Our Short Horror/Comedy ‘Colore non Vedenti’ is Officially Online!
It’s way overdue, but our short film project ‘Colore Non Vedenti’ is now officially complete and online! What started off as a ten minute Film Junk short for Halloween of ’08 slowly grew into something a little bigger than expected, resulting in a months long process that was definitely a fun learning experience. A big thanks to all of those who helped get this thing finished — be sure to read the end credits! — and a big thanks to the Film Junkies who waited patiently for this to finally come to fruition! I hope you guys enjoy it. You can check out the final film embedded below or head to www.colorenonvedenti.com, where you’ll also find multiple commentary tracks — featuring Jay, Sean, Reed (Gerry), Tom Baychuck, Roman and star David Tompa — and some behind the scenes video diaries! This whole thing was basically an exercise in no-budget filmmaking that gave us an opportunity to be creative and experiment, and I love the idea of throwing these things up online for everyone to see. I hope you enjoy!
Comments (91)
Awesome! Now all we need is the new cantankerous episode and my weekend will be complete.
Posted by RJ on August 1st, 2009Fantastic Jay. I love your style.
Posted by Trent on August 1st, 2009that shit was tight, excellent! really got some awesome lighting with what I believe was a micro lighting package. great job at really getting the most from camera and locations. very good job at create tension out of the mundane – sign of a talented director. the lead was great and really carried the piece. now I have more Reed imagery to fill my nightmares!
Posted by rus in chicago on August 1st, 2009Good lord that one sheet is awesome.
Posted by Matt Gamble on August 1st, 2009That was awesome.
Nice visuals.
Posted by Nick D on August 1st, 2009People who get shivers listening to my voice will be relieved to know that I don’t have a speaking part. I didn’t even need make-up to be scary. I get a chill up my spine every time I look in the mirror.
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 1st, 2009What an awesome ending! Reminds me of the opening of Feast. Totally not what you’re expecting. This was well worth the wait. When can we expect the DVD?
Posted by Rian on August 1st, 2009Excellent. I look forward to checking out the movie and also the supplemental stuff as I need to learn as much as possible about making the no-budget stuff work for me.
Posted by Ian on August 1st, 2009that was really well made and enjoyable. The ending – ain’t that the truth lol
Posted by Dave Parker on August 1st, 2009That site is the fucking best.
Posted by dougnagy on August 1st, 2009Aww, congrats on getting it done Jay. Very cool. Slick site, too.
Posted by Falsk on August 1st, 2009very, very impressive guys. Well done on the cinematography jay. Awesome. just awesome.
Posted by Bob The Slob on August 1st, 2009Awesome work guys! It’s got a really cool twilight zone feel to it, and a great ending. I love the music too, some very catchy tunes there.
Posted by bullet3 on August 1st, 2009After watching it for about the 5th time I noticed Tom was watching Cooking with Gerry on the TV. XD Awesomeness! And Sean what is up with you and that weird hat?
Posted by Drew on August 1st, 2009What?!? Drew, were you watching some special extended version of “Colore Non Vedenti”? Since Tom is playing a cook, he was indeed watching “Cooking with Gerry,” but in the final edit, I thought Jay had cut that footage out. Or did you watch “Colore Non Vedenti” frame by frame and managed to see some subliminal images? Ha ha.
I thought it was cool that “Cooking with Gerry” was somewhat like a viral video. I never thought that footage of mine would ever see the light of day. It’s as if a Steven Spielberg film had a character watching a Uwe Boll movie. And Uwe Boll had a cameo in the Steven Spielberg film. (Yeah, I know I’m inflating my ego by comparing myself to Uwe Boll.)
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 1st, 2009sucked.
Posted by Shut-Up Ed on August 1st, 2009Awesome. I kept thinking “this is really short” the whole time through, and then only at the end realized a half hour had gone by in what seemed like 15 minutes. Well done.
I think I spotted Jay in the video, but where was Sean? (Also the commentary tracks don’t work for me on the main site. The links just play the normal audio. However I found them on Vimeo.)
