Vote Now for Film Fest's Viewer's Choice

[Callate]

"Jump The Shark": This is quite professional looking (good lighting, sound, digital effects, editing.) The acting is also above par. It's a pity the script just isn't funny. And by the third time the "Macrosphere" spokesperson tips down his glasses to do an "aside", I want to punch him.

"A Very Provident Punt": Decent writing and special effects. The crack about Doomsday Arcade definitely got a laugh. Some funny moments, and some dumb ones. Unfortunately, the nature of parodying movies that actually have a budget is bound to highlight the inadequacies of the parody, as Friedberg and Seltzer have yet to discover to their cost.

"Pangea": A "real world" RPG. Decent acting, and a generally fun script. Definitely owes a certain debt to "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". Thank you for re-recording your exterior-to-interior dialogue to make it audible, though the difference in the level of background noise between the on-set and recorded-elsewhere is a little distracting.

"Voyeur": Nice try. Not much here. It doesn't help that "Extra Credits" has people with actual qualifications answering questions; is there a reason we'd want to solicit opinions from a stranger on video as opposed to doing so on the forum?

"VS. Mode": Everything sounds better when Scottish people say it, dunnit? This is pretty well put together, and generally pretty amusing, though it doesn't exactly have a lot of big payoffs. Still, it's solid, and I wouldn't exactly be disappointed if this were the overall winner.

 

[APSunder]

Who else thinks The Escapist should hold another film contest this year?

 

[FlitterFilms]

Got a few requests to comment on some of the vids I missed the first time so here's my thoughts on those. These ended up a little more detailed than my previous reviews but don't expect me to go back and do this for all the others too (just imagine if my original post had been in this much detail), although I might be persuaded to elaborate a little if I have anything else to say.

ARCADIAS FIGHT - some of these videos come across as lacking in something, be it good actors, a decent camera (my problem), or a talent for editing and this film strikes me as lacking in time (another problem I had). It's an interesting idea, the main character is well written and well performed, the shooting is competent albeit not very imaginative and the fight sequence is extremely well done, but for some reason it doesn't excite me. There's obviously some technical competence going on here, especially when it comes to editing, but it's so underused you almost don't notice it and whilst that adds an important level of believability to the world of this story it's just not very exciting.

If it's not too impertinent I'm going to call this video a Doomsday Arcade clone, as essentially it's about a normal person having to battle a series of video game characters, so same basic premise and I think this comparison highlights the underlying problem. Doomsday Arcade works because whilst it is extremely well made it's not hung up on looking finely polished and therein lies it's charm. If you watch Doomsday Arcade back you'll see that it is ridiculously well edited, brilliantly edited in fact, but because it's more about whacky fun and our two heroes are just two guys having a laugh it feels like you're just watching a bunch of friends mucking around on youtube. To some extent this is probably true but a lot of hard work has gone into it so although we're relaxed and having a laugh it still looks as professional as possible and the advantage of the whacky fun element is that you don't notice the handful of elements that look a little dodgy, you just accept them.

Anyways the problem I have with ARCADIAS FIGHT is that whilst it looks technically competent it doesn't come across as any fun and I suspect this is partly due to a lack of time. Time to shoot and the time frame of five minutes for the competition. It's so well polished there's no room for the crazy fun that made Doomsday Arcade so great. This might sound like a really stupid complaint but in the five minute constraint you really have to come out all guns blazing and the amount of technical skill displayed here is really high but if you blink you'll miss it. You've created one of the most competently shot videos but also one of the least thrilling. In short very well made and the fight scene is superbly choreographed, but it just wasn't that exciting or fun in my opinion. I'd say it's probably the fairly tame shooting style that lets this down, but as I said I suspect it's a lack of time that was the real villain.

