The Flow Of Soul shortfilm

Werner Cazaerck · June 3, 2008

Hi

This is a shortfilm I shot with a Canon XL1 in the NARAFI filmschool in Belgium. We were assigned to make a 3 minute shortfilm that included a chase of some sort and suspence. Eventually mine became 5.30 minutes, they flunked me because of that. And also the fact that I was "too independant" and didn't consult enough with the teachers.

I had already attended another filmschool for one year, with succes I might add, but I quit cause I needed to find some inspiration. It's not like I thought I was a bigshot, but I never felt the need to let others solve my problems, and I only wanted comment on the finished product. Already I see alot of mistakes, and that's a good thing. But getting flunked and them acting like it's poop is not what I expected.

((If you'd actually be willing to compare it with some other shortfilms of the same assignment, you can type "narafi hide & seek" on youtube. Most of it will be in dutch, but you can just see the total difference in image and soundscape. At least, that's what I think...))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jc1qVNVFm4

Do YOU think I made a bad shortfilm? :)

Werner Cazaerck · June 4, 2008

((If you'd actually be willing to compare it with some other shortfilms of the same assignment, you can type "narafi hide & seek" on youtube. Most of it will be in dutch, but you can just see the total difference in image and soundscape. At least, that's what I think...))

You do not have to do this, any opnion on the shortie is welcome :)

Matt Read · June 12, 2008

It's not bad. Certainly not worthy of flunking. However, it's all style and no substance. It's not "About" anything and it comes off being fairly pretentious. Perhaps your teachers felt that as well, especially since you chose not to involve them in your creative process. You have to understand that when you go to a film school, or any school for that matter, you're paying to get comments, critiques and advice from your teachers and not just on the final product, but at all steps of your process. And you have to put up with some bullshit, such as time limitations. Not following a teacher's instructions and not being open to their comments and critiques can make them feel put off and then they are less likely to cut you some slack when you do something ambitious or above and beyond.

Werner Cazaerck · June 13, 2008

It's not bad. Certainly not worthy of flunking. However, it's all style and no substance. It's not "About" anything and it comes off being fairly pretentious. Perhaps your teachers felt that as well, especially since you chose not to involve them in your creative process. You have to understand that when you go to a film school, or any school for that matter, you're paying to get comments, critiques and advice from your teachers and not just on the final product, but at all steps of your process. And you have to put up with some bullshit, such as time limitations. Not following a teacher's instructions and not being open to their comments and critiques can make them feel put off and then they are less likely to cut you some slack when you do something ambitious or above and beyond.

Yeah, I know you're right :)

And I also thought that to some people it would come off as pretentious. But that's really because of the fact that I had to narrow it all down. Normally I'd never go for the cryptic monologues, but since it was in a "dream" world and I had to make all the info as short as possible, I just went with it. It does give a good atmosphere in my opinion, and what I really wanted all along was to give a certain "impression". But the whole thing appears more difficult than it really is. And that was not the intention, kind of got lost in it myself after months of working on it.

Thanks for the advice :)