********* SPOILERS... Sorta... ************
Introduction
You’re supposed to turn off all electronic equipment before takeoff… duh…
I wish the stock footage was yours, still very cool w/ good music and simple titles… my only complain is the cuts seemed a little harsh with the clouds, it’s serene, maybe cross-fades… just little stuff..
Bittburg
Blower starting up was perfect, and the other shots, really gave the feeling of cold as hell (that makes sense)… Micah.. 40* isn’t that cold… haha Maybe he said 20*… sounded like 40…
Once it gets to paintball, I can’t say anything other than switching between the Super-8 and normal Film was something to get used to, and bringing up the conflict seemed too early... the song was just starting. But again I understand this was early on, and you see them getting shot, which makes sense timeline wise, it just seemed abrupt to me. Seeing them talk about Nicky was good, people don’t see this stuff on the internet or videos… Matty always has good stuff to say.
Alex Fraige’s footage, I don’t know if you told him to film like that or not
but it worked, I especially liked the shot where he walks around matty and goes behind him… that was cool… and seeing Neil w/o a gun could have had some explanation… maybe a silly remark by Rich “Neil so good he don’t need a gun”
Title
was a cool idea, I’m still trying to figure out how you exactly did it, I understand how long you’d have to be filming but getting each letter how you wanted was something beyond what I could do. Introduction was good… nothing to say about it, good variety of Super8/Regular with different shots of them … not playing…
Germany Meeting
Long… but worth listening to, nothing film-wise I can say
Orlando (Where’s LA )
I like filming behind the netting watching behind Rich and Thomas, and no music… Seeing the frustration in everyone, especially Thomas and Davey… showing the first match w/o music showed the bad start of the tournament better than anything. Re-using footage from Cereal Killers was something I didn’t like as much, but they were good shots obviously, I’ve just seen them a lot before. Some of the shots like Davey and Ollie bonusing him, didn’t show Ollie shooting Vegas… in this it did.
Suddle transitions of shots going from the first match, to them in the losers bracket coming back fighting all these different teams was cool, it’s cool because you don’t think about it. Can’t say anything bad about the camera work
Course you got like a $10,000 tripod.
Ending was good, forgot the term for it, but letting the audio play w/ different clips before getting to the actual interview was good, saw my old buddies CDR in the background w/ Matty talking… I didn’t quite understand the bag thing, I know It started and ended with it, but I think I missed the metaphor or the bigger point/picture… heh
Chicago
Roffles. I love Micah’s… “GO go go… go… go…. Ugh…” and the rest of the guys talking is funny… and explanation behind the reffing… then going into the conflict w/ Vegas was suddle… which I love.
Not sure what was with the interview of Thomas, it looked very slightly out of focus or something, not sure if it was intentional… but just looked a little off.
France
To start out with someone taking their stuff off, pretty much immediately says something is wrong, and you just begin to realize something is wrong when Nicky is packing his stuff up and everyone is putting their gear on, and you finally realize it when he’s dumpin his paint into the box.
Davey likes pickin at his twigs…
I’m not sure if you’re mixing 60i and 24p (film) and interlaced… but it looks funny at times, maybe I’m just crazy
but converting the 60i to 30p would have looked better.
When they’re chilling I liked the cuts when people walk by, simple + clean. Lyrics “We got some real issues here” and Neil + Davey arguing… simple + perfect… what you’re good at…
And the final scene w/ Micah and the pods… a lot of ways to interpret that… just trying to leave it all behind…
Vegas
Little pessimistic explaining the place, but funny. But it explains the entire story behind what happened with Nicky that nobody really knew about. Music came in perfect. One thing was maybe a shot of Nicky actually leaving the place.
The jump from 04 to 05 was a little short, with just Nicky’s rage and some narrative… but it worked…. That one incident pretty much summed up their feelings for that year.
Trainer
Nothing much to explain, showed they were taking it more seriously and stuff with Pat was funny… I never saw him actually play w/ XSV though which was weird. I think more footage of the other guys going through “Hell week” would have fit better than stuff w/ Pat… You only see him here in this section.
Mexican Meeting
Nothing technical, I didn’t know Arizona made watermelon tea (Rich was drinking it ) I want some. It told the story and internal conflicts. This happens all the time in D3 and D2 teams I’ve been apart of, and never realized it was as common at the Pro level. Seeing Mapp was funny I don’t know exactly why… he makes good chicken (random fact).
