Vote Now for Film Fest's Viewer's Choice

[jarrgon]

Woohoo, just finished watching them. Was writing my thoughts but there were a lot of them. Should I post them up or will it simply annoy people?

I'm not making negative reviews just running down my favourite points really, but it goes on a while as I mention a lot of videos.

EDIT: actually reading it back I am a little negative but in a constructive way. Anyways I comment on a lot of videos, so if people are interested I'll post it up.

I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts, if you have any, on Vs. Mode. Throw it up here or on our thread.

 

[hugh_godolphin]

Okay here goes, there is a huge amount here. It's in no particular order other than the order that thoughts came to me. Also if anyone was unfortunate enough to have seen my video RESET TO ZERO then I wouldn't mind some feedback. I'm well aware it's not visually very impressive but I'm wondering if the story and characters work.

Here we go, like I said, I wrote a lot. I'm not going to go into too much detail because hopefully I can persuade the people who bother to read this to watch the videos themselves.

As a general rule yes the best films are on page one with a "first cut" ribbon, however, this is a generalisation and there are most definitely some of the "first cut" that are not nearly as good as some of the later ones. I would say that the "first cut" ribbon represents the best combinations of good writing and good filmmaking, as having both is a relative rarity.

A lot of the "first cut" videos are well shot and well performed but the concepts and writing are merely okay, I would put JUMP THE SHARK and BREAKING BLIZZARD in that category as well as a few of the others, but they definitely show potential and in the five minute time frame that's kind of enough. In this regard I'd also have put the last winner A GOOD KNIGHT'S QUEST in the merely okay but shows potential category, although for me the series trundled along the merely okay route with all too few occassional moments of brilliance (Cooper's goodbye in episode 16 stands out for me as the best moment of the series).

Outside of the "first cut" ribbon THE ADVENTURES OF ZEBRA SANTA still gave me the biggest laugh when the villain tried to escape on a jet powered sombrero. As well as that I enjoyed;
£5 BUDGET: NOISE - very amusing and made good use of it's limited resources, I'd love to see what they could come up with with a little more time and money;

THE AMMO MAN - slightly stuttered pacing but pretty good none the less;

NERD WARS - slow start but once it got into the fight sequence it was great;

FALCON MAN - simple idea, not too sure where it's going, but very intriguing;

LOADING COMPLETE: THAT GUY WESKER - just the right level of silly to appeal to my sense of humour;

PANGEA - very nice idea and the Scott Pilgrim style editing during the opening worked pretty well but after that it got more than a little choppy, with dodgy shooting, dodgy editing and very dodgy performances, also I'm not really sure what it's about in the sense of what is the design of the word and what are those characters up to;

CHOSEN - good concept and very intriguing, certainly made me want to see more but was much too short to make a real lasting impression and even though I only watched it last night I can't really recall anything particularly memorable about it;

SPEAKING IN THE FIRST PERSON makes me smile, perhaps partly as a massive Half-Life groupie but I think it's a cool idea and would definitely tune in to see more;

JOSH & CHAD: COOPERATORS is another great idea that could be very funny although it's hard to judge based on these short snippets but I'm prepared to give it a chance.


Also we're not short on comedies about people trying to make games or working on games, or creating/writing something, with in my opinion BETA being the best structured and CARMEN 1.0 the most inventive. This is a category my video (RESET TO ZERO) sort of falls into but mine is ultimately about the gaming industry trying to kill or kidnap anyone not conforming and would quickly turn into a comedic thriller. These set ups are all fine with similar styles of humour but I fear they are getting washed out by each others presence, as they're characters and humour are quite easily interchangable and thus it's hard to pick one that stands out with the exception of the above mentioned.

Specific comments, TWISTED TRAILORS gets old pretty quick, it had one big gay joke and it drags a little although I'm glad I stuck with it the whole way through and saw the guest appearance as that made me laugh.

JETMAN JAM which is getting some praise is pretty weak in my opinion, the animation is nice enough but the pacing is a little up and down, the audio is dodgy and most of the jokes are stolen from various sources, in fact I'm fairly sure there's a joke from Blackadder in there with completely unchanged dialogue.

CASTLE TOWN seems a mash-up of 'Legend of Neil' and 'There Will Be Brawl' which sounds kind of cool but 'There Will Be Brawl' is the kind of genius that's hard to replicate so not sure this series could pull it off (by the way if you don't know what 'There Will Be Brawl' is then what the hell is wrong with you! Watch it immediately!).

A VERY PROVIDENT PUNT is obviously 'Doomsday Arcade' for movies but at least they're self aware enough to loosely make that reference themselves. Could be a very funny series of film parodies which would make a change to crappy film parodies that actually make it into the cinema (Disaster Movie and the like). The Twilight set up was short but a good example of this.

