SHORT: Darkwoods - Horror trailer

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My throughs on the trailer are
First off you open in a car, with a man, he's looking at something, a cabin -- Alright, I can buy that, that's sort of interesting "What's in the cabin??", right. Then you fade with the score... and then... You open right back in the same scene, and I just can't for the life of me understand why. Then you show the man walking up to the cabin (at which point the terrible magic bullet-ish preset starts making me twitch) -- I mean, it's not a short, it's a trailer right, there's no need to show the man walking up to the cabin.
Then you cut to another shot in the same scene, but from the car -- and we're like "Is that.. his daughter? Looking at him? A POV from inside the car? Is that why we're in there watching him now?" --- But no, we never see a kid and it's all just very "Why was that interesting at all?". And so it just continues with the man walking and walking and walking, and the reason I don't fall asleep is because of that looks preset that blows everything out, and it's just painful to watch. You have some really nice blocking, 0:44 for instance, that is completely ruined by the blown out yuckiness.
Anyway, he keeps walking and walking and walking, gets a flashlight from the car, oh and at one point he sits down, and keeps walking, walking, and then he fires his gun at something. The End.

My feedback to you is
You really want to ask the question "What do I want to tell the audience with this trailer?", because right now you're telling them "A man is walking and walking and walking and walking". If your plot is heavily based on that build-up, then you might want to consider "telling less" in order to catch the viewer's attention and interest.
 
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Hmm. I feel like Tolin. Also, it was totally disorienting... but not in a good way. Disorienting in a way that feels amateur - we lose spacial sense. You start with from inside a car and then he walks to the house - those are our reference points. He walks away... to where? We're lost. Where's the car? Our reference points are lost. It's a bloody mess. Then he's shooting randomly into the dark, but we have no idea why - maybe he's got psychological problems? It just feels weird, random and incompetent. As a result we don't care - about the house, the guy (is he a good guy or bad guy or random guy?). A trailer ought to intrigue us and engage us. It's not doing it. I'd vote for re-cutting the trailer.
 
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Im just going to parrot stuff that I'm struggling to learn and barely begun mastering myself

wheres the pov sequence? (Cu of a guy, then shot of what he sees, then Cu of him again)- for reals- a horror film with no POVs?

alternate angles/match cuts to carry him forward in space instead of us just boringly following him.

cross cut the whole thing with POV of monster creeping through the forest?

canted angles

insert/reaction shot as the monster leaps towards him? from the monsters POV, even

anyways thats just me Ima go try and make a horror movie myself

good luck to you sir

53:50 onward- POVS, match cuts carry her forward through space.

PS wolf creek is hard to watch (pretty brutal film), even when i study it I skip certain parts. NSFW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FcxjmE_IuI&feature=related

CREEPPPY MONSTER POVS oooohhhhhh

THE MASTER AT WORK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtsK7skqk9U
 
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I don't think the images are that bad. If you add a VO of the guy talking about his brother going missing and some backstory involving people going missing in the woods it'll make it a instantly more watchable.
 
Confused!
...Man, what a mess of clips with no connection or sense of story.
Why dont you start with some kinda back story. I dunno, the brothers eating at a restaurant... or going camping together for example.
Something to build up the story.
Then you can show that he's somehow missing (empty sleeping bag, phone and wallet left behind, maybe an "distant echo" of him calling for his brother, etc...)
After you have your back story told, you can go into that intense, meshed together shot sequence. And we will have some kinda context for what the movie is about.
Oh, and lay off the effects! Too distracting.
 
swellman33 said:
Here's a trailer for the horror film I am currently shooting. First cut, so let me know what you think.

Shot on the Panasonic GH-2 w/ 2 lenses.
20mm 1.7 M4/3
25mm 2.8 Canon FD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iosROV6j2Gk
Click to expand...

Here's my theory of 'trailers'... and 'short films', at least under 3 minutes... they should 'tell the story', or at least 'catch the interest' as silent films.

I bailed on your trailer after about the second shot of 'just walking around'...
 
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