The Drive + Practice
A slight description, maybe a Matty poem would have been good to explain it because I only found out this was a 7 hr drive from listening to the commentary, cool shots w/ Nicky driving and I liked how all the paintball stuff was Super-8… and not shot Fresheggs style
just flowed well and showed the **** they went through for practice… they didn’t get fancy turf indoors or even a fullsize x-ball fields… I know the dogs practiced the entire 04 season on an Ultimate Air field they won at that 3man series out east (forgot the name)
LA Open
This stuff definitely looked interlaced to me for some reason, didn’t look like the normal film stuff. Making it 30p would have atleast given the progressive effect more than anything.
It could have been the lowest shutter speed, I honestly don’t know exactly it just had a different feel to it. Clean slow-motion, it looked filmish when it wasn’t raining out… haha… that’s what made me think you switched cameras.
Cuba w/ the bad taste in his mouth was another thing that stood out, I don’t get why he would rub muddy stuff against his mouth to get the muddy taste out… lol…
On the Hill
Never heard the story behind this, you never see any of these stories told… you just see “Matty and Micah are now on the semi-pro team and running this” Uh… why? We don’t know!
Well shot, again nothing much to say technically,
Matty’s speech was beyond anything anyone could ever think up on a spot, ****in insane.
HB
Seeing the crowd of people and the one thing that catches your eye was the Dragon
Good music, matching the lyrics with what’s happening… XSV having some good Prelim/Quarter games… Corey Fields getting shot in the nads.. haha…
Nothing bad to say about the lyrics, perfect transistion between Telfords Mic + game footage and the song.
“No that’s not a 1 for 1” Rich GAVE the refs that idea… haha.
I like the film feel and Telford’s mic, lil squeaky “Left *stuBBEEEy* - After he’s yelling “Our end of the snake” the audio gets a little of sync, you can hear his gun shooting and it’s off by maybe .5 sec on the film. “The thing with all the things!”
2nd game… Thomas going all the way… the look in his eyes… seeing him just sit there in disbelief… I’ve had the same ****ing moments where in finals you don’t want to get shot
3rd game… nothing much to say, was flawless w/ the ceremony…
Germany Revisisted
… seeing Thomas cheesin in the window was probably the best way to start it haha… overly happy made it funny as hell… lots of Thomas playing too. Drastic change from the last Germany “No way I’m clean?” haha… he actually sounded surprised. You saw no conflicts, nothing “bad” happened… Hasting + Sheets = Funny.
Amsterdam
Felt weird having 2 back-to-back Europe events.. One thing I noticed was cool early on is the shot on the highway w/ the directions sheet, the white lines in the middle of the road curve into the windshield… I notice all these small things
I can already tell it’s fraige filming again… haha… and all the guys wearin different jerseys… I know nicky had to because he gave his away at HB but JR was wearing Daveys..
Whole section has a good feeling to it, XSV giving extra love to everyone they can
but it ends pretty fast w/ Tontons I liked how the game was slow motion but telford’s mic wasn’t… cause you heard the shots before you saw them on Rich.
Maybe give Fraige a tripod for this section, it seemed a bit stabler.
Paris
Intro was sick, I think the commentary made it seem like you actually shot that, and it wasn’t stock stuff… again, nothing “bad” happens and you see them winning, without any real commentary or anything… Rich being silly like always… Like this section a lot, not my favorite song but not bad.
Denver
You see troll get destroyed early on, but **** changes fast. Looks like they got some decent paint… Ultra evil
Davey being… Davey “we all sound flat as **** right now” … good footage… and a better feeling with a bit of “conflict” at the end of prelims. Rich’s using a cheater gun -_-
Semis/Finals I can’t say much just good game footage w/ Rich’s talking… having the music fade in slowly, was pretty good… wasn’t overly dramatic, but definitely got across the feeling of finally winning a US Event against the team they have been fighting against since their creation.
I just wish it showed atleast the X-ball event… it wouldn’t have been much longer (5-8 minutes?) but more than just the celerbration afterwards.
I probably missed a lot and am just rambling on at this point, but maybe you could take some of the ideas thrown in there… or maybe you’re 100% content with what was done, I’m never 100% satisified w/ my work so far.
Still an amazing film, it tells the stories that nobody has heard, and does a damn good job of it.
There's my "essay"... hah... Have fun reading that