The Portraits

[KillaMarci]

The Portraits

A themed video, hope you like it.  I blame Vegas for making my footage look brighter than it actually is...  Whatevers, enjoy!

[Beat]

First! Watching :3

[MeetMyMeat]

This is so profound! Shame I can't understand it.

Vampires? Demons? Nazis? LSD?

[Veno]

Wutchin.
what was that? 

[Srcry]

This is really cool. I like it

[VaNilla]

I wasn't a fan of this myself, couldn't enjoy it for a few reasons. One of the key aspects to a good machinima film is a good story; it's got to be something people can remember, something that creates tension and something that actually connects with the viewer in some way. This is where your problem lies, all we see is a bunch of random shots cut together in the background as we listen to a woman drone on about nothing particularly interesting. The only link we really have is the 'cabin', but it's referred to as residing in a small clearing when the actual area was incredibly large. Little things like this eventually add up and distract from the pleasure on the film. The shots themselves weren't too bad, but you didn't seem to have any focus. Things like the characters were poorly lit as were any points of interest you tried to convey, the images felt flat.

I know what I've said is harsh, but I see that you have an interest in making these types of videos, so if you ever make another one, hopefully you can take these points into consideration and come out with a really entertaining film. Nice try anyway, I guess it was one of your first

[Noah]

watching

E/ What exactly is going on?

[KillaMarci]

I'm always open for constructive criticism so yea thank you! I know that I didn't really 'show' much of the story ingame but the problem was that there was no bed, and no actual portraits in the cabin so I couldn't really show the player inside or anything. This was supposed to be more listening than seeing anyways, maybe the portraits are actually best to keep a mistery instead of showing them.

EDIT: Why are people so confused btw.? 

[VaNilla]

You could have added the portraits and such in using Vegas or Photoshop . The way I was originally interpreting it was that the trees were the portraits, as you cut to shots of them as they were described. This could have actually been pretty interesting combined with flashing back into different areas of San Andreas; these different scenes could have created a far more interesting film. Shots such as memories of driving around SA or scenes from the shootings in the missions could have created a much better emotional connection with the viewer, even the use of ingame sound during those kind of scenes could have helped to create further depths and immersions in the film. But hey, I'm just reviewing the film itself, your effort is actually very good, I've never seen you do something like this before and you hit many of the marks

[KillaMarci]

Well it's good when you start interpreting things into the movie because that's actually what it's all about. The viewer doesn't know and isn't supposed to know. When I first heard the story it really made me think for a couple of minutes

But after all it's also just a matter of taste I guess. Wether you like creepy stories and so on.

[godson]

i saw some of it.. i would never be capable of doing something like this.. so nice job km.. theme videos aren't as popular as they use to be though 

[VaNilla]

Well it's good when you start interpreting things into the movie because that's actually what it's all about. The viewer doesn't know and isn't supposed to know. When I first heard the story it really made me think for a couple of minutes

But after all it's also just a matter of taste I guess. Wether you like creepy stories and so on.

I agree and disagree with that. In every film of this style, much of it is down to interpretation, but the viewer should have a general idea of the story, which wasn't clear in this. Otherwise, it becomes more confusing than intriguing. You can't just use the idea of interpretation as an excuse and lay on your laurels, you have to create hooks and style your film to steer the film in a certain direction, otherwise it doesn't have one. Taste certainly comes into it though, this didn't feel creepy to me though, it felt like it was trying to be motivational. To get that creepy feel you could have really darkened things up and brought out your highlights when colour correcting the film. Even sound effects which you would associate with the night, and visual cues such as the moon, all of these things should be considered

[KillaMarci]

So which part of the story didn't you understand? I thought it was clear enough...dunno  When I first saw the story I creeped out when it said "only windows" 

[VaNilla]

I understood the story, but I don't think the visual side of thing supported it, that's where I'm trying to help you out

[Genyus]

Trippy shit dude, probably half as trippy if I watch this sober but fuck that was awesome high.

Where's the original from?