Posted by Glendon on August 1st, 2009loved it, LOVED IT. I thought the acting was great, the direction was great, storey was great, ending was great. Well done Jay!!!, you gave your website, and podcast cred!!!
Posted by TReznik on August 2nd, 2009@Shut-Up Ed WTF? Your such a buzzkill.
Posted by Drew on August 2nd, 2009Commentary #1 had to be reuploaded, but the proper video should be playing there now.
Posted by Sean on August 2nd, 2009Thanks for all the kind words guys! Glad to hear people are enjoying it. We might be planning a solid ten minute short for this coming Halloween, so stay tuned! (Don’t hold me to that deadline. ahem.)
Posted by Jay C. on August 2nd, 2009Well done. I just finished watching it – now time for some GREEN JELLO.
Posted by Big Hungry on August 2nd, 2009good work though I think the climax morricone soundtrack is a bit messy
could you also upload the commentary in MP3 file? my net condition is not that well, it take a lot time for the buffering for each commentary
keep the great work, Jay~!
Posted by Xu on August 2nd, 2009Greg’s performance is gold here, his expression is so goofy fun
Posted by Xu on August 2nd, 2009That was pretty awesome. No wonder it took so long to finish. The lighting was perfect and the acting was good considering that you didn’t have real actors (I assume). Well done.
Posted by Nate on August 2nd, 2009Yeah, not gonna lie. I tittered a bit when Greg came on screen.
Posted by Falsk on August 2nd, 2009Solid lead, but the girl didn’t work for me, her delivery was a bit fake.
But all in all a cool short. I especially liked the music, awesome!
Now all we need is the next Cantankerous episode and all is swell.
Posted by Kasper F. Nielsen on August 2nd, 2009The end of Commentary #2 is great. Later in the day I will try #3
Posted by Big Hungry on August 2nd, 2009I’m on firefox and I can’t scroll thru the comments on the website…and not getting video controls on the film – is that on purpose? I don’t see time, pause, fastforward, etc.?
Posted by rus in chicago on August 2nd, 2009For the actors the ones who stood out were Dave Evans and Doug Nagy.
Posted by Swarez on August 2nd, 2009I propose Jay’s next film will be a buddy cop film with them in the lead.
rus: I’ve added a playbar to all of the videos. Not sure what’s up with the comments though. Sean will have to answer that.
Posted by Jay C. on August 2nd, 2009now I hate green jello even more
Posted by paulieq on August 2nd, 2009Swarez: A buddy cop film with Nagy and Evans could be very good if Jay is able to write comedy well.
Posted by Kasper F. Nielsen on August 2nd, 2009Jay was thinking about a buddy cop short with Baychuk and me at one point, but maybe Nagy and Evans should get those roles. Maybe Baychuk and I could play buddy villains in the short. Not like Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in the Home Alone movies, but more intellectually minded villains.
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 2nd, 2009Bravo Jay !
Posted by Section31 on August 2nd, 2009So, have we finally lifted the veil of secrecy and learned Reed’s real name: Gerry Eng ??? Or is this just another fake for the archives?
I truly think Greg has some serious acting potential. Use him more often please. Also, I can never have enough Doug Nagy. Please do a short with Doug, Gerry and Tom, and I’ll be very pleased.
Cheers.
Great short! I really enjoyed the lighting which had a tasteful and artistic eye for each scene. Great Job!
Posted by Chris M on August 2nd, 2009Nicely done Jay, the whole package turned out really well, even the website has a really cool look and feel to it. Just out of curiosity which one is doug nagy?
Posted by Connor G on August 2nd, 2009He’s the awesome badass Scientist at the very end
Posted by Drew on August 2nd, 2009oooooh the guy at the end, I saw him get the scientist credit, but I completely missed the fact that they were scientists. I thought they were cops or something.
Posted by Connor G on August 2nd, 2009Scrollbar issue for the comments should be fixed now.
Posted by Sean on August 2nd, 2009Congratulations Jay an everybody involved on the unaccountable time of effort put into this. It really shows.
