If the Power Rangers had a gritty reboot.

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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Hello everybody, I was just dropping in to get some opinions on this pilot episode we shot for a new web series. Ultimately I would hope for it to find a home here, but at the very least I would really love to hear what my target demographic has to say about it. Please take the time to view the pilot episode to "The Angels From Paradise."

I promise, it has very good production values. EDIT: I've been told these aren't "very good" so I'll just say they are decent. As in it doesn't look to have been shot on a cellphone.

Any advice or critiques are welcome.

Thanks in advance everybody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU7T8bhQqoQ

Enjoy! :)

(I misposted this earlier in fan reviews. I figured it's prob best here in Off topic discussion.)

Thanks again!
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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I think I agree with you on that. One of the things that almost "grittied itself" if you will in the original series was the inclusion of rock music. The music almost said "this really shouldn't be for kids." And as far as I know, the Sentai versions of the show, wasn't really comparable to anything for an American Child market. I'll def keep in mind. Thanks for watching. Also if you enjoyed it, please feel free to pass the word around.

Thanks for your advice.
 

Arashiofordo3

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Mar 19, 2010
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You want opinions? For one thing your thread title is bullshit. Your playing your 'gritty reboot' for laughs. Thats not gritty thats a parody, there is a difference.

Now my initial gripe is out of the way, on to the actual show. Its slow, its dull, it lacks any kind of immediacy. The characters are bland and rather uninspired. The psycho, the rookie, the hippy, the incompetent leader. Its like a check list of empty characterization tropes. We see way to much of the Psycho, yes we get it, he's bored and going out of his mind with nothing to do. Put down the knife and go and do something, as far as I can tell there's no reason that he has to stay in the flat (and don't try and tell me its a secret military base, its pretty clear its just a house) For supposed "elite" military specialist they sure don't have any of the hall marks of military training or access to the, you know, psycho-analyst and psychiatrist the military provide.

As for the guy in space, why? What's so important about needing to be in space to scan the planet, we can kind of do that from the ground right now, I don't see that changing any time soon. Also He's been up there "28" days, in a single cockpit with no kind of space suit or other safety features, no don't send him up in a shuttle where he's got room to do other things like, eat and sleep. No! Lets send him up in a single seater jet with space capabilities and leave him there for no adequately explained reason! Also of 15 million requites... why only 5? You've got a god damn army in training give them all morphers and let them waste the entire invading force!!! THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

Your opening text crawl has no engaging quality to it, it just blabs at the audience in the same insipid green text. Look at any other web series or TV show, they explain the universe with the characters, they set up the timeline through dialogue, through interaction. Not with a text crawl to stock footage.

The dialogue, quite frankly, sucks. It sounds stilted and lacks any human... subtly to it. You give way to much time to the Psycho character and not enough to the others in the conversation, all this tells us is that this guys angry and these two are cardboard cut outs with nothing to add to the scene.

In terms of your cinematography you lack angles, you lack a variety of shots, you lack the very language of the camera. One static camera shot for each side of the conversation does not make a scene exiting or engaging, Its dull. It gives off a very amateurish vibe. Long uncut scenes can work but only when the camera is in motion. The lighting is also terrible, what were you filming on? A mini-DV? The black effect of the holographic cockpit needs work too, your pixilising your actor and for what? A poorly animated 'holographic' computer display?

Your scoring (music and sound effects) need work, they jump and cut from one track to another. Breaking any involvement the audience might have had with the scene. Its distracting and off putting.

For a wannabe web series with supposed "very good production values" you're putting on a poor show. You've got little grasp of any of the basics of good film making. My advice? Find someone who knows how to write and story board an engaging script, do multiple good takes for a number of angles, include close ups mid shots, establishing shots. Cut and edit it together well, don't include unnecessary effects like the characters names popping up. Make the scenes flow and the dialogue less stilted and more natural. Find better music or make it yourselves. Let the world come out through the characters and not a text crawl. Find people who are capable actors rather then passable actors. Make up your minds about what this wants to be. Is it a character driven examination of combat veterans set in the power rangers universe? Or is it a parody of the concept of the power rangers? Because all I'm getting at the moment is a confused mass of misjudgment and attempted comedy in a supposedly 'gritty reboot'

Christ the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers had more emotional impact that this.


I guess what I'm trying to say is. It sucked, go back and try again, find people who know what they're doing and try and get them to help you or else all your going to be producing is garbage on the same level as a bunch of high schoolers writing fan fiction.

Sorry but thats just the way it is.
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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I suppose your right regarding needing to decide, weather or not it's a parody of a power rangers world, or if it is a character driven story about veterans of the power rangers universe. Thank you for your criticism and for taking the time to watch it. It really does help to get input.I agree in that I didn't know what I wanted it to be. What do you think would work better?