THEY OLD - I actually really liked this but it kind of got lumped in with the other review shows I talked about. Perhaps my generalisation of review/commentary/editorial shows was unfair, but I don't think any of them should win simply because I'd rather see something different. This one is pretty good, interesting concept and I like the slightly crazy nature of the presenter but the animation seems rushed and the audio is pretty dodgy. Might have been better to try doing it in live action as everyone goes for animation in this situation, although having said that THE KINDLY WORD went for live action and is easily the weakest of this bunch. I think if you're going to do a new review show it needs to be more in line with Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe, which is worth checking out if you haven't seen it, it's probably still available on youtube. Alternatively watch VS MODE because I think they got how a live action editorial show should look spot on.

REQUIEM FOR A GAMER - I feel that I can say with some confidence that of all the videos in this competition this one has by far the worst acting. Sorry guys but the news report where all three characters are quite clearly reading from the scripts lying on the desks in front of them is just terrible. On the whole the writing is not that bad and certainly comes to life once the man in the suit arrives so probably would have been better to cut the news report short and get to him a lot quicker and whilst the premise is nice the poor performances fail to draw me in so much I don't believe in anything about this world and don't really care what happens next. I know this might sound like a dick comment, we're not exactly making broadcast television here, but these things are important as it's a competition and you just know other people will have thought about them. Thumbs up for writing, thumbs down for everything else.


--- I just want to say that I gave ARCADIAS FIGHT the longest review I've written because I did actually really like it I just felt it wasn't living up to it's potential, and when you're picking who to vote for in this competition you're more likely to go for someone who displays they're full potential rather than somebody you think might get better later. Just my thoughts, and I don't think it would be a bad thing if ARCADIAS FIGHT won as you seem like you could pull off something great.

 

[FlitterFilms]

I just wanted to add something whilst I'm thinking about the videos again.

THE EQUATION - whilst ultimately you failed to pull it off 100% I really like what you guys tried to do with the visual style of this. I think it was the edit that let you down, particularly in sound but a dodgy sound edit seems fairly common amongst the videos here, even some of the "first cut" ribbon videos have got dodgy sound. In addition to this you really could have done with some music underlying a few of the scenes to set the tone a little better. I'd give a top mark for effort, if that's not too patronising a thing to say.

 

[Callate]

"Escape the Game": One of the more impressive story-based, non-humor entries. There's some interesting camera work and editing being used to make live-action look like a game, above and beyond the digital graphics and sound effects used in some other entries. Certainly a more original take on live-action video game play. Intriguing.

"Beta": Decent acting. Not certain where this would go. It's not exactly "ha-ha" funny, but I don't think it's meant to be. The dialogue and sound is clear, which is turning into a big plus.

"Arcadia's Fight": Good editing, sound effects, digital effects, and fight choreography (for something of this scale.) The acting is all right. I'm almost as tired of "aw, HELL no!" as I am of "Oh no you di-in't!". "Video games invading the real world" is beginning to feel rather tired.

"The Disk": The music in places makes it hard to hear the dialogue. The acting, editing, and framing are fairly well done, but I'm not sure I see the point, or feel a strong compulsion to follow to find where this is going.

"The Group": The audio is kind of muffled. There's some decent insights into archetypical Role-Playing gamers, here, but the acting is a mixed bag. Fast-forwarding shaky camera footage is a surefire way to give viewers a screaming headache.

 

[hugh_godolphin]

THEY OLD - I actually really liked this but it kind of got lumped in with the other review shows I talked about. Perhaps my generalisation of review/commentary/editorial shows was unfair, but I don't think any of them should win simply because I'd rather see something different. This one is pretty good, interesting concept and I like the slightly crazy nature of the presenter but the animation seems rushed and the audio is pretty dodgy. Might have been better to try doing it in live action as everyone goes for animation in this situation, although having said that THE KINDLY WORD went for live action and is easily the weakest of this bunch. I think if you're going to do a new review show it needs to be more in line with Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe, which is worth checking out if you haven't seen it, it's probably still available on youtube. Alternatively watch VS MODE because I think they got how a live action editorial show should look spot on.

Thank you so much, man! I mean, really, I was very insecure about all this so what you said really means a lot to me!

