Trailer for the 16mm Feature

[Zamir Merali]

I recently finished making a 16mm feature film on an arriflex 16s. There's been alot of threads with the general questions "can i shoot a feature MOS and dub the sound in later?" The answer is, if you want to remain sane, DON'T. The editting took me about a month and the sound has taken over 4 months and I'm still not completely done. This is a trailer that is only on youtube quality but it would be great if you guys could give me some sort of critique. I shot the entire feature for about a grand and I'm 16.

 

I wanted to make a slightly unconventional trailer because this is an unconventional movie. It has a story with dialogue, but the story takes thinking to figure out.

 

[Zamir Merali]

It'd be great if I could get some feedback. From the trailer you can only really see the images but none of the story. Maybe I'll post an actual scene if somebody wants.

[Bruce Taylor]

It'd be great if I could get some feedback. From the trailer you can only really see the images but none of the story. Maybe I'll post an actual scene if somebody wants.

 

 

Very impressive achievement for someone your age! I liked a lot of the photography, you have some interesting and creative ideas. I think I get the ideas you are working with from the trailer, but it might be more interesting to make the story drive the trailer, if that is what drives the film. If it the film is more inpressionistic, then perhaps tightening up the editing on the trailer might give it more impact. Keep up the good work!

 

Bruce Taylor

[Alex Ellerman]

Zamir - nice work! couple things i loved... the red on the stairs looks like blood - but is carpet - good stuff... the trailer felt hopeful to me, then turned into despair (which you misspelled by the way) which gives it a nice arc, though not sure if you intended it. keep at it!

[Zamir Merali]

Thanks for the critiques. I actually didn't realize that I did spell despair wrong until I had rendered out the titles, edited it into the premier pro time line, rendered that out, colour corrected the clip and rendered it again. Il probably just cut a different trailer later on but right now I just need to finish the film. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm hoping its not a train.

 

P.S. the red on the stairs was a strange happening. I used 7218 and 7217 for the interiors. The 7218 made the reds really red while the 7217 was much more natural looking.

Edited January 26, 2008 by Zamir Merali

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

What's the final running time of the film? And what was your shooting ratio, ya think?

[Zamir Merali]

I shot 4 400' cans of 7217, 3 cans of 7201 and one can of 7218. That equals about 90 minutes of raw stock and the finished film is slightly over an hour plus credits and titles. Those figures arn't exact because I was almost out of 7217 (200t) and had two more indoor scenes to shoot. I under cranked the arriflex 16s to about 15 fps and then slowed the footage down in the computer. I felt that would be okay becuase the scenes were near the climax and had action in them. All the shots were short and were intercut with another scene with non interpolated frames. The effect is very subtle when viewed on the time line.