Luke Matheny's "God of Love" is a very cute storyline with engaging cinematography and appropriate music and sound effects.
The short film opens with foreshadowing of Ray, the protagonist, wearing a quiver riding his scooter with a bow attached to the back, which is how the film actually ends when we realize he is cupid, the god of love. The narrative comes full circle through this foreshadowing; the cinematography also begins with Ray riding his scooter toward the camera, and ends with Ray riding his scooter away from the camera (a linear beginning and ending).
Shot completely in black and white, "God of Love" gives off an older 1920's vibe, with it's lounge music and dated clothing. The black and white film highlights the light and shadows throughout the short picture. The first half of the film, Ray's face is normally half-illuminated with a strong key light and dim fill light, so half of Ray's face is in shadows, giving the illusion he is incomplete. After Ray hits his friend Frank (helping him with his destiny), Ray's face becomes full illuminated all the time, as if he is complete in his own identity and destiny. The endearing storyline is made visually engaging by its lighting, cinematography, and dated music.
"God of Love" is a nice 18 minute short film about a hopeless romantic trying to get a girl to fall in love with him who already loves one of his friends. The begins with Ray on moped, which is the same way it ends. The story begins in a speakeasy where the main character is praying to a nameless god that Kelly may find that she loves him. After trying to win her heart by throwing darts while singing, a box appears at the bar for Ray. In the box are love darts, which Ray experiments with right away. After seeing one of his friends win someones heart after Ray throws a dart at her, he decides to try one on Kelly. It works for 6 hours, but then she falls back out of love and they awkwardly leave. Ray tries with many girls, but still can't get over Kelly. He then decides to make Fosie fall in love with Kelly. After doing so a bow and quiver arrive at his door, which is what he has on at the beginning of the film, and at the end when he says he is the God of Love.
Shot in black and white, but in a modern age, though the black and white gives it an older look. Especially the speakeasy scenes, since jazz is rarely seen live anymore. The cinematography is very seamless making the continuity smooth on the viewer, which also makes the 18 minutes go by quite quickly. Mostly high key lighting to show the actors faces fully. The first half of the film doesn't use as much light, but not so little that I would consider it low key lighting. The background music helps move the story along with no skips and bumps. The music also helps with the black and white feel, using an old style jazz and piano tracks.
The short film “God of Love” by Luke Matheny is an interesting mix of creative storytelling and technical cinematography. The story of the film itself is intriguing to me because it runs perpendicular to traditional love based narratives. The main character, Ray, doesn’t get THE girl, but he doesn’t end up with a different partner either. Instead, Ray finds happiness in his new role as a divine matchmaker, in contradiction to what he himself thinks he wants for most of the film. I also think that the Mr. Matheny did a good job of moving Ray between these two points. The fact that Ray got the relationship he thought he wanted for a while, and that it turned to not be as great as he hoped, is something that I think is relatable for most people. Also, the way the film ended, with Ray using his final dart on his friend, makes the character more likeable for the audience. In my mind, it is these final two pieces, likeability and relatability, which give “God of Love” such a satisfying tale to tell. I believe that Mr. Matheny did a great job on the technical side as well, particularly because it helped to draw me in to the story and distract from the false nature of a fictitious narrative. The black and white coloring that was used in the film caused me to focus on the physical details in a way that I normally don’t in full color films. The lighting also helped to enhance the look of the film, and specifically I noticed how effective it was in concert with the actors’ expressions. For most of the piece, Ray’s face is half brightly lit, half dimly lit, which serves to bring drama to his story and highlight the conflict he feels about not being with the woman he desires. In contrast, most of the other characters, especially the secondary characters, have their faces illuminated much more flatly. Finally, I noticed that the piano/jazz music contributed to the story feeling as if it was taking place in a different era; even the scooter used at the end is rather old fashioned looking. When combined, each of these elements gives “God of Love” a great sense of cinematographic depth.
