Visually, the pans of certain shots and the location that elements on the screen really stood out to me. I paid attention to how many of the shots were setup and how they made appealed to certain aspects of my thoughts. Ex. The shot of the quarter landing in the cup made that final decision of his fate final. It gave the viewer a relief to see it land in the cup, although it was already foreshadowed.
I enjoyed that such a serious subject for many people was shot in a comical perspective. It made the short easy to connect to.
Bonnie Gross: I really enjoyed the short of the week “In God We Trust.” Personally I love anything that has comedy and humor. I thought from a writing perspective, the story was cleaver because of how it started and ended with the same quarter. I found the whole scenes with Bobby Junior very funny, especially when he struck the wrong person with lightening. I also love the title of the short. I think it is cool because of the double meaning. The first meaning is what is that “In God We Trust” is written on a quarter. The second meaning is a symbol for him being in trial between heaven and hell during the short. I thought that the idea of the short was creative and done in a humorous matter. Also the conversation between the main character and the guy in the office who is looking over his case flows really nicely. The camera follows the conversation very well. When he escapes the office back into reality, the mass chaos scene was very nice as well. I also liked the scene when he is letting the bird go and the thing on the roof begins to spin. It was cool how the camera started on his face and zoomed into the spinning thing and faded the background out. Another part I really thought was cool camera wise was when they turn the fan out to redirect the mirror so it reflects the sunlight onto the ice cream cone. Then the close up of the ice cream cone was interesting and I loved how they put loud dripping noises on for the shot. One more shot that I thought was interesting is when he is jumping through the window of a girl’s bedroom. He jumps into the camera and then it shows him coming through the window, almost as if he went straight through the camera itself.
Nia Barnes: This short was a very cute and creative way to bring up the situation of an afterlife. Many of the people I know want to go to heaven and they try and strive to make sure they will end up there after they leave earth. The short is very clever starting in the beginning when they introduced the title of the short using a quarter. I also liked how they made the short end where it started off at with the main character picking up the quarter in the middle of the street.
The slow motions scenes in the short were executed well. My favorite and I think the best slow motion scene is the one in the beginning and end once he gets hit by the vehicle. This was very affective because it allows the audience to indulge themselves in the moment and suddenness of the accident.
The music in the background was well chosen and incorporated a bunch of different genres of music which I liked. The scenes where he was running had the best background music. When the main character first was running away from purgatory, the song "Tainted Love"was a great song which added on to the element of running away going to his girlfriend, especially including the part of the song speaking about running and getting away. I also like the jazzy song that was in the background when he was later running away in the film.
The camera work of the short was also done and executed very well. When the main character was running the camera was alway set up in a way that we were running with him always looking towards the direction that he was running in. If he was running to the left, the camera had the character in the right side of the screen allowing us to see what is in front of him while running. One of my favorite scenes of camera work is when the little girl's ice cream melts. The camera led the way and bettered the process of how that ice cream melted. The camera panned to the left going from the fan pushing the mirror down which led to the rays melting the ice cream.
The colors used in this film were great. At purgatory, everyone was in white which represented afterlife but not yet hell. But when he went back to earth, there were many bright and different colors being used. White was used to represent the beauty and innocents of the girlfriend laying in bed not really understanding and paying attentions to what the main character was saying and the pink dress and pink ice cream of the little girl represents feminine youth.
The ultimate thing that made the short very great was the comedy and humor incorporated in various parts of the movie. Because talking about death is not funny, comedy is hard to put into a piece dealing with this issue but the characters were very light hearted about the situation of death which made it easier to allow comedy. The best humor was when the topic of hell came up because the characters were very nonchalant about this topic which made it funny.