Here's a few cop-outs: I actually had to learn to use the animation software just as I was doing the thing because I decided to participate in the contest like, just a month before the deadline. As for the sound thing, as I've said here before I live in a very ass-backwards country and the government keeps stealing my lunch money (hence me trying to find a job abroad) and my dog has a skin condition (tons of vet expenses) so I had to go for the 6 dollar (adjusting for the exchange rate)headset mic which was the cheapest available in the store. Sob story, I know, but not so much because I'm still way better off than the vast majority over here. Also, not much of an excuse either because I do have friends who have home studios but I was too embarassed to ask to use them. But I'll ask Santa for a better mic for future episodes for sure!

But really, thank you so much man. I wish I could hug everyone who praised my video. Seriously, you've just made my weekend!

 

[ctomasso]

"Escape the Game": One of the more impressive story-based, non-humor entries. There's some interesting camera work and editing being used to make live-action look like a game, above and beyond the digital graphics and sound effects used in some other entries. Certainly a more original take on live-action video game play. Intriguing.

Thanks Callate! Ever since I saw this awesome Dave Chapelle sketch where he mimicked GTA 3 (with third person camerawork, funny running style, and everything) I've always wanted to make a series where the style, not just the content, mimicked actually being in a game. I'm thrilled that it came across for you.

For anyone else who would like to watch it, my entry is 1st page, 4th row, 1st column. Would love feedback especially on the ending.

Good luck to the other entries!

 

[talenos]

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.

Thanks for picking us as most inventive. I'm actually a game developer, so I have lots of ideas for future levels the group could find themselves in. I was hoping to setup something that gives the audience a new level each week.

 

[WinstonJEC]

(From Requiem for a gamer) - Thank you for the positive comments, as for the negative comments. We got screwed over with green screen effects and acting. We were supposed to have people that never showed up so we had to work with what we could get. In this case, a girl that we brought over 10 minutes before we shot, and another girl who came over 20 minutes before we shot. We were very limited with actresses. So we realize and are going to re-do our first episode. We are going to continue the series but obviously we didn't get setup in time. We probably spent 4 hours over the two days that people were available. But once again thank you for watching and your input.

 

[Blackwidowx]

I have spent countless hours reading comments on most all the videos posted. The one thing that I find troubling are negative posts referencing the sound or video quality. These are minor fixes with a contract to produce a weekly series all it takes is the money to buy the equipment. I'm more concerned with the quality of the actual content. Was the acting good? Did they edit well? Is this going to interest me for a year? Is there enough there to continue for a year? You get my point. So in my conclusion its sad that so many people get hung up on the wrong stuff.

 

[Swishdude]

Thanks for your words on BETA guys. It just doesn't seem like anyone is really talking to us about our video!

 

[ilikefilms]

Got a few requests to comment on some of the vids I missed the first time so here's my thoughts on those. These ended up a little more detailed than my previous reviews but don't expect me to go back and do this for all the others too (just imagine if my original post had been in this much detail), although I might be persuaded to elaborate a little if I have anything else to say.

ARCADIAS FIGHT - some of these videos come across as lacking in something, be it good actors, a decent camera (my problem), or a talent for editing and this film strikes me as lacking in time (another problem I had). It's an interesting idea, the main character is well written and well performed, the shooting is competent albeit not very imaginative and the fight sequence is extremely well done, but for some reason it doesn't excite me. There's obviously some technical competence going on here, especially when it comes to editing, but it's so underused you almost don't notice it and whilst that adds an important level of believability to the world of this story it's just not very exciting.

If it's not too impertinent I'm going to call this video a Doomsday Arcade clone, as essentially it's about a normal person having to battle a series of video game characters, so same basic premise and I think this comparison highlights the underlying problem. Doomsday Arcade works because whilst it is extremely well made it's not hung up on looking finely polished and therein lies it's charm. If you watch Doomsday Arcade back you'll see that it is ridiculously well edited, brilliantly edited in fact, but because it's more about whacky fun and our two heroes are just two guys having a laugh it feels like you're just watching a bunch of friends mucking around on youtube. To some extent this is probably true but a lot of hard work has gone into it so although we're relaxed and having a laugh it still looks as professional as possible and the advantage of the whacky fun element is that you don't notice the handful of elements that look a little dodgy, you just accept them.

