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My first action movie

Wow.
Very impressive.

Other than the distracting absence of on-site audio of footsteps and any verbal communication that was otherwise pretty darn good.
Good action choreography.
Good camera movement planning & execution.
Good SFX.
Good audio dubbing & matching.

Very nice.
 
It was also my first movie with sound effects. :) My next investment is some audio equipment so I hope the next one will have IT sound. Thank You very much. Cheers :)
 
Quite professionally done, but why do I care who wins? Without any investment in the characters action is a fairly hollow experience - unless it is just so completely balls out fantastic and incredible that you are blown away by the sheer bombasticness of it. But some guys shooting at each other doesn't really fall into that category.
 
Thank You for your comment.
You`re right, there was no character development, just few guys from airsoft club. This short film was a test to see if I could make action movie because all of my previous shorts was very static.
 
There were a lot of things I liked about the film, and some stuff that I as an ex-military guy have a hard time accepting:

-A soldier would never leave his helmet unbuckled, because it would fall off the first time he had to move quickly.
-Unless it was destroyed, he would never leave his rifle, and if it was, he'd take one off a dead enemy.
-The muzzle flashes take away from the action. If you're going for any sort of realism, they'll be basically invisible during the day, and if they are visible it will be for only one frame. Also, the M4 doesn't make a star-shaped flash. There are a lot of good tutorials by guys like Film Riot and Freddie Wong for good action flick muzzle flashes.
-The weapons fire sound effects were pretty good, but inconsistent with the type of rifles being used. Watch some videos of guys shooting that stuff on the firing range to hear what they sound like. The M4 has a very distinct sound to it that is unmistakable to anyone who has heard it. Your AK47 sounds were fine. Also, put some reverb on those interior shots, maybe a small or medium room preset. It helps sell the idea that you're shooting a weapon in a concrete building.
-When the soldier tosses the brick and sneaks up on the enemy with his pistol, the enemy gives up. If that were real life, the enemy would do absolutely anything to stay alive, probably try to spin around and grab the gun.
-The bad guy who tackles the soldier... why not shoot him in the head after he has passed, or at least use a knife one him? I know you want that cqc action, but maybe have a good reason the enemy has lost all of his weapons.

That's all for critiques... on to the good stuff! I thought the color grading was excellent, and the exposure was pretty consistent throughout. A couple of blown out highlights here and there, but nothing to worry about. Also, the score was great. Very fitting for the scene. Good usage of costumes, although they were wayyy too clean for a bunch of soldiers in a bombed out building exchanging gunfire and grenade explosions. Have your guys roll around in the dirt, make them sweat or spray their faces with spray bottles to simulate sweat. Overall though, great stuff!

I hope you take my suggestions as constructive criticisms. I'm just an amateur like you. :)
 
Thank You guys!
@ExitSixTwo - You are absolutely right about everything in Your comment and I appreciate constructive criticism.
We didn`t have preparation for this movie and i`ve met guys 2 hours before shooting so I was little bit scared what to do with all that equipment and guys... Just wanted to shoot something I had in my head from the day before. But we are now planning to make bigger movie and for the next one I will have military expert and combat choreographer so I hope that mistakes in that one will be minimal.

Wherever this movie was published, all I got was '' good, awesome, excellent, great'' speech, so I'm alaways thrilled when I get constructive critics like yours, and I really appreciate it! Thank you once again!
 
Good job! Nice use of camera movement and great fight/gun choreography. The look and music was good.

I do agree that the lack of sound effects other than gun shots and explosions is distracting.

Work on some back story to make us care for the main character. Maybe some quick flashbacks to him with his family or with a friend who died in battle. I'm talking quick flashes, not whole scenes to give us some emotional content.

Cool stuff.

Scott
 
First if all: Really liked it..

The location was amazing, the music choice was good, although a bit to loud.
I would have loved to hear some more sound effects to make it more intimate. What I also think is important, that you do many many more closeups. I thought you conveyed emotion quite well, but if you do more closeups, it will be much much better!

The colour grading was good i think, although i felt like i was watching video game footage! Not a bad thing, just the look you went for!
Some scenes were a bit dark and the vignette was a bit too strong!

Other than that, hats off, for your first "War" short. I think it was very well done and I enjoyed watching it.

For next time, regarding sound effects:

Gun shots have an echo inside, a really loud one. Try mixing more gun shots on top of each other for a very nice sound. Use an echo filter maybe, play with configuration of left and right speaker echo.
Everything makes a sound: Stones falling, footsteps, weapons against clothing, cloth rashle!

It all builds up to be amazing!

Phil
 
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