'Romantic Hideaway' by Sweet Home Films LLC

(California, USA) First Edit

Producer Kerry Marlowe and Director Evan Marlowe are married filmmakers in Southern California. Music by Michael Daniel. Starring Helen Soraya and Patrick Cavanaugh.

Read 'Romantic Hideaway' HERE

First cut: Producers notes for the filmmakers

  • Missing sound effects, such as plate smash
  • When it turns, try radically different music to give it more oomph
  • Try no music once we leave the house, it will be more impactful
  • You need to make a choice, stay with the overall comical tone, or allow a shift mid way – neither are right or wrong, but one will work better than the other. Try and see which you prefer.

First Cut Comments... have YOUR say!

Write a comment

Comments: 9
  • #1

    Adolf El Assal (Sunday, 04 November 2012 16:46)

    wow, very creative! i love it!!

  • #2

    Evan (Sunday, 04 November 2012 17:04)

    Thanks! I took a bit of a risk going with the POV but thought I'd give it a stab and see what happened.

  • #3

    Glyn Carter (Sunday, 04 November 2012 17:39)

    Well done. POV works well. I think you cut a corner by not showing what the other end of the chain was attached to - it looks like it's the bed, which would move. The music should probably change tone - jaunty music undercuts what is essentially a horror story. Not in a good way, for me.

  • #4

    Evan (Sunday, 04 November 2012 18:30)

    Yea it's attached to the bed, and that was something we thought about before hand. We decided it would be forgiven, considering there was nowhere heavier we could secure it too in the room. They wouldn't let me drill holes in the wall :(

    I took the approach of a thriller instead of a horror movie, hence my instructions to the composer to go with something circa Bourne.

  • #5

    A. Writer (Tuesday, 06 November 2012 20:27)

    Good execution, should end up in the final feature. My only problem is with the script. The hostage gets away too easily, it leaves you wondering why she didn't overpowered him in the first place.

  • #6

    Stephen Cooper (Tuesday, 06 November 2012 23:04)

    Love the POV idea. Works brilliantly as well. Also am a big fan of the electric pink at the end credits, nice touch. Good film, wouldn't change a thing other than adding a bit of foley like the plate smash. Great job. Loved it.

  • #7

    Evan (Tuesday, 06 November 2012 23:31)

    Thanks so much. Yea the foley of the stuff hitting the bed is in there. Problem is he wouldn't use ceramic or glass since she could fashion them into weapons, just plastic, and plastic doesn't make for exciting foley effects.
    By the way this was shot MOS other than the dialogue, so everything you hear is foley.

  • #8

    LvB (Monday, 12 November 2012 16:47)

    Think the POV idea works really well - particularly in the scene where Elena is strangling him. Really only two quibbles. 1) The chain looks as if it is attached to the bed, which she could probably drag (also, the chain looks quite lightweight) and 2) the music post-strangulation feels too light. It needs something much darker that perhaps fades into silence as we pull away from the house to underline the horror of her situation. Otherwise, first-rate job.

  • #9

    Kulvinder Gill (Friday, 26 April 2013 11:10)

    Director Evan Marlowe's version of Romantic Hideaway has its own IMDB page now.

    If you have seen the short and want to leave a review on IMDB - this is the IMDB page for Evan Marlowe's film:
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2718140/

    (Please note, as there is more than one version of Romantic Hideaway on IMDb now, just double check that any review you leave is for the right film!)

    Thanks for your support.