Hampton Bradshaw: The short was pretty funny. It followed the slapstick tale of a guy getting run over, going to an office waiting room for judgment, then escaping back down to earth to right his wrongs and settle his affairs, after which he barely makes the mark and manages to go to heaven instead of hell. The story was simple, but entertaining, with a clear protagonist, Robert, and antagonist, the Purgatorians, though it did have a few small flaws. When he comes back, he immediately goes around trying to settle his affairs and do good things, however, he admits a few times that he thinks he is going to hell anyway, making me wonder what his motivation was for trying to do good. Also, the protagonist is in an extreme rush after he gets back to Earth, indicating that he somehow knows that purgatory is hunting him down. Despite these small story flaws, it was an excellent short nonetheless. The acting was believable despite the zany plot, and the actors were good for their parts. The music fit the scenes well, and added more than a little humor to many of the scenes. Most of the settings were generic city or apartment settings, with the noteworthy exception of Purgatory. Purgatory was an interesting set, designed to look like an office room, with desks and computers, but the strange shape and color of the room gave it an unusual, almost unearthly feel. The snow effect was a little cheap looking, but it was still funny. The aesthetic qualities of the short were appropriate and amusing, and fit the piece well. The camera work is fantastic, opening with a scene of the earth that pans in, and eventually to a close up of Robert admiring a quarter, and observing the “In God we Trust” on the quarter. This is followed by the well-made slow motion shot of Robert getting run over, and next by elevator doors opening to purgatory. The camera angles are excellent, and the close ups are appropriate. The camera work was more than adequate, the angles were interesting, and the closeups, such as on Robert’s hand when he is holding the melting ice cream cone, were well-thought-out. The short was excellent, and it was funny all the way through. While the story did advance somewhat inexplicably at points, it still had a good flow and helped convey the plot’s humor. The aesthetics were good, with good acting, and some interesting settings. The camera work tied the short together, and made the piece visually appealing. The short’s humor was unending, and it was hard not to sympathize with its poor protagonist.
Rebecca Bynum: I really enjoyed the short of the week "In God We Trust". I thought it touched on a serious subject matter that everyone can relate to with a touch of comedy to lighten the mood. The short raises the question of what will happen when we die, do we go to heaven or hell. The story plot follows a guy who dies and based on a set of points is sent to hell, because of this the story structure also raises the question of whether or not we have another chance to take back the mistakes we've made. The camerawork in the short is excellent. It follows the 180 degree rule when characters are in dialogue with each other and the camera angles in each scene's frame work are well used. Along with camerawork and aesthetics the actors help make the short a comedy and interesting for the audience. My favorite part about this short is the plot structure. The story begins and ends the same way. The story flows like a circle in order to get from the beginning to the end, the story has to go back to the beginning to piece the plot together. All in all, I really enjoyed the film.
My overall reaction to this short is lukewarm. The story, sound, and acting were not particularly interesting, often becoming very cheesy or disrupting the flow of the short as a whole. On the other hand, the cinematography was excellent, providing the only real reason to keep watching, with a great use of motion, composition, and overall visual style. When examined in terms of its actual filming, the film fares far better.
Kaitlin Smith: I thought "In God We Trust," was a very entertaining short film that had a great storyline and was very original. I liked the idea of getting the film's title from a coin and getting an extreme close-up shot of that coin during the beginning and end of the film. The camerawork and cinematography was very well done. The director and DP had some great shots in there, like in the beginning when he is leaning back his head and everything from his and the camera/audience point of view is turned upside down. Makes the film very realistic! I also like the action shots and the shot where he is hit by the car, that had great camera work as well. I thought the main character did a great job in his role as well as the antagonist both definitely had acting experience because they brought some humor to the table when delivering their lines.
The visual aspect of the short film, "In God we Trust," for example the lighting, and special effects. I think the director Jason Reitman kept that to a minimum in my opinion. Because this film was shot in the daytime the director did not need special lighting for effects, from my perspective. Although, he did put some lights on the actors to make the background dark in the room, for the scenes with the men who decide about heaven/hell and they're searching and trying to kill him like FBI/CSI agents. Too funny! Also, for special effects there really weren't that many, like adding snow falling or the lighting strike you do during the editing process. You can tell this was a low budget film, but I think the director succeeded in what he was aiming for and he definitely captured audience interest, with the screenplay being so interesting and fun, because for us viewers we want to know what happens next.
