not necessarily expect you to change your outlook on these things but I thought it was something that might be worth mentioning in a forum.

Originally Posted by Garboni

One filmmaker, much more experienced than me, having learned shooting movies in the 60s, seems to hold the opinion that in a community of filmmakers, our job is not to be critics but to encourage one another upon the basis of what we do that strikes us as good and innovative.

I don't see that the two are mutually exclusive.

On this forum people often praise where they think something is good (even if they do not particularly like it).

But making suggestions as to how something can be improved, which surely you would agree is constructive, often requires notification that something is bad.

If it's to do with content, the this is quite likely subjective and should be seen as such. If it's technical it's more likely to be black and white (or at least on a sliding scale from good to bad).

Telling someone their camerawork is fantastic without pointing out the fact that the sound was so poor they could not understand the dialog is not doing anyone any favours.

Originally Posted by TimStannard

I don't see that the two are mutually exclusive.

On this forum people often praise where they think something is good (even if they do not particularly like it).

But making suggestions as to how something can be improved, which surely you would agree is constructive, often requires notification that something is bad.

If it's to do with content, the this is quite likely subjective and should be seen as such. If it's technical it's more likely to be black and white (or at least on a sliding scale from good to bad).

Telling someone their camerawork is fantastic without pointing out the fact that the sound was so poor they could not understand the dialog is not doing anyone any favours.

I would perhaps agree with some of the things you are stating. But even technical things can be subjective. The person who on Aint it Cool News asks me, "Can you tell me what is the first line in that trailer? 'What's a liquid pansy driving movie?'" perhaps sees some technical/audio problem in my trailer more than the person who on YouTube says, "liquid panti remover... i need to get me one of those.... the trailer is funny". Or the person who is experiencing motion sickness feelings perhaps sees some technical/visual problem in a shaky camcorder film than the person who is comfortable with it. Without question, making a point about the problems one personally had with someone's work can help a filmmaker get to another level. But, according to a moderator on one film forum, "Lots of... negative adjectives, particularly absolutes... are probably neither accurate nor necessary." ([ame=http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=154749]Suggestions on Giving and Receiving Criticism - DVXuser.com -- The online community for filmmaking[/ame])

But again, it is all a matter for which there can be division.

Best wishes,

Gilbert

Hi Gilbert, thanks for posting the link.

It may surprise you (though it wouldn't if you'd read a lot of my rambling posts) to know that I agree wholeheartedly with what JDS says in his posts.

Indeed you may find this thread illuminating http://www.videoforums.co.uk/forum-a...criticism.html and perhaps it's telling that my opening post in the thread includes:

I believe [constructive criticism] means criticism of any kind, positive or negative but backed up by some reasoning or advice.
In other words:
"Your film sucks" - is just negative criticism
"Your film sucks because the camera work was shakey, the sound unintelligible" - is constructive criticism.

You received lots of people making the SAME negative comment. This is NOT the same as people making lots of negative comments.

If everyone who cannot (or can't be bothered to) understand your film because of poor sound decides not to make that comment, you'll never know that lots of people did not make it past the first few seconds. That's hardly helpful.

I always make an effort to say something positive (so long as I believe the maker has genuinely tried rather than snapped some happy slapping on his phone and put it onYouTube), but if I can't make it past the poor sound, how am I meant to?

Meant with goodwill in the hope of enhancing understanding.