Does Promo Give Away Too Much?

M

ministerfortson

Member
I recently shot an action thriller on the T2i and I'm wondering if the promo gives away too much?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq4ewXfCxos

It is work safe. No bad language, no sex, and no violence.

The promo is actually a little misleading in the way that its cut. I've had feedback from a few people that were way off in their premise of what the movie was about. Should I change it or keep it misleading on purpose?
 
Stopped watching when titles came up in Papyrus.:tongue:


Looks ok, i don't think you gave away too much, unless the movie is only a couple minutes long. You want to keep your trailer ambiguous, but you also want to hook your viewer so they want to see more.
 
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LOL... I love Papyrus. It's a full feature over 60mins. Not sure the exact time as we are still editing. Thanks for the comment. Any suggestions?
 
Yeah, +1 for ditching the Papyrus :P

I felt a bit of a tug for it, but I don't really see what the "hook" is.
I like how the tension is built, but I don't really "get" what it could be about.
 
+1 more for losing papyrus. it was played out by 1993 and is now considered by most folks to be the consumate "housewife-newsletter" font.

( i may be jaded as my original education and trade was graphic design)
 
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I agree with all about the font. I'd maybe add some more story elements and less of the dude waving the gun around.
 
House Wife font? Time to retire those letters, other than that the trailer for your Movie does not give away much, heck I saw it twice and still don't know what it's about......
 
The next promo will reveal a little bit more about the film, but we haven't put it together yet, but plan to next week. Maybe a "to be continued..." at the end might keep someone hanging on for more? Any thoughts on that?
 
i dont think ANY serious production has EVER used papryrus for titles. it's not what it was designed for. it was designed for bake sales and christmas cards - PRINTED things.
 
ministerfortson said:
The next promo will reveal a little bit more about the film, but we haven't put it together yet, but plan to next week. Maybe a "to be continued..." at the end might keep someone hanging on for more? Any thoughts on that?
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I dont think that will help...I would need to see some compelling story that would cause me to want to see more. A title card isn't going to make me come back.
 
Interesting. I've honestly never even noticed until a couple of weeks ago and I can't recall seeing it anywhere at all. Is it that bad of a font? LOL. Is there some weird history behind it that I'm not aware of? I like it and think it goes with the feel of the movie, but these are serious questions on my part because I really had no idea that so many people didn't like this particular font.
 
comic sans - rob must have some design experience ; )
(but im not sure that comic sans wouldnt be an improvement in this case)

papryus is:
1. PLAYED OUT. it was hot about nineteen years ago in the PRINT world but got used into the ground for every "ancient" or "biblical" or "earthy" event. it's one of those things where simple people use it because of it's name. like using "broadway" for a theatrical event. about the only place you'll see it used these days is in cheesy little neighborhood assocation and bake sale flyers, church bulletins and youth group t-shirts and an occasional organic food label.
2. its overly stylized. meaning its "too much", a novelty font.
3. your film seems to be kinda gritty and at least to some degree modern. the psychology of papyrus is as above, kinda soft, earthy or ancient. completely and totally the wrong choice for your film.

the last time i used it professionally was in a kind of peace on earth christmas card, cicra about 1995 - or maybe once or twice since then for overly cutesy or dumb, rich housewife type clients here or there.
 
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OK, got it now. Can you or anyone else suggest a font that would be fitting? I chose it for the look and didn't even consider the name except to remember which font it was. If i can get some suggestions I'll look into those immediately.
 
another thing to consider about the titles is that im guessing that nobody other than friends and family knows who any of those people are anyway. so i'd use any titles to help lay out the premise (like "a man" "betrayed by his consience" "fights for his sanity" of some other such silliness) rather than just trying to lay out names just because big hoolywood productions do.
 
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Can you or anyone else suggest a font that would be fitting?
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i'd really have to know more about the premise to make an accurate suggestion. but really ANYTHING will be an upgrade. but stay way from cheesy things like stenciled, distressed, handwritten or ransom note looking stuff.

american typewriter, helvetica, courier, futura. these are established, classic, typographer-level fonts that are usually well-suited to these kinds of things
 
there is an absolute psychology to type - ESPECAILLY type in a motion setting (whether the type is in motion or not. being film - the landscape is "motion")

too many film maker types have absolutely no sensitivity for type. and you'll see crap flying in, drop-shadowed, metallic-textured, spinning in, sliding in diagonally, zooming or ghostly waving in. or other such lamery

dont be one of these people!

general rules for basic type. are let the type do what type does. move only up/down, left/right, reasonable scaling and fade in/out.
yes, you can get creative with type. but that is a whole production in itself.
 
I fully agree with you and have no intentions on doing any of the above. The Fade In is as far as I'll go with it. Does anyone see a problem with using Trebuchet font?
 
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