I love the tone of the film as well as the lighting (the reds really suit you Jay) and the music.
Will give it numerous viewings and will share with friends of mine for sure.
Hope this serves as a testament to the fact that another short film will be welcomed by the Film Junk community.
Great work guys!
Posted by Julien on August 2nd, 2009Wow. This is really good for any budget, let alone no budget. I’m most interested to know where you found the star actors. They were all very good, especially Mr. Tompa and Ms. Bell. Part way through I thought this was turning into just another body snatchers story, but it turned out having a really original ending that tied it all together. Tom and Reed’s painfully slow walk down the hall was laughable. That part seemed a little David Lynch for me, but maybe just because I watched Blue Velvet last night.
Posted by Mason on August 3rd, 2009I said it elsewhere and I’ll say it again here: unbelievable. I wrote and directed no-budget film (well, finished 2/3 of it, at least) and this just puts me to shame. Great work.
Posted by Jonathan on August 3rd, 2009Did Jay just put on the wannabe title Colore Non Vedenti just because it sounded ”cooler” then colorblind. Because last time i checked, Jay was Canadian…
After watching The Running Tunnel, I thought I was up to something good here, but I can’t say I’m excactly amazed.
The Running Tunnel is by far the best, when compared to this one.
Do you guys have any other short movies i can watch?
Posted by Cumonface on August 3rd, 2009Jay used a French title so that some American producer would think the film was foreign and hire Jay to remake an American full-length version.
“Gerry Eng” is an anagram of sorts for “green energy.”
- From the desk of Reed Farrington
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 3rd, 2009Self-Appointed Unofficial Information Officer for Colore non Vedenti
The title is most certainly not French. The score with the heavy use of Morricone and the particular look Jay favours mirrors the Italian title. I enjoyed it for the most part although at 28 minutes this is a long short film. I listened to your commentary Gerry and noted that you frequently commented that there should have been a linking to scene to establish how events were unfolding. At a rough guess this would have led to a 38-39 minute running time. Do you know if Jay ever thought of going for a feature length 80-90 minutes or was it a matter of not being able to get everyone to commit as mentioned by David Tompa in the other commentary. “It was only meant to be a few weekends at the start.”
Posted by John on August 3rd, 2009i thought it was latin..
Posted by pcch7 on August 3rd, 2009Like this movie quite a bit. The acting was good, didn’t feel amateurish or take you out of the picture, and as people have pointed out, the cinematography and lighting design is impressive. A titled angle on a van driving by makes all the difference.
But I have to say… It is sort of a cheat to use Ennio Morricones music in this film, and still call it no-budget. As I was watching I was thinking to myself, “Jay made this? This is awesome!”, especially during the climax. It’s not really no-budget when you have one of the most famous film composers of all time making your music! To some it might seem like nothing, and not a big deal, but I actually think it sort of is, since the one thing about the film that I thought showed it’s amateurish nature, the only thing, was its reliance on a score to keep things interesting. So I think the score is as big a deal in this film as any actor, any lighting or any set piece. I don’t want to put you down, I am impressed with what you have done here, but since it’s been 50 comments and nobody pointed out the shortcut, I thought I’d be the douchebag, again.
I laughed out loud at the final shot. And the ending was really good, I did feel bad.
Posted by Henrik on August 3rd, 2009Latin and Italian share similarities in grammatical construction and geographical location but they are distant from French. All the visual flourishes evoke Mario Bava and a little Argento not any French cinema. Anyone who prefers “The Running Tunnel” to “Colore Non Vedenti” has no business offering critical pointers on this or any other forum.
Posted by John on August 3rd, 2009Excellent work, guys! Reed/Gerry brings up the funniest stuff in the commentary.
I look forward to seeing Jay’s future films.
Posted by Shaun Hatton on August 3rd, 2009I particularly enjoyed the Tom and Gerry commentary. Where Gerry brings up some interesting questions like “What kind of detergent do you use Tom?”
