New Action Movie Trailer!!!

Not enough action. I have to ask though did he do bike by? :shocked: The shot looked interesting. The fact he was on a bike made it somewhat funny (think Nick Cages famous "get off the Bike" scene in Wicker Man) but it was well shot. As an action film lover I will say this trailer wouldn't interest me. It would get my attention but lose it.

I see one man doing a lot but without reason. He runs. But whose chasing (or who is he chasing). He's desperate and out for some kind of justice but why? No shoot out. No ducking or jumping to hide from bullets. Your actor does have an unconventional look and a coolness about him so I can see him as a good action guy.

My question is did you make you're own silencer? I have to do that now. Did you use metal or plastics and did you form it over an airsoft silencer or is it totally handmade?

-Nate
 
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I think it looks great! I agree with nathyn in that perhaps the trailer should be reveal a little more of a conflict rather than arbitrary shots. Most hollywood trailers reveal a conflict. But the production quality was awsome, and I thought the general execution was awsome. Shot with the humble hv20.

One critique I have is to work on the audio for your dialogue. I'm not sure if you mixed it in post, but if you have I think you need to work the mix more. If you havn't you definetally need to throw a graphic EQ or a 7+ band EQ on your dialogue track. Take out some middle and high middle. Add treble and high transients. Maybe add a little in the low-middle for some warmth. Sometimes adding treble will pronounce the once subtle white noise which is why its always good to do some noise reduction.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Nathyn,

I am an action lover just as much as the next guy, but what sells more than action is a good story. Maybe I should have worded it different:" It is a short film with some action". Shootouts and hiding from bullets has nothing to do with the story. And, because it is only a short, if i give to much away what is the point of watching the movie? That being said, there is a reason there are "movie editors" and "trailer editors". Maybe I am not meant for trailer editing. Editing a movie is very different than editing a trailer. I do appreciate the response though.

Orchidsofwrath,

The dialogue is raw. Nothing has been done to it. I've actually been a recording engineer for several years so pro audio is nothing new for me. The audio edit is massive at this point. Much bigger than the video of course. We were on a time crunch to get the trailer out so, much to my dismay, here it is. This is actually the first of three we plan on putting out. I guess I should have called it a "Teaser Trailer".

Thanks again. Cheers, DC
 
Give too much away? Is it a secret ending? And even so you can have a great story but "New Action Movie Trailer!!!" Screams action. And if you advertise action, you want to bring action. The Transporter has three sequels. The plots were decent, but won't be getting any Oscars anytime soon. I never remember thinking "Man that looks like a great story." I remember laughing at the fact the a door bell rang, a guy looks through the peephole and the only thing he sees is a guy running at top speed before the door is kicked in. A great trailer with a great button on the end.

If it's a drama you're pushing then you have enough action there but the trailer isn't cut well. This is what distributors do and it never goes right. Take a film like "Bug". It was promoted like a horror film and a lot of people hate it. Not because it was a bad film (I don't know if it was or not) but it's was promoted to the wrong audience as it wasn't a horror film. You have a drama with some action but you're pushing it as an action film. You can't do that now days. If you're film was on DVD yes, distributors do it all the time, but showcasing a short you will draw the wrong audience if you don't promote correctly. If it's the action audience you want then keep reading.

Dlynn_Coffey said:
Maybe I am not meant for trailer editing.
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I don't think you believe that as it's just not true. You have a great trailer you just screwed it up after you made it. I do it all the time then a keep watching it and show it and see what people like and don't then I recut. You don't even have to do any re-editing, watch this:

What do I know

He wants revenge/has to fix something, he's got a babe and she's worried, he runs, jumps does a bike by shooting on some baddies and looks really cool in a coat and has fast paced music. Honestly there's your trailer.

What I don't need to know

His walking and running will be shot really cool all the time and he runs a lot with no one chasing him.

You're money:

Best scenes = him in the car talking, that's your drama. (The look on the actress' face tells a lot of the story). He turns and looks troubled and cool as only an action hero can in the first ten seconds. The action hero's babe says "What are you going to do about it?" He picks up his silenced 9mm. He responds. "Take care of it." He runs, jumps, bikes, probably takes out some assassin all in the first 16 seconds tells this story. Your movie is sold. Put the dot on it and call it a day. Your trailer ends at 25 seconds. Guy picks up a phone action dude say "I'll do it." End video, fade in title and you're out. Fools sitting in the audience going "Daaaaaamn!!!! Whenz dat coming?" Go collect your check. Kick back to the studio, cause you're paid in full.

How do I know all this? That was my response until 27 seconds in when I should've been seeing a title. Then I stopped wanting to see the film. The images after 27 didn't seem to mean anything. Him holding the photo of the girl should've been in the first 16 second where your trailer popped off. I thought dude was hardcore and going to stop something really bad from happening, the fact all he had was a bike was funny but it made him cooler because he didn't have a car, he probably had to grab that bike and jump on it to catch up with the bad guys. (Yes, viewer makes assumptions based on what they've seen).

So in reality you're a great trailer cutter you just really like scenes of cool action hero types running a little too much. Other than that you made a very interesting trailer. :beer:

Edit: By the way, the title "The Asset" means absolutely nothing to anyone. Perfect. They want to know what it means, let them watch the film.

-Nate
 
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Dlynn_Coffey said:
Thanks for the feedback.

Orchidsofwrath,

The dialogue is raw. Nothing has been done to it. I've actually been a recording engineer for several years so pro audio is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...

Ha well then I must have sounded like an utter noob! If you do release your next trailer before you do the audio, I think you should at least do some EQing to the audio you include in the trailer cuts. I can totally see those few dialogue moments being 5x better with just a few mouse clicks haha.

Thats cool your a recording engineer. That probably helps a ton in your quest to achieve high quality films.
 
Actually it is a simple text effect found in Live Type. Transporter or something. I stacked a bunch of tracks to get what you see. Not so impressive now I suppose:-) Thanks for the comment! Cheers, DC
 
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