Regenisis- dj200423

Daniel Skubal

Daniel Skubal

Veteran
So I'm curious what you guys thought. My critiques so far have been very limited and I'd love to hear what you liked, what you hated and any other tips you have for me.

Be ruthless with this. I want you to tell me it was the shittiest piece of **** you've ever seen. But then tell me why. Don't be worried about hurting my feelings.
 
Okay, since you almost started begging.

Nice work! I enjoyed it. I think you definately captured the essance of a trailer of a zombie flick...so I am guessing you have a long film in store? Would be intersting to see the rest of the film. Here are my "ideas" about your film:

Being a trailer for a film, typically music runs under the entire thing (or most), I felt that after the first time we hear the music it should run consistently. I think you have a good buildup at the beginning, when the zombie first comes to life and chases after the guy but then you calm it back down when you cut to the radio announcer...KEEP THAT ACTION COMING!

I see you were working with a young cast, I have done the same, it makes it hard (espeically when you have many characters) to not make it look like some sort of college film (no offense, I remember shooting stuff in college and using only young actors and thinking it needed something else).

Since your film (from what I got from the trailer) is about those 4 people fighting to live together you might want to show them more at the beginning, I know you show the one of the doctors at the beginning and when you mentioned the 4 people being togther, but doesn't he get eaten? And then the four friends must escape...in a plane for two people, I thought that was funny. Knowing that 2 die at some point.

Like I said, good stuff, I did enjoy it, it has a heck of a lot more action then mine! Keep up the good work.
 
Give us time, man! We got a lotta films to watch and critique. :)

OK here are my initial thoughts. I liked that you chose to make a hybrid story/trailer, but would have definitely preferred to see a plain jane narrative. You clearly got skills as a filmmaker, which makes me want to see you knock us dead with a killer yarn.

Love the outdoor field shots and your use of gradients. The radio station was a cool location and added to the production value. Seeing the airplane just made me wish you tossed a zombie in the propellor!! C'mon, that would have been sweet.

Running through the fog was nice, but again, I wanted to see it in a story context and not just "cool snippets". Also I sometimes couldn't tell who were zombies and who were kids running like crazy.

I'll try to write more later, but those are my feelings. I really loved the imagery, the tension, the music. It all added up to a neat trailer, but I would rather have watched the film!
 
hey!

So you did a movie trailer! Looks like u went all out, even got a plane in it. Except that I wouldn't be helping those kids take off in the plane, I'd be trying to get in with them! Its just one of those things, in a real situation like that I don't want to left behind. It just doesn't feel real or convincing. But its a movie trailer, there could be piece of story missing. I think he was limping at the end, theres always that last shot that sells the movie. It would have been nice to see the limping guys get eaten by a hoarde of zombies!

There are some good shots in the movie, my favorite part being where the kid in the basement and we see the zombie come out of the dark and bam.

You had some good ideas, and alot of zombies. I think it being a movie trailer will hurt it because most of the people will want to see a story. I rated it pretty good because I made a trailer a while back and you did a way better job than me.
 
Acting/sound was fair, but could use a lot of improvement. Opening actor wasn't convincing at all to me. Narrative ("teaser/trailer") voice didn't work for me.

The radio personality's voice made a nice SFX transition from the station to the radio (transistor sound).

Why's the kid throwing his life away & not getting on the plane himself? What's so special about the people that are on the plane for him to do that?

As this just became a trailer for something bigger, I didn't connect with or care about anyone in it.
 
Thank you so much for the crits, guys!

I actually have no intention of making an expanded story. We wanted to tell an entire story in less than 5 minutes, and this was the most... "complete" way to do it, or so I thought at the time.

Every sequence that was in the trailer, was actually an entire scene that we shot. I edited all of the scenes independently, and then reimported them into one project and edited them into a trailer. So I suppose we could expand it, since we've got the full scenes shot... I just want to wash my hands clean of this project.

Yeah, our entire crew was between 16 and 22 years of age... hard to manage at times, but we had fun.

Zack: I agree about the music, I actually tried getting it scored all the way through, but it just didn't flow right.

The ending was expanded quite a lot. You guys are wondering why the third guy sacrifices himself. In the full scene, he's just been bitten and realizes there's only room for two in that plane... and zombies come around the corner of the hanger and he fights them off. (we did arial shots from the plane of him fighting off the zombies), but once again, because of flow, I couldn't just throw that shot in there.

Once again, much appreciated! Keep em comin'! :)
 
My crew was about that age, i was the oldest, in my movie we had a real party, boy were they were VERY hard to manage... I need to work on my pimp slap to get them in line.. lol. U did a ariel shot? kick ass.
 
Hey
Yeah I was dissapointed that this was a trailer and not a movie. Im sorry that you thought 5 minutes wasnt long enough to tell a story as there are tons of short films out their that do that. I remember being impressed with overall feel and production of it but was less than impressed that it wasnt a movie.
Brian
 
Thoughts:
I thought the best part was the scene in the dark with just the one light swinging around.

If I had a plane and 15 seconds of film I would have shown them taking off instead of the guy pulling it around.

The young cast wasn't that big of a deal, but you might have wanted to work with your limitations and make it on a college campus or something.

Okay. I'm done nitpicking. Good job.
 
Thanks, guys!

I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind. Kicking myself for not making a more plotful film, but oh well. It was a great experience.

Belarussian: When you say 'limitations', are you talking about where the cast would 'normally' fit in? ie, a college campus?

