My new trailer

Simon Wyndham · December 2nd, 2004, 04:10 PM

It all depends on how contrasty the light is. Sometimes there is problem with grain in the shadows. But I prefer to just leave it alone as part of the 'character' of the picture. Most grain removal software always gives a processed digital look.

I used some black diffusion in post on some shots. Although the looks are not final just yet. I used Magic Bullet For Editors.

It's amazing the difference between here and other places! I threw it out into the dragons den that is another site's demo reel forum. They were quite harsh, although I expected that.

Regarding what the trailer is showing, what do people here think of what the trailer gets across. Aside from a technical standpoint, what is your gut feeling about what the film is about from watching it?

Simon Wyndham · December 2nd, 2004, 06:39 PM

I've just uploaded a slightly changed version of the trailer. I've ditched the thai kick shot that people were confused by and replaced ith with an earlier part of the combination from the same shot. I've also swapped around one of the other shots as someone else was strangely confused by some of it. Personally I'm not sure why they couldn't accept it was different shots from different parts of the film, but anyway...

Marc Sacco · December 2nd, 2004, 08:32 PM

technically it is much better with the thai kick gone! that alone just brought your trailer (and consequently the perception of the movie as a whole) up a few notches. nice job!

as far as the feel/story line goes...first word that comes to mind is revenge. he appears to be going after a group of people specifically and taking them out. as for the girl, i like it but it doesnt link her to the plot adequately. does she get kidnapped or killed and this is part of the revenge? is she the final straw/ the thing that makes him snap? what is her characters purpose? its still not clear enough in the trailer. again, i like her being there but its not adding enough to the plot or at least leading me far enough down any path to intrigue me. i want more intrigue! tease us more with her character!

the other two shots were ducttape boy and heavybag boy. they are confusing because they look like the same person (maybe they are maybe not.) try reversing their order and see if that helps it. right now while wondering if its the same guy i am also wondering how he got from bound up to free so suddenly. if they were reversed at least that would flow better (for me at least!).

anyway, again...nice job. i am glad you are having a better response here than the other place. this is a nice neighborhood!

Marc Sacco
www.zenimage.com

Simon Wyndham · December 2nd, 2004, 08:50 PM

I just hope people aren't as confused when they see the full combination in the film! :-)

Yep, it's revenge. The Chinese girl played by Maye Choo (had to give her a plug, she's a great gal) is the main characters ex wife. There are some complex elements to that particular story arc that can't really be explained effectively in the teaser. So I'll need to put that in the full trailer.

As for Ducttape Boy (lol I won't tell him!) and Heavybag Boy, they are different people. Heavybag Boy, or Chris as he's known in the film (Chris Jones in real life) is one of the characters you see in the opening of the trailer (and also turns towards the camera later on wearing a cammo jacket).

As far as I can see the punchbag shot comes before the shot of the guy taped up anyway.

You're right about this place being nicer. But I knew those guys would give it a hard time. Their demo reel forum was basically set up to be a hornets nest where people could criticise harshly without things getting too nasty. Then again, one of them said something along the lines of making a feature about grinding teeth being as good so....

Simon Wyndham · December 3rd, 2004, 08:10 AM

Can anyone tell me if they are having any problems with downloading the large trailer? My co-director is saying that there is a black line at the bottom of the large trailer and that he's having trouble viewing it.

Ryan Graham · December 3rd, 2004, 08:25 AM

Simon,

Thanks for all the responses!

I had no problem downloading the large trailer. Looked fine to me.

I also got the theme of "revenge" from the trailer, and also got the feeling that it will have a lot of fast-paced action scenes. It was effective enough to make me want to see the film, so that's a good thing!

Good luck with the film. Keep us updated on your progress.

Thanks again,
Ryan Graham

Bob McRee · December 3rd, 2004, 09:40 AM

great looking!! just the effect i love---i have a gl1-american verson of your cam and am equalily proud of it---funny how some first run units are difficult to improve upon---wonder if that could be said for HD.???---bob

Simon Wyndham · December 3rd, 2004, 09:53 AM

Thanks Bob!

