Max Swinton

Hi, this is my latest short film. It is similar in stle to Mr Fox, and tells the story of Mr Pike and his dark desires. PLease watch it in HD if you can, and let me know what you think. Thanks very much, Max

Hi Ashley, I agree with Mark on the point of it perhaps being a little drawn out. I liked the editing and the sound design, and when the neighbour attacked the girls I was genuinely shocked and upset. I didn't like the plot particularly, I thought it was overly contrived, and the rapid shaking of the masked girls head at the beginning really cheapened the whole thing for me because it is such a tired technique by now. The opening shot when the blood comes out of the mask was very good though, very memeorable I thought. Overall, I liked it, it was well made and genuinely frightening and distressing. Good stuff. I also don't know why there has been so few responses, it really is a shame. Max

Hi, I'l start with what I thought could be better. Firstly, I think that it's too long, for me it would work better as a shorter piece. This is because there is too much repetition, I understand that you are showing the constant battle between neighbours as they gradually up the volume on each other, however, it just seems like there isn't enough going on as the war escalates, up until the point when the man brings out the big guns. The other thing that I didn't like was the camera travelling through the walls, it looked cheap. I would say the same about the titles, and I say this because the film looks so nice and it really takes me right out of it when I see the obvious marks of a digital process over the film. I would have liked to see titles that looked more like they had been created through optical compositing. I don't mean this to sound harsh, because I enjoyed the film, loved the look of it and I think that you have some nice editing and composition in there.

Thanks very much. Andrew, that film looks absolutely brilliant, thanks for that. I go to the Glasgow School of Art, finish in 3 weeks, and I do fine art there, and thankfully that encompasses film. The look of it comes from hours and hours in after effects tweaking it until I liked it. I wanted it to look like something that someone found in an attic, an old reel of film that could be 5 years old or 40 years old. After I had graded it exstensively I made a real film grain overlay and put it over the top to give it some organic texture. Marcus, I had wanted to get after effects for a while, and I did all the grading and effects work in that, but I actually edited it in Sony vegas platinum 9, I have yet to figure out premiere but I will do when I get some time. I have never used Final Cut Pro. I would reccomend CS4 but ultimately it depends on what you need, and how much money you want to spend. Also bear in mind that I purchased it primarily for after effects. Later today I will post up some before and after screen grabs for anyone who is interested in the grading. Thanks very much for the comments everyone, Max

Hi, thanks for all the feedback, really appreciate it. Daniel, the sound design was done by my friend Kenneth Jeffrey, and he recorded all of the sounds himself. Damien, agreed about the glove shot, it feels a little bit plain to me. It was filmed on a DVX 100 which I borrowed from my uni, and excluding 300 pounds spent on the academic edition of adobe production suite cs4, the budget was probably about 150 pounds or so. Matt, I can understand your comment, but it does have a story of sorts which is there if you look for it, but it isn't the focus of it. Thisismuzzy, you are bsolutely right, the opening shot is an exact replica of the opening shot from A Clockwork Orange, I had hoped it would be obvious, I was not trying to copy it and pass it off as my own. Again, thanks so much for the comments, I am currently in the process of making another film in a similar style, this time involving a hungry, delusional Pike. I'l put it up as soon as it's done. Thanks very much, Max

Hi, this is a short film that I recently completed, it's about a strange characters efforts to attain the impossible. Here's the youtube link, watch it in hd if you can. Hope you enjoy it, and please leave any comments and criticism that you have. Thanks very much, Max

Hi, im new to the world of super 8, dont have a lot of money, and was wondering what sort of image quality this camera is capable of? If anyone has anything to say about this camera i would greatly appreciate it, thanks