My new trailer

[Simon Wyndham]

If anyone is interested, the teaser trailer for my new feature length production is up at http://www.the-silencer.co.uk

Any comments welcome.

[Marc Sacco]

Simon, very well done! the pace was nicely timed. images are top quality. you all should be proud of this project! (by the way, nice company logo too!) a few minor suggestions... have you tried the sound effect of the bullet over the white flash frame with a slight tightening of the reaction in the hospital bed?( i would be happy to edit a short quick clip showing what i mean if you would like to send me the before clip, after clip, and the shot sound in low resolution avi clips!) i think it would make more sense to be the "shot" instead of trying to convey that it was a flashback/nightmare scene. (at least thats what it appeared to be trying to convey but the trailer doesnt have time to properly set that up.) also, i am assuming you have finished wrapping the production so this would be an edit choice but the fight scenes are for the most part pretty good except for the one shot of the silencer giving the other guy a knee shot. it doesnt come anywhere close to being a hit and is too obvious to keep in. either grab another take or let it fall to the cutting room floor. (tough decisions i know but if you are trying to "sell" this movie either to a distributor or the audience, this shot will kill it. trust me on this... I made the same mistake on my first movies back in the late eighties. we tried to keep the length of the project to a "feature film" length and the results were a dragged out short film that went know where! (i went back and recut a few scenes to see how they would play and there was a dramatic difference in the scene.)
anyway, i hope these suggestion help. again...very impressive results. keep working hard at it! by the way, what camera did you use?

Marc Sacco
www.zenimage.com

[Simon Wyndham]

Hi Marc, thanks very much for your comments!

I see what you mean about the gunshot. For now I will probably leave it as it is. But it's sort of a flash back reference, but not lol! Hard to describe. In the film it's not a flashback. What happens is that the character is shot while on a mission and left for dead. But he awakens in hospital having lost the ability to speak. The trailer was just conveying that he got shot. The gun shot sound will not be in the final film.

We are still in production at the moment with most of the action left to shoot.

I'm not sure what knee shot you are talking about? I don't remember choreographing a kneeing movement! lol!

I think you might be referring to the combination in the forest? If you are it's not a knee. His opponent throws a low Thai style roundhouse kick to his leg, but the silencer merely lifts his leg to avoid it being hit. Was this the section you were talking about?

Thanks again for the comments. They are very much appreciated! :-)

[Hayden Rivers]

Can I ask what you used to shoot this? What camera, what lenses and what did you use in post for color correction? It looks very professional. I like the following shots:

00:30 I like the facial expressions, the background is awesome and I like how film like it looks without any video tell tale signs.

00:34 This boxing shot I enjoyed.

00:35 Hot.

00:42 The glass breaking is awesome

I'd look at maybe fixing the following things. They're not a big deal, but it's my constructive criticism:

00:39 That's a weird shot. He looks like he's dancing because he lifts his leg then drops it but there's no reason for the motion.

00:50 The last shot should be cool but for whatever reason, I'm not feeling it. It's a personal thing so it's your call. It's a cool pose, but I'm not feeling it.

Awesome work. Hope to check it out someday soon.

edit: 00:39 I think is the knee shot or the roundhouse deflection shot. I think that shot absolutely needs to be cut. I don't think it shows clearly he's blocking the roundhouse, he looks like he's fake kneeing somebody (which just screams amateur) and even when I knew what to look for I don't think it looks like he blocked a kick.

[Simon Wyndham]

Hehe, the lifting the knee shot is not very popular! However you can trust me that it works in the actual film.

The movie was shot 16:9 and cropped for 2.35:1 so perhaps I need to do some reframing on that shot for the trailer to make it clearer what is happening.

I am slightly reluctant to say what it is shot on just in case a potential dsitributor takes a dim view! But for you guys, anything. I just hope this info doesn't come back and shoot me in the foot!

It was shot on an XM1 using an Optex 16:9 lens and was edited using Son Vegas. But shhhhhhh, I didn't tell you that. It might just be a rumour ;-)

[Simon Wyndham]

Or prhaps I'll exchange that shot for an earlier part of the combination. The combo does work as a whole however. But for any future version of the trailer I'll bear that in mind.