We utterly trashed our bandwidth limit yesterday! The servers have been overwhelmed! I had to laugh as there is a thread going on at IGN about how bad the movie looks! Oh well. No publicity is bad publicity!

Simon Wyndham · December 3rd, 2004, 10:09 AM

If you do want a laugh, check here!
http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?to...start=73520435

Dmitry Yun · December 3rd, 2004, 01:35 PM

Hey man I thought the production value is great and your actor looks totally vicious :) He reminds me of that dude from The Second Tomb Raider movie only with longer hair. I think that your movie looks fantastic for something shot with a mere GL1. Those wussies at IGN probably never even shot anything (I don't know why you posted there in the first place :) Keep up the good work man, once hollywood notices you won't care what the bad reviews had to say :)

Mathieu Ghekiere · December 3rd, 2004, 02:25 PM

Hey Simon,

actually I thought the thread there was indeed very funny to read :-)

I don't really like the genre of the movie (martial arts and stuff :$ not that there isn't more to it, but it is not what I really like) but it looks really stunning visually, and I agree with Dmitri that I think those people there never made something themselves.

Keep up the good work.

Simon Wyndham · December 3rd, 2004, 02:56 PM

Thanks guys.

IGN is funny. Those guys are obviously of an average age of 13 or less. They came at the trailer from the wrong angle. Since the movie is a homage to the films of the 80's, 80's Hong Kong films in particular in terms of fighting, those guys at IGN probably weren't old enough to remember them. In fact I'd bet that most of them think that Rush Hour is Jackie Chans first film!

It's doubtful that those guys have made anything themselves. Although I really want the movie to appeal to people who don't make stuff. However it seems to be popular. We have receieved over 5000 hits since Wednesday, which isn't bad for a small site that has only just been put up. In fact we almost got booted from our server today!

A lot of people have given it a positive response. There will always be people who don't like it. everyone has their opinion and I'm interested in both sides of the coin. Although what really gets on my nerves is when people like the IGN guys refuse to give a low budget movie a chance just because it doesn't look like The Matrix or Spiderman. Oh well.

It's incredible where the movie has been featured. There's even an Intalian movie website with a list of forthcoming movies. They have one with The Rock, then one with Steven Seagal, and then under that there's our movie! They also have a full page article on the movie which I am getting my sister to translate.

I just hope we can sell the movie when it's finished!

Robin Davies-Rollinson · December 3rd, 2004, 05:15 PM

Simon,
I thought that your answers were very relevant and informative - and that you kept your composure very well.
I doubt if the readers had even a quarter of your vocabulary though ...
As for the trailer, I really appreciated it.
I wish you all the luck with funding for more projects.

Robin

Simon Wyndham · December 4th, 2004, 04:55 PM

Thanks Robin. I've given up on them now. It is fairly obvious that none of them have left school yet.

Glad you liked the trailer. We hope to release the movie on DVD. We have a sales agent on board ready so hopefully things will work out. I really want to shoot our next feature with Cinealta :-)

Andrew Grix · December 5th, 2004, 02:03 PM

Wow Simon, I am highly impressed.

I never would have guessed that was shot with a GL2.
Magic Bullet and good lighting work wonders.

Don't mind those pre-teen 12 year old boys over at IGN. They apparently know nothing about film/video.

That is some of the best film-like video I've seen done with the GL2. You pushed that to the max.

Few critiques:
The music in the trailer was totally '80s (unless that is what you wanted). I'm guessing that is why they said it would be something they see on UPN, because they mostly play '80's movies on UPN.

My guess is that they didn't like it because your movie is like an '80s movie. Not appealing to them, I guess.

I think it looks great and I would love to see what you could do w/ an XL2 or DVX-100a and a P+S Technik Mini35 adapter.

