The noir type feel of Drive and Blade Runner is due to the combination of how they look and sound. The look of say Blade Runner along with the sound of say a student film does not create a noir feel, it creates a no budget, amateur feel. Directors thinking only in terms of "the look" is a common mistake and even more of a mistake if that "look" appears to just be an affectation rather than have any specific meaning.
Except for a few hits during the fight scene at the end of the trailer, some dialogue and the music, the trailer doesn't have any sound. The dialogue is a little inconsistent in places, doesn't reflect the visual environments or provide any variation in aural perspective. The music is typical no budget, bedroom synthesized fayre, again with no depth or sophistication. I'm not saying these issues are easy to solve with little or no budget but some effort/consideration should at least be attempted, rather than just ignoring them and only concentrating on "the look".
I don't get this statement. The purpose of a trailer is to entice potential viewers to watch the actual episodes/movie. Asking someone to effectively ignore your trailer and watch the episodes anyway defeats the whole purpose of making and posting a trailer in the first place.
Sorry to sound so harsh, hopefully though I've given you some things/areas to think about which might help to make your episodes more engaging entertainment and to stand out from the crowd rather than just be a cinematography exercise reminiscent of parts of Blade Runner.
G
Perhaps I've worded it wrong. The director was inspired by the looks, but applied his own style. Personally (and I've brought this up with him) I feel the title obviously distracts from his idea of the series NOT being shot as a noir film, but as a dark action film (at least among filmmakers). His idea, as I've mentioned, was the term and what goes along with it. He did take elements from neo-noir style, and applied it with his own. That being said, I don't know if collaborating with these elements is a sin among filmmakers, but from my perspective a lot of it looks really good (if I were to speak unbiasedly, as an audience that doesn't know every single rule to cinema - but I'm learning).
I put the trailer together, taking from styles like Christopher Nolan's more recent trailers (some of them have only rising music with different dialogues building to a climax). You easily pointed out my homemade music that I did in my bedroom. Whether it's bad or not, it's the type of music the director wants. Someone pointed out cyberpunk, which it is, along with undertone synth.
And my statement about "watching if you're in the least bit interested" was directed to the first responder, who didn't seem too interested, not to everyone.
I appreciate the time you took to write out your thoughts, they do give areas that we need to keep in mind if we want this to be a success.
The out of focus shots look like they were done in post. Out of focus shots can look really pretty, so maybe for future reference, try to get a lot of out of focus shots for fillers, if you can.
Or if it must be done in post, try 'lens blur' instead of 'fast blur' which is what it looks to me like you guys used. 'Lens blur' looks just a bit more realistic.
good luck with the series
You're right about the blur. When I put this together, I didn't have much room to experiment due to time, but in the final cut of the episode, it looks much better.
Also wanted to mention: Don't let the technical critiques harden your soul or make it bitter. You're an artist. Enjoy what you've made while you can. You'll see all the errors with it soon enough. Some of the errors, I'm sure you can see yourself, but can't really do much about. You're not making this series for filmmakers and audio experts. You're making it for people who've nothing to do with film, but MAY like your web series. Share it with friends and family, and other regular people. Take their critique more seriously.
Also, the focus and rack focus issues didn't bother me. They happen all the time, in "real" movies. Go back and watch Predator. Go to the scene, the super important scene, where Arnold jumps into the water, as the alien is chasing him. Try to see if he's in focus or not. I bet most people have never noticed if he's in focus or not. See for yourelf. Shit happens in movies. Yeah, so your stuff ain't perfect. Great. Neither is mine. Neither is Arnold's (John McTiernan's). For myself, I couldn't tell the difference between your trailer and most other youtube videos, most of which have much lower audio/video quality. Your trailer is fine, could be better, but so could anything else. You cut with the footage you've got. What else can you do? Shoot better next time I suppose.
Anyway. Good luck with the series. I mean it
Agreed with everything. But, I specifically posted it here to get other filmmakers perspective, knowing that there would be distinct criticism towards everything that goes into making a film (I even asked for it). Not our targeted audience, but it helps us to know specifically what and where we need to watch ourselves to become better at the craft.
But I appreciate what you're saying. Friends, family members and general social media have praised it. But again, what might "oh looks so cool, can't wait to see it!", will have a different outlook to a filmmaker.
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Some of the shots are really good and also image composition. Also it has nice feel of neo noir or even cyberpunk from time to time.
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Out of focus start : don't use unless you will use it as title background.
I wouldn't take technical feedback too seriously. My previous feature had nothing but negativity in its feedback and it still has 38 000 views in youtube
But it is important to try and get better from project to project.
I think neo-noir/cyberpunk would be a good way to define it. Although cyberpunk might be only the style of music, not the actual content.
The out of focus shots are, in fact, used for the title sequence in the first episode. Probably not the best idea to use them for 1/3 of the trailer, but that's a mistake to learn from.
Although, I like technical feedback for filmmaking, we can learn from it. Appreciated.
Ii me it looked great. I'm not going to nitpick.
It didn't interest me at all though. Found it's trying to be too cool, the dialogue is a bit cheesy and too cool. Could it be a case of all style and no substance?
Just my quick thoughts.
Thanks for looking at it, maybe once we get further into production and more footage, I'll attempt to make another trailer.
I hope I haven't come across as trying to "fight back" on your comments. I feel since we are all, at the least, interested in film, I can explain some things and contribute to a discussion. Thanks for yalls' time!