If so, I can see where you're going with that. I wish I could get more seasoned actors. I'm 19, and most of my friends are around that same age, so I can't expect getting older actors for my flicks. Not yet at least. lol

It was a good exercise, because it was LIKE shooting a feature (because of the number of locations and magnitude of people involved... but didn't require the same amount of effort.)

Your guys' crittiques are great, much appreciated. Thank you for the feedback.

Are we allowed to post any photos or anything like that from the shoot?
 
dj200423,

Yeah, when I said limitations, I meant the fact that you didn't have the resources to cast people from all age groups, so you can change the setting so that the ages that you have fit your story--it would just make it a little more real and allow you to tell the story more effectively.

For example on our feature that we did, "Beneath the Mask: Portrait of an American Ninja" (http://www.cubit.net), we knew that we had sub-par equiment, so we made it under the premise of a low-budget documentarian making a film. That way, if our lighting wasn't perfect, or the color correction was a little off, it didn't turn off the audience...because they expected it. This principal would carry over to your movie if you put it on a college campus, so instead of thinking: "Boy that guy looks young to be a lead scientist on a cutting edge biotech project", it could be a student who is assisting a college professor on his research, that way, when you look at him and he looks about 18-20, you think, "yep, that's about right" and the age doesn't get in the way of the story.

Anyway, I thought the overall film was good. Keep up the good work.
 
I must again ask,
"Why the trailer element?!"

I feel that you could have committed to a full storyline, and probably ended up with a tight little film to show for it.
 
lol I agree Callaghan, If I had the time to invest into a short film, I'd do it.

My initial decision to do a trailer was on the basis of multiple things:

1. We could tell the whole story in under 5 minutes (but I now know that it sacrificed human interest for the audience)
2. We highlight the more 'exciting'/'creepy' parts
3. When writing the script, I had the idea for expanding the film into a full length feature, to play with some locations.
4. I just wanted to do a trailer.

I mean, I'm sort of kicking myself because I put in a lot of work into this... and the trailer concept is not as appealing to people as I had hoped, but I mean, it's done with.

By the way, to whoever said they didn't like the trailer voice... that's my voice. lol

I dunno, for my 'directorial debut', I personally felt it turned out okay. There are huge issues that bother me, but I can't fix them without shooting and editing more, and I'm about done with looking at my project for a long while. lol

But thanks everyone for the crits. This is where the prize is for me. You guys telling me how I screwed up. It's golden information that will only help me. It will possibly drive me insane, but will in the end, it will motivate me to do better.
 
This one had some really good elements and some not-so good elements. In the beginning it seems almost like it's a movie trailer, then it switches and appears to be an actual movie, then goes back to being a trailer again. Did you make a long film then turn it into a trailer, or did you shoot it to be a trailer? I thought the acting was alright, and the fx were mediocre. The Shotgun muzzle flash is pretty bad. Other than that it has alot of potential. To me it just seems like a trailer is an easy way out. IMO. Good job man, and I'm gald you had fun!
 
lol yeah, the first cut was even more so like that slimothy; more of a fluxation between real movie, and trailer.

My original plan was to shoot it as a film (shooting the full scene), and edit the scenes I had together to make the trailer, but I just couldn't part with some of the footage, and therefore it became like a teaser trailer with lengthened scenes.

The muzzle flash was a frame-by-frame I did in photoshop. How could I make it better?

Thanks for the comments, btw :)
 
This one was perplexing because was it a trailer was it a movie??? Either way...

Some good visuals. Not the most original story line and so so acting.

I read somewhere up above that you said you said you couldn't get older actors yet? Why? Do you have to be in your 30s to get 30something actors? That makes no sense to me. Actors are everywhere and most will work for nothing if they like you and your project. With the amount of energy you put into this, you could have had a tighter polished short.

I liked some of what you shot so I'm curious to see what you do with a story.

Nice work!

Robert
 
I just don't know too many 'older' people, aside from my parents, neighbors and professors. I'm 19, and asking one of these said people to be in a zombie movie just didn't seem like it would be appealing for them. It's easier to get a group of people you know, and are around your age group. It was just a comfort thing. I wouldn't expect 'older' people to respect me the same as those the same age as me, unless I was really talented (which I'm not.) Make semi-sense? lol
 
dj200423 said:
I just don't know too many 'older' people, aside from my parents, neighbors and professors. I'm 19, and asking one of these said people to be in a zombie movie just didn't seem like it would be appealing for them. It's easier to get a group of people you know, and are around your age group. It was just a comfort thing. I wouldn't expect 'older' people to respect me the same as those the same age as me, unless I was really talented (which I'm not.) Make semi-sense? lol
Click to expand...
What makes sense is just that you were insecure. It makes sense to surround yourself with people you feel comfortable with for your first time out, but you can't really grow if you're not uncomfortable on some level. I'm not saying you needed older actors, but I don't think its nearly as difficult as you are making it sound to get some of them to come out and play. Everyone starts somewhere. If you act like a director who doesn't know ****, no one will respect you--not even your friends on your project. If you act like you know what you're doing even when you don't, you might be surprised. Don't let your own negative thinking get in the way.

Good luck!

Robert
 
I have mixed feelings on this ..I liked the trailer theme but then felt let down that it was ..
I think you did a pretty good job though !!!!.
I did find it a little dark in spots as well . The locations you used were perfect ,eg the radio station , the plane etc . In the end I felt like wanting more ,so when is the feature?
all this at 19 and what do you mean "older" people ...lol ...Hey I'm 48 damn nr 49 and I had problems in getting younger people out..

Interesting question here ..just what would be the average age of the Zombie film makers be?????
 
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