Destroyed by a review, and a little success...
Brilliant news! (And do remember acceptance rate is 1/13 at the moment) Self-Control got accepted into another festival in the UK - Portsmouth International Film Festival. Very excited about this, especially after my confidence plummeted recently after reading reviewer comments at the DC Shorts film fest website. It is a great tool that you can read feedback like that and then hopefully see your film a little differently and improve next time... but this was something else!
There were 3 reviews. I have to be brave and share them with you...
Reviewer 1 (this one really stung)
An angry misfit goes about her day, thinks about her annoying co-worker, and eventually kills her. I didn't find the story compelling or interesting- I didn't really understand what happened at the end. The jokes weren't funny and the acting wasn't great. The film quality was good. The story and dialogue were not funny or realistic, I got bored. Its appropriate, I just didn't like it.
Reviewer 2
Lilly is the devil, or a devil, and has been practicing self control until a really annoying young woman starts working at her firm and her inner devil comes out. The movie seemed to try too hard and it ended up being a bit flat. It was original and technically well made. The story line was really good. It wasn't dramatic or funny enough. It was hard to tell which direction it was going. It just didn't flow.
Reviewer 3
Lily has anger management problems and she begins to crack when an annoying coworker joins her firm. The main character didn't seem believable. The annoying co-worker was well played. She even annoyed me. Acting was unbalanced. Main character's acting seemed forced. Acting was not great. Story could use some improvement.
It is also very interesting how these 3 reviews are different from the Britain based reviews I received previously from the Largo Awards. Yes they do touch on the same obvious weakness, that I agree with 100%, but there are glaring differences as well... such as not one of the 'Americans' found it funny... And British reviewers thoughts that the story was the strong point of the film, they actually enjoyed that it was different. I also found it strange that reviewer 1 here didn't seem to understand what was going on at all, and I think this is definitely my failure... Well... after the festival run I will surely post the film online... and then you can see for yourselves...
On a happier note - here's our new laurel... Phew... I really needed this one!!!
