I remember being probably 10 or 11 years old, and playing hooky,(acted like I was sick to get out of school for the day) and I watched the 1930's movie of this!!! Was blown away! Great movie!!👍
Hey there, great job producing one of my favorite short stories. It's a villain who truly deserves his reward. ...I'd like to think Rainsford ends up finding any remaining hostages on the island, sets them free and finds a way for the group off of the island. Unfortunately, we do not know that he does not become the new hunter. A few constructive criticism remarks on the production: The props were excellent. I especially like the detail you used in creating "period" photographs of Zaroff's expeditions. The gun selection was appropriate and used well. I assume that you removed the boat scene due to budget restraints. For that, I understand, and it's interesting how you moved that discussion to the final fight scene. The scene on the beach had quite a few jump cuts in it, but a mostly static subject. To make the scene flow better I would recommend fewer cuts or more strategic ones. Perhaps have a cut where the camera is being lifted out of the sand as if from the perspective of Rainsford lifting his head out of the sand and then one long cut. Or, a total of three cuts: wide, front, and side in some combination for waking up, getting up, and walking. In your adaptation, Rainsford found a Sellier & Bellot 7.62 Russian cartridge, indicating human or larger game target. However, the original short story had him find a 22 cal, with indications of it being used against big game. The .22 is more poignant because something strange is going on if a tiny .22 is being used against big game. The conversations between Rainsford and Zaroff were kind of awkward. The actor who played Zaroff was quite good, but the actor who played Rainsford didn't seem to really settle into the role until after the two began arguing about the hunt. However, if you had placed their conversation around the dinner table, which the story does, it may have helped develop a more organic conversation out of the actors. It would have been nice to see more passage of time in the story. The film seemed a little rushed, and the tension wasn't as built up as in the short story. The hunt lasted for three days in the short story, which has poetic significance as well as helps develops the tension. Several scenes in the short story were at night, which if you couldn't get access to the location to film at night, could be filmed with ND filters. A cloudy day would be ideal, but on sunny days when you're not doing an action scene, you could soften the light and shadows in certain scenes with scrims, overhead fabrics, and reflectors. The last three points had to do with straying from the original short story, so it might seem that I don't appreciate the adaptations you made. Not at all. I think your film was nicely done. However, it is hard to deviate from a masterpiece and not lose anything. As with all films, there can be improvements, and these are just a few ideas to consider for the next production. Keep it up!
We're thrilled that you enjoyed our adaptation of the story. Many things like the boat scene wasn't cut because of budget sakes but for time. We needed to keep the film short. In order to qualify for a short film in festivals you have to meet certain guidelines. Also I rather enjoyed opening with him falling into the water but everyone has different opinions about that. We purposely squeezed the hunt down to one day again for time purposes but also tried to keep all the traps in since we all thought they were clever. I'm surprised no one has said anything about the fact that we didn't have Rainsford hiding in a tree. Haha! We were so sure someone was going to complain about that. Loved your ideas by the way and we probably would have considered doing multiple days if we weren't dealing with keeping the story shorter and on a time length leash. Thank you again so much for watching and we are honored that so many are enjoying what we put together. We all really love the original story very much.
@@saramubarek608 this was a short film project. We took the book and compressed it into an adaptation of the story in a shorter format. Thank you so much for your interest in our short film.
I showed this to my classes. Thank you for making this! The production and filming was professional. The character portrayals could have been closer to the story- they don't quite match. That said, the classes love when Zaroff died with a smile on his face. You should make the "Cask of Amantillo" also.
I was about to give this a five minute window... but you picked a very attractive man to play Rainsford. well done all around. and I liked the way you rearranged the ending slightly and gave us a more satisfying finish.
Thanks for creating this movies I found this To be helpful and beneficial to me plus it's helped me with my online assignment. "Awesome Job". I would rate 10/10 (ten out of ten) I really like the movie from beginning to end.When Covid-19 is done and have ending in and things open up can you make a part 2 movies to continue like at the movies theater or on youtube or both because i really liked to see what happen next . Name it Most Dangerous Game part 2- Short film.
I really liked this. It was great. I love teaching this story to my freshman English class. I wish it had followed the script in the story a little more. That really helps my lower students. But I will use it to compare and contrast it to the story. Also a great conversation or essay on why the producers might have changed the script the way they did. English teachers this is a great addition to the lesson. My high school kids will love it! Side note: I live in a country town east of Dallas, Texas where everyone hunts. lol
I am a teacher about to show this in class, but I love seeing my hometown represented with the mansion! Where were the forest scenes filmed? It looks like Mark Twain National Forest.
This acting XD ... Love the short story though. Read it when I was in middle school and it always stuck with me. After reading hundreds of books since, I still think about the book. It's got a chilling quality to it that sticks with you. Like, it is entirely plausible that some disgusting rich person could actually do this and probably has. The carelessness for human life is what horror really is. If someone loses their respect for other's lives, they are no longer human. A disturbing, yet enthralling story that will never let you feel relaxed. A short story, but an effective one.
This is really cool! I'm reading the actual book right now and it's got the same storyline! Even for how short it is, it is still very well produced and fun to watch the intensity.
@@RetroHawkProductions That's Awesome! I hope you guys become a real film company and get to advance and create even more cool and fun movies. I believe in you! Also, I noticed the part about Rainsford not being in the tree, but you can only work with what is given! But also it would be pretty hard to do that. I don't believe hiding in trees is safe haha😂
@@theknight05 honestly just never felt like being up in the tree was realistic to begin with. Thank you again and yes hopefully we’ll eventually get the funds to produce bigger productions. :)
Hi Dustin et all, greetings from UK! May I congratulate you on a superb project! The 1932 version is one of my all-time-favourites!! A neat, concise and brilliant version! Beautifully shot on location. The acting was as good as anything out there... Was Mr Wise channeling Chuck Norris by chance? (lol) One critique, just one... It should have been longer... I wanted more. That said, I loved every minute sir, just off to watch your 'behind the scenes feature' now... Thank you, goodnight, goodbye Cheerio from England ;-)
@@RetroHawkProductions It's pretty good nevertheless! Sorry some people don't like it because it isn't exactly the same :-( If anything it really helped me grasp Zaroff's accent
hi is this accurate to the book since i just got back to school abd my teacher gave me 3 days to read the entire book but i cant since i have this thing where i cant read a long book or strot without forgetting what i just read
Smashing work! I just watched ghe original film so seeing zaroff fall for some of the traps actually threw me off! Did that happen in the og story too? its been a while since i read it. That sword fight and end dialogue was fun, it seem like sanger had a bit of an easy time facing zaroff but it was still enough of a challange to not make him feel ‘OP’. What seems more interesting is the implication of Sanger getting into the hunt himself.
Your telling me the best Hunter in the world misses his prey 4 times with a mosin nagant rifle from 20 feet away. I feel like there’s something your not telling me
Excellent short film, very well done. Thank you for your efforts. One of my favorite short stories, and you did it justice. For the naysayers, let’s see YOUR production, you irrelevant pissant.
Many thanks! Was hard to fit so much in such a short amount of time with such limited resources. We know we can do way better now but are happy with what we made and what we learned while creating this.
I need some insight, i assume you read the short story what does the quote, one of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed.
@@RetroHawkProductions You wouldn't have had to kill any dogs. The line means one of the men will be a meal for the dogs (die) and the other man will get a good night's sleep (alive).
This is literally how i dealt with the bullies at my old job only now their heads are mounted on my wall. I literally sent them an invite to dinner with a signature of a potential employer only to spike the dinner with high dosage sleeping pills. Next, they woke up at my hunting grounds which were rigged and riddled with gruesome traps. I came out and told them, I would be giving them a 1 minute head start and if they escaped the compound, they would've earned their freedom. Long story short, none of them escaped because I hunted them with a full auto m1921 thompson and used drones for surveil the area. I also cause one of them bleeding out after he got his leg caught in a bear trap. I put him out of his misery with my mauser c96. Now, the main bully is stuffed like a bear in the corner and his 2 friends' heads are mounted above my fireplace. I also sent pictures of his corpse getting beheaded to his loved ones with a note that said, he messed with the wromg hunter, he got what he deserved.
It was ok, the "book" was better, I would've liked it if you went the extra mile and did the entire thing but it's fine. The acting kinda sucked, reminded me of middle school plays. But pretty good considering you guys aren't professionals. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! We couldn't go the extra mile because we were trying to get into shortfilm festivals and making a full length would have disqualified us. ;)
Retro Hawk Productions I thought that the acting of General Zaroff was great loved his accent and mannerisms wish Whitney was there but it was understandable and I didn’t expect Ivan to look like that unexpected and I liked it
Great story a have read it in my high school but why didn't they show us that rainsford unlocked the door to the dozen of sailors and there were a lot of things that they didn't show it to us
Since we had to keep the film short there were many elements we had to take out of the story in order for it all to fit in the short time bracket that we had to tell that story.
We started with that actually and it just didn't seem realistic. The more we looked at it the more cheesy it seemed. People were saying, "Come on it's way to easy to just look up and see him". So we went with a much more believable situation.
@@joncanoc6544 thank you! It was definitely a lot of work and a lot of things we would do differently now but we’re happy with what we we were able to do with what we had back then.
