Tolerance Independent Film

KevinPeeples

KevinPeeples

Well-known member
We have a chance to send the trailer for our upcoming film to Lion's Gate, and I wanted to hear anyone's opinion before we do our reshoots this weekend. And when I say reshoots, there are some shots in the current trailer where it got too dark on location, and we want to redo them, so there are some shots where the blacks are crushed, etc, and believe me, Ive seen all those and I did the best I could with what I had, but thats something we are going to re shoot this weekend. This was shot about 95% DVX100a, and 5% XL2. The main cameraman was actually "Hiro", who is a member on dvxuser. Please let me know what you guys think about it. Heres the link:
http://www.techincproductions.com/prisonfilm.htm
 
looks great. I really really like the story, could even be turned into a feature one day. If anything I would add just better handling on the cinemtography such as a crane or a dolly or something would have been cool, but the rest was dope. Good job
 
It looks beautiful. I was immediately interested...but man, the trailer is too long. I actually bailed out because it felt like it was dragging.

I understand what's going on pretty quickly but then you don't give me anything new.

Maybe there is a big payoff at the end, but I didn't make it that far.

It looks like you've got some killer footage. Make it tight and solid.

-rook
 
This is actually a feature. And in our rush to get the current version done, we didnt have time to set up our dolly track and crane, because daylight was more important, but now that we have a chance to redhoot some stuff, we are going to add a lot more of both. Thanks...
 
Rook,
its actually only 10 seconds longer than most film trailers. I dont know how far you got into it, but theres a change in the story towards the end of the trailer and some of the films visuals are in the end of the trailer. What part made you bail out, and what was dragging?
 
Ok, I can see why Rook may have felt as if it was too long and it was dragging, because I felt it a little too. I think a lot of the shots you show are too long, and there's a LOT of dialogue in the trailer.

Also, it seems a lot of trailers, particularly drama/thriller heavy ones tend to have cutaways during the trailer either to titles (like how you had towards the end, except it was over footage) on black or just black screen on its own, just to break up the possibility of over-using footage - which is what I fear you may have done here (with the exception of the first half of the trailer).

There are definitely a lot of terrific shots and the film looks very interesting, but like the others that have replied I feel it needs tightening up. You start to nail it better towards the end, but it's by that point that you may have lost most of the audiences interest because it slows down considerably between halfway to the three quarter mark.

Does the trailer have to be a minimum length for Lions' Gate? If so, I would say maybe try and cut it down to just about the minimum, so you can tighten it as much as possible.

Good luck, hope I helped.
 
Originally we were going to have titles in it throughout. Do you think we need titles in it, or the dialogue we have plus shortening it? Thank you all for the comments.
 
Kevin, it's always hard to pin point what it is that makes you bail on something. Often it has nothing to do with length but has to do with structure.

The trailer maybe a suitable time duration but still feels long to me. If pressed I'd say it was the V/O that did me in. Too much of it. I think that a trailer should leave me with lots of curiosity and questions.

Again, just my two cents. I hope the meeting goes well. Best of luck with the project.

-rook
 
it looks really good, the cc and the lighting was right on,

just work on the tempo and pacing of the trailer

congrats though
 
Yea pretty much what everyone else said, the look is sweet and the acting seems like it could be good. Good luck with lions gate...thats a big deal.

And out of curiosity, is the whole movie done or just the trailer?
 
Pacing dragged as already alluded to. The aspect ratio is off in the trailer too. That is very distracting to me but the overall look is well done.
 
I wouldn't recycle footage in the trailer. ie- the stabbing scene. the color correcting is spot on. it looks dope for a dvx. and it's way too long, i agree. good luck, yo.
 
First of all thanks for all the comments. It seems like the main problem is the pacing and length. And to answer all your questions, we have only shot the trailer so far, hoping that it will help with financing. And yeah, I dont plan on reusing any footage for the version that I send out. See we started out with a different edit cut, and it was just terrible, so I re- edited it to what it is now, so some of the shots were filmed to fit the prevoius edit, and the current edit required a few more shots that we didnt have, which I will replace and get rid of the recycled shots. I welcome any more advide that I can get before I send this out - because if this is our one chance, I dont want to screw it up, and I hope I never get hot headed and think I can do everything right, because no ones perfect. So anyone with advice about shooting or photography, let me know by saturday morning, because we shoot saturday, and once I re-edit it over the weekend, I will post it back up here before I send it out to make sure I havent overlooked anything. So keep up to date with this post and I will try to get a new version up sometime sunday. I hope I answered all your questions.
 
To start with, the CC is well mixed, superb lighting. The trailer need to be more excitement, perhaps start at 35% onward. Good luck and congrats.
 
some of your shots look great. i agree- trailer's way too long. make it short, so what we WANT to see more. the sound was very low and tinny to me? maybe its my speakers?

i'm excited to see the final product! gl!
 
Love the look and feel of it... the only thing that gets me really is the bold While letters coming out at near the end... To me, they just stand out way too much... Just an opinion.
 
Thanks everyone. I am planning on adding more excitement, hopefully, with what I reshoot tomorrow. And if you like the lighting, thank God for it. He did it.
Smithhouse - should I give texture or background to the white font so their not as white (or flat)?
I havent had any sound problems here. I'll double check it for the final rendering.
Once I have it, I'll post it.....until then...
 
I bailed out about half way too before I even read the posts. I thought it was just me because im really tired right now but others seemed to have zeroed in on the same things. The lengthy dialog was hard to understand for me and it felt like i was watching a short with no continuity in scenes. The pacing in timing for trailers depends on the type of movie it is and this one seemed like it needed the MTV style of cuts. Just my 2 beans... The music was good. I cant really comment on the images because my eyes are beat today. Good luck with the Lion Gate screening.
 
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