Sketch Animation: Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon - Official Trailer 2 (Part 1)

This is part 1 of a traditional animation pass on the Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon - Official Trailer.

It was animated with a Wacom tablet in Toon Boom Animate.

To really just live in the drawing you need to set aside the thoughts of timing and form - using movie trailers as reference is a good way to do that. There is also lot to learn from each frame of a trailer from an editing perspective.

With this animation technique the quirks from your drawing style still get into the animation, but you don't need to slave over timing and form quite as much as you would doing traditional drawn animation from scratch.

I'll be posting the additional animation passes on this Transformers 3 trailer as they go up over the next couple weeks.

Bang Bang Club Movie Trailer Review

Finally! This is the first trailer that has a consistant narrative throughout and actually makes me want to see this film. There's action, drama, and romance all wrapped together with a great soundtrack.

How do I know there's a great sound track? The trailer starts off with the sounds of nature and a montage of close up shots of a camera while a photographer takes photos. Reminds me of the drug scene from "Requiem for a dream" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCQdmYNSSMU). Then we get hard white flash to the camera tracking a car while a rock & roll and roll song plays under it. Those shots and the juxtaposition from nature sounds to rock music lets me know immediately that this film is going to be butting up various realities against each other.

At 00:13 We're shown a man driving, presumably the photographer, and we can surmise he's on his way to shoot something out of the ordinary, something that's worth speeding for.

00:14 and we're shown two mobs confronting each other and photographers taking pictures.

00:15 and we're introduced to the two main protagonists played by Ryan Phillippe and Taylor Kitsch.

By 00:28 we know Phillipe's character has a job as a photographer, the photographers there like to drink, and the ones he's joining up with are "crazies".

By 00:30 the group is in a van heading into a mob and one of their windows is busted out by an activist.

At this point I'm ready to watch the movie. The characters, conflict, location, and story have all been laid out. This is a fantastic trailer, well edited and with a consistent narrative. The amazing thing is that it gets better. Now that the main points have been shown the editor can deepen our understanding of the characters and the conflict in the remaining minute and a half.

Then they play out the race card with a narrator saying "You're lucky, 'cus you're white, you can go anywhere" while a a mob of black South Africans get shot at by white South Africans from an armoured vehicle.

At 00:41 we have a naked woman presumably motioning for a man to join her in bed.

Okay, so now let's count our interest zones: Alcohol: Check, Violence: Check, Racism: Check, Sex: Check.

00:44 and we have a woman saying she doesn't date photographers while Philleppe's character is kissing her body. She then goes on to list the issue with dating photographers while we're shown shots to back this up. (the main characters jumping into a warmly lit swimming hole-cue memories of being a kid again. Rock music plays underneath this. Then Phillippe's character risks his life to run and get Coke's while being shot at-I hope Coke paid a lot for that shot.

Then at 00:54 we're taken to images of the dark side after the woman says then there's the bad stuff too. Mobs runing, people getting beaten up, people asking for photos not to be taken.

01:00 - Phillepe's character says he wants to tell the Black man's side of the story and he's told it doesn't matter. White man's photos are for white man's purposes.

Innocents are getting beaten up. Q: "What if he's not guilty." A: "Doesn't Matter."

Titles "One picture can change the world". Titles all come on with a solid audio smash to back them up.

Photographer questioning himself: "They're right you know. It's our job to sit there and watch people die.

Women: "They're too graphic. You know we're not going to be able to use the pictures." Phillepe: "Then what am I doing out there?" Video: man being burned alive.

Black South African: "The government is using it to show how we animals can not govern ourselves.

End Narrative: "I'm haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain". The video under this audio isn't quite as strong. Maybe they should have held onto the most disturbing shot to display at the end before they do the epic beat to the end plate with the movie title on it. There is a good montage of a dead man being walked over by a mob and then they cut to a scene where he's in the same position but alive in the viewfinder of the camera, but I have a feeling that the only people that will notice that are people like me that are watching the trailer for the umpteenth time while they review it.