"God of Love" is a short, narrative film by Luke Matheny in which the protagonist, Ray, fails to capture the love of his crush, but moves on to help others fall in love. This is done originally by way of some mysterious love darts that are given to Ray anonymously. After Ray fails to successfully use the darts for his own gain, he uses them philanthropically. The anonymous gift giver is pleased with this choice and gifts Ray with a bow and love arrows.
This story is told entirely in retro fashion, complete with black and white film, a speak-easy, and lack of any CGI. This was effective for the film as it allowed the dramatic lighting to be enhanced by stark light contrast of black and white film. The film style also lent itself to the decision to use practical effects and props over CGI.
Overall, the story and cinematography are a compelling eighteen minute experience.
“God of Love” is about a guy who prays to a God for over a year in order to let a female character fall in love with him. He receives “love darts” which he proceeds to test out. He figures out quickly that they are not compatible, but in finding this out he has already coupled two people together. The God’s send him a bow and arrows, and expect him to continue his work. The cinematography is exceptional, and the film is shot in black and white. The lack of color represents a world in which things are simple enough to where it takes a dart or arrow to make someone fall in love. It takes away from the credibility of the piece, but that is perfectly fine because the film contains several elements that are not meant to be realistic: the uncanny accuracy of his darts, the lack of depth of the female that he is pursuing, the ridiculous comedic relief, the Gods answering etc. I liked the short film. It was fun and so ridiculous it made me laugh. The sound was pristine, the most redeeming quality of the film. The only thing that annoyed me was the blending of cultures at the very end, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo(a Christian Hymn) playing while he drives off into the sunset. He is being compared to a Greek God (seen through the calling card on the darts and bow that says Olympus). Maybe this is trying to comment on religion and its similarities concerning love, but it annoyed me for some reason. Overall I liked the film a lot and would recommend to anyone.
Matheny’s God of Love is an “adorkable” short film about a quirky man’s quest for love. Right from the start, Matheny impresses me as a storyteller. He uses the prayer to God moment as a sneaky bit of exposition which works perfectly to introduce us to this cast of characters. There are several other smart moments of filmmaking throughout the film. I love how the background goes into shallow focus whenever the love dart is used, so the focus is all on the star-crossed lover’s eyes. At the end of the film, two characters finally begin to come together as they play in the concert. As Matheny pushes in on the characters, the distance between the two is eaten away, pushing the two together in the audience’s mind. But the bulk of the film’s success is in its fantastic story and its dead pan humor. The story is upbeat, humorous, and painfully clever. I love how our protagonist ‘loves’ this girl and yet doesn’t know a single thing about her. There’s an excellent part where we see our main character attempting to woo the love of his wife and Matheny uses whip pans to rip us out and into these ridiculous scenes. And I also really enjoy the subtle foreshadowing throughout (Olympus = cupid). On a technical level, this film was also very impressive. The jazzy musical score helped tie the film together, and was even used as a transition (the symbol crashes cause a cut). The audio is often exaggerated and the color is desaturated, creating a surreal world for our story. The compositions in the film were often dynamic and had lots of interesting depth. The DP clearly had a lot of fun playing with the dark shadows and bright highlights of black and white filmmaking. At the end, it seemed totally appropriate for the main character to directly address us, the audience. The film had earned our attention and was able to take risks (like breaking the fourth wall). This charming story was a great film and I really enjoyed this filmmaker’s work.
"God of Love" by Luke Matheny was a short film shot in a very interesting style. The reason I say so is because at first you think this film is taking place at an older time due to it being shot in black and white. But, near the middle of the film you see two of the guys on a video chat and then you realize that this is just the style that the director wanted to shot in. I thought the black and white of the film kept the film style very simple. I liked it a lot because there weren't any distractions visually wise, therefore you are able to focus more on the complex story behind the film. Along with that, the camera angels were very nice and the way they were cut together were very fluid. The scenes that I thought were cut together the best were the scenes that took place when the group was singing and they were trowing darts and also when the main character stabs the girl with the dart in the hand. The different camera angles cut together made the stab in the hand seem all natural while not showing the actual stabbing of the dart at all. This film was really well done and the black and white made it feel more dramatic and it captivates the audience. The audio and lighting was good as usual, but the black and white is what stuck out to me specificity and made the film really creative.