I really enjoyed this short, not only was it really well shot but the story was excellent and even as a short the character development was amazing. The main thing that I enjoyed about the shot composition is the use of close ups to focus in on the actors expressions, for example when the camera zooms in on Gil’s eyes to show his annoyance about Robert getting points. I loved the story and the script more than anything, the message that every little good thing or bad thing you do has consequences, was very compelling. I thought that the writer’s point system for determining if a person goes to Heaven or Hell very unique, and also found many parts of the story very memorable and engaging. As I stated before the character development was also great, I found myself sympathizing with the main character Robert, and hoping that by the end of the short he gets the points he needs to get to heaven. Overall the short was well shot and well written and kept me in suspense and very entertained.
I think that the film started out pretty good and by watching the first few frames I was not expecting it to turn out as creative as it did. The special effects were not as dramatic as they could have been. I liked the skills that the DP had with camera shots,framing of the subjects, and lighting. The story was pretty good and the entertainment and humor of some of the scenes brought out the the suspense in some scenes. Overall the cast and crew did a good job with this short film and and creativity definitely shows. It was extremely humorous and it kept my attention. Nice work on the film and I wish you the best in your upcoming work.
Overall I like this short. My favorite part being the opening sequences. Having "God's" hand turn a globe which fades into a shot of earth and begins to zoom in on the main charter holding a quarter. It really reminds the viewer at the begin how insignificant people are. Once the rest of the short has been seen the viewer feels like if they try hard enough the could pull off what he did because of the opening sequences.
My favorite scene was on the roof top when he is yelling at the bird to be free. The close ups on the bird almost made me laugh till die.
Ellen Schwartz: I thought the short was very interesting and nice dark humor. I really enjoyed when Gill was going over all the bad things Robert had done and the part with the bird. I really like the side angle shot of Robert getting hit by the car. But overall it didn't leave all that great of an impression.
John Steven Hiott I enjoyed how much the film critiqued modern popular religion and especially liked the gamification of the heaven or hell process. The variety of shots was creative and did a good job conveying different moods in the different scenes. The use of close-ups helped convey the different characters feelings/emotions and additionally helped develop them as characters as the story went on. I also liked the contrast in darkness between heaven and the place he was first sent when he died.
I really enjoyed this short the longer it progressed. The way the story came to a full circle ending, allowing the audience to realize the full symbolism of the quarter, was very endearing. The main character was very likeable, an average guy just trying to get through the obstacles. I liked how his purpose in going back to the real world was to tie some loose ends in his life (or set others free, such as his bird) and was not to gain more points in order to get into heaven - which isn't what he should have gotten with that being his purpose anyways (like with the chocolate he bought) - which was what he ultimately achieved.
Visually, I thought the shots were very effective in getting the story across and I enjoyed the occasional non traditional or symbolic shot, although they did not overwhelm the story. The intro was very interesting, as one thing became another and it did a great job of introducing this story as one of greater proportions than a typical event in an average man's life. I also liked the final shot, of the elevator 'going up' button lit up, symbolizing his fate in heaven.
Although the general story and the visual shots were interesting and entertaining, some small plot lines were a bit cheesier than my taste usually likes. However, in this short they worked very well. The events such as ballroom dancing, holding the girl's ice cream, and a man asking for change, just happened to be there, and it was predictable what his reaction would be to them and what was going to happen because of that. These events were necessary for the story to work, though, and I think instead of making it not enjoyable, they added to the silly comedic style of the film as a whole. I found it both pleasing visually, and the story compelling and humorous.
I appreciated the use of irony at the beginning, looking at a quarter that places the viewers trust in the almighty, then making the viewer shift their take to reality as the man holding the quarter gets run over (pretty convincingly) by a yellow jeep. Enjoyed the elevator setting the stage for "purgatory". especially enjoyed the vivid shot up on the roof as he yells at the parrot. sort of comical take on his frustration which would be logical for one who is subjected toward this version of hell.
