Enter The Zombie Trailer

[James Hamer-Morton]

Hi peeps... Managed to get a trailer for my latest film (and first close to feature length that I've shot on my XM2).

It's called 'Enter The Zombie', it's a bit of fun, but will probably be released online once it's done... For now, you can check out the trailer here:

http://www.brokenpipefilms.com/james...ETZTrailer.wmv

Comments are always welcome, but hopefully it'll provide a bit of entertainment!

[Matt Lean]

Cool trailer man, I was wondering how you did that special effect where that guy is cut in half?

[James Hamer-Morton]

Thanks... well that shoddy effect was literally the most nasty piece of rotoscoping I've had the misfortune to decide to do.

Basically, I got three shots... the first completely plain (though I soon realised I should have had the guy in the back in shot for it... had to edit him out of another shot and put him into the backplate after all), the second with the character falling screen right, with no dressing gown thing on, holding his arms up, and the final one falling left (from the same foot position). Then I frame by frame painted in a blue background around the character, in one case chopping off the torso and in the other chopping off the legs. Then a simple composite together gave me the final shot...

Bit of a hassle, could have done with a bit more work, but I was dead to the world after all the frame by frame painting.

Anyway, glad you liked it!

[Matt Lean]

yea, very cool special effects. I give you props man. Another special effect I enjoyed was when that girl disappeared, howd you do this special effect if you dont mind answering.

[James Hamer-Morton]

Hmmm, well I started with two shots, one with her in it, and one without it. Then I isolated her from the frame with her in it (another kind of rotoscoping blue screen effect), and basically pasted the two other characters into the frame without her in it, so I could fade between them or whatever without making it look like the others were moving.

I didn't actually do the TV flicker effect, but I think it was done by having a another plate with just noise, and probably another rotoscoping job around the character, so that there would then be a shot with her as noise that could be faded between as well as the final shot without her in at all.

Fortunately, I have a friend who works in visual effects that is helping with some of the more complex effects ;)

[Dylan Couper]

The footage looks neat, but the trailer is boring. It runs too long and shows too much. Cut it down to about 30-60 seconds (maybe 2 versions). It just looks like you said "I'm going to put all the cool stuff from the movie in a row and that'll be the trailer."


Otherwise, it looks good.

[Brandon Greenlee]

Looked good James.

I liked the shot of the guy getting cut in half as well.

Is the full length already finished or is this meant as somewhat of a teaser?

[James Hamer-Morton]

Thanks for the comments guys... Dylan, I did put a lot of the coolest bits in the trailer, because the way I figure it, the people who are going to see it will most likely forget everything in it by the time they see the full feature. Still, very aware it's not a 'normal' trailer.

Brandon - I'm expecting it to be about an hour long, and I've got over 40 mins edited already, and about half of the rest of it shot. We're having a nice couple of sessions next week where a lot of the remainder will be shot, and I'm hoping to finish it and have it viewable within a month or two. Currently it's a short while away :)

[Dylan Couper]

<<<-- Originally posted by James Hamer-Morton : Thanks for the comments guys... Dylan, I did put a lot of the coolest bits in the trailer, because the way I figure it, the people who are going to see it will most likely forget everything in it by the time they see the full feature. Still, very aware it's not a 'normal' trailer. -->>>

Constructive criticism only here, not meant to offend:
The problem is in that many of the cool bits are only cool to you, the filmmaker. To me, the audience, they are just people sitting at a table, or walking, or getting bitten. Out of context they are boring. The people who see it aren't going to bother seeing the full feature unless you make your trailer more exciting.

[Thomas Langdale]

There are some issues in terms of the flow of the trailer but the shots were quite good.

I found the song at the end added a nice contrast. What was the song playing near the end?

[James Hamer-Morton]

'Levitate' by 'The Oracle Boy' - www.theoracleboy.com

They were unsigned when I decided to use that track, but now I think they've got a record contract... I know the band too, so it's a little less 'random'.

:)