deadside pilot episode by David Di Muro

Hmm, that was a quite interesting pilot so far. The voodoo topic definitely is a good one for an internet series and leaves a lot of possibilities and potential for unexpected twists plot wise.

I really liked the multicultural aspect and together with the fighting and humour reminded me a little of Dead or Alive, the movie, or Kill Bill. Speaking of the humour, you have a very special one and good feeling for that: In those two fighting scenes it's just a split of a second, but that was enough to somehow leave a smile on my face (e.g. the cool way of paying the bill at the restaurant or the older lady there, or the "Ohh!" of the homeless person), it's a good way to spice the scene up a little and to give the viewer a little relieve in this otherwise very serious movie.

Emotions were very well captured by the close ups, their lightning and the camera focus. The overall acting was quite ok. In some scenes I had the feeling of watching a high school theater play though (e.g. the first scene - not sure whether that was due to the weird camera angles or the acting).

The contrast between the first and second scene was a great idea though. While the first scene was very dark, but still colourful, the second one was very light and all in white.

Although I'm actually not such a fan of action movies, the restaurant scene was one of my favourite ones.

The nerdy psychiatrist was hilarious :).

The colours at the home of the voodoo lady were very beatiful, their laughing felt very genuine.

Finally, the open end together with the visions gives you a clew about what might happen next and makes you want to see more. I'm especially wondering whether the police men will be able to figure out what has really happened or whether they'll just accuse Sara.

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First I thought about criticising the 624x352 Xvid format as especially the dark scenes are quite hard to make out with it and look a little "amateurish" . But then I noticed you are offering HD versions for download after donating $2 or $5 (which is not that obvious - and you have to be careful, maybe this might lead to a worse perception due to people underestimating this movie?). I don't know yet whether I find this a good or a bad thing (for viewers and creators), whether it seems to make sense or not. Especially for the many Creative Commons fans here on VODO this might seem a little hypocritical, making them wonder why the creator has chosen CC at all.

So far I had understood the donations target as sort of an indicator of how much the movie on this page has cost. But, no offence, I doubt that this pilot is worth $150'000. If it refers to the estimated production cost of the whole series instead (with how many episodes?), then you should add some more details about expenses and future plans, showing your project management skills, too. PioneerOne for instance was pretty good at and open about that.

I liked your efforts of making this short youtube video explaining step by step how to download this movie via VODO/bittorrent. A more general version of this, that's probably something VODO should make and offer themselves! However I found your shouting/capslocking a little offensive ;).

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Thanks for sharing this quite entertaining pilot! Keep us updated about your future plans and progress of this series!

The Lionshare by Josh Bernhard

Hey guys, your website, www.lionsharemovie.com, seems to be broken.

Pioneer One by Pioneer One

@Joshbernhard: I guess saving some money first and compiling a lot of the second season in advance is a sane step. Like you and others said, more timely releases could also avoid losing viewers during the session.

But on second thought I was thinking that I'd miss an important part: Especially for the first three parts of the first session you were really good at giving frequent progress updates and were teasing us with a lot of behind the scenes stuff. So you were not only offering a finished product but also made us, the audience, part of the whole process, all your thoughts and feelings - a key advantage which no traditional movie business can do. Which can be a bonding element just like timely episodes.

Will you start releasing episodes after you've finished the whole season 2 or do you think you can manage a balance of these two aspects? You (and Ton Roosendaal with his Blender Foundation) have always been my favourite movie maker blogger so far :). BEAR FACT! :P

OTHERWORLDS by VODO

@Marcis Berzins: I thought exactly the same. The Third Letter, Perspective and Candy were my favourites, too. Those were very touching, special and thought provoking.

Kitty-Kitty had very beautiful camera shots, but the idea was not really one that interested me that much (but I'm sure people who find cats fascinating will love it :) ).

The Notorious Newman Brothers by Retro Films Entertainment

I honestly don't really know what to say about this movie. I don't know yet whether I liked it or not. Well, it's definitely trashy. Reminds me a bit of Borat and films alike where the actors are making totally a fool of themselves. I definitely liked the unique / contrasting personalities, the "tough" Mafia guys vs. the nerdy mommy's-boy director. I really liked how the director was totally struggling with himself due to all these bad bad things he did and was forced to do by those badies, things he'd never thought himself being capable of, like... stealing an hugly wizard figure! Or smashing DVDs from the shelf of a video store! Haha :)! I also liked the totally hilarious break-in scene. The doormat part was totally unexpected and the following grocery shopping, especially the argument about the spices while the documentary maker was shitting his pants was so misplaced that it was really funny again :D. Or the kindergarden argument about the nice glasses, haha! Or the (attempted) bluring out of the informant's face in the church.

But I have to admit, after those scenes I've skipped a lot because it all just got too lengthy. You are having the same setting and camera angle for way too long. And very often the dialogues seem to go nowhere and repeat themselves. And although funny at first it is also quite exhausting to listen to Max's high pitched voice for a longer period of time.

I'd say all in all it was okay. You definitely have quite some potential. You came up with a lot of really good jokes, the whole thing had a very unique touch due to the very special characters. But I think a 30min. movie and spending some more time on editing could have made it a lot better.

Despite from that, I could imagine having a series of this. The Newman Brothers' and Max's personalities and dorky acting could be used for so many hilarious, different plots and themes. (somehow like The Mighty Boosh, this commercial, British comedy series also has very unique, "easygoing", hilarious characters and totally unexpected humorous moments, with a different theme in each episode. Something like that but in Newman Brothers Gangsta style :) )

Thanks for sharing!

L5 by Stanley Von Medvey

Moar!!! I like! 1337!!!

Okay, more seriously from what I've seen so far now, your cast looks very promising. I also liked the space animations, they were nice to look at. I really, really liked all these effects, these tiny details: The HUDs, holograms, the intelligent paper (I want that :D), the helmet cameras on the monitor like at 13:09, they were all little details which made the sci-fi setting very believable (and which I hope didn't cost too much time). Only the walking animations of those two astronauts were totally weird/unprofessional in my opinion...

Also your plans for improving the overall OpenSource production system sounds very good, hope you're in contact with Ton Roosendaal from the Blender Foundation. The current, classic movie business is still huge but thanks to the CC licensing and general openness there's a lot more room for collaboration between creators for you, making it actually possible to compete with those businesses soonish, I think.

Looking forward to the next episodes! Thanks for sharing!

These Showers Can Talk by Gabrielle Lindau

Haha, I liked it. It's both hilarious and kind of fascinating to watch. I especially found the actresses facial expressions great. And I had to laugh hard at 8:45, that "Ok" came so dry and unexpected :D.

A Lonely Place For Dying by Justin Eugene Evans

I'm very very excited to see the next episodes of this awesome movie, too. I guess the best thing we can do now is donate a dollar and tell our friends about it and tell our friends to tell their friends to...

I mean, I wouldn't blame these guys if they'd intend to only release the next part after having reached their 10k funding goal for the first episode.

As HumbleMagi wrote before "Imagine if every download resulted in a single dollar donation." - technically, with all these payment methods available (bitcoin and flattr rock :) ), this shouldn't be a difficulty for anybody, should it?