Thanks again.
 

Souplex

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Jul 29, 2008
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Felt kind of uninspired. The angry guy was too over the top.
Also: The name? Angels seems a little unrelated. Wardens always was what I had pegged for my ranger knockoff.
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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Souplex said:
Felt kind of uninspired. The angry guy was too over the top.
are there particular things you felt contributed to this feeling? Any details good or bad are really appreciated and thank you for taking the time to watch it.
 

HeySeansOnline

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Apr 17, 2009
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Haven't watched the vid yet, busy. But before this possibly gets flooded with comments, if you want to know how to do "gritty power rangers" right, watch some early Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider. Preferably he earlier Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider Kuuga.
 

Togs

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Dec 8, 2010
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um...was it supposed to be funny? And I really didnt get the whole power rangers bit?
 

Kellerb

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Jan 20, 2009
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I think your acting and planning is pretty darn good, but i think you should get a better theme than 'gritty power rangers'. there are much better worlds than that out there.
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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Kellerb said:
I think your acting and planning is pretty darn good, but i think you should get a better theme than 'gritty power rangers'. there are much better worlds than that out there.
Thank you very much for watching. I was debating leaving the whole "power rangers" thing out of it. I did have planned for the second episode some "Overdubbing" of the sentai footage. Kind of like how they did for the American Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Thanks again!
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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ChromeAlchemist said:
Before I say anything else, what lens are you using for this?
At the time I was shooting with a stock panasonic 100b. Since I've aquired a couple of JVC gyhd110. (I've been debating fixing the problems with this and maybe reshooting it taking into account all the feedback I've gotten.)
 

Crazy_Dude

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Arashiofordo3 said:
Though your post is quite long after seeing the video I can agree on all point with it. It might be harsh criticism but if you are going to make stuff like this you should be prepared for negative reviews like this.
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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Crazy_Dude said:
Arashiofordo3 said:
Though your post is quite long after seeing the video I can agree on all point with it. It might be harsh criticism but if you are going to make stuff like this you should be prepared for negative reviews like this.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. Do you have any advice on how to make it better or do you more or less just agree with the advice of Arashiofordo?

Thanks for watching though. I appreciate your feedback.
 

Yosato

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Apr 5, 2010
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Hmm, I actually rather enjoyed this, it has potential at least and the dialogue was pretty good.

On a different note, have you ever seen Power Rangers RPM? It's just I figured that show was really as dark and gritty as the series gets - I followed RPM right up until the end after catching the pilot episode on a hangover one day.
 

stonybrowder

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Jul 9, 2009
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Yosato said:
Hmm, I actually rather enjoyed this, it has potential at least and the dialogue was pretty good.

On a different note, have you ever seen Power Rangers RPM? It's just I figured that show was really as dark and gritty as the series gets - I followed RPM right up until the end after catching the pilot episode on a hangover one day.
I never actually caught RPM. Though I have heard about it debated amongst fans of the series as being the darkest. It comes between that one and Time Force. In Time force I believe one of em got hit so hard it actually shattered their visor.

Thanks so much for watching and commenting.
 

Crazy_Dude

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Nov 3, 2010
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stonybrowder said:
Crazy_Dude said:
Arashiofordo3 said:
Though your post is quite long after seeing the video I can agree on all point with it. It might be harsh criticism but if you are going to make stuff like this you should be prepared for negative reviews like this.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. Do you have any advice on how to make it better or do you more or less just agree with the advice of Arashiofordo?

Thanks for watching though. I appreciate your feedback.
Basicly wahat Arashiofordo said earlier. The psycho guy is a tad overdone also I dont remember being "gritty" is swearing in basicly every sentence you have.

The pacing also very very very slow and frankly it was boring me to death. If you want to make short 11 episodes like this. The pacing has to be fast and action packed and not some borefest like this.
 

nutstuart

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Feb 26, 2011
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The beginning I thought had potential but as the video went on it just go boring. The character were not believable, that angry guy was way over the top (do you know anybody who acts like that? Who swears every other words? They are other ways to make a character seem frustrate, anxious or bored other than just making him yell profanity) the other character felt uninspired (i was very aware they were acting) all in all it was just uninspired and boring. I think most people who attempt to make power ranger base fan films forget about the power ranger part of it. Most people would agree with me that the reason they watch power rangers is for the rangers, the zords, the morpher the fights, that what make power rangers great, the fight between good and evil. If you are going to make a power ranger base film the ranger part of it has to be a big part of it and make it know from the start. You can have a serious "gritty" soap opera style film but it still has to have all the cool zords morpher and fights we all love.






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