Thought it was pretty good, loved the editing but it was missing something. Maybe talking to newer players, and older players (after Alex Valle spoke on the peak age for fighting game players… would have been interesting to see where some older legends went etc). Good effort, awaiting the final cut with great anticipation.
So what are the chances of the blazblue community gettin in this?I’m jealuose were gettin left out
I just watched the HD version (short cut), it was pretty cool.
Some constructive critisism for you:
I think the main problem with the cut I saw was that the editing was a bit off with certain bits. There was a point in the beginning where I wished the East/West players had been differentiated a bit more. There was lacking a certain finishing touch on how they are presented towards the first tournament.
Also, what kind of camera did you use? There was a bunch of issues that looked like autogain and unstable iris, why not go manual? In addition, a bunch of the lighting was off, but hey, that’s not a big issue (it’s a doc, and there’s nothing wrong with on-the-fly interviews), it could have benefited from a bit more thought in the interviews where it seemed you did have a bit more time on your hands, though. Maybe created a less immediate aesthetic, a proper interview situation with the cast. There was also space left for a bit more artistic camerawork. I liked the pacing of the editing, in general (I mean editors today basically have no talent, nice to see you aren’t going for cheap tricks), the design of the graphics was very good (although I think the tournament-tree, when used as a purely informative graphic, should have only gone in one direction, I think it suddenly was mirrored a couple of times, also, presenting everyone at the top would have worked better if the graphic for the presentation of players had been made different from the one used as actual tournament info); but as I said, a bit more daring camerawork and putting in a few more “mood” shots would have been top notch.
Overall, the editing worked, but it is probably a tad hard for non-gamers to truly connect with it, there was a lack of a theme other than the East/West and the general “Wong and Gootecks talk about fighting games as a sport”. A bit more definition here would have been excellent.
Another issue is the soundmix, it’s not quite there, in my opinion. Sound is always a bitch, unless you have people dedicated to only working on sound, and the mix here has some problems with voices not properly defined. It didn’t sound like you had any massive issues with levels though, so this could probably be fixed in post. At least that’s my impression from watching it on my dad’s hi-fi-set (not a stellar setup), I might rewatch it with my my own gear to confirm (but generally, voices should be clearly defined on random gear).
So, yeah, awesome that you did the project, I liked it a lot, and it really has potential. Themes to expand on, that I found interesting, was the whole “SFIV has become a big deal”, “fighters on the rise” type thing. Making a doc touching on pro-gaming, the state of it, but focusing it fully on fighters. Maybe differentiate players a bit, getting opinions and statements from a larger mix of people (fans, people out in the first few rounds of tournaments, arrangers, hotel employees etc.), but all in all, better than most no-budget docs.
Wow, I didn’t think the short cut would be this long, I figured it would be kinda like an extended trailer.
I enjoyed it and as a documentary it certainly works. The only thing was that I didn’t really feel any emotional connection to the story being told, though I’m probably just spoiled by King of Kong, which was more about the psyche of the players than the scene anyway.
I’m gonna have to disagree with Sic’s point of adding the opinions of more players, because that’ll just water everything down and probably be more confusing, but I think you already know that.
In short, great work! I hope it does well.
EDIT: Ah, I didn’t know the was more footage to be shot at EVO. Well I guess with the solid doc you’ve already got, with the EVO footage it can only get better. Good luck!
Definitely the idea of also following someone totally new to the tourney scene would be really cool for the full version.
Even if its just some dude who gets bodied at his first tourney, if he is passionate about street fighter and if he interviews well and isn’t a scrub douchebag…it would be really cool to have that polarity of following both the masters and some dude at the VERY bottom of the ladder.
Plus, it would tie into the point that Gootecks made about how this is one of the only sports where you can start late, not have any real hookups to known players, and still fight your way to the very top.
Just a thought, but I must say that I loved the short cut just the way it was.
Agreed with parabellum, & I really enjoyed it!
if you get footage of the physical perspectives of the players at the finals of the SFIV bracket at EVO this year. i think you will heighten the sense of how much some of these players really want to win. Anyways i hope you get good footage ian : D
Ian will get some epic SFIV footage from Evo for the documentary.
CHINA TOWN FAIR Documentary …CHINATOWN FAIR footage…could be a movie in itself…so many friday night and saturday nighters going hardbody …interviews out the ass…day in the life of the beasts of china town…infact…thats a good name for it…
BEASTS OF CHINATOWN!
This documentary was awesome. REALLY enjoyed it. Great work. Looking forward to seeing more!
It kind of sucks that the finished version of this documentary won’t feel quite complete. They really pushed the whole “East vs West”, or in other words, NYC vs So Cal/Nor Cal. And now that Evo is over, it’s disappointing that neither Cali teams made it to settle the fued against the East team. The smack talk won’t be about beating the other, instead it’ll be that West couldn’t even make it.
How about trying a new angle? Wong(East) vs Ma(West) settles the score, and when the winner is decided, everybody unites against Japan(Daigo)? Well, just saying.
Hopefully you can supply it in an avi format so all machines even slower ones like my pentium2 can handle the video itself.
i kinda thought the same thing.
can’t wait to see the documentry featuring evo going to be fucking sick.
With footage in more than 2 FPS! Hooray!
Ian did you interview Daigo?? :looney:
if ian got tense footage from that BEAST SF IV grand finals i think you got a little golden piece of footage for the documentary to show how serious this scene really is!
Well you have to consider ian made the film to show that whoever is the best coast gets to face Japan, obviously East Coast managed to beat West Coast and Jwong = East coast facing Japan, he will do something about the feud ending after Ed ma loses and in light the winner faces Daigo
This doc suddenly seems dated in it’s shorter edit. All main players interviewed and getting good face time with the exception of Justin Wong didn’t even make top 8. I sure hope you got some good footage at EVO of the Finals and follow up with LIilJ, Mike Ross, Gootecks, etc. to see what happened to them.
yeah, but we don’t know what other footage he might have, I’m guessing the final cut won’t just be the short cut with more footage tacked on, but a full new edit of all the footage, old and new. All I know is- I couldn’t go to evo, and just sitting at home watchig the stream I was so hype my neighbors probably heard me yelling, lol. So I KNOW any footage of the actual event will be hype, no need to hope. I can’t wait to see the final cut.
Also, someone was talking about CF footage. ArcadeHustla on youtube has some great interviews of some of the EC players at CF and stuff, really good interviews. I agree I’d definitely like to see some stuff like that in the final cut.
aren’t you kinda contradicting yourself by saying the faces in the film are dated cause they didn’t make top 8. then make a suggestion to do a follow up with mike ross and gootecks who both already got crazy face time and didn’t make top 8.
honestly, i’d like him to interview a variety of players. not just constantly follow around the same 4-5 top players. i’d love to hear some words from sabre after he took valle out of the 5 on 5 with sakura.