Please check out our movie trailer

The clip is being hosted on 'screen47.com'
Goto the 'Now Playing' icon on the top left of the screen. Our clip is called "Gunplay" and is on page 4 or 5. (Unless it was moved again).

my major beef:
1)the muzzle flashes didn't look all that real, especially that huge one form the rifle that filled half the screen, that's just completely unbelievable.

2)none of your actors that i saw had any kind of recoil on their guns. i mean firing a gun off isn't exactly liking changing a channel on a tv. might have been from my 56k connection going slow, but thats what it looked like.

(Just a note... the internet lag does make the gunshots look a little worse than they actually do on VHS)

Is it just the Realplayer connection or were a lot of the muzzle flashes missing? If it was just frame skipping on my connection than forget it.

The main problem I feel was the sound. It seemed that there was no other sound than the music and gunshots, like in a vacuum. Maybe the ambiant sound was too low for me to hear, but it felt unnatural.

Other than that, I must agree to mlm's criticism.

Some ideas

The hardware:

Try using gas powered airsoft replicas with blowback. They give some recoil and are more realistic to fire for the actors. They don't have to "fake" firing as much that way.

They also give a great reference to where to paint in the muzzle flash in post. I bet you had trouble finding the right moment when the trigger is pulled. PLUS the moving slide simply adds a bit more realism.

Gas blowbacks cost about 7-10 times more but IMHO you can't live without if you don't have access to real guns and blanks. They are the next best thing.

You could just buy 2-3 hero guns to use when they are fired and have everybody use them. You never see more than a couple of guns fire in the same shot anyway. Also buy some cheap identical springers for stuntwork and scenes like the one at the car.

The cinematography:

I think your piece needs closeups! Was there even a single one? The whole sequence was filmed i total or wide shots. I really wanted to see the good guy's expression.

On the From Dusk Till Dawn DVD Robert Rodriquez says he wanted to make Clooney a star - to make him look REALLY good on screen.
So he gave him a lot of extreme closeups where he talks and looks into the camera. And BAM! - Clooney made the difficult jump from TV to the big screen.

Just my 10 cents.

Thanks also about the sound (natural ambient). I will take a great deal better care of this in future projects.

To mlm: The guns are not airsoft. They're painted toy guns (except the shotgun which was real).

To r2d2: Thanks for the tips. I will definately check out the airsoft blowbacks.

My two cents and a bad case of the mondays.

One of my biggest problems with it was the editing. I think you showed to much footage of the car approaching. Also during the gun fight I think you need to make faster cuts... like when you show the bullet hitting the table, that needs to happen a few frames after he shoots the gun. And I think the sound problem has been talked about.

As far as cinematography goes I agree with r2d2. You need more close-ups. Work on your shot continuity and composition.

But keep up the good work, I can't wait to see more.