Superstition Mountain

[illdojo]

Hello, TerryJameson....Your trailer sucks. :)
Would you like some....

?

[TerryJameson]

Thanks for all the constructive advice, guys.

I may be stupid. I'll give you that. I certainly don't know all the big words you guys use to demean me and my film. But I've never been insulting to anyone here, even when I was being insulted.

Is there anyone who's actually interested in helping me or are all of you just mean and bored?

[spamman]

Originally Posted by TerryJameson

www.minor9media.com

Thanks for the link.

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by Despare

Your real trailer shows a guy falling down with his head covered in blood yes? So you "documented" that?

Originally Posted by TerryJameson

Well, technically he's already on the ground in that shot, but yes.

See, this is where you lose me. So it's a "documentary," then, with "documentary" in scarequotes?

As in, this may or may not be a real mountain range with real superstitions, but the action in the present is unreal?

At this point it seems silly to say that this murder is "documented." The interviews are one thing, but obviously as critics we wouldn't believe it... I went into Blair Witchin knowing that it wasn't true and it still scared the hell out of me, so there's nothing wrong with a little truth.

...

And since you're new and your first post revolves around selling your movie and your website, of course you're going to be labeled as SPAM. You have to be around a while to do that without disdain. :p

[TerryJameson]

Not sure what scarequotes are, to be honest, but I get what you're getting at.

Here's the deal - everything is real, unscripted, and merely documented. I never said that the kid on the ground was dead, tho. The doc is this - Superstition Mountain is real and a very nasty place. An indie film company went out there to shoot a horror movie. Bad things happened. We were taping them. That's all I can say without throwing out spoilers.

So obviously people aren't understanding this from watching the trailer. I want to know why they aren't getting it - what I'm doing wrong.

And to those of you who are accusing me of spam - why would I do it here? Wouldn't I be in the general forum, where's there's exponentially more viewers? I'd be on other sites, too, which I'm not. I picked this dark little corner of the internet because I wanted to hit LESS people, but the right people.

And to Spamman - I don't even understand your post. Are you saying I'm a spammer and you're trying to give me more sites to spam to? Or are you saying you're going to send spam to me? If so, please don't. Search around on the web and you'll see that I am not spamming anyone. Besides uploading the trailer to some online video sites I haven't posted anything about the movie anywhere but here and at our website.

I didn't mean to waste anyone's time here and I'm sorry if you feel that I did. If you think you know of a better site for me to ask for help at please let me know.

[neverending]

What you have said is a very sophisticated idea to try and get across in 60 seconds. IMO if you really want to get that concept across you have to spell it out. You have to say exactly this:

Superstition Mountain is real and a very nasty place. An indie film company went out there to shoot a horror movie. Bad things happened. We were taping them.

You have to put it on a title card- or a series of cards- and voice over- then take it from there.

It may seem uncreative, but it gets the message across, and you can make it suspensefull by cutting in a few seconds of scary stuff in between each phrase.

Keep at it and I'm still interested in seeing the finished product.

[Despare]

Originally Posted by TerryJameson

Here's the deal - everything is real, unscripted, and merely documented. I never said that the kid on the ground was dead, tho. The doc is this - Superstition Mountain is real and a very nasty place. An indie film company went out there to shoot a horror movie. Bad things happened. We were taping them. That's all I can say without throwing out spoilers.

Listen, your stuff looks real good and I enjoyed Brink... kudos. I personally feel like your insulting the intelligence of the people here by claiming your film is "all real" because from your trailer it looks like anything but. Also, you're getting a lot of "spam" talk because this part of the forum is simply for people to introduce themselves, not a place to hock your latest film. We do have a filmmakers part of the forum if you hadn't noticed.

[TerryJameson]

Ok, now we're talking. Sorry if I approached all this wrong, but thanks for staying with me. I didn't notice that there was a filmmaker's part of the site, but I don't think I'd want to post there yet, anyway. Like I said, I don't want a lot of people seeing it yet, just the people like you guys who can give me advice on how to make it better.

So - the reason I didn't use a VO or title cards in the trailer is because I figured that's exactly what a fake horror doc like Cloverfield would do, and I was purposely trying to be different from them. But obviously the way I was doing it wasn't working, either. Now I think you're probably right, Neverending. We do need to spell it out.

I'm going to make some changes to it today and I'll relaunch it as soon as it's done. If anyone has any ideas of anything else I can do to make people understand that it's real I'm all ears. Ideally I'd love to do something truly original, as I think even with the title cards people are going to be highly doubtful, but I've been so deep in this for so long I can't see the forest for the trees anymore.

Thanks again for the help!

[ferretchucker]

No, from watching your trailer, it made me think it was a bit like the mcpherson tape. Where it's scripted clips in with some people talking. Of cause, the mcpherson tape isn't entirely based on a true story, but I thought you were just kind of taking some creative license with a true story. What I suggest, you take out all the clips that lead people to believe it's fake i.e - the making out bit and do say exactly what happened. If what you're aying is true then it should be VERY interesting.

[TerryJameson]

I had never heard of the McPherson Tape. That's really interesting. Have you actually seen it? Was it any good?

Still working on the trailer here. Will repost soon.