Surviving Emily

[Peggy]

Pretty nice film. I liked it. Reviews, anyone?
- confused on the title, but maybe it's a National Guard thing
- so the heroes here are the NG, right? (Like their involvement, by the way) But I felt there wasn't much emphasis on them, but rather on Sylvia and Tom. The NG seemed like a boundary inside which the story took place. I was far more interested in what happened to Sylvia and Tom than in the rescue of the two. If the script had played itself closer to the NG, maybe even getting to know some of those characters instead, it would've been more of an action hero film as opposed to a victim film. Additionally, I loved how it seemed like someone was after the 2 main characters, especially with the frantic shots of them from the side and the end shot of the helicopter leaving the forest. Hm. Makes you wonder whether there really was something after them. I would’ve liked it better had that aspect been added to a bit.
- the camera work made me rather dizzy. Separated by more still camera shots, those parts were okay, but the sequences that were simply filled with them made me pretty sick. I also easily got tired of waiting for something to happen, especially at the end. With tension, it could’ve worked better, but I didn’t get much of a sense of that.
- awkward scene where one of the NG was helping Tom onto the stretcher. So blatant and empty, not very sharp or crisp. Maybe it was the editing...
- so the editing I felt was funny. I know you might not always want to stick to the rules, but those shots that didn't fit the 30 degree rule and were jump cuts kind of felt jarring and weird. They made the scenes seem bare. I can understand if you wanted to give it an amateur look so it would go with the sections the kids supposedly shot, but they just felt rather awkward. I'm referring to the above mentioned stretcher part and the beginning at the base with the NG talking on phones.
- if the kids are so into tracing the historic path the pioneers took, then wouldn't they be pointing out some historic facts during the trip? There were some pretty awkward moments where all the actors did was wave at the camera and smile. Pretty repetitive after a while. Not very realistic either. And why wasn't the "obstacle" shown? I guess it made it more mysterious, but it's not very realistic either. You'd think the girl would shoot it and say, "so...this is what's blocking our path here, and we're going to have to find another path now..."
- otherwise, I really liked the shooting of the 2 characters, the parts that they supposedly shot themselves. Pretty realistic, especially the dialogue and acting in the beginning. The shot of her leg was funny as well.
- could anyone explain the shots of the walkie-talkie and whatever fell on the ground? They didn’t seem to be pertinent.
- not that great of a chemistry between the two main characters, though I liked them both. They were both funny in their own ways, but they didn't act as though they were close friends.
- the wandering-lost part felt really long, and I wasn’t much interested in it. I didn’t really care too much when Tom got hurt. More setting up for the characters would’ve been better.
- my immediate thought after the film: what was the point of that? I didn’t understand the film. Someone please explain.

I think, story-wise, this had a lot of potential and some really great aspects, but they just needed to be reconfigured and built on. More about the characters, please!! You can never give too much attention to characters!

[Caroline Fraissinet]

I'm the screenwriter, so I can answer some of the questions. Most of the points can be cleared up if you take a look at the script on the Writer's page (changes were made), but I'll outline some of the stuff.

-The setting was actually Mount Emily, but it was changed to Mount Hood during shooting. You can check the script on that one.
-The NG actually had more screen time than was written for in the script; this was done intentionally because we didn't know what kind of people were going to turn up to play National Guardsmen and wanted to keep it light for easier flexibility in shooting. Also, I wouldn't necessarily say that there's any real hero to the movie so much as it's supposed to show that even if you come prepared with fancy equipment, there are still hazards that cannot be predicted...but fortunately, you can often get help.
-The actual obstacle was supposed to be fallen trees that blocked the straightforward path, but it wasn't actually shown in the movie; the point was that it was too dangerous to go through, so they had to find another roundabout route. I think it was probably not shown because it would have been too complicated to put together in a day.
-In the script, the actual documentary footage written in was only at the beginning where Sylvia is talking about being at the base of Mount Emily; everything else where they were smiling and waving (other than the blocked path reaction bit) was ad-libbed.
-Tom found a path, but then he crossed paths with some wolves (that was that animal noise); he ran away, but his walkie-talkie fell out of his pocket and broke. Sylvia wouldn't have been able to contact him after that, so that was the point of that shot.


I myself found the movie hard to follow at parts, despite knowing exactly what was supposed to happen. I even had to go back and read what I wrote again. Definitely read the script, then watch it again. It should clear up a lot of the confusion.

-Caroline