Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[DarkBlueBoy]

Absolutely stunning Ramm. The best 8 minutes of cinema I have seen in a long time. Just amazing!

[JimmyBlonde]

Rammbock,

I watched your content and I hope that this criticism is helpful.

What you have produced is an excellent montage of footage, both real and from Il-2, blended in a way that is technically compelling. I would be hesitant to call it a 'film' however because it lacked anything resembling a plot other than the basic premise that 'this is an air raid and here are some aircraft fighting'. Much Il-2 machinima suffers from the same lack of emotional depth, there is nothing in it to truly engage some response from the audience beyond the most superficial "Gee! Wow!" level.

Whilst watching I felt disconnected from what I was seeing because, aside from the excellent music. In short, there was no human element, no story.

I know that it is extremely hard to generate a plausible plot using the very spartan set of tools that you have at your disposal. Many people take the easy road and resort to narration or ugly subtitles which makes a good documentary but your work is art, from what I saw, and it deserves better. I hope that the following suggestions will help your work to evolve because, as an artist myself (writer, actor and director) I see a lot of potential in your grasp of what, technically, makes a good film.

Keep in mind at all times that you have an audience who will respond to the most fundamental human emtions. There are aspects of aerial combat that, even without actual acotrs to play the parts, can be used to put your audience in the picture from the beginning. Did you ever see Stephen Kings' Christine or that old film "Duel" where the truck chases the guy for miles and miles. My point is that machinery can be anthropomorphised, aircraft can be unique, locations can be unique, movement can be an emotional expression, mood can be set by using a multitude of techniques (lighting, SFX, post-production effects, music which you used very well) Your creative ability can, if you apply it, compensate for the resources which aren't readily available to you and make an engaging story to compliment your technical skill. This is what good film-making boils down too, relating to your audience and telling them a story with whatever tools you have at your disposal, improvisation. Your objective as a film-maker is to, in industry parlance, create the "Suspension of Disbelief" in your audience which means that the they are immersed in your work to the point where they can relate to what is happening on the screen in front of them and accept it without question.

All the best with your future work, I'm keen to see how it evolves.

[Biltongbru]

Okay Rammbock, here goes, please all just my personal opinion.

Regards

Tinus


General audio:

Good choice of music; I love the Company of Heroes theme!
SFX; I would suggest sometimes there could be more emphasis put on special effects sounds ie engine sounds and explosions/battle sounds. I loved the continious radio chatter.

Cinematography:


0-0:19        great title sequence!

0:29- 0:36   nice historical footage briefing montage

0:38-0:54   nice historical footage start-up/taxi sequence but some clips too dark and difficult to see what is going on.

0:57-1:01   moving controls in cockpit scene without pilot hands look unrealistic especially if your audience are not IL-2 players. (general You Tube viewers)

1:02-1:23 very good shots in the take-off scene with good camera angles; again some of them are too dark and difficult to see what is going on. I know you want to simulate night but one must still be able to see what is going on.
A “rule” of filmmaking is broken here; directional continuity. If you decide that the allied aircraft fly from left to right then it must be presented continuously  in take-off and through out the movie. The axis on the other hand must always be presented in the opposite direction. Dog fighting is kind of Omni directional.

1:34-1:40 I love this fish-eye tracked shot; very artistic!

1:46-1:55   The contrails emanating from the B-17 tail plane look very funny and unrealistic; Try another mod or change camera angle not to show this mistake.

1:57-3:00 Some beautiful cinematography, good and interesting angles.
Sometimes parts of the cloud formation suddenly appear and disappear (at 2:29-2:30) and is a bit distracting ?.
 I feel some of the shots are extremely over exposed resulting in large patches of white smudge on the image; but maybe it goes with the overall look of the movie?

3:00-3:16 Great Mustang shots; again the last clip is extremely over exposed.

3:19-3:26   Nice historical German newsreel scramble sequence. Just note again the continuity issue at 3:26 ; in the historical film the Germans scramble in complete snow and icy condition with Bf109’s and then immediately switch over to IL-2 where there is no snow and the planes changed to Fw 190’s .

3:27-3:59 take-off sequence; nicely done, love the misty blurry look: just watch  the direction of take-off got switched several times

3:60-6:26 Very nice battle sequence; love the look and continuous radio chatter. The opening contact scene is impressive.
One thing noticed is the omission of the German stabilizer swastika emblem and thus a break down of  the historical accuracy.
Some shots the aircraft have contrails and with some shots there are no contrails, discontinuity issue.

6:30-end Very good and unique shots of returning aircraft. In my opinion too many fades to- and from black.

[New Kle Ahr]

One criticism from me:
I guess you used the "screenshot prop mod", I'm right? It seems that the props are moving slow like when switching off or just started and not running with full power in the high alt. Maybe it's just my onw opionion ...

Next criticism ... the movie is to short 
Well done!

[Kwm_Rammbock]

thank you all for those helpful critics, they will definitely help me for the short films to come! if you have others tricks and tips, i'd be very interested!!!

[Doolittle81]

 This movie is quite unique and artistic, especially with use of post-process filters, certain editing and other techniques.  I think that compensates for some of the flaws noted, even the lack of a compelling and emotionally engaging story, per se.

 I would also like to see this movie hosted at another location than youtube, as I agree that youtube often degrades an uploaded video/file.  One option would be http://blip.tv/...where you can also place videos exceeding the 10 minute limitation of youtube.

 I would also like to be able to download the original video, which I assume is in AVI or WMV format.

 I expect to have more to say in the next day or so, on behalf of the Directors of the Flight Sim Movies Website.

[New Kle Ahr]

[...] the 10 minute limitation of youtube.
[...]

It's possible to upload videos with about 15 min length now ...

[JimmyBlonde]

Jimmy's comments about anthropomorphisation (is that the word? lol)

Anthropomorphosis, 10/10 for taking that big bastard on though.

[Kwm_Rammbock]

LOL and thank you all!!!
Very interesting comments!!!

@ doolittle,
HD 1080 is available, isn't that enough? if not, i can upload the video on filefront for instance!

Have a good day all!!

Ramm!

[JimmyBlonde]

Oh yeah, that looks better! Mine looks like the village idjit fell asleep on the keyboard. 

Hahaha, thank goodness for open office spell checker, that's the only reason I know how to spell it.

[Batbomb]

Beautiful Beautiful... simply stunning. A really great movie!

[Kwm_Rammbock]

Thank you Bat!!