archived-videos Help Critique This Trailer! ("Coup de Cinema" -- a feature-length heist comedy)

seanparkerfilms

seanparkerfilms

Help Critique This Trailer! ("Coup de Cinema" -- a feature-length heist comedy)

Hi folks! The following trailer is something I'm about to release to promote some upcoming screenings of Coup de Cinema. But since I'm a narrative editor, not a trailer cutter, I wanted to check in and get some feedback to make sure this thing is ready. All feedback is welcome.

http://vimeo.com/22768170

Password is "cdc" (no quotes).


SYNOPSIS
When a headstrong filmmaker gets a lowly job at the worst film production house in town, he leads a disillusioned film crew into hijacking their company's latest movie, filming a better version behind the back of their overbearing director.

Shot in Portland on a shoestring budget, Coup de Cinema is a moving and hilarious tale about dreams achieved by guerrilla tactics -- a heist comedy about the love of filmmaking.

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If this video looks familiar, it's probably because I originally posted a trailer here almost a year ago before the movie was edited! In case you're curious, that's available here: http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi2517604377/

Note: I've been informed by a friend that the end credits look really weird and glitchy on his computer, which doesn't appear on mine at all. If you do see any problems, like a weird gray-scale background, let me know and I'll see if it can be fixed.
 
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I hope it delivers.

Trailer was a little long.

One thing you may want to try is a second trailer that starts with the one main character and his first act. Get people on his side immediately with just the right sequence. The current trailer focuses on the spectacle/comedy at the expense of the character.

Personally, I want to know that you can carry a narrative for two hours, rather than just a series of gags.
 
For the most part, I think this is a good trailer. I'm intrigued, and would like to watch the movie. So, in the most basic sense, the trailer did it's job.

I agree with one of polfilmblog's comments -- I think you can lose the bad-movie examples in the beginning, and get right into this kid's story. This might be one of those situations in which a little exposition might be useful -- perhaps some way to tell us, very quickly, that he just got this job, but it's crap because the production company is crap. I know you did that in your trailer, but I think it needs to get to us much sooner.

As soon as you get into the concept of him hijacking the production, I think the trailer works really well.

Also, you've got some audio issues. There was some dialogue that I really had to strain to hear.

Please be sure to remember to announce, on here, when this movie is available for viewing -- I'd love to see it.

Best of luck!
 
I agree with the above two comments but would also add that the movie looks great and that trailer does make me want to watch it, so all in all it was a pretty good job.

But a tighter 'trailer structure' of: introduce character- set up problem -introduce resolution, would probably make it even stronger.

Looks great so best of luck!
 
Zany madcap shenanigans! Looks like it could be fun. Ditto on the structure of the trailer. Tighter and less convoluted might win more people over. Good luck with it!
 
I'm not a huge fan of the 'films about filmmaking' genre because I feel many are pretentious and self-important, but your premise "film crew hijacks their company's latest movie, filming a better version behind the back of their overbearing director", is very funny. That alone makes me want to see the piece.
 
Thanks for the feedback! We need to get this trailer out very shortly (in order to promote next month's showings), but I'll see what I can do to tweak a few things in the beginning and better dialogue audio levels throughout.

When the movie is completely finished and available to watch, I'll definitely let it be known on here. Glad to hear that there's some interest in our humble little production!
 
I agree with the above comments.

- I want to see the film. I think it's an amusing premise and there's a potential for character arc in the protagonist, and maybe in others, as well.
- The first few quick frames of the "bad examples" are too much and don't make sense anyway. Reduce or ditch them.
- The audio drops down notably in the scenes where the protag is sitting on the couch in the house. Otherwise it's all fine. The BG music is great!
- The color levels seem to jump around a bit. Some scenes pop with color while many others appear not just color graded blue-ish or yellow but it's like there's a whole lotta flat range in there. I dunno. Looks funny. I've heard that sometimes trailers are specifically color corrected/graded for continuity separate from what's actually in the feature. Might be a fair argument for such here. ??

GL
 
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I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said.

I will say that as the trailer began I was a little wary. I thought "oh great, another low-budget indie guy who made a movie about being a low budget indie guy." HOWEVER, this is a new idea and I really dig it. That's what makes this movie different and stand out - so get to it quick.

And yes, this is a movie I'd want to watch. Hope it does well.
 
The trailer makes me interested to watch the film so it's already doing its job but I beleive if you tighten it up with the advice already posted it will be even better.
 
Im in the minority, I like the crappy movie part at the start, totally had me thinking.. geeze what a piece of crap trailer this is going to be, but then you pull the ole "switcharoo" on me.. I liked that.

I was smiling at the end so its working.

If your looking for changes, Id make the bad movie part more like a TRAILER for a bad movie.. that would be kinda fun in an ironic way. Also you take the production value up a notch as your cross over from the BAD movie to the real trailer. Id suggest tweaking the BAD movie to be more bad looking, some of the last few shots in the bad movie are pretty good looking.. make em cheep looking.
 
OK folks, I've just reworked and re-posted the trailer (same link at http://vimeo.com/22768170), and it's now a whopping FOUR SECONDS shorter! Which is to say that it hasn't been changed very much at all, but I hope the tightening in the beginning helps things flow a little better, and that the new audio mix makes the dialogue easier to understand.

Thanks again to all of you for your feedback -- sorry I didn't have enough time to fully address each suggestion, but it was very, very helpful to get this viewed here prior to the public. Many thanks!
 
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