A friend of mine sent this link my way...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo
It is a short film done for $500, or so claim the Canadian producers, titled Escape from City 17.
As I replied to my friend via e-mail, "Very impressive, technically. My only issue is the filmmakers, like so many out there, are just copying what they have seen many times before. And what we have all seen many times before. If they were smart, they would have done something more 'original'. There is no voice; no vision".
3 comments:
The compositing of live action and CGI at that budget level is very effective (at least at web resolutions). The problem with moving on to original ideas is that the CGI imagery comes free from a game which needed thousands of hours of development -- they're standing on the shoulders of giant metal robots, as it were. Doing it from scratch is much harder than doing a 'mashup'.
The in-joke of this video is that one of the actors looks, and is dressed, almost exactly like one of the several anonymous characters in the game. If this were from a Paramount product they'd be getting sued already.
Yeah, it was nice to look at and all, but zero originality, as Smight noted. How many variations on the "post-apocalyptic city ruled by para-military forces" or "run from the ruling class" are there? Two, really. Logan's Run and Terminator.
Still good on these guys for showing some technical skill, esp. with the stark violence of the slayings. And the costumes were well-made and effective.
And, hell, it's no Batman vs Alien vs Predator.
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