Lots of irony, he dances out of the grasp of the guys in "wife-beater" undershirts only to run into a facility that he views as secure, although it is not. After doing a sort of purgatory dance around he then is literally forced to dance with an older, slightly overweight woman. The expression on the "puppet-master's" face (the man who operates the computer controlling the protaganist's fate) is quality. the ending also has a lot of vision, as he is about to be denied entry to heaven we see him step in the elevator and the light flashes the "up" elevator sign.
Brandon Martin: Personally, I did not like the short film, In God We Trust. The cinematography and technical aspects of the film were aesthetically pleasing and done properly. Nevertheless, I felt the plot, themes, and the final product were in some ways unsatisfactory. I thought the concept was interesting and unique, but the execution fell short. The shot composition of In God We Trust was pretty simple. For the majority of the shots the camera was stationary and pans and tilts were used. There were several scenes were the camera did not move at all and the main character came into the frame on one side and exited the frame on the other side. The main shots used in the short film were close ups, extreme close-ups, medium shots, long shots, and over the shoulder shots. The framing for the most part was good and followed the rule of thirds. There was a few times where I thought there was a little too much headroom in some of the shots. The short film made good use of depth of field and often changed from a shallow to deep depth of field in the same shot to shift the focus from one thing to another. My favorite aspect of the film was actually the soundtrack. I thought the songs worked really well with the action and pace of the story. There was one song in particular, when the main character started running down the street and a song about running faded up, that I thought worked really well and was integrated extremely well into the narrative. As far as the plot goes, I just felt it was a bit strange and seemed undeveloped. I also thought the emotions exchanged between characters especially with the father were weak and almost emotionless. I felt that the short film failed to make me interested or even concerned about the well-being of the protagonist. Nevertheless, I think the short film did portray a good message about the importance of the little things in life. In the end, Jason Reitman did a good job of bringing the plot full circle especially with the same car accident and with the quarter. While overall I did not like the short film, I think it was interesting and as far as the cinematography and technical aspects go In God We Trust was done well.
I enjoyed this short tremendously.
ReplyDeleteVisually, the pans of certain shots and the location that elements on the screen really stood out to me. I paid attention to how many of the shots were setup and how they made appealed to certain aspects of my thoughts. Ex. The shot of the quarter landing in the cup made that final decision of his fate final. It gave the viewer a relief to see it land in the cup, although it was already foreshadowed.
I enjoyed that such a serious subject for many people was shot in a comical perspective. It made the short easy to connect to.
Bonnie Gross: I really enjoyed the short of the week “In God We Trust.” Personally I love anything that has comedy and humor. I thought from a writing perspective, the story was cleaver because of how it started and ended with the same quarter. I found the whole scenes with Bobby Junior very funny, especially when he struck the wrong person with lightening. I also love the title of the short. I think it is cool because of the double meaning. The first meaning is what is that “In God We Trust” is written on a quarter. The second meaning is a symbol for him being in trial between heaven and hell during the short. I thought that the idea of the short was creative and done in a humorous matter.
ReplyDeleteAlso the conversation between the main character and the guy in the office who is looking over his case flows really nicely. The camera follows the conversation very well. When he escapes the office back into reality, the mass chaos scene was very nice as well. I also liked the scene when he is letting the bird go and the thing on the roof begins to spin. It was cool how the camera started on his face and zoomed into the spinning thing and faded the background out. Another part I really thought was cool camera wise was when they turn the fan out to redirect the mirror so it reflects the sunlight onto the ice cream cone. Then the close up of the ice cream cone was interesting and I loved how they put loud dripping noises on for the shot. One more shot that I thought was interesting is when he is jumping through the window of a girl’s bedroom. He jumps into the camera and then it shows him coming through the window, almost as if he went straight through the camera itself.
Nia Barnes: This short was a very cute and creative way to bring up the situation of an afterlife. Many of the people I know want to go to heaven and they try and strive to make sure they will end up there after they leave earth. The short is very clever starting in the beginning when they introduced the title of the short using a quarter. I also liked how they made the short end where it started off at with the main character picking up the quarter in the middle of the street.