Posted by Connor G on August 3rd, 2009Loved the ending as well as the parade of film junk personalities. Were any of these people Singe? I also would’ve liked to have seen Sean and Jay himself make an appearance.
I do think Henrik makes a good point about the score. I don’t necessarily have a problem with this “cheat” but I would be great if you were able to attract a talented composer to volunteer an original score. That way you could truly claim it’s a completely original work.
Posted by Rusty James on August 3rd, 2009It’s a small thing overall, since “borrowed” music is not unusual in short films and the rest of the film certaintly stands on its own.
And good work Gerry Eng. How ironic that Green Energy would be cast as Monster Truck, sly.
I’m assuming the character was an homage to the asian gangster named Monster from David Lapham’s epic crime comic Stray Bullets.
Posted by Rusty James on August 3rd, 2009“borrowed†music is not unusual in short films”
95 percent of short films do this why? because there is very little chance of monetary gain for short films and that is the primary reason for copyrights. In that way, Jay’s use of the score is not a cheat at all because in the films that pay for a composer, they could go and pay for the rights to existing music, but they want to HIRE a composer to have the rights ALSO tied to them and the film.
And yes, you could open the window and throw a stone and hit a want-to-be composer to do a score for free.
Posted by rus in chicago on August 3rd, 2009I agree regarding the music. It was a choice I made early on and stuck with based on the tone of the film and the amount of work ahead of us. I don’t think a hired ‘free’ composer could hit that 60′s/70′s feel I was after, and if there’s any time to liberally use some great music from some great composers, it’s in a not-for-profit short internet film.
However, I will note that there are about six pieces of music throughout the film that were composed and performed by myself. I just didn’t take a credit because there were so many other pieces of music in there that weren’t mine. But for anyone intersted, the music in the railroad track scene, the first 2 minutes of the diner, tom eating his tv dinner, the ominous hum stingers and the office sequence were all mine.
So although I did pull some tracks from the masters, I did do a little dirty work myself. Also, I will be composing 100 percent of the music for the next short.
Posted by Jay C. on August 3rd, 2009I don’t think hiring anybody is a valid alternative since it costs money, the alternative for me would be to be less dependant on music. Anyway, it does save parts of the film, which is important enough to justify its usage, specifically I think the fight scenes.
One other thing I thought about while watching; did you try the diner scene without showing what the main character was? I was wondering wether the scene would not have played out better with the audience guessing along. If I can find info about this on commentaries lemme know, I haven’t had time to listen yet.
Posted by Henrik on August 3rd, 2009Oh, yeah, thx for the correction, John. I guess “Colore non Vedenti” is Italian. No wonder I didn’t understand the screenplay.
As for “Stray Bullets,” Rusty, I’ve never read the comic and Jay never mentioned this to me or gave me any motivation for my character. So I guess I’ll use your explanation for the derivation of “Monster Truck” from now on because it’s so esoteric.
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 3rd, 2009I didn’t really think your character was based on Monster from Stray Bullets Gerry.
Posted by Rusty James on August 3rd, 2009Henrik: Not sure what you mean with the diner sequence. You mean have the diner scene happen before establishing who Jack was?
Posted by Jay C. on August 3rd, 2009I’m pretty sure Henrik meant the dinner sequence and the ‘dead’ card.
Posted by Goon on August 3rd, 2009Ahhhhhh. I get it now. Yes, I did think about that and it was also mentioned by others. I didn’t go for it because 1. I didn’t want to have to cut around it and remain on extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots for Jack, 2. I like the idea of the audience sensing danger ahead with the ‘dead’ card but Jack being completely clueless and unable to figure it out, 3. I think that much guessing would’ve been frustrating if people didn’t know what the answer was, 4. The film is told from an objective point of view for the most part and I felt it would’ve been weird to suddenly have the audience subjectively experiencing that scene from Jack’s p.o.v. in regards to the knowledge he has going into the party.
Having said all of that, I’m sure it could’ve worked that way as well.
