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watch Live Action Alan Wake: The Taken (Fan Film)

Click HERE to watch the video on youtube.

http://youtu.be/gQO0zDqrocg

This was filmed in ONE day, mostly one LONG night. It was edited in about a week's time

I really want to get you guy's feedback because I have a lot of respect for the majority of people here. You all definitely make filmmaking a much more pleasing experience. And a lot of you all are VERY talented and on a different level.

I want to eventually get to making higher quality and longer videos at some point to submit to film festivals but at this point, I want to get more experience and do short youtube videos.

Thanks for taking the time to watch this!
 
It was a good effort at portraying the story of the game, I'll give you that (the game itself became confusing towards the end, at least to me). However, there are some major problems, mainly to do with the clarity of the story, the camerawork, shots used and acting - so, a lot, I guess.

The story wasn't clear - at all. It's another game-to-film adaptation that requires the viewer to have played the game beforehand to understand what the hell is going on, but even then it left me confused to an extent - you missed out large gaps that gave some reason to the action, and as a result you had a story that somehow involved a girlfriend (who is never shown again), and then a load of guys trying to kill Alan. It's never explained to the viewer why they attacked him, nor what they were. And while you may only be targeting fans of the game, as a fan of it, I'm not exactly sure what you made stayed true to the story.

Which leads me to another point - the shots used. Adding that shot from in-game of the story Alan can't remember writing, whilst being a nice little nod towards the fans, isn't explained throughout your entire short film. They may somehow connect the paper found and the fact he's writing in the first scene, but even then you're left not knowing why he finds it randomly. Not to mention the shot of that paper from in-game doesn't match the style of the live-action shots, so it just feels terribly out of place.

The enemies didn't react much at all to being shot other than the occasional change in expression, and their deaths were badly done too (I know the guy with the axe was being careful, but he looked like he just laid down). The guy playing Alan also didn't seem to change expression - being forced into a situation where he has to murder someone, you think he'd show some sort of emotion than "oh okay time to shoot".

The camera work was nice in most sections, I'll give you that, but sometimes it was just off enough to make me notice that they were bad. For example, how terribly shaky the camera is at the beginning when he drives away, or the massive blur that you seem to have put over the mobile phone to avoid showing the data/number and yet feels, again, out of place and robs from the experience. Showing the date doesn't matter. Another example of how shaky the camera was is when Alan uses the flare and - in explicably - the enemies freeze in their place (yet another thing that isn't explained to the viewers).

It needs work, but for a fan piece I guess it's okay. Not amazing, not terrible, but a 3-4/10.

Oh, and on an added note, just explaining the story in brief in the video description isn't the way to get a story across - you have to properly show the viewers the story in the video itself, not expect them to go out of their way and read a description. Even if your intent was to confuse the viewers, very much like the character Alan is confused throughout the majority of the game, having the action show confusion as well as the acting - what's there feels like you've been thrown into the deep end of a story, where the main character is already 100% sure of exactly what he's fighting and how to beat them, and the viewers are just left wondering what the hell is going on.
 
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Hey brother, thanks for the reply man. If I had to critique it myself, I'd say nearly the same things. But, I'm still proud of it. With 1 day of shooting and only a week of editing, I thought it turned out pretty good. I think, the type of filming I'm doing is a little different than most people here. Where as, many of the people here have a budget, everything I've done to this point is zero budget. The lighting was done with 2 work lights. There are no trained actors at all, just friends.

At this point, I've found it hard to try to be too picky with the people who've done the acting because they're not being paid. I told them to be as careful as possible with their falls because it's not like they're getting paid. I'd hate for a friend to get hurt doing something for free. Don't get me wrong, if I could go back and do it, I'd take a lot of what you said into consideration.

As far as the camera shakiness, prior to the shoot, my tripod was lost. And it was shot with a canon rebel t2i with a 50mm prime lens that doesn't have any stabilization.

In all seriousness, I enjoy doing short videos and editing fast especially at this point... from every video I've done thus far, I learn a little here and there from people like you and also just other people. Thanks for your honesty though brother. Now i know.
 
To increase the stability of shots, you should definitely consider making a steadicam rig of some sort. Here's a few links to how to make steadicams on a tight budget:


'The Merricam' - the $0 Steadicam (Someone on this forum linked to it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW6AWmqa8ZM

The Fig Rig - $30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT72hoYxESI

A technique for smooth panning - $0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj6fMcJ18aA&feature=related


That 'Merricam' steadicam would have been perfect for the swooping shot going from the table to the car, and the fig rig is good for just all around stable shots without the use of a tripod. The smooth panning is also very helpful.

If you're not already, you should subscribe to Indy Mogul. They have a bunch of videos to help film makers do a lot of good things on a budget, including many different types of camera rigs, like cranes, steadicams, dollies (I think I spelled that wrong), etc.

Just something to keep in mind in the future.

Edit:

Just found this link too, made by Indy Mogul, on how to make your own camera stabilizer :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvPHSd4zjZg
 
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Really good mate.Really good.The part in the day needed a Tripod for sure, but the part in the night was freaking awesome.

I loved the cinematography you did there and the actor really moved like Alan.I didn't like the effects, they where bad (maybe you shouldn't use them).
I think you should write something based on this game if you like the story and shot it, with some history going on and a little bit less of action.

Good Luck.
 
Hey thanks for the advice ThatGuyFromThatPlace. I AM in need of a good steadicam. Believe it or not.. I had a decent one out there for the night shots.. but it being so dark, one of the actors ran back on it and broke it. The day shots was kind of a last minute decision so we all hopped in a car with minimal equipment to get the shot. But, I really appreciate the advice. Thanks man!

I appreciate the kind words there Mitter. The effects weren't top notch, I'll admit.. I set myself to a tight time frame to have it edited in 1 week. So I rushed the effects.. especially the spark effects.. there were already videos of the other alan wake stuff... but nobody prior to this did any action shots.. so that's what i wanted to do.. besides.. doing action stuff is a lot more fun for the actors.. i hate to sound, to defensive, but thanks for the compliments man.. means a lot.
 
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