VS MODE looks like it could be a great series, it's very well structured and shot but it never really pops perhaps because the presenters need a little more energy to their performances.

PRO-GAMER GAUNTLET is a great idea with great character designs and performances but it's just not a very good film, most of the jokes all fall a little flat for me, but there's definitely potential for greatness.

ESCAPE THE GAME is very well shot and very atmospheric I'm just not sure where it's going, the concept comes across as a little dull, but I liked it as a sort of arty piece.

OPINIONATED REVIEWS - BEFORE IT WAS FILM - WHAT'S THE DILLIO and any other review/commentary/editorial type shows are all fine, I'm just not sure we need them, not exactly short of people expressing their opinion on this site and Zero Punctuation outshines everyone else anyway, but like I said they're all fine with the three mentioned above being the best.

-- Having said all of the above the best of all are probably the first three videos on page one --

NINTENDOBO is fucking brilliant, absolute genius. I don't think it'll win because it's certainly not going to appeal to everyone (there's an understatement), but it's still great.

CREATURE CASTER MASTER is a much more likely winner. Its nicely animated, has good pacing, great characters and is genuinely quite funny with a good balance of general humour and gaming in-jokes.

GAME SCIENCE is a great concept and I think has a huge amount of potential. It's very funny as well as very well constructed.
________________________________________________

Anyone not mentioned who wants to pester me for my thoughts just ask and i'll post them, I might be the only person outside of the judges to have watch everything after all, lol.

Mine was "They old", could you please share your thoughts on that?

 

[ilikefilms]

Okay here goes, there is a huge amount here. It's in no particular order other than the order that thoughts came to me. Also if anyone was unfortunate enough to have seen my video RESET TO ZERO then I wouldn't mind some feedback. I'm well aware it's not visually very impressive but I'm wondering if the story and characters work.

Here we go, like I said, I wrote a lot. I'm not going to go into too much detail because hopefully I can persuade the people who bother to read this to watch the videos themselves.

As a general rule yes the best films are on page one with a "first cut" ribbon, however, this is a generalisation and there are most definitely some of the "first cut" that are not nearly as good as some of the later ones. I would say that the "first cut" ribbon represents the best combinations of good writing and good filmmaking, as having both is a relative rarity.

A lot of the "first cut" videos are well shot and well performed but the concepts and writing are merely okay, I would put JUMP THE SHARK and BREAKING BLIZZARD in that category as well as a few of the others, but they definitely show potential and in the five minute time frame that's kind of enough. In this regard I'd also have put the last winner A GOOD KNIGHT'S QUEST in the merely okay but shows potential category, although for me the series trundled along the merely okay route with all too few occassional moments of brilliance (Cooper's goodbye in episode 16 stands out for me as the best moment of the series).

Outside of the "first cut" ribbon THE ADVENTURES OF ZEBRA SANTA still gave me the biggest laugh when the villain tried to escape on a jet powered sombrero. As well as that I enjoyed;
£5 BUDGET: NOISE - very amusing and made good use of it's limited resources, I'd love to see what they could come up with with a little more time and
money;

THE AMMO MAN - slightly stuttered pacing but pretty good none the less;

NERD WARS - slow start but once it got into the fight sequence it was great;

FALCON MAN - simple idea, not too sure where it's going, but very intriguing;

LOADING COMPLETE: THAT GUY WESKER - just the right level of silly to appeal to my sense of humour;

PANGEA - very nice idea and the Scott Pilgrim style editing during the opening worked pretty well but after that it got more than a little choppy, with dodgy shooting, dodgy editing and very dodgy performances, also I'm not really sure what it's about in the sense of what is the design of the word and what are those characters up to;

CHOSEN - good concept and very intriguing, certainly made me want to see more but was much too short to make a real lasting impression and even though I only watched it last night I can't really recall anything particularly memorable about it;

SPEAKING IN THE FIRST PERSON makes me smile, perhaps partly as a massive Half-Life groupie but I think it's a cool idea and would definitely tune in to see more;

JOSH & CHAD: COOPERATORS is another great idea that could be very funny although it's hard to judge based on these short snippets but I'm prepared to give it a chance.


Also we're not short on comedies about people trying to make games or working on games, or creating/writing something, with in my opinion BETA being the best structured and CARMEN 1.0 the most inventive. This is a category my video (RESET TO ZERO) sort of falls into but mine is ultimately about the gaming industry trying to kill or kidnap anyone not conforming and would quickly turn into a comedic thriller. These set ups are all fine with similar styles of humour but I fear they are getting washed out by each others presence, as they're characters and humour are quite easily interchangable and thus it's hard to pick one that stands out with the exception of the above mentioned.