Visuals: Excellent in a gritty, dark, natural lighting sort of way. If you hate racoon eyes in films you won't like the lighting. The cinematographer obviously tried, and succeeded, to make every frame of this film to look like a journalistic photo taken in the field. The lighting and framing alone is worth going to see this film for.

Music & Audio Effects: The trailer's score was pitch perfect and I expect nothing less from the film itself.

Acting: Overall it looks good, but Philleppe seemed a bit too ernest near the end and he doesn't quite sell his South African accent, at least not in the clips used for the trailer. Hopefully I'll loose myself in the film when I see it in theatres and not notice the accent issues quite as much.

Overall: It's a buddy film about coming of age through the lens of camera during the fall of apartheid in South Africa.  It's easily the best trailer I've seen this year, but it did lag a little right at the end.

The big question is-am I going to see it? Yes. The bigger question is-am I going to recommend it to my friends? Absolutely.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 Trailer Official

Sadly, from this trailer it looks like the film really won't be able to carry the Harry Potter franchise to a satisfying conclusion. At 1:13, when Harry puts his arms around Voldemort to drag him off building, I feel completely cheated. That was the lamest shot of the whole trailer and should have been the climax. I can tell why they didn't use it as the climax (because it's lame), but our senses should be tingling at the end and I just feel like the film didn't have any substance so they just mashed a bunch of over-the-top action shots together to try and build tension and it just falls flat on it's face.

The whole trailer starts slow with a bunch of black fades of disassociated shots that have little relation to one another. They should already be telling a narrative by 0:19 and the only narrative we're seeing is that Warner Brother likes moody shots and their logo to appear before the 30 sec mark.

At 0:38 they're just starting the narrative that Harry let's his friends die in place of himself. However, none of the preceding shots have anything to do with that narrative. Also, Voldemort starts it off by saying "You have fought valiantly", which doesn't back up the narrative of Harry being a wuss. At this point we're 1/5th of the way in and not only do the images contradict the narrator - the narrator contradicts himself.

The whole trailer is actually a narrative mess. It consists of a simplistic message that is backed by random action shots.

This trailer, instead of making me want to see this film in theatres, has made me want to wait until the DVD comes out in case it's as much as a narrative mess as the trailer. Hopefully there will be another Harry Potter trailer released that puts my fears to rest. Even bad movies can have great trailers... so if Deathly Hallow Part 2 has a lame trailer... I can only imagine how awful the actual film must be.

New Girl: TV Show Trailer Review

At first it looked great - then at exactly 1:13 it became insincere and never recovered.

Now, I love Zooey Deschanel.

And, I know it's supposed to look awkward, but the whole thing is forced. The glasses she's wearing are unbelievable and the cryfest wasn't realistic.

In reality, from what I saw in the trailer, the breakup was ordinary and so was the recovery. The producers probably insisted everything stayed fairly normal so that the situation would be relatable… but now the show is being billed as something it's clearly not.

Also, the asian guy isn't hot enough to go on a date with Zooey... and then not even call her to cancel the date. Maybe he is in the show - but it doesn't work in the trailer. There is no reason to explain why she would even care about him. If he was a rebound then that's all he is - it's no reason to flip out - and there's certainly no reason for all three guys to show up for her at the restaurant.

I hope there's more to the show than that, but the trailer leaves me feeling hollow inside. It's a solid fail for insincere acting and misrepresentation on the part of the titles.

Fast Five Teaser Trailer : After 30 seconds what do we know?

0:11
Location: Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
This is going to be an exotic location

0:13
African American man with black bag leaves car and looks around suspiciously
Someone doesn't want to be followed.

0:14
People in underwear are under surveillance while sorting at tables in a large room.

Two car doors close in background suggesting people maybe following African American Man - that is if he is in the vicinity of this room...
This is probably a drug related operation. African American may be being followed.