Stephanie Perdomo: The "God of Love" was a cute romantic comedy. With the combination of the story line, cinematography, and editing this short film is an entertaining and well developed film. The story line does a good job wrapping everything together from begin to end. As many people commented above this short film brings everything together in a full circle and gives the audience a plot twist. In the beginning of the film Ray is praying to God to help him win Keli's love. As an answer to his prayers God sends him love darts. Ray assumes that these love darts are to be used to win Keli's love, but towards the end he uses the love darts to help others fall in love. In this narrative film we see Ray transform as a character. At first he is selfish by praying to God to make Keli love him and interfering with her life by shooting a love dart to make her love him. Towards the end he realizes that he can't make her fall in love with him and he can't make others fall in love with him. Instead, he becomes selfless and uses the love darts to help others find love. As for the cinematography it uses a variety of composition shots to emphasis the mood emotion the character is feeling. The closeup shot of Ray when he is praying shoes the audience how eager and persistent he is to win Keli's love. Finally, the black and white effect used by the editor gives the audience a mysterious feel. However, in the beginning and end it shows the original shot with full color which represents life and happiness. In those two color shots Ray knows his purpose and is happy and content to be the "God of Love."
"God of Love" is a cute, well done short film by Luke Matheny. I found the simplicity of the film beautifully done. Even though it's set in modern times, it's in black and white. Nothing is over the top or highly complex, but that doesn't make the movie boring, it just helps the viewer focus on every little piece. I also enjoyed the variety of shots that Mathney used, especially the pan circling the main character when he was on stage singing. The audio also did a good job of moving the story along and helping with cuts, with the symbol crashes that moved them into the next shot. I thought the story in itself was very cute and well done, and showed good character development when he shot his best friend with the arrow instead of the girl he loves. The ending leaves the viewer curious as to what he's doing with his life now and if he's going to find a girl for him. Overall, I thought it was a cute short that I liked very much.
I love the short film "God of Love", it is so sweet and interesting. The short film has shown in a flashback and describe a story about "god of love" . He tried many ways to make the girl love him but he realized that it is unacceptable for that girl. Because the girl love his best friend. He has used darts to make many girls love him. Finally, he realized that is not what he wants. Find the best one for you is very important. He started to used his darts and makes many people start to love each other. Another important thing about this film is that the film is black and white. People can see the emotions changes of the god of love through the entire film. I enjoy some of the shots of the film. Specially when some of the close shots give to the watch. In the end of the film, he drive alone on the road. And that means he will help many more people to find their love. It seems that he is not upset because he love what he is doing right now. And he will continue to do it. Overall, the narrative film made Luke Matheny was great. It makes us think deep about love.
The short film "God of Love" by Luke Matheny was super interesting. First off, I really enjoyed the opening scene of Ray on the moped. I also liked how it was in black and white. It made me wonder what the whole story would be about. Turns out, it is about Ray wanting a girl who unfortunately has fallen for his friend. However, he used his "love darts" to try make them compatible. I really liked the concept of the love darts. It added a very unique twist to the plot and really gave the story life. The post production work was very noticeable. The cuts throughout the story helped the film flow. For example, when Ray is throwing his love darts. The ending of the film was in my opinion quite emotional. It made me wonder what was going to happen next for Ray. If I had to guess, I'd say that he is going to find his love. Overall, I thought it was a great story. The black and white color to it really added to it and gave it a personality in a way. I think the story would have been completely interpreted differently if it was in color. Luke Matheny did a great job of using his edits and composition to tell a unique story.
Luke Matheny's "God of Love" is a very cute storyline with engaging cinematography and appropriate music and sound effects.