December 2nd, 2004, 08:32 PM	#18
Marc Sacco Regular Crew Join Date: May 2004 Location: new fairfield, CT Posts: 65	technically it is much better with the thai kick gone! that alone just brought your trailer (and consequently the perception of the movie as a whole) up a few notches. nice job! as far as the feel/story line goes...first word that comes to mind is revenge. he appears to be going after a group of people specifically and taking them out. as for the girl, i like it but it doesnt link her to the plot adequately. does she get kidnapped or killed and this is part of the revenge? is she the final straw/ the thing that makes him snap? what is her characters purpose? its still not clear enough in the trailer. again, i like her being there but its not adding enough to the plot or at least leading me far enough down any path to intrigue me. i want more intrigue! tease us more with her character! the other two shots were ducttape boy and heavybag boy. they are confusing because they look like the same person (maybe they are maybe not.) try reversing their order and see if that helps it. right now while wondering if its the same guy i am also wondering how he got from bound up to free so suddenly. if they were reversed at least that would flow better (for me at least!). anyway, again...nice job. i am glad you are having a better response here than the other place. this is a nice neighborhood! Marc Sacco www.zenimage.com __________________ www.zenimage.com The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all....

December 3rd, 2004, 09:40 AM	#22
Bob McRee New Boot Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: jackson ms. Posts: 7	trailer great looking!! just the effect i love---i have a gl1-american verson of your cam and am equalily proud of it---funny how some first run units are difficult to improve upon---wonder if that could be said for HD.???---bob

December 3rd, 2004, 01:35 PM	#25
Dmitry Yun Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 170	Hah Hey man I thought the production value is great and your actor looks totally vicious :) He reminds me of that dude from The Second Tomb Raider movie only with longer hair. I think that your movie looks fantastic for something shot with a mere GL1. Those wussies at IGN probably never even shot anything (I don't know why you posted there in the first place :) Keep up the good work man, once hollywood notices you won't care what the bad reviews had to say :)

December 2nd, 2004, 04:10 PM	#16
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	It all depends on how contrasty the light is. Sometimes there is problem with grain in the shadows. But I prefer to just leave it alone as part of the 'character' of the picture. Most grain removal software always gives a processed digital look. I used some black diffusion in post on some shots. Although the looks are not final just yet. I used Magic Bullet For Editors. It's amazing the difference between here and other places! I threw it out into the dragons den that is another site's demo reel forum. They were quite harsh, although I expected that. Regarding what the trailer is showing, what do people here think of what the trailer gets across. Aside from a technical standpoint, what is your gut feeling about what the film is about from watching it?

December 2nd, 2004, 06:39 PM	#17
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	I've just uploaded a slightly changed version of the trailer. I've ditched the thai kick shot that people were confused by and replaced ith with an earlier part of the combination from the same shot. I've also swapped around one of the other shots as someone else was strangely confused by some of it. Personally I'm not sure why they couldn't accept it was different shots from different parts of the film, but anyway...

December 2nd, 2004, 08:50 PM	#19
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	I just hope people aren't as confused when they see the full combination in the film! :-) Yep, it's revenge. The Chinese girl played by Maye Choo (had to give her a plug, she's a great gal) is the main characters ex wife. There are some complex elements to that particular story arc that can't really be explained effectively in the teaser. So I'll need to put that in the full trailer. As for Ducttape Boy (lol I won't tell him!) and Heavybag Boy, they are different people. Heavybag Boy, or Chris as he's known in the film (Chris Jones in real life) is one of the characters you see in the opening of the trailer (and also turns towards the camera later on wearing a cammo jacket). As far as I can see the punchbag shot comes before the shot of the guy taped up anyway. You're right about this place being nicer. But I knew those guys would give it a hard time. Their demo reel forum was basically set up to be a hornets nest where people could criticise harshly without things getting too nasty. Then again, one of them said something along the lines of making a feature about grinding teeth being as good so....

December 3rd, 2004, 08:10 AM	#20
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Can anyone tell me if they are having any problems with downloading the large trailer? My co-director is saying that there is a black line at the bottom of the large trailer and that he's having trouble viewing it.