ReplyDeleteThe slow motions scenes in the short were executed well. My favorite and I think the best slow motion scene is the one in the beginning and end once he gets hit by the vehicle. This was very affective because it allows the audience to indulge themselves in the moment and suddenness of the accident.
The music in the background was well chosen and incorporated a bunch of different genres of music which I liked. The scenes where he was running had the best background music. When the main character first was running away from purgatory, the song "Tainted Love"was a great song which added on to the element of running away going to his girlfriend, especially including the part of the song speaking about running and getting away. I also like the jazzy song that was in the background when he was later running away in the film.
The camera work of the short was also done and executed very well. When the main character was running the camera was alway set up in a way that we were running with him always looking towards the direction that he was running in. If he was running to the left, the camera had the character in the right side of the screen allowing us to see what is in front of him while running. One of my favorite scenes of camera work is when the little girl's ice cream melts. The camera led the way and bettered the process of how that ice cream melted. The camera panned to the left going from the fan pushing the mirror down which led to the rays melting the ice cream.
The colors used in this film were great. At purgatory, everyone was in white which represented afterlife but not yet hell. But when he went back to earth, there were many bright and different colors being used. White was used to represent the beauty and innocents of the girlfriend laying in bed not really understanding and paying attentions to what the main character was saying and the pink dress and pink ice cream of the little girl represents feminine youth.
The ultimate thing that made the short very great was the comedy and humor incorporated in various parts of the movie. Because talking about death is not funny, comedy is hard to put into a piece dealing with this issue but the characters were very light hearted about the situation of death which made it easier to allow comedy. The best humor was when the topic of hell came up because the characters were very nonchalant about this topic which made it funny.
Hampton Bradshaw: The short was pretty funny. It followed the slapstick tale of a guy getting run over, going to an office waiting room for judgment, then escaping back down to earth to right his wrongs and settle his affairs, after which he barely makes the mark and manages to go to heaven instead of hell. The story was simple, but entertaining, with a clear protagonist, Robert, and antagonist, the Purgatorians, though it did have a few small flaws. When he comes back, he immediately goes around trying to settle his affairs and do good things, however, he admits a few times that he thinks he is going to hell anyway, making me wonder what his motivation was for trying to do good. Also, the protagonist is in an extreme rush after he gets back to Earth, indicating that he somehow knows that purgatory is hunting him down. Despite these small story flaws, it was an excellent short nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThe acting was believable despite the zany plot, and the actors were good for their parts. The music fit the scenes well, and added more than a little humor to many of the scenes. Most of the settings were generic city or apartment settings, with the noteworthy exception of Purgatory. Purgatory was an interesting set, designed to look like an office room, with desks and computers, but the strange shape and color of the room gave it an unusual, almost unearthly feel. The snow effect was a little cheap looking, but it was still funny. The aesthetic qualities of the short were appropriate and amusing, and fit the piece well.
The camera work is fantastic, opening with a scene of the earth that pans in, and eventually to a close up of Robert admiring a quarter, and observing the “In God we Trust” on the quarter. This is followed by the well-made slow motion shot of Robert getting run over, and next by elevator doors opening to purgatory. The camera angles are excellent, and the close ups are appropriate. The camera work was more than adequate, the angles were interesting, and the closeups, such as on Robert’s hand when he is holding the melting ice cream cone, were well-thought-out.
The short was excellent, and it was funny all the way through. While the story did advance somewhat inexplicably at points, it still had a good flow and helped convey the plot’s humor. The aesthetics were good, with good acting, and some interesting settings. The camera work tied the short together, and made the piece visually appealing. The short’s humor was unending, and it was hard not to sympathize with its poor protagonist.
Rebecca Bynum: I really enjoyed the short of the week "In God We Trust". I thought it touched on a serious subject matter that everyone can relate to with a touch of comedy to lighten the mood. The short raises the question of what will happen when we die, do we go to heaven or hell. The story plot follows a guy who dies and based on a set of points is sent to hell, because of this the story structure also raises the question of whether or not we have another chance to take back the mistakes we've made.
