Nice work. Excellent use of a comic book theme.
Be sure to give your editor a raise... or at least a nice big bear hug.
I watched it several times and here is what I think:
It's WAAAAY to long for this kind of trailer. The motion becomes repetitive. I think the concept is high end. Keep them wanting more, don't have them wanting it to end. 3 page turns is fine, but have them come much quicker.
Let other people do your research for you. There is a reason a commercial on TV is only 30 seconds long. Use that to your advantage.
Watch again from 17 - 36 seconds. The pacing is really slow but the music is fast. Match the pacing to that music. Get from one panel to the next quickly and hold with less camera movements. It's ok to be fluid, but then maybe slow down the fluidity, so you don't get a sense of motion sickness on the panels that we're meant to watch.
On the panels we're meant to watch, if he's going to add thought clouds or dialog bubbles then leave them there long enough to read or make them shorter exchanges. If the panel is a still image and it has dialog bubbles you are immediately drawn to the text and so you start to read and bam you're onto the next panel. Maybe knock down the dialog to just one or two words. Maybe like one girl saying to the next, "Nice Tits!" or "Let's Fuck" something quick and doesn't take me out of the mindset of the style. Leave the big dialog panels for the panels that get crossed over to maintain the comic book style.
Maybe even a quick "Join Now" panel. Fuck it, why not implant that into their heads. Maybe even build one or two panels that are like a big "JOIN NOW" like a "SHAZAM" style and use that panel as a panel that gets crossed over so you just quickly see a flash of the "JOIN NOW" panel on your way to some video panel.
Overall I like the idea. I just feel that it needs to be much tighter and cleaned up. Some of the borders are missing on the video panels. If he's gonna do it.... do it right.
And be sure it conveys the message of the site. Showing a bunch of tits and gash doesn't mean you're gonna make the cash. Dig? He still has to be able to represent the site, the theme, and sell the surfer on a reason to join. Making it neat is not enough.
Good job though. I applaud his effort to try new things, and you for giving him the nudge in the right direction.