ReplyDeleteThe short film opens with foreshadowing of Ray, the protagonist, wearing a quiver riding his scooter with a bow attached to the back, which is how the film actually ends when we realize he is cupid, the god of love. The narrative comes full circle through this foreshadowing; the cinematography also begins with Ray riding his scooter toward the camera, and ends with Ray riding his scooter away from the camera (a linear beginning and ending).
Shot completely in black and white, "God of Love" gives off an older 1920's vibe, with it's lounge music and dated clothing. The black and white film highlights the light and shadows throughout the short picture. The first half of the film, Ray's face is normally half-illuminated with a strong key light and dim fill light, so half of Ray's face is in shadows, giving the illusion he is incomplete. After Ray hits his friend Frank (helping him with his destiny), Ray's face becomes full illuminated all the time, as if he is complete in his own identity and destiny.
The endearing storyline is made visually engaging by its lighting, cinematography, and dated music.
"God of Love" is a nice 18 minute short film about a hopeless romantic trying to get a girl to fall in love with him who already loves one of his friends. The begins with Ray on moped, which is the same way it ends. The story begins in a speakeasy where the main character is praying to a nameless god that Kelly may find that she loves him. After trying to win her heart by throwing darts while singing, a box appears at the bar for Ray. In the box are love darts, which Ray experiments with right away. After seeing one of his friends win someones heart after Ray throws a dart at her, he decides to try one on Kelly. It works for 6 hours, but then she falls back out of love and they awkwardly leave. Ray tries with many girls, but still can't get over Kelly. He then decides to make Fosie fall in love with Kelly. After doing so a bow and quiver arrive at his door, which is what he has on at the beginning of the film, and at the end when he says he is the God of Love.
ReplyDeleteShot in black and white, but in a modern age, though the black and white gives it an older look. Especially the speakeasy scenes, since jazz is rarely seen live anymore. The cinematography is very seamless making the continuity smooth on the viewer, which also makes the 18 minutes go by quite quickly. Mostly high key lighting to show the actors faces fully. The first half of the film doesn't use as much light, but not so little that I would consider it low key lighting. The background music helps move the story along with no skips and bumps. The music also helps with the black and white feel, using an old style jazz and piano tracks.
The short film “God of Love” by Luke Matheny is an interesting mix of creative storytelling and technical cinematography.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the film itself is intriguing to me because it runs perpendicular to traditional love based narratives. The main character, Ray, doesn’t get THE girl, but he doesn’t end up with a different partner either. Instead, Ray finds happiness in his new role as a divine matchmaker, in contradiction to what he himself thinks he wants for most of the film. I also think that the Mr. Matheny did a good job of moving Ray between these two points. The fact that Ray got the relationship he thought he wanted for a while, and that it turned to not be as great as he hoped, is something that I think is relatable for most people. Also, the way the film ended, with Ray using his final dart on his friend, makes the character more likeable for the audience. In my mind, it is these final two pieces, likeability and relatability, which give “God of Love” such a satisfying tale to tell.
I believe that Mr. Matheny did a great job on the technical side as well, particularly because it helped to draw me in to the story and distract from the false nature of a fictitious narrative. The black and white coloring that was used in the film caused me to focus on the physical details in a way that I normally don’t in full color films. The lighting also helped to enhance the look of the film, and specifically I noticed how effective it was in concert with the actors’ expressions. For most of the piece, Ray’s face is half brightly lit, half dimly lit, which serves to bring drama to his story and highlight the conflict he feels about not being with the woman he desires. In contrast, most of the other characters, especially the secondary characters, have their faces illuminated much more flatly. Finally, I noticed that the piano/jazz music contributed to the story feeling as if it was taking place in a different era; even the scooter used at the end is rather old fashioned looking. When combined, each of these elements gives “God of Love” a great sense of cinematographic depth.
