Co do nie filmowości dem, przede wszystkim na przeszkodzie stoją właśnie kwestie warsztatowe, idąc w abstrakcje można ukryć niedostatki małego zespołu oraz realtime'owości produkcji, a przy tym stworzyć coś unikalnego, co widz może oglądać x razy, i zastanawiać się, co konkretnie reżyser dema chciał przekazać. Imo to zastanawianie się jest wspaniałe, można dema oglądać i oglądać w nieskończoność, film się szybciej znudzi.
Oczywiście co pewien czas są podejmowane próby robienia dem z chociaż w miarę konkretną historią, ale zawsze wychodzi to imo mocno żenująco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktkS7A5CZ8g
Powyższe demo, gdyby wyciąć fabułę, dodać trochę abstrakcji byłoby o wiele lepsze: klasyczna demoscenowa space opera z panią tańczącą na księżycu, bo to ładnie wygląda, bez większych filozofii.
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on the other hand, it's almost the textbook example of what's wrong with "storydemos", so i have to be a bit horrible
- bad direction, pacing, camerawork. the establishing shots at the start don't actually establish anything properly so it's totally unclear as to whats going on or why anyone should care; the only reason i have any idea whats going on is by reading the website that accompanies the demo. if you need a website to explain the story of a *storydemo*, that's a surefire way of telling the direction is off course.
meanwhile the dancing is cut to pieces so it fights against the very sense of grace and flow you'd hope to get from ice skating action. the camerawork there makes me suspect there's a lack of animations that had to be covered up and reused as much as possible, but that's just a hunch.
the tacked on end sequence is a bit pointless also.
- contrast levels are ridiculous - it's basically black with some bits of white glowing stuff for large parts of the demo. there might be some decent models and shading under there somewhere, but it's impossible to tell.
- the pretentiousness level is remarkable. (see: website explaining the demo; huge, overlong credit sequences; "epic" musical score), which is probably what motivates me to want to slate it more. pretentiousness is fine if you've got the meat to back it up, but if there's something shakey about the base material then it's a risky strategy.
- frankly the subject matter is unoriginal and unappealing, but maybe that's just because im old.
the problem with storydemos is (as you can guess from the title) you not only have to make a good demo on a technical and aesthetical level which is interesting to watch and has solid content, you also have to think up a good story and tell it well - which is way, way harder. doubly hard when you build in the restrictions of time, budget, resources and technical issues, and even worse when you try and make it character driven (ive been there and had the same problems, so i sympathise)