Posted by Jay C. on August 3rd, 2009Well, Rusty, you’ve convinced me that my character was based on Monster from “Stray Bullets,” so now I’ll have to find that comic, read it, and then re-contextualize my thoughts when we were shooting so that my performance fits in with the homage to Monster from “Stray Bullets.” It’s all part of the acting process, my friend.
Henrik, I didn’t understand what you were asking either until I read Jay’s interpretation of what you were asking. Now are you wondering if Jay thought about messing with the linearity of unfolding events? Or are you wondering if Jay had thought about writing the screenplay such that the main character was introduced performing his job before any other scenes as I think Jay is asking in comment 59? Or are you asking if Jay had thought about shooting the diner scene differently so that the audience would be guessing along? And what would the audience be guessing along?
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 3rd, 2009Oh, ha ha. Interesting what a difference of one letter makes. Seems like Goon and Henrik think alike. (Not sure if someone will feel insulted by that statement.) Excellent answer, Jay.
Posted by Reed Farrington on August 3rd, 2009You should definitely read Stray Bullets Gerry. In fact, it would be a good project for you develop as a vehicle for your talents. You could take it to Jay Cheel. He could direct the fuck out of it for you. That would be a good film.
Posted by Rusty James on August 3rd, 2009I meant the dinner scene. It would be cool to see it both ways. It just seemed weird to me to be spending that much time on him guessing, when everybody knows the answer.
Posted by Henrik on August 3rd, 2009I think that entire scene was meant to be more of a look at someone thrown into an awkward situation that he’s uncomfortable with first and foremost, with the horror element following closely behind. The idea of being pulled into an dinner party with a bunch of strangers, stepping right into the middle of a ridiculous parlor game and being terrible at it all the while trying to make a good impression on this new girl and her friends is one hundred times more terrifying and horrible to me than alien green jello. I’d say it’s almost a relief for Jack to discover that they’ve all been taken over by aliens.
I also like the idea of mundane suspense and tension that’s completely unrelated to the ‘invasion’. Whether or not we know what Jack is trying to guess is almost not the point…it’s watching him squirm in a social setting that he dreaded taking part in that is the true horror!
Posted by Jay C. on August 3rd, 2009I’ll give Henrik that a lot of the tension is cause/helped/influenced by the music, but on watching it I was thinking what a job well done and it reminded me how powerful the score can assist an independent filmmaker with filling in the emotion and sensory space that they are trying to create…I know there is a word for this… but I can’t think of it right now…
I think the dinner scene is much better the way it is now. You must remember, the way the film is constructed now the lead character never finds out what his card said! The villain saying “you’re dead” helps add to the leads tense state and the attack so after. Making the audience guess along with the character would not make the line “you’re dead” any more powerful to the character. The way it’s constructed now the audience can enjoy the way it plays out and can concentrate fully on the lead’s reaction upon hearing it. If you reveal it on the line “you’re dead” you are asking the audience to do to much and not focusing on the character – which is what they do concntrate on by knowing all along what the card seeeeezzz!
Posted by rus in chicago on August 3rd, 2009I adored this film. It reminded me, especially after the opening credits, of what the David Gordon Green remake of “Suspiria” might’ve been like. I really enjoy surrealist horror with splashes of dark comedy thrown in for fun.
People need to try and capture the spirit of early Cronenberg films – and stop making torture porn or remakes. Great work, Jay! Really impressed, and it’s definitely inspired me to start work on my own short horror film.
Posted by James Eric on August 3rd, 2009***’“The Running Tunnel†to “Colore Non Vedenti†has no business offering critical pointers on this or any other forum.”***
Your a fucking idiot.
Posted by Cumonface on August 4th, 2009Do you see how stupid that sounds? Me liking The Running Tunnel was my opinion. It has nothing to do with experience or whatsoever. Maybe you should try accepting other peoples taste, huh?
I didn’t like this movie. Is that strange?
great job jay! really enjoyed it
props to all the actors!
Posted by modesilver on August 4th, 2009I wish I had more things to ask about the film, because I enjoy hearing the answers so much. You’d think I could relate more to being horrible in a social setting, but that flew completely past me, all I was interested in was the invasion. I did feel for him in the end though, that’s a sucker punch, and an earned one. My favorite part of the film is everything in the last bit, from when Tom and Gerry enter the hallway.
