Vengeance (finally up and running

maverickstunts

maverickstunts

Well-known member
We have finally got Vengeance up and running. It is a "Webisode" series. It is a series of cliffhanger/horror episodes.
The first is the link to the website, the second to the trailer. You may like it, you may not. We of course, are hoping that people like it and will come back. Comments are welcome. Each episode is downloadable for 99 cents. Each episode is 3-4 minutes long. New episodes will be up about every 10 days.
Thanks,
steve
website
http://www.gorillauglyfilms.com/
trailer only
http://www.gorillauglyfilms.com/moviepage.html
 
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Mat,
Thank you! and yes we do have some customers. we just thought we would try it and see. We are pretty happy with the final product and it transfers very well to ipods and such. At the very least we will try to get some investors from this and make our own product.
best,
steve
 
The Trailer:
Good enough to get me interested. So I paid a dollar to watch the whole thing.


The Webisode:

Well i paid my dollar so I'm going to be honest. Tongue in cheek of course....

I feel like I should have gotten more than 3 minutes of video. For 2 bucks i can get a 30 minute tv show on itunes. So i feel ripped off.

Also, the set-ups looked rushed and the composition wasn't interesting. There were some cool crane shots with the dirt bikes going over jumps but it didn't lend anything to the story.

I thought you could have created some more mystery and tension by prolonging the characters death. I didn't really have time to get scared because they all get killed so fast. Where's the suspense?

It played out like a b-Movie... we're even treated to a man catching on fire and walking like Frankenstein. I know it's a movie but if the back of the killer's sweater goes up like a tinder box, then the front of the sweater is gonna do the same. The guy has time to lick his bloody knife, but doesn't have time to stop, drop, and roll?

The acting was bad. First scene is horribly ADR'd, lips don't match.

Chicks weren't hot.... weren't hot enough I should say. Where's the Jesse Biel butt shot? Or the J-love boob shot? I hate horror movies, but hot chicks are essential. On the "Horny Guy Replay Value" score of 1-10 (10 being the best) I give it a 1.

You really could have used a 35mm adapter on this to get a shallower depth of field.

You needed to work more on the story...

My prediction is that one of those dirt bikes has super powers like in the movie "The Dirt Bike Kid" staring Peter Billingsly, where the dirt bike can fly.

My prediction is that the kid with braces will head towards a cliff being chased by flashlight-wielding-killers, he'll hit the edge of the cliff, his dirt bike will miraculously fly, and he'll be silhouetted in front of the moon. Am I close?

6303278795.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1123545570_.jpg


A producer friend of mine has this motto he lives by... "(title of production): Where the story is the star and the actors never wear braces."

That's my two cents... errrr... 99 cents :)
 
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LOOKS PRETTY GOOD MAN! Looks like you put a lot of work into it, love the old guys voice! hahahaha.. I'll pay my buck when i get home..
 
aurantaurant
we have been emailing back and forth. Do not remove your post. You were being honest and should've been. At least you watched and posted. That is exactly what is needed.
 
Hey just wanted to congrat ya for going out there and creating it man. I'm sure it took a hell of a lot to do.

-Jeskid
 
Not bad, not bad. But not enough to get me to pay. The production value just wasn't high enough for me to give away a dollar. I, for one, buy a ton of shows on Itunes, so I'll buy something for $1.99 if it's good. But like someone else said, this is only 3 minutes. So you got 3 minutes for $.99 with something that doesn't even come close to the production value of everything on itunes.

I'm not trying to be an a-hole, I'm trying to tell you exactly what's going through me, the consumer's, mind.

Now the good news (i guess) is that I'm not a huge horror fan. So it was a hard sell to begin with.

I don't know. What do you think? Do you think it needs to be improved? Would you do things differently next time?
 
Just let me ask this and this is a straight up question, no attitude. Are you in the film and television industry?
The reason I ask is because of your comment about production value. This was shot in high def, by a dp that has won two emmy awards. If you are comparing this to television shows or movies from itunes that is cool, but you have to remember that those that are up are productions that have already aired, and were paid for by commercials. A download is just extra money to them. I haven't seen very much original content on the web. I may not be looking in the right places however.
Frankly, you are probably not in the demographic that this is aimed at anyway. We did this to target young people between the ages of 14 and 22. And if you don't care for horror it is a moot point.
For the most part, people that we have shown it to, and these are actual people in the industry are quite amazed at the production value. I would be surprised if anyone else out there could shoot this type of project in 12 hours per episode as we did. We shot two episodes and the trailer in two nights and a 3 hour daytime shoot. I know for a fact that no one else can get the dogs or the talented stunt people, nor a couple of the actors that we did UNLESS you pay some big bucks.
Change things.....I don't know. I would have liked to have had more time.
I would be extremely interested to hear from anyone else that has tried this and would be even more interested to see their product.
Thanks for the input.
 
