Awesome! I never heard of this coming out but I new what it was as soon as I saw the tower.

EDIT: Looks like it's just a fan trailer. Not an entire film.

Wait.. this is just a fan film right? When is the whole thing being released?

It's the next episode after this one...
http://www.videosift.com/video/Escape-From-City-17-Part-One-1

Can't wait

Except, after watching the first part from a while back, while it has nice camera work and lighting, good costumes etc. The thing that lets the whole thing down is... acting.

It's crap

The acting is abysmal and demonstrates why, no matter how much you think you can just get your mates in to do the parts, it will let the whole thing down. It also shows why good actors earn their money, without them films can have all the other components nailed, but still fall at the starting line with bad acting.

I think that's kinda harsh, spoco -- the actors aren't exactly De Niro, sure, but I think they're decent enough, all things considered. You have to keep in mind that since this short was essentially made for no budget, I'm sure they couldn't actually afford to pay for any actors. Despite the surfeit of aspiring actors out there, a surprising amount of them (I'd say, in my experience, about 95%) range from barely passable to total crap (at least when you're looking at actors who will work for free). You'll occasionally see a really good actor who, for some reason or the other, hasn't really made it yet, but a surprising amount of aspiring actors really have no business being in front of a camera.

Which is to say that the performances in the first short could have been so much worse, given the pool of actors I'm sure that they had to pick from.

I thought the acting in the first one was fine, didn't detract from the experience at all for me. At no point did I groan, or facepalm so I have no idea what aspect of it didn't reach your armchair critic standards..? Sometimes you have to just sit back and enjoy something for what it is and not expect some Hollywood level standard (even though part 1 delivers on that in many areas).

I really liked the first episode, but I thought the acting in the scene where they're on the walkie talkie was fairly poor.

edit: I just checked their YT channel and they've released a "new cut" of the first episode which removes the scene I refer to.

^ Yeah, ok, the new edit has removed the most cringe worthy parts of the acting, and now it's quite watchable. Watch the original cut to see the bits that were bad.

However... that solved the problem for this bit by removing all need for actual acting. That doesn't work for a whole movie, well, at least not a good one, at some stage there needs to be talking bits, or emoting bits, or something that requires us to actually believe in the characters.

So I'll wait and see if they've got better actors or just avoid the need for actual 'acting' for the rest of the parts.

im assuming the next one will be a large step up...if not then I don't get why its TAKING SO LONG!

I just watched Battlefield Earth this weekend. Spoco is too harsh.

The shakey cam shiat can bite me...

Didn't like this one as much as the first. I hate it when they keep doing fade cuts in trailers with 3 second glimpses of scenes. The original was much, much better!

This thing was made by two people with a budget of $500. In light of all the awesome things in it, anyone that complains about the acting overwhelming all of its achievements is a poser. And it certainly didn't stop Hollywood from kicking down their doors. There is shit acting in movies all the time. Half of it was the poor audio dubbing. I read an article about these guys getting repped at C.A.A. (biggest agency in the world) by the same guy that reps Christopher Nolan. They also got repped by Anonymous Content one of the most respected commercial production companies in the world. David Fincher, Ang Lee, Joseph Kosinski, Alfonso Cuarón, all make commercials there.

damn video will not load for me, here at home or at work????