December 3rd, 2004, 08:25 AM	#21
Ryan Graham Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 81	Simon, Thanks for all the responses! I had no problem downloading the large trailer. Looked fine to me. I also got the theme of "revenge" from the trailer, and also got the feeling that it will have a lot of fast-paced action scenes. It was effective enough to make me want to see the film, so that's a good thing! Good luck with the film. Keep us updated on your progress. Thanks again, Ryan Graham

December 3rd, 2004, 09:53 AM	#23
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Thanks Bob! We utterly trashed our bandwidth limit yesterday! The servers have been overwhelmed! I had to laugh as there is a thread going on at IGN about how bad the movie looks! Oh well. No publicity is bad publicity!

December 3rd, 2004, 10:09 AM	#24
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	If you do want a laugh, check here! http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?to...start=73520435

December 3rd, 2004, 02:25 PM	#26
Mathieu Ghekiere Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Belgium Posts: 2,195	Hey Simon, actually I thought the thread there was indeed very funny to read :-) I don't really like the genre of the movie (martial arts and stuff :$ not that there isn't more to it, but it is not what I really like) but it looks really stunning visually, and I agree with Dmitri that I think those people there never made something themselves. Keep up the good work.

December 3rd, 2004, 02:56 PM	#27
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Thanks guys. IGN is funny. Those guys are obviously of an average age of 13 or less. They came at the trailer from the wrong angle. Since the movie is a homage to the films of the 80's, 80's Hong Kong films in particular in terms of fighting, those guys at IGN probably weren't old enough to remember them. In fact I'd bet that most of them think that Rush Hour is Jackie Chans first film! It's doubtful that those guys have made anything themselves. Although I really want the movie to appeal to people who don't make stuff. However it seems to be popular. We have receieved over 5000 hits since Wednesday, which isn't bad for a small site that has only just been put up. In fact we almost got booted from our server today! A lot of people have given it a positive response. There will always be people who don't like it. everyone has their opinion and I'm interested in both sides of the coin. Although what really gets on my nerves is when people like the IGN guys refuse to give a low budget movie a chance just because it doesn't look like The Matrix or Spiderman. Oh well. It's incredible where the movie has been featured. There's even an Intalian movie website with a list of forthcoming movies. They have one with The Rock, then one with Steven Seagal, and then under that there's our movie! They also have a full page article on the movie which I am getting my sister to translate. I just hope we can sell the movie when it's finished!

December 3rd, 2004, 05:15 PM	#28
Robin Davies-Rollinson Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Gwaelod-y-garth, Cardiff, CYMRU/WALES Posts: 1,215	Simon, I thought that your answers were very relevant and informative - and that you kept your composure very well. I doubt if the readers had even a quarter of your vocabulary though ... As for the trailer, I really appreciated it. I wish you all the luck with funding for more projects. Robin

December 4th, 2004, 04:55 PM	#29
Simon Wyndham Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Malvern UK Posts: 1,931	Thanks Robin. I've given up on them now. It is fairly obvious that none of them have left school yet. Glad you liked the trailer. We hope to release the movie on DVD. We have a sales agent on board ready so hopefully things will work out. I really want to shoot our next feature with Cinealta :-)

December 5th, 2004, 02:03 PM	#30
Andrew Grix New Boot Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Michigan Posts: 5	Wow Simon, I am highly impressed. I never would have guessed that was shot with a GL2. Magic Bullet and good lighting work wonders. Don't mind those pre-teen 12 year old boys over at IGN. They apparently know nothing about film/video. That is some of the best film-like video I've seen done with the GL2. You pushed that to the max. Few critiques: The music in the trailer was totally '80s (unless that is what you wanted). I'm guessing that is why they said it would be something they see on UPN, because they mostly play '80's movies on UPN. My guess is that they didn't like it because your movie is like an '80s movie. Not appealing to them, I guess. I think it looks great and I would love to see what you could do w/ an XL2 or DVX-100a and a P+S Technik Mini35 adapter.