archived-videos Toastbusters- Short comedy film

will_mcdaniel · May 5, 2015

Hi there,

I've just finished another comedy sketch that I've posted on youtube, as you've probably guessed by the ever so original pun in the title, it is a sort of Ghostbusters parody. As ever I'd appreciate any feedback you guys could give as you've always been helpful in the past.

I'm aware some of the dialogue is a bit echoey in place as I had the mic too far from the subject and didn't use enough sound dampening, and this is something I've noted and will try to remedy in the future. The effects are suppose to look a bit 80s to match the original but hopefully don't looks terrible.

I'm quite happy with it myself.

https://youtu.be/ayUZMYZhj-c

Thanks in advance

Will

Daniel_S · May 5, 2015

I rather enjoyed it. The effects are in the sweet spot I'd say, of cheesy but not bad. The toast puppet ghost was clever, as was the toaster at the end. I'd say that it looked a bit flat, although that could be because the talent were almost against a wall. Show that depth. Although many of the shots were pretty great, the shot through the toast, the low one where things went green. I want to see more of this stuff. Keep it up!

mus · May 5, 2015

Not bad at all. Jokes were funny. Acting sound and a few camera angle choices could've been better

will_mcdaniel · May 5, 2015

Daniel_S said:
I rather enjoyed it. The effects are in the sweet spot I'd say, of cheesy but not bad. The toast puppet ghost was clever, as was the toaster at the end. I'd say that it looked a bit flat, although that could be because the talent were almost against a wall. Show that depth. Although many of the shots were pretty great, the shot through the toast, the low one where things went green. I want to see more of this stuff. Keep it up!

Thanks! Good to hear as that's exactly what i was trying to achieve with the effects!

Yeah I see what you mean about the depth, I'd say it was mainly due to the restrictions of the location but now you mention it I'll definitely try and dress the set a bit more in the future.

Thanks again for watching and writing back to me! Appreciate it!

Will

will_mcdaniel · May 5, 2015

mussonman said:
Not bad at all. Jokes were funny. Acting sound and a few camera angle choices could've been better

Thanks! Thanks for watching it. Yeah I felt the sound was a bit poor in places. Do you mean SFX or dialogue or both? We're not the best actors... That's why I don't dare step outside of comedy at the moment, not that comedy actors shouldn't be/aren't talented of course.

Thanks agin for watching it!

mus · May 5, 2015

will_mcdaniel said:
We're not the best actors... That's why I don't dare step outside of comedy at the moment

That's a strange statement. Comedy acting is exponentially more difficult than dramatic acting

will_mcdaniel · May 5, 2015

mussonman said:
That's a strange statement. Comedy acting is exponentially more difficult than dramatic acting

Hey I'm not trying to discredit comedy acting at all, I've just personally found that I can perform better in comedy situations when compared to my dramatic attempts. But then as I'm not the best actor anywho.

cheeseandachallenge · May 5, 2015

Neither is inherently more difficult, I don't think. I've worked with great comic actors who kill any drama from a dramatic scene, and I've worked with great dramatic actors that turn a script that had readers in stitches into a silent room. I've worked with actors that do both really well. Often those who struggle with one or the other can perform, they just need strong direction.

This is probably your funniest one yet, Will. Editing and story in general could be better as it felt longer than it was and had the jokes to keep things moving. There's some stuff you can cut away from faster (such as the long laser (?) shots) and the structure in general could be tightened a bit. Learning to keep a scene moving with your direction is important too - on film pauses can feel like a lifetime, which is both a virtue and a limitation. I guess mostly the pacing is a bit off, is what I'm getting at.

will_mcdaniel · May 7, 2015

cheeseandachallenge said:
Neither is inherently more difficult, I don't think. I've worked with great comic actors who kill any drama from a dramatic scene, and I've worked with great dramatic actors that turn a script that had readers in stitches into a silent room. I've worked with actors that do both really well. Often those who struggle with one or the other can perform, they just need strong direction.

This is probably your funniest one yet, Will. Editing and story in general could be better as it felt longer than it was and had the jokes to keep things moving. There's some stuff you can cut away from faster (such as the long laser (?) shots) and the structure in general could be tightened a bit. Learning to keep a scene moving with your direction is important too - on film pauses can feel like a lifetime, which is both a virtue and a limitation. I guess mostly the pacing is a bit off, is what I'm getting at.

Yeah, I feel what I should of said was "I haven't dared venture outside of comedy acting yet as it's what I'm most confident in." Definitely didn't mean to imply that comedy acting was easy.

Thanks for your feedback! Pacing is something I'm really conscious of when watching my previous stuff back. In the past I've noticed I can edit stuff that feels painfully slow or goes the other way and is too fast and therefore lost on the audience. I'm always keen to hear feedback on it. I was hoping the shots wouldn't seem to drag on since they were 'action' sequences in a way, but it's good to get a view from someone else.

I'm going to watch it back a few times with your comments in mind and see where I could cut it further.

Thanks again!