5) How do studios do such a better job packaging a show even if they're complete shit? Less takes? Fewer revision passes? You'd think a fan made-video involving seasoned actors could still be done with some quality.
Quickly skimming through it it's just not well-shot. Two major things stand out:
1. Lack of establishing shots
2. Almost everything shot in a close-up
The has the effect of making it seem very disjointed - it's hard to tell where the characters are in relation to each other, where stuff is happening, etc.
When two people are threatening each other it's all either shot-reverse or a close up of one that then pans to a close up of the other - it makes it look cheap because that sort of shooting is typically done to hide lack of FX integration. (You see this all the time in bad SyFy channel movies - there is a shot of a beast, and a shot of a guy, but they aren't on the screen at the same time, because doing that would require more FX work)
In general when making movies you want to give the editors good coverage, which includes a "master" shot that covers the action in a medium shot that encapsulates all the action. The idea being that the editor can cut to that when needed to establish spatial relations, show actions between characters, etc. That's the safe footage, then you can use other footage like close ups and inserts as needed. Either they didn't shoot that sort of coverage here or the editor chose not to use it.
There are basics of craft that the people making this either weren't aware of or didn't bother with. (Maybe because wider shots would illustrate that the sets were crappy)
I can skim from scene to scene and not see the legs of a single character. It's like 90% close ups.
It seems to me that the FX are pretty decent for a fan film, the lighting and makeup are pretty decent, etc, but it's just shot poorly.
Author
I'm not surprised.