Well here's the thing. And let me get this out there first. I admire what you're doing. I know how hard it is to put together something like this. So I definitely commend you for your effort. All I'm saying is you might want to change/tweak your business model. That's great that you've pulled off an Emmy-Award winning DP, stunt men, dogs, etc., in so little time. But that doesn't matter to the audience. They don't say "wow, they did that in so little time". All they care about is the finished product and you can bet your mashed potatoes that they're going to be comparing it to the big guys.

I'm not in your demographic and I'm not a fan of horror, however I do appreciate good filmmaking. I look at something like this: http://www.whatisbroken.com/qt_trailer.html and I'm just wowed by it. I probably wouldn't pay for it (well, I didn't pay for it) but it's damn good work. So again, I'm not trying to be an a-hole but at the same time, if I think a piece of work can be better, I'm going to say so. Isn't that what these forums are for? We're here to push each other. And I'm saying I think you can do better. You obviously know how to tell a story. But maybe getting a shot of an actor on fire or getting dogs - that time could have been put into the production value, better actors, better lighting (or a more expensive lighting package) etc. Don't get me wrong. I know these are all choices we filmmakers make, and by putting money somewhere, we take money away from somewhere else, but that's just my opinion.

Maybe next time when you're shooting and it's at the end of the day and you're tired and you just want to get the last shot and you feel lazy and you just want to get it over with, you'll hear me in your head and you'll say, "I'll show that motherf*cker from DVXUser good filmmaking", and push yourself to come up with something better than you originally planned. I'd want to hear the same thing if someone didn't think my work was up to par instead of "Yeah yeah, great job - flawless".

I'm going to pass on this one but I look forward to seeing more of your stuff. I mean that.

Best, C.G.
 
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You still didn't answer my first question. Are you a film professional? I went and looked at broken. It is very very good. Do you think that you will be able to download that for $1.99? I don't think so. What do you think that the budget might have been on that? Don't get me wrong, I understand where you are going and the point you are trying to make. I understand that you think I might be able to do better, and I am sure that I can. There are a couple of things that you need to look at. One is that we are trying to do something that really hasn't been attempted at too many levels. You want production value, but aren't willing to pay a paltry 99 cents for this type of thing. How many downloads do you think it would take to break even on even one episode? How many downloads would it take to break even on Broken? How many production days and how many post production days to get Broken done? Did it take months? I don't know for sure how long it took, but my guess is that it wasn't a week.
We were of the thinking that we might be able to fill a small void and maybe make some cash. Well we are making some cash, not enough to do more episodes at this time, But for the most part the feedback has been good. I personally email every customer with questions about their experience. Even aurantaraunt (above) emailed that he would like the second episode.
You stated that you could get better production value from itunes and I have a tendency to agree, except there isn't any original type programming that I could find.
Rob and Big, good show, $1.99. But it has already been on tv and paid for by advertisers.
How many downloads would it take to break even on Reno 911? That's a half hour show for $1.99. I work on the show as a stunt coordinator, how much do you think each episode costs?
I am not trying to be an a^^hole either, and I hope that i am not coming off that way.
Again, we are trying to do something that maybe other people are trying to do, but haven't been able to.
Truthfully, i would prefer that we just make a deal for a feature and do it the right way, which is a definite possiblity.
Anyway your input is appreciated, but I would still like to have you answer the first question.
thanks,
 
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Sure. No, I'm definitely not a professional. As that would require making money off my stuff. haha. You could take that as a good thing or a bad thing, I guess. Good because it means I don't know what I'm talking about, or bad because I'm a lot closer to the average customer.

As I get deeper and deeper into this, I feel less and less like my opinions are of any value. I want to offer constructive criticism, but I realize I'm really not offering anything more than "I didn't like this" which is basically useless in making you a better filmmaker. This probably goes back to your question, which is "are you a professional"? If I had more experience with production value, I'd be able to offer you more useful advice. I do know, however, that you don't have to be a chef to know when the food sucks (not saying your stuff sucks, just using an expression) and when I watched this, I felt like the production value wasn't up to my standards as a viewer. Whether I'm right or wrong about that is obviously subjective, so I'll leave it at that.
 
Thank you for your input. All input is good. The only problem I really see about the conversations we are having is this. You know what you like and you diidn't like the trailer for Vengeance. You, however are sort of comparing apples with oranges. The money involved with itunes download and what you saw presented on the screen by us is enormous. That being said, it shouldn't be an excuse for us not to provide good quality product.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion and yours certainly is welcome. I appreciate your input.
 
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