"God of Love" is a short, narrative film by Luke Matheny in which the protagonist, Ray, fails to capture the love of his crush, but moves on to help others fall in love. This is done originally by way of some mysterious love darts that are given to Ray anonymously. After Ray fails to successfully use the darts for his own gain, he uses them philanthropically. The anonymous gift giver is pleased with this choice and gifts Ray with a bow and love arrows.
ReplyDeleteThis story is told entirely in retro fashion, complete with black and white film, a speak-easy, and lack of any CGI. This was effective for the film as it allowed the dramatic lighting to be enhanced by stark light contrast of black and white film. The film style also lent itself to the decision to use practical effects and props over CGI.
Overall, the story and cinematography are a compelling eighteen minute experience.
“God of Love” is about a guy who prays to a God for over a year in order to let a female character fall in love with him. He receives “love darts” which he proceeds to test out. He figures out quickly that they are not compatible, but in finding this out he has already coupled two people together. The God’s send him a bow and arrows, and expect him to continue his work.
ReplyDeleteThe cinematography is exceptional, and the film is shot in black and white. The lack of color represents a world in which things are simple enough to where it takes a dart or arrow to make someone fall in love. It takes away from the credibility of the piece, but that is perfectly fine because the film contains several elements that are not meant to be realistic: the uncanny accuracy of his darts, the lack of depth of the female that he is pursuing, the ridiculous comedic relief, the Gods answering etc.
I liked the short film. It was fun and so ridiculous it made me laugh. The sound was pristine, the most redeeming quality of the film. The only thing that annoyed me was the blending of cultures at the very end, the Gloria in Excelsis Deo(a Christian Hymn) playing while he drives off into the sunset. He is being compared to a Greek God (seen through the calling card on the darts and bow that says Olympus). Maybe this is trying to comment on religion and its similarities concerning love, but it annoyed me for some reason. Overall I liked the film a lot and would recommend to anyone.
Matheny’s God of Love is an “adorkable” short film about a quirky man’s quest for love. Right from the start, Matheny impresses me as a storyteller. He uses the prayer to God moment as a sneaky bit of exposition which works perfectly to introduce us to this cast of characters. There are several other smart moments of filmmaking throughout the film. I love how the background goes into shallow focus whenever the love dart is used, so the focus is all on the star-crossed lover’s eyes. At the end of the film, two characters finally begin to come together as they play in the concert. As Matheny pushes in on the characters, the distance between the two is eaten away, pushing the two together in the audience’s mind. But the bulk of the film’s success is in its fantastic story and its dead pan humor. The story is upbeat, humorous, and painfully clever. I love how our protagonist ‘loves’ this girl and yet doesn’t know a single thing about her. There’s an excellent part where we see our main character attempting to woo the love of his wife and Matheny uses whip pans to rip us out and into these ridiculous scenes. And I also really enjoy the subtle foreshadowing throughout (Olympus = cupid). On a technical level, this film was also very impressive. The jazzy musical score helped tie the film together, and was even used as a transition (the symbol crashes cause a cut). The audio is often exaggerated and the color is desaturated, creating a surreal world for our story. The compositions in the film were often dynamic and had lots of interesting depth. The DP clearly had a lot of fun playing with the dark shadows and bright highlights of black and white filmmaking. At the end, it seemed totally appropriate for the main character to directly address us, the audience. The film had earned our attention and was able to take risks (like breaking the fourth wall). This charming story was a great film and I really enjoyed this filmmaker’s work.
