Freekstorm VFX Blog

When we released our first little movie short, we featured on the blog some incredibly kind and generous comments from fellow directors and movie-festers about how promising our filmmaking efforts were. Wow! The reviews were wonderful! We truly basked in the glow of appreciation!

This time...um...the critics were not quite so kind. Most folks liked the initial (non animated) scene but eight out of ten cats really hated poor little Mervyn, and were pretty scathing about him too:

"I have to give you a lot of credit for giving an attempt at a 3D monster throughout the movie, but ...honestly, it felt like being trapped inside Playstation 1. I don't want to sound mean because I'm sure it was a lot of work, and you get credit for that, but because the monster looked so cheesy, it took away from the experience in a big way.”

“The story itself wasn't at all bad - it was really the monster itself that brought the whole thing down.”

“... for the film as a whole, I think it would have been better served with a real actor in makeup playing the part.”

“When using a CGI monster you film is going to rise or fall on the strength of that monster. Unfortunately, yours was a bit thin”

“Not convincing.”

“kind of smacks of a Dad film - dad and the kids making a film - which is quaint and cute, but often times horrifying to inflict upon a public audience! (This isn’t!!!) But it teeters as a form of self indulgent experimentation not quite ready to be unleashed to the discerning public.”

Blimey. Time to hit the vodka, I guess.

Actually the comments weren’t all bad, and our profound thanks go to those few kind souls (who were mostly professionals and worked in the VFX industry) who generously gave unconditional support and appreciation for Rich’s 200+ hours developing and animating Mervyn (yes, you read that right – it really did take over 200 hours of blood, sweat and tears!) You have no idea how much your suggestions and encouragement meant to Rich, and our extra-special thanks to Bruce Allen who was incredibly helpful.

Well, so much for that fest. Onwards and upwards, as they say.

R.I.P Mervyn. We’ll miss you.