POWDER - violence is golden

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:48 pm

Here we are, the home stretch. Over the last 8 months, I have been filming and editing POWDER, my first feature. It is the simple story of two Essex gangsters, a professional named Kurb and a newbie named Diamond, slap-bang in the middle of the Mafia tottam-pole. After they are blamed for a coke deal gone awry, Kurb decides he's had enough of taking orders from Six-Hit, the big boss. They decide to quit and, as severence pay, steal Ã‚Â£2 million worth of cocaine Six has been collecting. Obviously, Six is not best pleased. After an ellaborate heist to get the coke, Kurb and Diamond retreat to a safehouse where they are greeted by Six's henchmen. The two of them then proceed to fight their way away from the opression of the Mafia, and into freedom.
Now here's the twist. This isn't any old Mafia. This is a Mafia of teenage delinquents. The film is sort of a reverse coming-of-age thing. What I mean is, when Kurb and Diamond are part of the Mafia, they aren't acting like teenagers. Kurb especially, who has been in the crime gig since he was 11, has all but lost any innocence he had. Anyway, that sounds way too pretentious, because this movies about one thing --ULTRA-STYLISED VIOLENCE--. The film is approximately 80 minutes long, and is basically six or seven action set-pieces punctuated by snappy dialogue. Of course, the back bone of ANY good movie is it's script, so this is what we hope will set us apart from the other talented low-budgeters around, since we're not so well versed in CGI and the like. We decided early on that we were never gonna come up with an original idea, so after we settled on our second-hand action movie plot, I focused my energys almost entirely on dialogue and pace (I've won a couple of awards for my writing, both local and national, so one would assume it's a strength of mine).
Anyway, I'm rambling. What I wanna know is, does this sound like you'd pay to see it? Does it even sound worth the internet space it took to type this overly-long post? I'd really like feedback. Thanks.

slimdog55 · Post by **slimdog55** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:53 am

Anything you're willing to put forth hard effort and hard work into is worth to put on the internet. I like the story, but it kinda reminds me of "True Romance," you know with all the coke stealing, and some type of mafia involved. First I would like to see a trailer then decide if it's worth paying to see.

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 12:42 pm

I have a trailer that I'd love to show. Unfortunately, I have nowhere to host it and can't buy webspace at the moment.

BrownCowStudios · Post by **BrownCowStudios** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 5:59 pm

There have been dozens of posts and threads dealing with free places to host a film. Take a look around the forum, or try a search.

slimdog55 · Post by **slimdog55** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:23 pm

http://12.22.230.41/microtech/Hosting/A ... -L100.html

You can upload up to 100MB.

reflexive_cinematics · Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:10 pm

Otherwise I can host it for a short time if you want. But you can try the free servers too.

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:37 pm

It would be great if you could host it for a lil bit, just to get people interested. Are you sure that would be okay?

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 9:39 pm

Okay, here's the opening scene. I've been having problems with the trailer, so you'll have to make do with this little opening: http://www.matt.echowave.net/uploads/NoRemorse/
Sorry about the crappy quality.

Tell me what you think...

JK90 · Post by **JK90** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:39 pm

You had me excited form the description of your plot and you delivered on your promise of snappy dialogue. I was impressed by the opening scene up until the point where the kid gets shot in the head. You really need to work on your muzzle flash for one it didn't come out of the gun and it was in time with your sound effect. After that I felt the plot got lost and it was hard to understand what was happening. There seemed to be lots of things that happened for no apparent reason.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:16 pm

Quite good that but I have to echo what James said about about you muzzle flash, it was quite poor. Other than that, very enjoyable.

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:50 am

Yeah, the muzzle flash was a mistake that happened whilst rendering, rest assured it will NOT be in the finished film. Could you be more specific about what about it you weren't able to understand, just coz we're premiering it in about two weeks and I need all the in-depth feedback i can get. thanks.

foxwood · Post by **foxwood** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:45 am

The diologe was good, I was disapointed by the violance, I don't know from the discription I exspected a bit more, but it was pretty good, I'm sure any plot questions that I have, basicly who the people were, will be cleared up by seeing the entire feture.

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:25 pm

Yeah, all becomes clear. Trust me, it becomes VERY violent. Last night we filmed a guy having his head smashed in against a bath tub, then being drowned in his own blood. We have shotgun blows tothe face with faces being taken off. A guy is stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver, then hung from a tree. We've spent Ã‚Â£200 on gore all together. I've posted another couple a' clips on the same link http://www.matt.echowave.net/uploads/NoRemorse/
One of them has a little bit of gore, the another has none. Please remember that these are VERY ROUGH CUTS. Most editing problems (muzzle flashes etc.) will be cleared up very soon.

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Sat May 07, 2005 2:49 pm

It's finished! I've been snipping and snipping and I've finally cut it down to about 65 minutes, making it what I hope will be an enthralling, exausting ride. A couple of really nice dialogue scenes have had to go but I think I've got it to a point were it'll be a really fun lil flick. I will post it as soon as I can. I hope you guys like it.

trabre2003 · Post by **trabre2003** » Mon May 09, 2005 4:10 am

I can't wait to see it! Judging by the trailer, it should be quite good.

Vor · Post by **Vor** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:03 am

Trailer :
honestly i thought the trailer looked pretty damn cool, except for those shots outside i thought those needed some work, but i think the music fit in well and i liked the opening for that diamond character....

Opening Scene :
i like the dialouge that diamond and the other guy had, i think hes a pretty good actor for the age. only thing here is the transition at the very beginning seemed too..."Home Video"-ish.take away that shell case fall sound effect, your on grass it probably wouldnt sound like that, other than that i like that bag over head deal, quite nice....

i like em, by the way how old are you....?

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Tue May 10, 2005 10:14 am

Fifteen years this month. Which transition was it you didn't you like?

windog · Post by **windog** » Tue May 10, 2005 6:49 pm

narley man!! (I mean thats ok!)

CaptainAmerica · Post by **CaptainAmerica** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:15 pm

Nice, looks good keep it up.

windog · Post by **windog** » Tue May 10, 2005 9:08 pm

great job, I would like to see the final cut.

Vor · Post by **Vor** » Tue May 10, 2005 9:34 pm

the very first transition effect, where it says "danger zone" i believe instead of a flip like transition i think a simple cut/fade would be good.....do you play any characters....?

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Tue May 10, 2005 10:16 pm

Yeah, I'm Kurb (the one who's not Diamond). I've posted another clip up just now. It's an alternative opening mwith much more action than the one you've seen. I prefer the original but others think the alternative one's better. Watch it and tell me what ya think. Thanks.

trabre2003 · Post by **trabre2003** » Wed May 11, 2005 2:08 am

I like the original better, but it might be a good idea to try and combine the two, cuz that shot of the main character delivering that kick is a good shot. Also, you could have the main character detonate a bomb in the case that they gave the other guys. After walking away of course.

Vor · Post by **Vor** » Wed May 11, 2005 3:00 am

i like the action parts of the alternate one, but the dialouge in the first one.....

NoRemorse · Post by **NoRemorse** » Thu May 19, 2005 7:56 am

Cool thanks. I wanna get all the feedback I can, so I've put another scene on (it's called POWDER-LARRY). The real version of this scene (as seen in the finished film) is twice as long and has some great action, but I can't render that one at the moment, so this'll have to do. Ignore the random subtites, bad CGI and crummy sound effects. They've all been sorted out in the finished project. Anyway, feedback please!