Use of Audio
The dialogue recording is pretty clear throughout the film, utilizing a nice Sennheiser medium gun mic. Due to the size of the apartment, there was a little too much room tone in the dialogue, and, due to mic placement, the vocals were a little muddy at times, but neither were too excessive.
The music in this film is utterly amazing, with a gorgeous piano, strings, and synth melody underscoring Claire’s emotional turmoil and her decision to lie to Ryan about her behavior. There are a number of times where the sheer emotion of the music conveys elements of the storyline that aren’t necessarily indicated by the images, which is a very impressive accomplishment.
As I mentioned in content, there could have stood to have been a little clarifying narration. This is especially true due to the rather meager amount of dialogue that is used throughout the film.
Use of Budget
Although Mr. Caldwell already owned the XL2 he shot the film on, he did have to rent the P+S Technik Mini35 and Zeiss prime lenses. Considering the fact that this adapter with necessary attachments and basic prime lenses retails for $15,000-$20,000 (depending on which lenses you get), the majority of the budget must have gone to the rental of that. While Redrock Micro offers a substantially less expensive setup that can do the same thing, their equipment is largely on backorder currently and isn’t nearly as available in rental houses as P+S Technik’s adapter, so I can certainly understand why they might not have been a viable option for the timetable he needed to shoot this film in.
In addition to the rental, he managed to scrape together some very nice lighting, which is especially noticeable during the flashback sequences.
Lasting Appeal
There are two elements of lasting appeal for this film: one is as a film and one is as a piece of art. As a film, this short is good…as a piece of art, it’s pretty amazing.
The issues with the ending are the reason why this short is good, but not great. It will definitely get people talking about their interpretations of the ending but, like the theatrical cut off Donnie Darko, there is very little objective representation of what the director intended for the ending to be.
The gorgeous depth of field, rack focuses, lighting, and music made this piece a work of art that can be recognized for technical excellence in the art of filmmaking.
Either way, it’s a short that’s both rewatchable and reshowable.
Overall Comment
The winner of MTV’s First Annual Student Filmmaker Award, The Beautiful Lie shows a whole lot of heart and an even greater amount of art. While it’s not perfect, it is intriguing and really speaks volumes to indicate what sort of work we’ll see out of Mr. Caldwell in future shorts and features. If you’d like to watch this fascinating short, you can go to IndieFlix and download it for a small fee!