ReplyDeleteThe camerawork in the short is excellent. It follows the 180 degree rule when characters are in dialogue with each other and the camera angles in each scene's frame work are well used. Along with camerawork and aesthetics the actors help make the short a comedy and interesting for the audience.
My favorite part about this short is the plot structure. The story begins and ends the same way. The story flows like a circle in order to get from the beginning to the end, the story has to go back to the beginning to piece the plot together. All in all, I really enjoyed the film.
Mike McGee
ReplyDeleteMy overall reaction to this short is lukewarm. The story, sound, and acting were not particularly interesting, often becoming very cheesy or disrupting the flow of the short as a whole.
On the other hand, the cinematography was excellent, providing the only real reason to keep watching, with a great use of motion, composition, and overall visual style. When examined in terms of its actual filming, the film fares far better.
Kaitlin Smith: I thought "In God We Trust," was a very entertaining short film that had a great storyline and was very original. I liked the idea of getting the film's title from a coin and getting an extreme close-up shot of that coin during the beginning and end of the film. The camerawork and cinematography was very well done. The director and DP had some great shots in there, like in the beginning when he is leaning back his head and everything from his and the camera/audience point of view is turned upside down. Makes the film very realistic! I also like the action shots and the shot where he is hit by the car, that had great camera work as well. I thought the main character did a great job in his role as well as the antagonist both definitely had acting experience because they brought some humor to the table when delivering their lines.
ReplyDeleteThe visual aspect of the short film, "In God we Trust," for example the lighting, and special effects. I think the director Jason Reitman kept that to a minimum in my opinion. Because this film was shot in the daytime the director did not need special lighting for effects, from my perspective. Although, he did put some lights on the actors to make the background dark in the room, for the scenes with the men who decide about heaven/hell and they're searching and trying to kill him like FBI/CSI agents. Too funny! Also, for special effects there really weren't that many, like adding snow falling or the lighting strike you do during the editing process. You can tell this was a low budget film, but I think the director succeeded in what he was aiming for and he definitely captured audience interest, with the screenplay being so interesting and fun, because for us viewers we want to know what happens next.
I really enjoyed this short, not only was it really well shot but the story was excellent and even as a short the character development was amazing. The main thing that I enjoyed about the shot composition is the use of close ups to focus in on the actors expressions, for example when the camera zooms in on Gil’s eyes to show his annoyance about Robert getting points. I loved the story and the script more than anything, the message that every little good thing or bad thing you do has consequences, was very compelling. I thought that the writer’s point system for determining if a person goes to Heaven or Hell very unique, and also found many parts of the story very memorable and engaging. As I stated before the character development was also great, I found myself sympathizing with the main character Robert, and hoping that by the end of the short he gets the points he needs to get to heaven. Overall the short was well shot and well written and kept me in suspense and very entertained.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Brown
ReplyDeleteI think that the film started out pretty good and by watching the first few frames I was not expecting it to turn out as creative as it did. The special effects were not as dramatic as they could have been. I liked the skills that the DP had with camera shots,framing of the subjects, and lighting. The story was pretty good and the entertainment and humor of some of the scenes brought out the the suspense in some scenes. Overall the cast and crew did a good job with this short film and and creativity definitely shows. It was extremely humorous and it kept my attention. Nice work on the film and I wish you the best in your upcoming work.
Joel Jarvis
ReplyDeleteOverall I like this short. My favorite part being the opening sequences. Having "God's" hand turn a globe which fades into a shot of earth and begins to zoom in on the main charter holding a quarter. It really reminds the viewer at the begin how insignificant people are. Once the rest of the short has been seen the viewer feels like if they try hard enough the could pull off what he did because of the opening sequences.
My favorite scene was on the roof top when he is yelling at the bird to be free. The close ups on the bird almost made me laugh till die.
Ellen Schwartz: I thought the short was very interesting and nice dark humor. I really enjoyed when Gill was going over all the bad things Robert had done and the part with the bird. I really like the side angle shot of Robert getting hit by the car. But overall it didn't leave all that great of an impression.
