1978 - Trailer for my first feature

D

dust'n the callipygous

Well-known member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhzXcB6YECA
http://vimeo.com/1755600

The film is called 1978. It's set in Pickens, SC as five high school graduates spend their last summer together. It's by first-time writer/directer Mark Watkins. This was also my first attempt at cinematography on a full-length film.

We shot with an xha1 and a few little things with an hv20. The movie's budget pretty much just covered camera and mic rentals as well as a little food and gas money. I think we did all right for just a two man crew (me with the camera and the director with the boom). Critique away.
 
that trailer needs to be shorter and you need to create more intrigue, as of right now I don't know if I would pay to go see your film. Try and trim down the trailer and make it big, ever second of a trailer needs to make the audience want more.

my 2 cents.
 
The director wanted a long cut. I think i can condense something down to about two minutes. I might need to throw some more dialog in too. Think that would flow a little better?
 
In my opinion, you just need to set up some conflict in which the audience feel they have to see resolved. Make the trailer intense, make it fast, make it in your face. You have to present a snippet of the final product in such a way that everyone, after watching the trailer, will say
"I really need to see this movie".

Side note: I think it looked great. I am really liking the images that people are producing with the xh-a1, I had one for a while but decided to sell it.
 
I agree with Adam, the images are great looking, but it was way to long and slow developing. I like the overall feel for the production though. It doesn't look or feel like a two man operation.

Good job overall
 
I also agree. Too long and drawn out.

The other problem, as already mentioned, is the lack of any conflict. A guy loses a girl and then they all party... That's all I'm getting (and took me a while to figure that out).

Why am I watching this? What's the conflict in the script? What drives the movie?
 
Yeh, i would personally cut it down to the bare minimum, see how that works, then perhaps lengthen some clips/dialogue to 'tailor' it to flow better. Also, the dialogue seems to be in mono, coming from only the left channel, is it supposed to? Surely you want it coming from both left and right, (not necessarily stereo)

Congrats on your first feature!
 
Thanks guys. I'll try to get another one up sometime tomorrow. And no, we don't have the rights to any of that music. We're working on getting some music in from some bands we know, but we just needed something quick to help set the tone.
 
COngrats on making a feature, :)

I would take out the music as it only makes your film seem very amateur
Besides that imags are good, and well, as people said, it has no momentum to get me to not skip over to the end
 
I agree with everyone else, just needs to be shortened down a bit and you'll be good to go. Looks like it would have been alot of work esspecially with only 2 people on the crew. Good work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top