Short Film - The Receptionist

I just finished a short film for my Spanish class called “The Receptionist”. It’s in Spanish, of course, but there are English subtitles for those of you who don’t know Spanish. :wink:

Anyway, it’s essentially a twilight-zone-esque movie, with a sci-fi-type plot, and a healthy dose of suspense.

You can watch it here:
Download The Receptionist (25 MB)

And you can see the outtakes here:
Download The Blooper Reel (24 MB)

If you have any problems, try downloading it from my website:
http://www.lemsoft3d.com/

C&C are welcome. :smiley:

BTW, I co-directed the movie, along with the guy who played the receptionist, did visual effects, translated the original script into Spanish, composited it, and directed all of the shots, just in case anyone was wondering. :slight_smile:

Let me download it. Sounds cool though.

Edit:

Whoa…that was happy. Good film, I like the storyline.

Ay! Muy inquietante!

Crits:
Even though it is a fairly permanent state imposed upon her, you’d still say “esta’ feliz”, because it points more to her current emotional state of being, regardless of duration. If “es feliz” it only means that she is by nature a fairly happy person --she can still get depressed or upset though. By using estar it would also improve the creepiness of the mood, because the viewer quickly understands that she is now always happy.

Verbs like come and go are not used like we do in English. If you are all going somewhere, in English we say “do you want to come…”. But in Spanish we don’t tend to forget where we are in relation to our destination. We say “quieras ir?”.

Your friends should have practiced their lines before reading them off the que-cards.

Praises:
Very Orwellian! Thank you.

I didn’t forsee the getting locked in the room. That was great! (And surgery… :slight_smile: )

The pacing (though somewhat choppy in places) was overall very good for the timeframe and did a good job of moving through the story without feeling rushed. The disturbing feeling of the scenes still came through.

Sigue practicando, y buena suerte!

P.S. (Sorry I can’t resist.) If someone ever asks me if “I’m ready [to go, etc.]” by saying just “listo?” (which really means “estas listo?”), I always pause, stand up a little straighter, put on a self-congradulatory smile, wiggle my head a little, and respond: “Pues si, soy listo.”

Estar listo --> be ready (to leave, eat, etc.)
Ser listo --> be swift, smart, intelligent, etc.

Duoas: Wow, thanks for all of the comments! :smiley:
Yes, I realize that at the end, the use of ser instead of estar is incorrect, but I didn’t have time to fix it. :frowning:
Oh, and I was Alec, just in case anyone was wondering. :slight_smile: (I know, the other people aren’t very good with Spanish. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Dittohead: Thanks! :smiley:

Keep those comments coming! :smiley:

Alright. I apologize in advance.

Crits:

You could have cut the intro in half and have it be twice as effective. The set up took way too long in my opinion. I can see why it took so long though, considering that the credits were over the opening scene. The best way to cut this down would be to figure a different and less distracting way to display the credits.

Practicing the lines would have been good. Would have made it way more effective as a film.

The camera work, especially in the slow-motion bits was pretty dodgy and didn’t lend itself to the story as much as it could have. You did manage to capture all of the important stuff though.

More dramatic lighting would have made the receptionist scene amazingly cool. Maybe more dimly lit with light coming from a single desk lamp…

The end credits could also have been cut down considerably by making them go faster and by not spacing them so far apart. And the ‘The End’ wasnt really needed either. I only mention this because they add on needless filesize.

All crits aside, I love the story. While the excecution was lacking here and there, the story was excellent! And the conclusion was even better! and you get top scores for completeness. You told the story in a clear enough way, which is more than I can say for most amatuer films.

I apologize if I sound harsh in my crits. I mean no (permanent) harm. :slight_smile:

Thanks, dante! No, I can take crits, and I’m not offended by your post. :slight_smile:

Anyway, thanks for the tips, I’m sure they’ll be useful for next time. :smiley: