11pm

Let's get all of the backstory out of the way first. In my school we are required to do a project at the end of our bachelor year. After some discussion I was named director and writer, which I was very happy about. However I was unaware of the problems that would arrise. 

We were told to not do anyone else's job and to only focus on yourself, since this was to prepare us for when we work as part of a very large team. Therefore, one was not allowed to do any work for another person for the sole reason of getting it done. This meant a lot of waiting around for other people to get their work done.

After a very long pre-production period, we finally went into production that involved its own set of problems. For one, we were never completely prepared for the filming. We thought about filming at night, but when we were actually there it started raining and was far too dark to work efficiently – so we changed to filming during the day, meaning we had to use "day for night" which is its own problem. Basically, we weren't very happy with the current situation.

The film was finished a couple of months later and I received a film that I had agreed with. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to present to the school. We got some feedback and decided to alter the film accordingly. I told the project leaders that I would like to come in and look at the changes before they are finalized, however I was never contacted.

A month ago, I was told casually that not only did the project leaders authorize many changes, they also did a complete re-shoot of the greenscreen scenes and the dog scene. This made my absolutely furious. I had no problem with the fact that they wanted the changes made. The problem was that they didn't tell me. Just a call saying "Hey, we want to re-shoot the greenscreen and the dog scene. But you don't have to come, we can take care of it" would have been fine. But that they went behind my back and made changes that I did not approve of is plain rude.

What makes the situation even worse, is that most of the changes aren't even good. For example, the greenscreen was never really good, but it was passable. You had to actually have a still shot and nitpick to find problems with the greenscreen. However, the new version has completely visible black dots where the greenscreen didn't work correctly. Let me give you some examples from the films.

Original

New Version

This is not a big change, but still something I believe shouldn't have been done. The intro was really, really interesting. A pan over an animated forest, leading through a graveyard, coming up to the moon with a zombie face inside it which fades to the two characters walking towards the screen, and the rest of the logo fading in. The new version is just boring.

Original

New Version

Now, if you look at the original you can see some problems with the greenscreen effect. However, in the new version there are actual black marks not only in the left part of the glasses but also in the beard an on the face. The color however does look better in the new version for this scene, but not in the rest.

Original

New Version

Okay, here the new version doesn't look too bad, but then again there wasn't much to change. I was told however that the flashlight was meant to get a light beam. I guess they decided it wasn't necessary, I don't know... I wasn't there.

Original

New Version

This annoyed me the most. The idea was that a dog runs in front of the car, to indicate that the sound they heard was just a dog. It was all one very long shot, ending with the dog running across the front of the car, cut to a reaction of the two friends and off they go. In the new version, not only were the colors completely off, but it just doesn't fit into the editing of it... It just looks way too forced.

Well, now it's your turn to watch it. Tell me what you think. Be as honest as possible, I don't want you to hold back. We already got an e-mail from one of the actors telling us not to add his name to any internet tags relating to this video because he thinks the effects ruin the complete experience of the film. 

Here's the script of the film in English if you want to understand what they're yelling about. Remember, some dialoge might have been cut during translation and production.