Anyways the problem I have with ARCADIAS FIGHT is that whilst it looks technically competent it doesn't come across as any fun and I suspect this is partly due to a lack of time. Time to shoot and the time frame of five minutes for the competition. It's so well polished there's no room for the crazy fun that made Doomsday Arcade so great. This might sound like a really stupid complaint but in the five minute constraint you really have to come out all guns blazing and the amount of technical skill displayed here is really high but if you blink you'll miss it. You've created one of the most competently shot videos but also one of the least thrilling. In short very well made and the fight scene is superbly choreographed, but it just wasn't that exciting or fun in my opinion. I'd say it's probably the fairly tame shooting style that lets this down, but as I said I suspect it's a lack of time that was the real villain.

--- I just want to say that I gave ARCADIAS FIGHT the longest review I've written because I did actually really like it I just felt it wasn't living up to it's potential, and when you're picking who to vote for in this competition you're more likely to go for someone who displays they're full potential rather than somebody you think might get better later. Just my thoughts, and I don't think it would be a bad thing if ARCADIAS FIGHT won as you seem like you could pull off something great.

Thanks for your review, FlitterFilms! We really appreciate your honest observations about Arcadia's Fight. We feel that we have a lot of great potential with the series and there's stuff we left out of the pilot that will hopefully make it more exciting for people like yourself. Thanks for your insight. I've enjoyed reading all your reviews so far.

 

[FlitterFilms]

I have spent countless hours reading comments on most all the videos posted. The one thing that I find troubling are negative posts referencing the sound or video quality. These are minor fixes with a contract to produce a weekly series all it takes is the money to buy the equipment. I'm more concerned with the quality of the actual content. Was the acting good? Did they edit well? Is this going to interest me for a year? Is there enough there to continue for a year? You get my point. So in my conclusion its sad that so many people get hung up on the wrong stuff.

I agree, I've tried to avoid judging based on video quality as long the shot composition is good but I realise it's unfair to complain about sound quality when bad equipment could be the real problem, however, I hope most of my complaints about sound are because the sound isn't balanced or blended properly and that's definitely the fault of the edit. BREAKING BLIZZARD is very well shot but the bar scene has some terrible sound cuts in it, but it seems pretty common for the sound edit to get neglected because the makers are so focused on the visuals. Basically you shouldn't assume that picture is more important than sound because good sound can make all the difference and is way more effective at drawing the audience in.

I'd also like to add in regards to ARCADIAS FIGHT every time I had to write ARCADIAS FIGHT instead I always wrote ARCADE FIRE and had to go back and change. I mean literally every time, I don't know what's wrong with me.


P.S. watch RESET TO ZERO!!! (because it's mine)

 

[ctomasso]

I agree with Flitter Films. Bad sound, especially in a competition open to amateurs (like myself), is a frighteningly easy way to determine all too quickly who can win and who can't. The thing is, even phones these days can record decent quality sound and oftentimes it's not even the sound quality but the sound consistency that matters the most. With this many entrants, jarring sound cuts, unequalized sound, or poor balancing of background to foreground sound leave a lot to overcome with cinematography, acting, writing, etc

Just my two cents.

Even so I could see the Escapist picking up a great idea even if it has poor execution. Historically though they went for "A Good Knight's Quest" which is arguably the opposite.

 

[talenos]

I agree with you guys, but there is a lot more to good sound then just having the right equipment. You have to know how to use it as well. Ideally though, you'd fine something that has good quality production and story.

 

[alphaxion]

Totally agree with the sound issue - I made sure I got my levels to the best I could and even re-recorded some audio because it wasn't close enough to how I wanted it.