0:18
Man with gun goes to check door and looky looky the African American is at the peep hole.
Something is definitely going to go down.

0:21
When doorman opens the door men in black masks barge in and hold up whatever operation is going on.
The African American may have double-crossed the guys in the warehouse and that something we've been waiting for goes down.

0:29
Stereotypical South Amerian Man - "Do you know who's money you're stealing?!"
Vin Diesel - "We ain't stealing it."
Vin sets the piles of money on fire.
Protagonists have guns, cajones, and no interest in dirty money.

What do we know after 30 seconds?
This movie is going to be an action fest with guns, violence, and no respect for personal property, welfare of neredowells or dirty money. We've already seen women in their skivies so it's safe to assume that there will be more of the same throughout the movie. There's also going to be some sort of showdown between the protagonists who barged in and whoever's money they're burning.

P.S. After watch the rest of the trailer we know Universal holds off longer on it's logo splash than Lionsgate does by at least 10secs in comparison to the trailer for Conan the Barbarion.

Conan the Barbarian Trailer - After 30 Secs what do we know?

0:08
Seer - "I see a journey"
Victorian Vista with towering castles and moody sky
This is a quest film

0:09
Music - horns blasting and thunder
Lightening over water with boats floating on it
You're entering the DANGER ZONE!

0:13
Narrator - "A man crossing the sands"
Man on horseback riding under collapsed bridge (dinosaurs skeleton in foreground)
If dinosaurs can't survive it's going to awfully difficult for a human (oh, and there's no sand in sight)

0:14
Woman - "A knight?", Seer - "A warrior!"
Woman looking up at seer, horror film epileptic editing, swinging sword, Conan's raised eyebrow
warriors are sexier than knights, especially when they raise eyebrows after swinging swords

0:23
Seer - "Your paths will merge", music builds to a crescendo, ends with symbolic thunderclap
Clouds over sea, lightenting, LOGO SPLASH TIME

there's going to be a sex scene in this movie which is brought to you by Lionsgate, Millenium Films, and Parado+

0:28
Explosion!
Random explosion after logo splash time and fade to black.
Explosives are fun!!!

30 second recap
We're getting a lot of fades to black as if to suggest time is passing. We know this movie will be about a sword swinging, eyebrow raising warrior (not a knight), who is on a quest that includes a lot of moody skies, lightening, towering castles, and a woman with nice eyes and a penchant for seeking out fortune tellers. Should be interesting.

Thor Trailer Review

From the master of Shakespearean screen epics comes Thor.



My opinion on this movie is on the fence as of seeing the trailer.

The character design looks a bit too childish for my taste.

There is too obvious of a direct link made between science and magic so the people will "believe".

Semi-funny taser gag… a "lightening" tool subduing the God of Thunder. Really? I think not.

Eating an entire box of pop-tarts and still being hungry? How about ill? That's what I'd be.

Facebook reference… ooh social media shout out. That's a must have.

Again, childish repetitive set designs. Nothing stunning and no grime. Too polished. I believe that the the flaws in the gods characters should be represented by flaws in their godly vestiges and abodes.

Loki looks good. Odin's eye piece is a joke. Looks like it was designed by the same person that made the Bracelet for Daniel Craig's character in 'Cowboys and Aliens'. They used too much black paint in the crevices. Makes both props look too cartoonish to be believable.

"Big metal man" is not frightening at all. Even less frightening when his eyes light up as he ends up looking more like a battery mascot than a herald of doom.

Loki looks fantastic.

I've always thought Thor's hammer looks puny and unfortunately the production designer on this film didn't managed to find a way to turn puny into punishing. I think the script writer feels the same way I do… especially when they have Thor comment on the puny nature of the taser. Ironic? I think so.

From the trailer it appears this could be an epic train wreck, which will be unfortunate considering it has so much promise.

Final words: I have a feeling this film will be best remembered for having Kenneth Branagh as a director.

P.S. Did you notice that it's In also 3D? I did!!!