Marcus Makes Movies [New project, crits needed!]

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

This used to be a thread for a web series I made called Rod & Mitch Will Draw For You, but I'm past that and doing (hopefully) better things. I'm currently attending college for Broadcast Television and have a ton of projects on both a personal and academic level right now. I'm still quite new at all of this, so crits are expected and very welcome. Gotta learn somehow!

I just finished a documentary I made for class. It's called Terrordactyl City 3000 BC after the band that it represents. It had to be exactly three minutes long so I cut a lot of footage (for some reason when I uploaded the video, 20 seconds of black went on the end). I think I got it to make sense and flow well enough without it, but if you seem to disagree I can try and add in other scenes. It's meant to be incredibly awkward and hopefully funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgZ4ANbU_b8

Tell me what you think!



Old and shitty Rod & Mitch Will Draw For You OP below.

My girlfriend and I started a web comedy series about two guys who try to start a web comic. She handles all of the writing, and I handle all of the direction/filming/editing.

This series is run on pretty much no budget at all, and it shows. The series is going to have to remain on as few dollars as possible, so I'm wondering if I could get some help making it a little nicer without spending much.

There are three episodes finished so far, and I'm fairly satisfied with them. I think the jokes are coming across about how we were hoping they would as far as timing goes, but I know everything else is a technical mess. The shots sometimes flow poorly and I can't seem to figure out better ways of doing it. The audio is terrible, but I think I'll have to deal with until I get better equipment, unless somebody has some tips on that. All I really know about directing/filming/editing is from high school classes and experience like this (which I have very little of). I was hoping I could get some crits and advice on pretty much all the technical aspects of the episodes. I guess you can comment on the writing and acting, but I don't have much of a part in either of those things.

Episode 1 is about the two guys trying to come up with ideas for their web comic. This was the first time for all of us and so I think it turned out fairly well considering.

Episode 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGSX33crslk&feature=related

Episode 2 is about them trying to get their comic to the masses. A lot more of the jokes are through dialogue in this one, but they aren't as strong as I was hoping for. I think a good chunk of the blame falls on me for this one, but I really can't figure out what I did wrong.

Episode 2
A little NSFW I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WT-FXkquhQ

Episode 3 is about them trying to find corporate sponsorship. I think this one is my favourite so far. I know the beginning is stupid bright because of the time of day and snow, but other than that I'm pretty content with it. I don't know what changed, but it all seems to flow better than episode 2.

Episode 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6RFqdc-r70

So, any crits and advice are definitely welcome, and tell me if you like it!

Awk

lol i like it

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

Any crits or advice?

earthwormadam

I only watched the first episode because of my incredibly short attention span, but damn you guys are a retarded bunch.





In a good way! Extra special star points for using Mario Paint for a music program too.

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

Is there any sort of script for these or any discernable narrative? Right now it seems like there's a good idea under there somewhere, but a lot of bad physical comedy and bizarre editing choices are making these videos boring cluster fucks.

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

earthwormadam wrote: »

I only watched the first episode because of my incredibly short attention span, but damn you guys are a retarded bunch.





In a good way! Extra special star points for using Mario Paint for a music program too.

That's about what we were going for!

I'm tempted to record real instruments, but Mario Paint Composer is just so much fun.

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Mars Elliot wrote: »

Is there any sort of script for these or any discernable narrative? Right now it seems like there's a good idea under there somewhere, but a lot of bad physical comedy and bizarre editing choices are making these videos boring cluster fucks.

There is a script for every episode, but we also change it a lot when we're recording. There is a bit of a narrative that we're trying to get at, but I know it really hasn't shown much. That's something we're trying to improve on, starting with the third episode. I guess that didn't really show either? The next two episodes have a story arch so maybe we can make it show better then.

The bad physical comedy is something we're planning on keeping, though what do you mean by bizarre editing choices? I know it's choppy and weird, but can you be more specific?

Stupid Mr Whoopsie Name

What I mean is, like in the middle of two characters talking about Thing A, it cuts to a bizarre shot of them slap fighting. Then it *keeps* doing that at inappropriate times for what I can only imagine is intended to be comedic effect.

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

That was the intent, but even I'll admit that we over did it. Did you watch the other episodes? Because I think there was less of that in them.

EDIT: Oh shit, I thought that was in the first episode. Well, it was still over done.

blakfeld

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule

This will help you out tremendously on getting it to flow better

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

blakfeld wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule

This will help you out tremendously on getting it to flow better

Thanks a lot. I remember taking a note on this way back in a communications tech class, but I'd forgotten about it. Rewatching them, I really, really need to make sure I don't forget it again.

Projeck

the best part is the dark haired guy's awkward smile

and in the first video it looks like the other guy is gettin off when they keep goin' "ehhh"

winter_combat_knight

I didn't like the first two, as mars said, there was too much bad physical comedy. The third was much better. Of course there will be hits and misses along the way, but the best thing is to keep writing, filming and try new ideas. Keep at it!

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

I like the third one best too, so I'm glad we actually did something right in it. The fourth and fifth ones are being written now and I think they'll closer to it in style, but it might be a few weeks before we can actually make them. I'll post what we come up with here.

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Projeck wrote: »

the best part is the dark haired guy's awkward smile

and in the first video it looks like the other guy is gettin off when they keep goin' "ehhh"

The dark haired guy is exactly like that in real life. He's a mega creepy dude. Oh, and he's got a stupid hot girlfriend because he's a super famous internet star (not actually because he's a super famous internet star).

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Rod & Mitch has been scrapped and I'm doing new things. The OP has been updated and I've got a little documentary posted in it.

But here it is as well, just because.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgZ4ANbU_b8

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

So, here's a new project I'm starting for my college website. I'm one of three members of the television web department, and two of us are doing this little video blog to make the site a little more entertaining to go to. The Zack and Joe Show is going to cover campus news, EFP segments, and always lots and lots of stupid banter.

We didn't script the first episode, and we won't be scripting the future ones either. They will however will be a bit more planned. This time we sat down in front of the camera and made it up as we go, which we thought would be funny and who knows, maybe a little interesting! Next time we're aiming to keep the banter, but know exactly what segments we'll be doing.

Anyway, here's episode 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z79YzWiQrcA

We shot it with one Panasonic HMC 170, and small lighting kit. Next time we'll get better audio (all the applicable mics were booked), and throw some stuff up in the back round so it's less dull to look at. Also, probably another camera or two so I don't have to do so many zoomed in crops.

Feedback would be awesome! We plan on pumping these out, so we'll have lots of time to improve.