My Very First!! and im ADOLECENT!!

Keith Stanfield

Keith Stanfield

Active member
ahaha yes im 16 years old and here is my first ever trailer to my first ever movie!

TITLE: The Mind Leech
CREATED BY: Karosive Films
SHOT WITH: Sony HANDiCAM (Memory Card)
TYPE: Short Trailer no budget
LOCATION: My HOME!

- please tell me what you think good and bad. (id rather have no feedack then dishonest feedback) im not going to sit her and type up a bunch of excuses, I tried my best and im proud of myself and those who collaberated with me to accomplish this task. I appreciate every comment. :dankk2:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=heZTZLnUe8Y










http://youtube.com/watch?v=heZTZLnUe8Y
 
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The picture shot in front of my garage for the dvd cover

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still from after the sister murder scene

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still from the park murder scene

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Chris Swayze, Jasmine Falcon, and I after a long night of shooting

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*snif* poor baby gets killed later in this scene! (in the movie) lol
 
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Keith Stanfield said:
- please tell me what you think good and bad. (id rather have no feedack then dishonest feedback) im not going to sit her and type up a bunch of excuses, I tried my best and im proud of myself and those who collaberated with me to accomplish this task. I appreciate every comment. :dankk2:
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Okay, well I can tell it's your first film. Don't have anything good to say except the look is working. The B&W darkness of it all with the music looks fine. Don't worry though, it's you're first attempt. All of our first attempts were probably along those lines.

The problem from the trailer is the random images that appeared. Was there a reason for them? They seem to come out of nowhere as though you're trying to fill time with something. Also, they're happy, sunny pictures, and you have dark creepy music. The contrast doesn't work.

Oh, and one thing. If you can, try and take away the auto-focus on your cam and do it manually, if you can. Cause there was one shot where the focus went crazy.

Also, trailers either give you something and leave you wanting more, or they reveal the story. Didn't get too much out of your trailer. Maybe let us know a bit about it?

Can't really give too much in comments as I can't compare it to professional stuff, knowing your 16 and it's your first. :) Good attempt, but just keep working at it, and you really should be proud of your work. Each film just be sure to make 10 times better than your last. My first film wasn't anything great either. :)

Be confident in your work, but always be your toughest critic.
 
Yeah i agree with him^^

The random pictures in the middle where a little weird but it could be a good idea! Maybe instead of just flashing them on the screen, print them out and put them in picture frames or something then pan your camera across a table that is looking at those pictures.

Also you had a lot of camera noise in it try and reduce this by 1) Not fidgeting with camera while recording or better yet use a tripod. and 2) if you have an editing software which i am guessing you do see if you can play atround with the audio.

Last but not least, when you are making a trailer like again what Jon said. You want to make the viewers want more! I'm not exactly sure what it was supposed to be about i am thinking it was a murder of some sort from your pics above. But i would suggest throwing some action in there!

Great job for a first attempt! I am just 14 right now and i started about a year ago and i still have so much to learn but i can tell you the more you do the better you get! Keep up the good work don't give it up!
 
Pretty much everything said above.

An extra bit of advice though:
one general rule of thumb I like to follow is to have a definitive camera movement for all of your shots.

this doesn't always work out, because you may have some artistic reasoning behind some of your shots (the handheld seems to work for this genre). But instead of moving the camera about for a long time in all different directions in a few long shots...have shorter shots that move more or less in one way. I'm not really explaining this well, am I. lol

two examples:

1) your first shot that zooms into the main character and then zooms back out. Unessecary. It looks like you were just playing with teh camera above him and later tried to edit around it.

2) The other shot that comes to mind is towards the end where your character looks in the mirror and then finds a note. it seems again that you were moving the camera around looking for some cool angles. that's great. but find that angle or movement you want and stay constitent with it for the whole shot. If you later want to look at the letter he opens, just cut to a new shot.

hope that helps, despite how confusing i made it.
 
I'm impressed by the subject matter. A brother killing his sister? That's a pretty interesting choice for a 16 year old. At the same age all I was doing was grinding out mindless star wars rip offs.

Come to think of it I still just grind out mindless star wars rip offs...
 
I don't have anything to add other than to keep shooting and studying other films. That way, you'll show up here one day and put us all to shame with a masterpiece. Best of luck.
 
eh, not so much. what camera are you using? i think it looks pretty beat. the trailer was boring, trailers are suposed to leave unanswered questions, leaving you wanting to see the movies for the answers, in this, you just dont care, the still images also didnt help much. overall, didnt like it. not to cut you down or anything, but maybe just keep trying.
 
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