[Review Thread + Poll] 1x0B- Choices, Part One - Episode

[Admin]

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We would like to know your opinion about the episode - Choices, Part One - so that we can try to better ourselves. We prefer replies in English, but if you have problems with that, you may also reply in Dutch.

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We zouden graag uw mening willen horen over de aflevering - Choices, Part One - zodat we onszelf kunnen verbeteren. Het liefste hebben we reacties in het Engels, maar als dat echt niet lukt is Nederlands ook goed.

--- DA Organisation.

[Walker82]

Nice, I really enjoyed the episode. I saw the premiere on the TFD fanclub event, but I watched it again at home for better audio. I also liked the cooperation with the Hidden Frontier cast. The downside from that is that your dutch-english accents are even more noticeable then before.

Robin Hiert and Tim Leegstra are by far the best actors of the bunch. Speech and acting are really convincing!
On a negative note, Iris Janse still hasn't improved and she just isn't that good.
Keep up the good work, it's awesome what you're doing.

The format with shorter episodes is great. Episodes don't need to be longer, this is just right.

I want more.

[Martinvb]

Hey Walker,

Well... we can't hide that we're not native speakers, so we won't but do the best we can. A good alternative doesn't exist. Glad to hear you liked the episode, though!

Groeten,

~~~Martin.

[Hetoreyn]

Well I suppose you guys could do it in Dutch with English subtitles, but personally since I'm British, it's kinda nice to have things in English . I think you guys speak comfortably enough. Having lived in the Netherlands for a year I've just gotten used to the Dutch-English accent.

I think one just has to remember that this is all done for fun, and to have lots of fun doing it. Was nice to see Walter Koenig be invited to the Flying Dutch, I'm sure you all were very proud to show him your work.

Heto

[Thafish]

SFX Review By SFX-Dude:

First let's start wit congratiolating the whole crew of DA for making another fan made movie.
I enjoy watching you all having fun in the roleplaying stuff.

What i liked about the new episode:
The diversety of locations and the thourough thinking of the chronology and working it out in film.
The nice lay outs and good models of the 3d guys (my compliments)\
Sound effects and sound itself, WOW great job you guys. Sounds like the real deal!

My critical notes:

The movie has a lot of dialog, in my mind this can be a downer. I missed some good action in between.
The action that was there was nice, but not completly thought out. I missed a lot of reallity feel to the fx. In that area i think you guys can spend a little more time on that. I am not saying that it didn't fit with the storey but the feeling of it was just a little bit off.

For example: when one of the shuttles is blown up the rest hangs in space like they are some kind of bricks.
When you think about that, this is not possible. Every explosion itbe in a vacuum or anywhere else has effect on the enviroment surrounding it. So i missed the interaction of that explosion with the rest of the shuttles. The blast wave would have had effect on them.

On another note concerning some of the fx :
I am a fool for the feeling of looks in a serie or movie, what i sometimes missed was the levels effect.
About 6:50 into the movie with the flashback was a good example of HOW TO DO THAT.
The feeling of levels was perfect, so i thought why you guys didn't do that with the rest of the movie? Not that it has to have the same levels as the flash back but the blur and grain use gave that extra feeling like you was looking at a real syfy production. My compliments to whoever made that scene and correct use of the post effects!


A bad example is e.g. 9:35, the rest of the bridge is very dark but only Robin looks like he has a lamp on it.
I personally think that levels. lighting and usage of blur make or brake some scenes.
I see that field of depth usage is even so sometimes a problem, sometimes is used correclty with the correct blur and sometimes it is out of phase. The keying is perfect but like i said sometimes the key is to hard and could have used a little more feather. But i did like that there was nog residial effect of the greenscreen, what often is in fanmade movies.

The "feeling effect thing" goes the same for space scenes, a little gradient and levels and insight into lighting can make or brake how plastic or 3d animated a ship looks like. (Not saying anything of the models because they are perfect)
Martin allways refers to it as the coffestain feeling that he doesn't like, but that is my way of levels usage , i like my effects very sober and dark and off the scale. That doesn't mean that you cannot find your own "perfect levels" settings or that you have to use may way about thinking about how it has to look like.

The acting issue:
Yes i see your point of accent in the language but that is not the problem i don't even care about that.
It is more the way of acting is like they are pulling a leg out of their body. It's stiff and made while others are supernatural in handling their role.

conclusion:

Overall the things in my eyes that have to be worked at and i'll worship you:

1) MORE ACTION LESS TALK
2) More time spending on after fx , levels gradient and looks
3) 1 or 2 acting lessons that personages don't have to much stress ("the memorizing feeling ") with the acting.

My grade for this eppisode: 7

I think you guys are fantastic in doing this.
I enjoy in what i can see from the crew is a good vibe and the effort for wanting to do this.
Overall i expect that the future will bring alot. 3 cheers.

Keep up the good work and till the next one .

[Mariëlle]

Yay,
good job!
xx

[MiVo]

Dunnow if this is the correct topic for it, downloading doesn't work with Firefox in Ubuntu, I needed another browser for downloading it. I had this in the past too, but I was able to solve it, but now I don't remember what I've done in the past. With the default settings it doesn't work.

[Martinvb]

Dunnow if this is the correct topic for it, downloading doesn't work with Firefox in Ubuntu, I needed another browser for downloading it. I had this in the past too, but I was able to solve it, but now I don't remember what I've done in the past. With the default settings it doesn't work.

Hey Mivo,

Indeed strange, that shouldn't happen. This is the only combination that causes problems that I know of. Gladly, people who use linux are capable enough to find a workaround themselves.

More important: what did you think of the episode?

Yours,

~~~Martin.

[SCaRa]

I liked it.
The compositing of the actors on the green screen were near perfect. The only real problem I had with the episode was this effects shot: http://www.darkarmada.nl/images/Article ... ersion.png

The shuttles are too large compared to the starship. You can see that the shadow casted on the hull is too large. The scene is also too static. You'd think they'd try to move away from the threat.

Overall I like the way you guys have been treating my work so far

[Guest]

Very nice indeed. The preview last sunday on the 25th anniversary of The Flying Dutch made me eager to see the whole episode. Some of the acting could have been a little more vivid, but I'm centrainly not disappointed