Posted by Henrik on August 4th, 2009Great cinematography, good pacing, funny ending and I really dug the music (especially during the opening credits). Enjoyed the bonus material as well. Keep up the good work!
Posted by waitwhat on August 4th, 2009AWESOME!!!!!
(I wrote lots after the “awesome” – but all felt too minor to express my feelings. So I deleted it and wrote this instead….. Looking forward to more stuff.)
Posted by Sly on August 4th, 2009Trivia time!
Posted by Swarez on August 4th, 2009The sound that comes up during the space shot are real sounds recorded from space. So the universe actually sounds like a shitty ambient album.
I think the ‘stolen’ score really serves the film. I view it much like sampling in music. The original source establishes a familiar vibe, setting or time period, along with expectations of what accompanies that. As much as profiting from the beauty of the borrowed piece, a skilled artist recontextualizes it to add layers of depth to the larger work to skew an audience’s preconceptions. Considering Jay’s comments on the use of ‘visual sampling’ in the film Dear Zachary I’m confident he had this in mind when choosing the music.
Posted by Mike on August 4th, 2009Greg was awesome. I would never, under any circumstances, accept a drink from him.
Posted by HotBrunette on August 4th, 2009Gah! But why HotBrunette? Not all drinks I buy for women are sludgy and green. In fact…I might let you pick.
Wait…are you the HotBrunette from the Army of Darkness screening?
Posted by Greg on August 5th, 2009Oh god.
Posted by Jay C. on August 5th, 2009Heads up, the video here will not play on my iPhone – blue box with question mark
Posted by Rus on August 5th, 2009Awesome job Jay. I quite enjoyed it!
Posted by Pr1mal on August 5th, 2009Rus: iPhone can’t do embedded Flash yet unfortunately.
Posted by Sean on August 5th, 2009yes, but don’t you think you should offer a version that does work on mobile devices that are popular? I can watch anything on hulu, youtube, funny or die, all major trailers….how else will filmjunk take over the world?
Posted by rus in chicago on August 5th, 2009sorry no hulu
Posted by rus in chicago on August 5th, 2009Totally fun!!!
Posted by MoriaOrc on August 5th, 2009I enjoyed it a lot.
You have a great eye for composition in the frame
and a good sense of humor.
I would love to see what you would do with a bigger
budget.
Thanks for “throwing it up” on line.
**”The sound that comes up during the space shot are real sounds recorded from space. So the universe actually sounds like a shitty ambient album.”**
Um, in space there is no sound. Hows that for your trivia?
**”#
Rus: iPhone can’t do embedded Flash yet unfortunately.**
If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can watch flash videos. So it is actually possible to download or watch your videos with an iPhone.
Posted by Cumonass on August 6th, 2009Anyone who doesn’t have their iPhone jailbroken are really spending their money on garbage.
what’s jailbroken?
Posted by rus in chicago on August 6th, 2009Jailbreak, omg. Sorry for not being perfect talking English, it’s not like i excactly speak the language.
Posted by Cumonass on August 7th, 2009Amazing, I just finished watching it with the wife and we both loved loved it. The extra commentary tracks and diaries are hilarious and interesting. I loved the Blue Ghost diary, haha. Congratulations!
Posted by Chris on August 11th, 2009It was tight, but hardly a horror.
Posted by Bratwurst on August 13th, 2009I really liked it. Very funny, and very well shot. I loved how sleazy Greg looked. Reed was funnier in the running tunnel.
Posted by Late-to-the-show on September 1st, 2009I commented on Vimeo what I liked about it. Were the different colors, like in the running tunnel too, a homage to Suspiria? What did you use for sound though Jay? It’s one of the of the best sound / dialogue quality i’ve ever heard in any short film. Did you use the camera mic? or a boom etc.
Cheers.
Posted by A J F on November 15th, 2009Leave a Reply