ReplyDelete"God of Love" by Luke Matheny was a short film shot in a very interesting style. The reason I say so is because at first you think this film is taking place at an older time due to it being shot in black and white. But, near the middle of the film you see two of the guys on a video chat and then you realize that this is just the style that the director wanted to shot in. I thought the black and white of the film kept the film style very simple. I liked it a lot because there weren't any distractions visually wise, therefore you are able to focus more on the complex story behind the film. Along with that, the camera angels were very nice and the way they were cut together were very fluid. The scenes that I thought were cut together the best were the scenes that took place when the group was singing and they were trowing darts and also when the main character stabs the girl with the dart in the hand. The different camera angles cut together made the stab in the hand seem all natural while not showing the actual stabbing of the dart at all. This film was really well done and the black and white made it feel more dramatic and it captivates the audience. The audio and lighting was good as usual, but the black and white is what stuck out to me specificity and made the film really creative.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Perdomo: The "God of Love" was a cute romantic comedy. With the combination of the story line, cinematography, and editing this short film is an entertaining and well developed film. The story line does a good job wrapping everything together from begin to end. As many people commented above this short film brings everything together in a full circle and gives the audience a plot twist. In the beginning of the film Ray is praying to God to help him win Keli's love. As an answer to his prayers God sends him love darts. Ray assumes that these love darts are to be used to win Keli's love, but towards the end he uses the love darts to help others fall in love. In this narrative film we see Ray transform as a character. At first he is selfish by praying to God to make Keli love him and interfering with her life by shooting a love dart to make her love him. Towards the end he realizes that he can't make her fall in love with him and he can't make others fall in love with him. Instead, he becomes selfless and uses the love darts to help others find love. As for the cinematography it uses a variety of composition shots to emphasis the mood emotion the character is feeling. The closeup shot of Ray when he is praying shoes the audience how eager and persistent he is to win Keli's love. Finally, the black and white effect used by the editor gives the audience a mysterious feel. However, in the beginning and end it shows the original shot with full color which represents life and happiness. In those two color shots Ray knows his purpose and is happy and content to be the "God of Love."
ReplyDelete"God of Love" is a cute, well done short film by Luke Matheny. I found the simplicity of the film beautifully done. Even though it's set in modern times, it's in black and white. Nothing is over the top or highly complex, but that doesn't make the movie boring, it just helps the viewer focus on every little piece. I also enjoyed the variety of shots that Mathney used, especially the pan circling the main character when he was on stage singing. The audio also did a good job of moving the story along and helping with cuts, with the symbol crashes that moved them into the next shot. I thought the story in itself was very cute and well done, and showed good character development when he shot his best friend with the arrow instead of the girl he loves. The ending leaves the viewer curious as to what he's doing with his life now and if he's going to find a girl for him. Overall, I thought it was a cute short that I liked very much.
ReplyDeleteI love the short film "God of Love", it is so sweet and interesting. The short film has shown in a flashback and describe a story about "god of love" . He tried many ways to make the girl love him but he realized that it is unacceptable for that girl. Because the girl love his best friend. He has used darts to make many girls love him. Finally, he realized that is not what he wants. Find the best one for you is very important. He started to used his darts and makes many people start to love each other. Another important thing about this film is that the film is black and white. People can see the emotions changes of the god of love through the entire film. I enjoy some of the shots of the film. Specially when some of the close shots give to the watch. In the end of the film, he drive alone on the road. And that means he will help many more people to find their love. It seems that he is not upset because he love what he is doing right now. And he will continue to do it. Overall, the narrative film made Luke Matheny was great. It makes us think deep about love.
ReplyDeleteThe short film "God of Love" by Luke Matheny was super interesting. First off, I really enjoyed the opening scene of Ray on the moped. I also liked how it was in black and white. It made me wonder what the whole story would be about. Turns out, it is about Ray wanting a girl who unfortunately has fallen for his friend. However, he used his "love darts" to try make them compatible. I really liked the concept of the love darts. It added a very unique twist to the plot and really gave the story life. The post production work was very noticeable. The cuts throughout the story helped the film flow. For example, when Ray is throwing his love darts. The ending of the film was in my opinion quite emotional. It made me wonder what was going to happen next for Ray. If I had to guess, I'd say that he is going to find his love. Overall, I thought it was a great story. The black and white color to it really added to it and gave it a personality in a way. I think the story would have been completely interpreted differently if it was in color. Luke Matheny did a great job of using his edits and composition to tell a unique story.
ReplyDelete