Before I say anything else, I just want to make it clear that my criticisms are coming from an honest and constructive core. I do not mean to outright hate on your films, even if it might seem so, and I
do honestly think you guys have succeeded in doing more than what most filmmakers I know personally have. So you have some things to be proud of.
But I gotta tell ya first off, it's asking quite a lot of people to expect them to pay the same amount for these films as they would a full Hollywood multi-million dollar feature. I'm not saying that you guys are thinking too highly of yourselves by doing that, you likely have your reasons for setting those prices, or maybe Vimeo doesn't give you many alternate options. I can't say. But even so, that's about twice as much as I would be willing to pay for what I'm seeing here, if that.
Secondly, you guys really need to take some time to work on your logos and your other signage.
The company logo for Saint Studios is pretty weak and rough. It's far too big, and it looks like a sketch one of ya'll threw together during high-school lunch period, and then ran it through Illustrator. You have to put some more thought and design into it. One of my biggest pet peeves with upstart filmmakers is that they always feel it necessary to stick a film camera or a strip of film inside their logo somewhere, and it always looks tacky. And don't get me wrong on that, I did that too, for years. But if you look at most movie company logos, only a few actually use a film reel, a film strip, or a film camera somewhere. But the ones that
do actually know how to use it subtlely and effectively. The rest come up with names totally unrelated to film, even if that's their primary product. 20th Century, Lionsgate, Universal, Paramount, Focus, Sony Pictures, Weinstein: these companies don't need to advertise right in their logo that they do film.
As for the title,
The Almosts, it also looks weak, as it just appears to be an Art Deco font with one bad color surrounded by a stroke effect of another bad color. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to its choice of appearance. And based on the film, it doesn't seem to relate to anything. It doesn't reflect the tone or genre the film is presenting, and sort of just sits there, unattached to anything else other than "This is the name of the film."
Furthermore, the film itself doesn't really seem to have much of a plot based on this trailer. Most trailers these days give-away too much plot, but yours seems to have managed to give away too little, while still showing numerous scenes where people shoot at each other and attempt to stab one another. I mean, what exactly is this? What's going on? Superheroes? And someone wants this mercenary to go kill one? I don't follow.
Just like what ~gorillaonabike was saying, the exposure is far too dark, especially in
The Almosts opening scene here in the trailer, and in many later shots. I can't tell who these people are, or even what they're doing. Why is this so dark? Did you not have a way to test the camera's exposure before you started shooting? Did you not have proper lighting? Because it looks like you actually went out of your way to turn all of the lights off in this house.
To cover some positives for a moment, your camera looks great. The footage is crisp, sharp, colors are nice (when they're exposed properly), and your depth of field seems to have some range (when it's utilized). So I don't think anyone can say that you don't have a camera that can do good work, you just need to learn how to use it more effectively.
Your costumes and props also seem to be quite broad and varied, if not entirely realistic. So you seem to be able to find what you need to make these films, including actors for all of your available parts. Good on ya for all of that.
Moving on to
Five Crowns now, this trailer is actually even more confusing than
The Almosts. It's apparently of similar length, based on the prices for renting and buying it: and yet the trailer is far shorter. There's no establishment of setting, time period, or general location. I don't know who any of these people are, or what they are supposed to be doing. You've basically given me nothing to work with.
First rule of making a trailer, only give away details that are necessary to explain the general plot line, but no details that would ruin plot twists or explain too much. Second rule, allow the trailer to tell the story of the film as if we are being told it for the first time. Include all relevant details. But don't assume that your audience will know anything, except the most basic of narrative tropes and cliches.
As for
The Waiting Room... What was that?
What's going on? Who are these two people? What am I supposed to assume from this? And why are they over-acting far more than anyone in the previous two trailers?
I realize a lot of what I have just said is pretty harsh and openly frank, but I really can't say anything more positive about these trailers or their prospective films. I just don't know what you expect me to assume from these, or what you expect others to get out of them. They're quite ambitious, I'll give you that. But the results are far from remarkable.
