my own Indie Films

As well as being a faneditor, i'm also a filmmaker. i've made 4 independent short films so far. check out my website to see them.

http://www.astrophe.com

my last film was a very short film (less than 4 min), which can really only be described as a biblical horror film... i know that sounds weird, and it is.. it doesn't have gore or anything.... just atmosphere
http://www.astrophe.com/amosfinal1mbpswmv.wmv

my 3rd was a 7 min film called "the boss", which is a cool black and white film noir/mafia type thing. this seems to be the favourite of my films so far.
http://www.astrophe.com/thebosswmv512.wmv

the 2nd was an 8 min film called "night has broken". it was a weird experimental piece that was basically creepy images set to creepy music.
http://www.astrophe.com/nighthasbroken.wmv

my first film was called "9", and was similar to a twilight zone episode. was about 26 min. is about a girl named kate whose boyfriend supposedly dies in a plane crash... the problem being that he was at her house when the plane took off... this was my first film and definitely has it's faults... but as a first film it was a good learning experience, and there are things i like about it, among the things i cringe at
http://www.astrophe.com/nine256k.wmv

check them out and let me know what you think....
they are also on my myspace...

http://www.myspace.com/ericsparksfilms

come on, guys... not one person has taken 4 minutes in the last 4 days to watch even my latest film????

I'll check em' out.

DLing them now, I will try to check them out and comment.

Until then, here's my shorts: (check out Fractured at the least, that one took a lot of time and effort to make)

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Beckmen

any thoughts... anyone?

Amos: Interesting. The look is pretty impressive, but the genre isn't my cup of tea. Too cryptic, too I dunno artsy, I guess.

The Boss: A nice little short, but it's kind of too long. Too many pauses and stuff, feels kind of gratuitous. It might be the repetitive music, though. Maybe something a little less droning would make the whole thing feel better paced. Also, the main actor isn't very good. I can tell what you were going for, he has a good look and voice, but lacks the talent to pull off the acting part. I am sure it's hard to find men in the proper age who can act, though. Unless they are pros, and you need to pay them. But over-all, I would say it's a good piece. I really dug the ending and that transition. Gives the film much more depth than I am used to seeing in shorts made by hobbyists or students. The music is actually good until you get about 2 or 3 minutes in and realize it's the same few chords (or whatever, I am no musician) on a loop.

Night Has Broken: I have to level with you, I hated it. I couldn't see any point to it at all. Maybe I am missing something, but it seemed like complete visual/audio gibberish to me. If you have some kind of idealogical reasoning for it, do tell.

I haven't gotten around to Nine or whatever that 25 minute one is yet.

PS: What format (film, DV, ect) did you shoot all these on? (and if DV, what camera)

thanks for your comments.

yeah, amos is a little weird, but i like it.

the boss didn't have anyone in it who is an actor in any way. they are all just people i know who wanted to help me out, and i thought at least remotely fit the parts. i wish i knew some actors... but living in my town, it's hard to find actors.

and night has broken... lol don't worry. that one is split 50/50. either people love it and it scares the crap out of them... or they hate it and don't get it at all. there really is no middle of the road, so don't worry, i'm not offended at all. basically we just ran out and shot a bunch of stuff one night, and then my friend/composer did that song, and i got the idea of editing the footage to go along with the song.

well, 9, and night has broken were shot on a cheap JVC MiniDV camcorder... the boss and amos were shot on a canon XL1.

'Night has broken' and 'Amos' both remind me of Silent Hill for some strange reason. Nice editing.

I'm glad you didn't take any of my comments the wrong way. I am in no way trying to insult you or anything. I support amateur film-makers, even if I don't happen to like all of their stuff. But that one is the only one (so far) that I didn't like on some level. And even that had a nice soundscape going on. Keep on keeping on.

If I ever get around to watching the last one, I will post my comments for it as well.

Hey, thanks for the comparison to silent hill. i never thought of that... but any comparison to something that scary is cool. and glad you like my editing

yeah, i don't mind if people don't like my films. i know some of them are very experimental, and they are definitely not made to appeal to everyone, so don't worry about it.

am surprised you didn't like the music for the boss though... it wasn't actually looped at all, it was all composed and played by a friend of mine. he has done all of the music for all of my films. i personally think the music is the best part of all of them.

It's good, it's just a little too repetitive for my taste. I guess I am kind of torn, because I do like it, and it's funky and everything. I guess a lot of jazz is repetitive, though. Hemmick is a pretty good composer.

9: This one was pretty good, as well. Kate's acting was actually quite good, give her a kudos from me (random online guy) next time you talk to her. Over-all a nice little short.

yeah, i thought kate did a good job too, for not being an actress of any kind. she is just a girl who wanted to do it. i don't really see her anymore, but if i do, i'll let her know.

well.... i was in the mood to do something, filmwise, monday night and tuesday night....
so... here was my monday night....
if you're not really into weird david lynch type stuff... it probably won't be your thing... lol
just kind of atmospheric and interesting looking stuff... that's not....
kind of boring for most people....
if nothing else... try and guess what the "music" is haha
[youtube:wtsikdrf]
and here's my tuesday night.... part poem and part weird art piece...
though most people have found it kinda creepy so far....
[youtube:wtsikdrf]

i like the poem one. i watched it yesterday i think.

I like your "kind of boring for most people" filming way. Reminds me my favorite director style.........Kubrick's of course......He was never worried about lenght of the shot....Can anyone remember openinig of "clokwork orange"? Masterpiece!......but today people prefer "music video clip" movies in M.Bay's shitty style

thanks throw glad you liked it...

and thanks voodl.... i'm certainly not unhappy about a comparison to kubrick haha
he's one of my favorites too... yeah, i think too many movies are too fast paced as well...
people can't sit back and enjoy a film.... if it has an average shot length longer than
0.3 second, people get bored.... yeah, i love a lot of kubrick's stuff.... just takes it slow
and lets you enjoy the beauty of what you're seeing.... david lynch too....

i'm going to try to post some little thing or another about every week, so if anyone wants
to subscribe to my youtube channel, here it is
http://www.youtube.com/lewis886

i do have 3 of my other films on youtube now too..... so you can see them on
my channel (above), or here you go....
look at the top of this thread for a little info on them...

here's my 4th film... amos
[youtube:1yih57ts]
my 3rd film, the boss
[youtube:1yih57ts]
and my 2nd film, night has broken
[youtube:1yih57ts]

......if you will start making "big screen" movies one day.... please do an adaptation of "fiasco" by stanisław lem....and make it as long as you can....

hmmm.... interesting... actually i've never read any of his books... but i'm a big fan of both
versions of Solaris (solyaris), and i really like the 1962 adaptation of his book "the astronauts" (Astronauci)
which was a german film called "the silent star" (Der Schweigende Stern) (yes it was hacked
up into the fairly bad "first spaceship on venus", but the original film is pretty good for it's time)
but i've never read any of his stuff... i should check it out i'd love the chance to make
a "big screen" movie a budget would be nice period haha

another weird little short....

This started because I thought the basement of the building I live in is really creepy at night, and so I wanted to film simply walking through it. I thought it looked cool, but I didn't do anything with it for a while. Then there was a beautiful moon one night, and I grabbed my camera and ran out and filmmed it, and put the two together. Here's the result.

[youtube:af645mze]

cool