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Breanne, if you watch, you will totally understand my comments on FB.
Yes, now I see. That's close to what I was talking about. For example, they gave a special thanks to Alfred Hitchcock. I noticed they didn't credit him on IMDb, though. That would have been what I was talking about. If you look up Hitchcock on IMDb, he's got a lot of credits on recent films that he clearly had nothing to do with. It's just filmmakers trying to drive up the starmeter ratings on their own projects.
Anyway, back to Blackout:
First off, congrats again on getting something produced and distributed. I saw you were an executive producer on the project. Congrats on getting involved. I know it was a lot of hard work. I noticed your credits in the film don't match your credits on IMDb. Not sure what that's about. You have a "Written by" credit in the film while director Matthew K. Hacker didn't get any writing credit. According to IMDb, Matthew has a writer credit while you have a story credit. It's all very conflicting.
Now on to the movie:
Hmm, had some things I liked and some things that were problematic for me.
First off, I thought Blackout was a tremendous improvement over Finders Keepers in terms of photography and direction. In fact, those two things were the most notable positives for me. I thought the photography on some of the exterior shots was really good. I also thought a lot of the shots were framed well. The shots seemed to waver every now and then between being well lit and too shaded, but there were a lot of good shots.
I thought the acting was good. Timothy did well, but I thought Bill Oberst Jr and Robert Covington (again!) were the standouts. Seriously, that Covington guy could carry a feature. And Bill Oberst Jr is just awesome.
I did have a few issues with the story, though. For one, I didn't think we got to know Harley well enough. We saw him in one meeting at work, and once outside the meeting, and that was it as far as his career. Which, by the way, was the driving force behind all his most crucial decisions. Alfie says Harley always has to win, but I didn't see that at all in the way Harley was presented. To me, it was a classic case of telling, not showing. I thought a lot of his decisions were quick and senseless. This is a movie, so much of the logic can be chalked up to "movie logic." Still, I felt the concept could have been more fully exploited.
I didn't get the ending at all. Maybe I missed something, but the ending made almost no sense to me. I can't say more because I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is I didn't get it. I have very little idea what was going on. I mean, I understand what was happening with Harley, but I didn't understand any of the characters' motives. Like I said, maybe I missed something.
The movie clocked in at an hour and twenty minutes, including the credits. Seems like there was room to fill the characters out more. But then, I don't know all the production constraints, either. For example, it seems to me that Harley could have been shown actually doing his job. The location was already there. There was room for it time wise. It just seemed like there could have been more.
Anyway, enough of the negatives. There were plenty of positives, too. Great job of getting something produced and distributed. Congrats to you and the whole team. Hope the movie does well.
Yes, now I see. That's close to what I was talking about. For example, they gave a special thanks to Alfred Hitchcock. I noticed they didn't credit him on IMDb, though. That would have been what I was talking about. If you look up Hitchcock on IMDb, he's got a lot of credits on recent films that he clearly had nothing to do with. It's just filmmakers trying to drive up the starmeter ratings on their own projects.
I figured. I still haven't figured out that starmeter thing. It swings wildly. Some people seem to think that means how popular you are, but I think it has more to do with how many click on you or do a search...
First off, congrats again on getting something produced and distributed. I saw you were an executive producer on the project. Congrats on getting involved. I know it was a lot of hard work. I noticed your credits in the film don't match your credits on IMDb. Not sure what that's about. You have a "Written by" credit in the film while director Matthew K. Hacker didn't get any writing credit. According to IMDb, Matthew has a writer credit while you have a story credit. It's all very conflicting.
I have no idea what that's about. The credits, I mean. As far as the ex producer thing goes, it had more to do with me chipping in to get the deliverals ready for the distribution. I wasn't exactly involved.
Hmm, had some things I liked and some things that were problematic for me.
First off, I thought Blackout was a tremendous improvement over Finders Keepers in terms of photography and direction. In fact, those two things were the most notable positives for me. I thought the photography on some of the exterior shots was really good. I also thought a lot of the shots were framed well. The shots seemed to waver every now and then between being well lit and too shaded, but there were a lot of good shots.
I think it was the same DP for both films. Maybe the circumstances had something to do with it? One being out in the woods and the other in more controlled environments.
I thought the acting was good. Timothy did well, but I thought Bill Oberst Jr and Robert Covington (again!) were the standouts. Seriously, that Covington guy could carry a feature. And Bill Oberst Jr is just awesome.
I really like Covington too. Nice looking guy as well. He should be able to get some bigger roles.
I did have a few issues with the story, though. For one, I didn't think we got to know Harley well enough. We saw him in one meeting at work, and once outside the meeting, and that was it as far as his career. Which, by the way, was the driving force behind all his most crucial decisions. Alfie says Harley always has to win, but I didn't see that at all in the way Harley was presented. To me, it was a classic case of telling, not showing. I thought a lot of his decisions were quick and senseless. This is a movie, so much of the logic can be chalked up to "movie logic." Still, I felt the concept could have been more fully exploited.
This is something that has driven me crazy when reading the reviews. Not just for Blackout, but for FK as well. A lot of the things that are complained about in the reviews are things that I know were in the scripts. I understand they did what they did for production reasons, but IMHO, the stories were complete it the scripts.
I didn't get the ending at all. Maybe I missed something, but the ending made almost no sense to me. I can't say more because I don't want to give anything away. All I can say is I didn't get it. I have very little idea what was going on. I mean, I understand what was happening with Harley, but I didn't understand any of the characters' motives. Like I said, maybe I missed something.
The ending was sloppy in the script. I rewrote it once, but then left it because I never thought the script would go anywhere. I wish now that we had discussed it and that they had asked for a rewrite….
The movie clocked in at an hour and twenty minutes, including the credits. Seems like there was room to fill the characters out more. But then, I don't know all the production constraints, either. For example, it seems to me that Harley could have been shown actually doing his job. The location was already there. There was room for it time wise. It just seemed like there could have been more.
The script was 96 pages or something like that. A lot was never used. I'm sure they had their reasons.
Anyway, enough of the negatives. There were plenty of positives, too. Great job of getting something produced and distributed. Congrats to you and the whole team. Hope the movie does well. 
Thank you so much Breanne!!!! Your support means a lot to me.
I just checked all of this out on IMDB, the cast and crew... Not a bad little start, Pia. The reviews don't actually matter that much... although I'd be a little pissed that Hacker found his way onto the writing credit too... greedy bastard. All in all, it's not bad. I can't actually rent your film as I have Netflix and Blockbuster already and cannot justify another contract. Unless I can watch on a per-film basis... then I'll gladly watch it.
As the writer you can blame everything on the producer and director.... the important thing here is that you have a writing credit. It is honestly quite refreshing to meet a writer that just wants to get things made. I'm the same. Well done.
Hey Dustin, almost didn't see your post here. The OWCs push things down the portal fast.
The film is missing large pieces from the script which makes the film not clear, IMHO. So, it gets frustrating reading reviews where the reviewer says things like, who wrote this crap, the writer needs to get a thesaurus. To be honest, it crushed my writing spirit. The good thing is that I think, it came back to me with this OWC, so I thank Don for that.
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