For example, the first cut of my answers sounded too echoey - so I took my mic, set it up with a bed duvet surrounding it to absorb the soundwaves. A quick n dirty hack that gave me a crisp sound.

I also removed the audio from my jumping onto the bed because it creaked too much, instead the audio is from me leaping onto my sofa. Simple, little things, give the audio a better feel and thus blend into the video rather than making you notice it. Hell, even the audio to my door opening was from a different take because I liked that part of it more than the audio from the video take used in the final cut. If that makes any sense

Even just getting a cheap mic and duct taping it to a broom handle for a makeshift boom would have dramatically improved the dialogue scenes in a few of the videos.

 

[maskedklaus]

Just to ad my two cents, sound was a pain in my rear, so I have sympathy for other entries with bad sound! I had a good mic for voice over parts in Game Science, but the boom mics I rented out for the other scenes turned out to be only marginally better than the mic on the camcorder. Sadly, by the time i found out, it was too late to refilm, plus my budget was gone. I had to run the audio from those scenes through a filter just to get rid of the background noise, and while it did that (mostly) my audio still suffered greatly.

I can promise you, win or lose, I'm investing in a nice boom mic for future videos, cause trying to fix that sound (and only succeeding mildly) drove me mad.

 

[hugh_godolphin]

I don't really blame the site for going for production quality because it saves them a lot of trouble in the end, but it would also be smart to remember stuff like the first TMNT comic book which technically (drawing, inking, etc) is a fat, filthy turd but ended up becoming one of the most profitable franchises out there.

 

[Callate]

"Carmen 1.0": Interesting use of sitcom sound effects. Good cutting, clear audio; the acting is all competent. The special effects in the final scene are somewhat lacking, but only in comparison to the rest of the film (which looks quite good), not in comparison to other Film Festival entries. A worthwhile and fairly entertaining entry.

"Before It Was Film": The narrator thinks he's clever, and spends more time making shallow parallels between 1996 (when _Fight Club_ was published) and the present day than he does making comparisons between and analysis of the book and film, the entry's supposed raison d' etre. It's competent, but it's also another "series of titles and slides over rapidly speaking narrator" entry, and if you're going to go that route, your material ought to be gold. This isn't.

"Internet Warz": *sigh* Unclear vocals, radically different volume levels, bad accents, hasty two-frame animation, volume level *clipping*, a "Beavis"-style voice spitting into the microphone, and no material on offer that even warrants a smile, let alone a laugh.

"Macinema": There's a couple of moments in the early live-action segment that are worth at least a chuckle (I'm amused by Nazi footage set to Bob Marley's "Jammin'", so sue me), but once we get into the actual machinema segment there isn't a whole lot of value here. It doesn't help that the chosen engine has nothing by way of lip movement or emotes for the "characters", leaving us watching the same model looking around in front of different backgrounds (which it lampshades, but it still falls under the heading of "aren't we lame" humor.)

"Smashing Dice": Incredibly rudimentary animation set to faint, echo-y dialogue. Offers some very basic GMing advice which is probably unnecessary to most people at the point they decide to Gamemaster a Role-Playing Game.

"The Adventures of Zebra Santa": Little-Big Planet Machinema? Well, it actually looks pretty good as a result, though also perhaps as a result it tries to get laughs out of "slapstick" knocking characters off of cliffs. The first segment is a bit of a loss (jokes about affirmative action and Hepatitis-C? Really?) but the second manages to work in some honest laughs.

 

[Braininator]

Who else thinks The Escapist should hold another film contest this year?

How about a second chance competition? For example, those videos that are seen as having potential get a chance to create a second video for judging? I'm sure a concept like this would be beneficial to a lot of entrants.

Or, The Escapist could have an internal "trial" procedure for potential series, before adding them to their line-up.

There are plenty of ways that The Escapist could use all this content. I'd like to see them take a gamble on a few of these entries in the hope that they will improve and build a following over time (and include me in this!). Looking at the current video line-up, I think The Escapist would benefit from a surplus of new shows.