***TRAILER RELEASE: SHOWDOWN*** Comment Thread

We are pleased to announce that our second fanfilm, Showdown, is nearing completion, and we have spent some time making a trailer for you Tell us what you think

http://files.filefront.com/Showdown_Trailermov/;4726498;;/fileinfo.html

The full film should be complete by late February/early March

 

Wow...George W. Bush in a fan film trailer...so wrong...so wrong.

 

Its george bush? Hmm...well the song fits the trailer the best of all the ones we tried...if we had known it was the bush we would have chosen a different one...and it wasnt me who chose the song, was my friend I did the video part.

Strange...I see 28 downloads, yet only 1 comment? cmon people let us know wat we can improve...

/me braces for criticism

 

If you want some constructive criticism then i'll tell you that the dude with the blue and green lightsaber looks like he has no clue what he's doing in front of the camera. I'd work with him a bit. Camera angles need to be improved - tighter shots, maybe some panning, etc. DEFINATELY need to get rid of the George Bush intro, LOL. ...And a Jedi with sunglasses? No.

But hey, the hand-to-hand fighting was great! But it goes from enormously fast and intese hand-to-hand fighting to this weird, sluggish and slow lightsaber fighting. ...Hell, it looks less like fighting and more like two people hitting some sticks together. But hey, based on the hand-to-hand fighting it looks like you would have more potential doing a Matrix fan film

Cheers

 

Ok let me explain...i guess the trailer didn't do a good enough job...
I'm the guy with the green and blue sabers, and the other guy is not supposed to be a Jedi. In the real film it will be clearer...this trailer was made kinda in a hurry cause we both have school etc. and for the real film we will have more time...Also we haven't had much experience with camera angles and stuff, and we have better combat scenes with lightsabers too
Hope that explained some of it...

edit: oh yea about the george bush intro thing...ill see wat we can do....and we wont have it in the real thing...its only the trailer after all

 

It is always difficult to give constructive critism. 'contructive' is just can be just a polite way way of saying where a fan-film sucks.

Another thing that makes critiquing difficult is the wide range of film makers now on the scene. In the UK for example - our fanfilms are probably the 'biggest' in the land, but when you go international, we are pond life! It's all a matter of perspective.

This guy is 15 and as such needs to be critiqued accordingly (no dig at what has been posted so far). At the same time the guy needs to remember that he is just 15 and at the begining of his fanfilm career (oh I envy you!).

My thoughts...

Yes, the film could have been edited a bit tighter (there is one bit where the Jedi seems to be waiting for action to be called, when he then raises his lightsaber).

BTW - If you don't want to use George W, try using our Tony, I am sure he won't mind!

Happy filming!

 

/sigh...The george bush thing wasnt intentional...its just here cause the music fits well with the scenes. Dont forget this is the trailer, we still can make improvements to the real thing. And yes, we are 15 and 16 respectively, and this is our first real PROPER fanfilm, which will give us experience for any others we might do in the future. We are trying our best here but at the same time we are also trying to have fun and produce something of decent quality...

In the end, all the criticisms will help

 

Well well well, if you want comments, I might want to put forward my opinion then.

Firstly, I like the handtohand fighting. Fast and intense, with a little slowmo at the end. However, the lightsaber fighting, I must admit, needs more flourish. And yes, I do believe you should have cut out the part where the Jedi waits the "action". It rather ruins the flow of the trailer. However, I must say that the little cloning trick there was rather neat.

However, you definitely have space for improvement. Firstly, lighting. You camera probably couldn't cope with the low-light artificial lighting, and this ruins the other effects slightly - a bit of a pity really, because you have the right ideas. However, better angles and more choreography would definitely pep the film up a bit.

And I wouldn't worry about the song too much - "Deify", by Disturbed, no? Or something like that. It's a pretty anti-bush song, but it's political sympathies do not matter - it does fit the trailer quite nicely.

Well, there you have my opinion. Happy?

Lord Horus

 

Ok, in response to Lord Horus...

The lightsaber fights will be better, once we finish editing. I probably chose the wrong one to put in our trailer...and as for the lighting, we can improve that as well, it will look better in the end

As for better angles and choreography, we are still learning the ways of the film-making

Thanks for your comments so far

edit: forgot to say...the part in the beginning, about the Jedi (me) reacting to the call of 'action' is wrong, I'm actually at the end of a short walk, I just cut it at slightly the wrong time There is a part before that where I raise my saber and ignite it

 

My apologies for not understanding you already had a plan to improve. If you need any help, allow me to post a suggestion.

Unless you film the scene again, there is little you can do in terms of choreography of the battles. Might I suggest you accelerate the film using either Premiere's effects or using AE's time remapping. However, too much acceleration will completely spoil the film. To avoid this, I have two suggestions. Firstly, you could try using the motion blur switch next to the layer name. However, a much more impressive effect can be obtained using motion blur effects and masks. If you go to Ryan Wieber's website, and check out the "tutorials made by others", you should find a "cloning" tutorial. Whilst I see you have already found a cloning technique, the author of the cloning tutorial also has a tutorial for superfast running. You should be able to adapt that to saber battles. Although, I must warn you, it would increase production times by quite a bit. Only do it if you really think you need to.
Furthermore, making your sabers fan out more gives the impression of speed.
As for lighting, there is little I can suggest. Possibly a post-production program, but they are expensive. You should be able to increase the brightness and use layer effects to create a credible increase in lighting without losing quality. However, that choice is entirely up to you.

Best of luck, and knock their socks off.

Lord Horus

 

Thanks for all the suggestions Lord Horus

Yes we have done some superfast running in the film, so we might apply a bit of time remapping and acceleration to some of the saberfights if we need it, and as for the lighting, I'm pretty sure we have a progam to help us
Either way, we will try and do our best in the final phase of postproduction, and look out for our full film soon

 

bump

We have started sound editing on the full film and are halfway through, we might even finish by the start of next week