Specific comments, TWISTED TRAILORS gets old pretty quick, it had one big gay joke and it drags a little although I'm glad I stuck with it the whole way through and saw the guest appearance as that made me laugh.

JETMAN JAM which is getting some praise is pretty weak in my opinion, the animation is nice enough but the pacing is a little up and down, the audio is dodgy and most of the jokes are stolen from various sources, in fact I'm fairly sure there's a joke from Blackadder in there with completely unchanged dialogue.

CASTLE TOWN seems a mash-up of 'Legend of Neil' and 'There Will Be Brawl' which sounds kind of cool but 'There Will Be Brawl' is the kind of genius that's hard to replicate so not sure this series could pull it off (by the way if you don't know what 'There Will Be Brawl' is then what the hell is wrong with you! Watch it immediately!).

A VERY PROVIDENT PUNT is obviously 'Doomsday Arcade' for movies but at least they're self aware enough to loosely make that reference themselves. Could be a very funny series of film parodies which would make a change to crappy film parodies that actually make it into the cinema (Disaster Movie and the like). The Twilight set up was short but a good example of this.

VS MODE looks like it could be a great series, it's very well structured and shot but it never really pops perhaps because the presenters need a little more energy to their performances.

PRO-GAMER GAUNTLET is a great idea with great character designs and performances but it's just not a very good film, most of the jokes all fall a little flat for me, but there's definitely potential for greatness.

ESCAPE THE GAME is very well shot and very atmospheric I'm just not sure where it's going, the concept comes across as a little dull, but I liked it as a sort of arty piece.

OPINIONATED REVIEWS - BEFORE IT WAS FILM - WHAT'S THE DILLIO and any other review/commentary/editorial type shows are all fine, I'm just not sure we need them, not exactly short of people expressing their opinion on this site and Zero Punctuation outshines everyone else anyway, but like I said they're all fine with the three mentioned above being the best.

-- Having said all of the above the best of all are probably the first three videos on page one --

NINTENDOBO is fucking brilliant, absolute genius. I don't think it'll win because it's certainly not going to appeal to everyone (there's an understatement), but it's still great.

CREATURE CASTER MASTER is a much more likely winner. Its nicely animated, has good pacing, great characters and is genuinely quite funny with a good balance of general humour and gaming in-jokes.

GAME SCIENCE is a great concept and I think has a huge amount of potential. It's very funny as well as very well constructed.
________________________________________________

Anyone not mentioned who wants to pester me for my thoughts just ask and i'll post them, I might be the only person outside of the judges to have watch everything after all, lol.

I haven't seen you mention anything about my entry, Arcadia's Fight, which is on the first page. I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion.

 

[hugh_godolphin]

Oh, just bothered to read the whole thing (I skimmed it first, sorry, was nervous), and saw that last paragraph about the review shows being fine, and I guess since my show is a review show then indirectly you think my show is fine, which is already good enough for my ego - I should have put more work on it.

I'll keep doing it, though, I still like the concept, and I never back off from a fight. ZP is good but I know I can do better.

 

[Jimtopia]

Personal highlights now include Creature Caster Masters, Radiogame Theatre and Show About Games Show. Although The Cooperators and Nerd Wars! have some potential, if not technically masterful. And I honestly can't tell if I love Nintendobo or not.

(For bias purposes, mine's Jump The Shark.)

Hey, I'm excited to hear you liked Creature Caster Masters, I loved Jump the Shark! Best of luck to ya.

 

[Callate]

I believe any lingering curiosity I may have felt over "who is responsible for such a monster meat stick" is more than adequately satisifed. Your advertisement may vary.

"The Wastelands": For a mechanima set in a "Star Wars" setting, it doesn't do much with that setting other than crib Williams' music. Also, if you spend most of your running time on things like a montage of "funny" chase scenes, and then try to throw in a cliffhanger "to be continued" at the very end, it raises the question of why you didn't move forward on your plot while you had a chance if the plot was worth moving on. Bonus point for setting an Ewok on fire, though.

Secrets of the Virtual Past: Some funny moments, particularly the bit making fun of the "jump cut" style of editing. Not-uncommon problems with the noise from recording in an outdoor setting with limited equipment.

Play Til You Die: The narrator, speaking into a headset mic, is not terribly easy to understand. This is pretty much what one could expect to see on Youtube; no particularly brilliant or witty insights.

