Use of Audio
Much like the Visual Look, the audio is quite good and clear. The use of Michael Bell for the opening narration was really great, though I would have loved it if they could have used him for the closing credits, as well.
The only minor issue with audio is at the very end, in the rolling credits, they have follow up stories about the main cast members. One of these involves a tribal man who represents Johnny at his assault trial. The segment is quite funny, but the audio sounds atrocious. This segment should either be redubbed or included as a deleted scene.
Use of Budget
Most of our regular readers might be curious as to why we are doing a special critique of a film that has over quadruple our budget cap. Well, it started with a girl named Nikki emailing us to tell us that she had just seen the most amazing film about role-players. She explained that her boyfriend, who was the real RPG nut of the two of them, dragged her to GenCon where this film was playing. Despite the fact that she wasn’t anywhere near as into role playing as he was, she loved the movie so much that she began a grass roots campaign to try and get every film magazine she could find to look at the film. We decided that, if a film could inspire that much loyalty in a viewer who wasn’t even in its demographic, then it must be exemplifying the indie spirit and therefore deserved to have us request it as a special critique.
When we realized the filmmaker had shot it on 35mm film with professional lighting, sound, and all SAG actors for under $130 K, we realized that Mr. Folino had pulled off something unbelievably difficult at an amazing price point. To keep the money to the point where it didn’t get too out of control, Folino and crew shot the film in six days, which is why they chose to use all SAG actors. The cost of shooting 30 takes with inexperienced actors would have buried them in costs on 35mm, so the choice to use the much more expensive actors who could nail shots in one or two takes was actually hugely cost effective. That choice was the same reason they went with pro-lighting and pro-sound, as the gaffers and audio folks were experienced enough to keep up with the speedy shooting schedule required. If you’re going to shoot on 35mm film, you couldn’t have made more cost effective choices than Chris Folino did, which is why the Use of Budget score is a perfect ten on this film.
Lasting Appeal
I’ve watched this film now four or five times, and each time I watch it I find something new to enjoy. I’ve shown this to folks who are familiar with paper RPGs and I’ve shown it to folks who have no familiarity with them, and both have found the films fun and enjoyable. Some distributors may think that this film reaches too niche an audience, whereas, in reality it’s audience is about as diverse as if you combined the audiences for both Napoleon Dynamite and Office Space into a single viewing public.
Overall Comment
If you’re interested in seeing a very enjoyable comedy or if you just would like to see how good the lowest cost 35mm film can be, then you should definitely check out Gamers. It easily holds its own with some of the best comedies Hollywood’s been able to produce as far as both content and production quality. I look forward to seeing what Mr. Folino will do in his next film, especially if his next film is a sequel which looks at those addicted to Massive Multi-Player Online RPGs!