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

YOU SHOT THAT ON A XM1???
Superbe Congratulations :-p Although I don't know a lot about image quality and so I am maybe one of the least approperiate persons to give advice or so, but I thought it was shot on HD or something. Really, looks brilliant for SD, let alone the XM1!!

What did you use in post production?

Good luck!

[Hayden Rivers]

XM1 is the GL1 in PAL-land right? That's really, really impressive if it is the GL1 only in PAL. What did you do in post? Deinterlace? Magic Bullet?

My guess would have been the DVX100a with anamorphic adapter. It didn't look sharp enough for the XL2. However I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been DigiBeta or something more industrial grade. So very high quality. You've got some talent. Don't spend it all in one place.

[Simon Wyndham]

Yep, the XM1 (or GL1 in the US). Thanks for your kind words regarding this.

It's getting harder and harder to keep the ideas coming for shots, although I think the use of the Glidecam and tracking dolly play a big part in things. I'm trying to source a jib or a crane for the rest of the shoot. It's also quite hard to work within the limitations of the 16:9 adaptor.

It was shot using frame mode.

[Marc Sacco]

yes, as hayden also pointed out that is the shot in question. regardless of its place in the movie and the whole fight scene, it needs to be removed because the audience/distributor does not have the full information to judge it by. they only have what you are telling them and right now you are telling them "hey this is a fake knee to the face that missed by a mile!" unfortunately these are the choices that need to be made to make a really good trailer into a great trailer. also, i am glad you see what i was talking about with the gunshot...again you probably should revisit that with the same critical eye just to make it crystal clear to the viewer. right now it isn't quite there yet. still this is a fantastic job you all have done on this project especially considering the camera used. (i like the canons and own a xl1s, but the xm1 must be a little challenging to work with!)

anyway, well done (clap,clap,clap...grumbling under my breath "why didnt i do something like this yet!" ) ;}

marc sacco
www.zenimage.com

[Alfredo Castil]

Bravo dude!, amazing work. can't wait to see the whole thing.

One thing and this is just nit picking. I think the gamma might be too saturated, it looks almost like technicolor. the story looks dark and the footage doesn't follow that, try desaturating the color just a tad, or maybe crenking up the greens just a little bit and see if you like it better, if you are done with it I respect it and commend you for an excellent job.

[Ryan Graham]

Good job!

I'd also like to know what post processing was done to this. Since you shot in frame mode, I'm assuming you didn't have to do any deinterlacing, but what did you use for color correcting? The skin tones look great, and in the closeups there is a softness to the skin that looks like either tight diffusion or some sort of skin smoother/noise reduction plugin. There is also a pastel look to some things that is very nice.

As far as the shooting went, did you clip your highlights during the shoot, or in post? And how did you deal with the noise/grain in the shadows in post?

Ryan Graham

[Simon Wyndham]

Thanks guys.

Okay, noise and grain in the shadows. Remember that the Quicktime movie is compressed in size compared to the original. Grain is only really a huge problem in large dark areas. But if you give the XM contrasty images to begin with it's not much of a problem. It does cause problems in diffused lighting such as when we had smokey interiors. But we have to live with it. I don't expect digibeta quality with an XM1.

The story is dark, but at the same time it has to be thought of as a modern day super hero style story. The hero is mute, but his bullet injury also stopped him from feeling any pain. Having desaturate colours was something I had thought about, but my co-director doesn't like it. I also kind of agree now as so many things these days are having the bleach bypass look applied etc. The gamma is fairly high on the trailer though. I bumped it up because the compression was making it too dark to begin with, so perhaps I went a little too far with it.

In the next incarnation of the trailer I will get rid of the infamous 'knee' shot! I'm just waiting on our composer to do some newer music.

[Simon Wyndham]

For highlights, I exposed so that there was minimal highlight blowout. Anything else is done in post.

[Ryan Graham]

Thanks for the response, Simon. I was inquiring about the shadows because I know I've had some issues with my GL2 regarding the grain in the dark-but-not-black parts of the picture. Yours looked good, so I was just wondering if you'd used a noise-reduction plugin to get rid of the grain.

Did you use a diffusion lens during production, or did you add it later in post? And what program did you use for all the color correction/film look stuff? Magic Bullet? Cinelook? DFT?

Sorry for all the questions; I just really like the way your shots look, and other people around here with similar looking material have been less than receptive when it comes to giving away their "secrets"!

Ryan