George: I did hire a person to clean the sound in post and they did improve the short but I guess not well enough. I wasn't happy with the results either as it didn't sound cinematic and I guess the right amount of compression is what was missing. I must say that I'm proud of recording he voice-over by myself though. My actor was really good. And yes the BMCC has a great dynamic range and by exposing to the right, I was able to recover a lot of the details in the shadow (with some noise).
Macks: I agree that the the sound needed a better approach both during production (I used the in-camera sound only, in some scenes), and in post( compression and folley are main factors).
Joshua: As for the movie being too long for its own stake is because I wanted to make sure to express the idea of Jonathan's life falling apart as much as I could. I wanted to show that this happens gradually. I do agree thought that for festival purposes, by cutting the movie in half, it would have greatly benefited from it. It's interesting that you're mentioning that the movie wants to be a comedy though. That wasn't really my goal but someone mentioned to me that it has elements of satire. As for using master shots mostly, I think that's my biggest mistake in this film. I just like the idea of perfect composition and getting points of view that nobody else gets. I don't like moving the camera much to be honest, but then again I do understand that this has been the standard for decades. In particular, in the last few years filmmakers have been seeking an extreme realism at the point that many movies use handheld despite the large accessibility of tripods and steadicams. I guess I will have to find a compromise between my personal style and what's now considered "cinematic". By saying that I have my own style though, I'm not trying to establish that filmmaking is completely subjective because I do understand the importance of camera movement, and coverage. I'm not just at the point yet to make these artistic choices.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I agree with some of your observations and disagree with some others but this is very helpful.
MH