ReplyDeleteJohn Steven Hiott
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how much the film critiqued modern popular religion and especially liked the gamification of the heaven or hell process. The variety of shots was creative and did a good job conveying different moods in the different scenes. The use of close-ups helped convey the different characters feelings/emotions and additionally helped develop them as characters as the story went on. I also liked the contrast in darkness between heaven and the place he was first sent when he died.
Lauren Musgrove
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this short the longer it progressed. The way the story came to a full circle ending, allowing the audience to realize the full symbolism of the quarter, was very endearing. The main character was very likeable, an average guy just trying to get through the obstacles. I liked how his purpose in going back to the real world was to tie some loose ends in his life (or set others free, such as his bird) and was not to gain more points in order to get into heaven - which isn't what he should have gotten with that being his purpose anyways (like with the chocolate he bought) - which was what he ultimately achieved.
Visually, I thought the shots were very effective in getting the story across and I enjoyed the occasional non traditional or symbolic shot, although they did not overwhelm the story. The intro was very interesting, as one thing became another and it did a great job of introducing this story as one of greater proportions than a typical event in an average man's life. I also liked the final shot, of the elevator 'going up' button lit up, symbolizing his fate in heaven.
Although the general story and the visual shots were interesting and entertaining, some small plot lines were a bit cheesier than my taste usually likes. However, in this short they worked very well. The events such as ballroom dancing, holding the girl's ice cream, and a man asking for change, just happened to be there, and it was predictable what his reaction would be to them and what was going to happen because of that. These events were necessary for the story to work, though, and I think instead of making it not enjoyable, they added to the silly comedic style of the film as a whole. I found it both pleasing visually, and the story compelling and humorous.
Andrew Wallace
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the use of irony at the beginning, looking at a quarter that places the viewers trust in the almighty, then making the viewer shift their take to reality as the man holding the quarter gets run over (pretty convincingly) by a yellow jeep. Enjoyed the elevator setting the stage for "purgatory". especially enjoyed the vivid shot up on the roof as he yells at the parrot. sort of comical take on his frustration which would be logical for one who is subjected toward this version of hell.
Lots of irony, he dances out of the grasp of the guys in "wife-beater" undershirts only to run into a facility that he views as secure, although it is not. After doing a sort of purgatory dance around he then is literally forced to dance with an older, slightly overweight woman. The expression on the "puppet-master's" face (the man who operates the computer controlling the protaganist's fate) is quality. the ending also has a lot of vision, as he is about to be denied entry to heaven we see him step in the elevator and the light flashes the "up" elevator sign.
Brandon Martin:
ReplyDeletePersonally, I did not like the short film, In God We Trust. The cinematography and technical aspects of the film were aesthetically pleasing and done properly. Nevertheless, I felt the plot, themes, and the final product were in some ways unsatisfactory. I thought the concept was interesting and unique, but the execution fell short.
The shot composition of In God We Trust was pretty simple. For the majority of the shots the camera was stationary and pans and tilts were used. There were several scenes were the camera did not move at all and the main character came into the frame on one side and exited the frame on the other side. The main shots used in the short film were close ups, extreme close-ups, medium shots, long shots, and over the shoulder shots. The framing for the most part was good and followed the rule of thirds. There was a few times where I thought there was a little too much headroom in some of the shots. The short film made good use of depth of field and often changed from a shallow to deep depth of field in the same shot to shift the focus from one thing to another. My favorite aspect of the film was actually the soundtrack. I thought the songs worked really well with the action and pace of the story. There was one song in particular, when the main character started running down the street and a song about running faded up, that I thought worked really well and was integrated extremely well into the narrative. As far as the plot goes, I just felt it was a bit strange and seemed undeveloped. I also thought the emotions exchanged between characters especially with the father were weak and almost emotionless. I felt that the short film failed to make me interested or even concerned about the well-being of the protagonist. Nevertheless, I think the short film did portray a good message about the importance of the little things in life. In the end, Jason Reitman did a good job of bringing the plot full circle especially with the same car accident and with the quarter. While overall I did not like the short film, I think it was interesting and as far as the cinematography and technical aspects go In God We Trust was done well.