Demon's Souls Commentary: Okay, I've now seen videos good, bad, and indifferent. This is the first one that actually made me angry. At ten minutes, it's twice as long as any of the other entries I've viewed so far. What does it do with that borrowed time? We get to wait through company splash screens. We get to wait through loading screens. We get to hear the narrator announce that he hasn't seen the characters displayed in the portraits on those loading screens. We get to hear him mull over where he's going to upload the video, and whether he'll bother using HD. He comments on using the sprint mode. He goes to a very early level he's long since conquered, and comments that "I don't really need to put in any effort at all." Near the end, he says "There's something down here, but I'm not going to go there." and shortly thereafter "I'm actually stalling a little..." Did I mention we don't get to actual gameplay until 4:20 into the video? What an incredibly insulting waste of everyone's time. GET AN EDITOR, AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU DO.

"The Pitch": I like the chibi manga artwork of the title, and the 8-bit music and sound effects. The "random ideas" segment has some mild amusement, but the rest of the video is only okay.

 

[TwistedTrailers]

Thanks for the feedback. Definitely getting a decent microphone and capture card for next year!

 

[Annexis]

A lot of the "first cut" videos are well shot and well performed but the concepts and writing are merely okay, I would put JUMP THE SHARK and BREAKING BLIZZARD in that category as well as a few of the others, but they definitely show potential and in the five minute time frame that's kind of enough. In this regard I'd also have put the last winner A GOOD KNIGHT'S QUEST in the merely okay but shows potential category, although for me the series trundled along the merely okay route with all too few occassional moments of brilliance (Cooper's goodbye in episode 16 stands out for me as the best moment of the series).

Appreciate the feedback man, from all of that I extracted the part where mine was compared to a previous winner and celebrated! Ha, really I'm glad you think it's got some promise, obviously there are elements we weren't able to portray in the pilot... such as exposition, but of course we'll take it all into account for the future.

And speaking of promise, I've gotta say I've much enjoyed "Pro-Gamer Gauntlet", "Tales from the Table" and "Show about Games Show". Best of luck to all of you!

 

[Swishdude]

Anyone care to write up some comments or critique video?

It's called 'BETA'

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/4thAnnualFilmFestival/view?video=2255

 

[RalenGainsborough]

Thanks for tacking my vid on the reviews, Callate. Glad you liked the 8-bit music, that's the first I've heard. I've got quite a few 8-bit tracks and I've started posting 'em on 8bitcollective. I do a lot of comics, too, so I'm glad people seem to like the chibi characters.

I kind of agree on the sentiment about the rest of the vid, though. We've been so busy we only had one day to shoot and I had very little time to write the script. I'm going to press on, though, and start filming more ASAP, and hopefully I'll either have more time or learn to use what little I have better.

 

[VictoryBoogie]

There should definitely be a video-review series reviewing the entries this year. Us contestants have missed a trick here.

 

[talenos]

How would you release that before you even got to see the other entries?

 

[hugh_godolphin]

It would be funny if it was a video review of the entries based purely on guess. I'd be down with that.

 

[Savant Crime]

Has anyone heard anything about the commentary? Or am I just an idiot and can't find it?

 

[Jimtopia]

I am looking forward to hearing what the panel has to say about my video, partially because I'm curious as to how it's going to work. Are all the people listed going to comment about every "First Cut" video, or is it going to be divided up and they each take one or two? Also, is it going to be written commentary, or audio commentary? If it is written commentary, then is it going to be all posted in one article, or on each video page? There is just so much I wish to know.

 

[Tuesday McPhail]

Yeah I wish we had more information on it. Really looking forward to getting to hear what they think though.

 

[alphaxion]

Had a nervous look throught the competition... err, I mean other entries. Gotta say, I really enjoyed "Tales From The Table" - made me think about the Cool Shite guys.

Quite stunned by my own entry gaining a first cut ribbon and I'm glad it has entertained some of you, and I [dons his best pimpin' outfit]recommend those who haven't yet, do so[/dons his best pimpin' outfit] ;P

Next up to wrack my nerves, the wait for the commentary! I just know the LRR guys will be doing it unskippable style

 

[leady129]

CHOSEN - good concept and very intriguing, certainly made me want to see more but was much too short to make a real lasting impression and even though I only watched it last night I can't really recall anything particularly memorable about it;

Fair call. Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear you enjoyed it at the time.

 

[Insrg]

I am looking forward to hearing what the panel has to say about my video, partially because I'm curious as to how it's going to work. Are all the people listed going to comment about every "First Cut" video, or is it going to be divided up and they each take one or two? Also, is it going to be written commentary, or audio commentary? If it is written commentary, then is it going to be all posted in one article, or on each video page? There is just so much I wish to know.

I really hope they don't split the videos up between the panelists. We started film making regularly about 2/3 years ago because of LRR, if they weren't the guys to review our vid we'd be very sad indeed.

 

[talenos]

I hope First Cut entries at least get a badge for making it