Visual
Look
There
is some really nice camerawork in this film. There are some
interesting shots, several wide-angle lens shots, and use
of mirrors. Plus, as I mentioned before, the moving camera
also adds a lot of visual interest.
However,
I did notice a few visual elements that need to be addressed.
The major ones dealt with the use of a wide-angle lens.
In a lot of these shots, the camera is zoomed out too wide
and the edges of the lens can be seen in the corners of
the shot. This is something that really needs to be fixed,
but unfortunately it can't really be done in post. It might
be a good idea to use different shots to replace these,
or perhaps even do a re-shoot. Another issue that may necessitate
a re-shoot is a dirty lens. In a lot of the outdoor shots,
the camera is angled so that the sunlight reflects off of
the lens, making water spots and dirt on said lens very,
very obvious. Once again, this can't be fixed in post, so
re-editing or re-shooting might be in order here.
There
were also a couple more minor issues that I noticed - there
were digital artifacts in some of the darker scenes, and
at one point in the driving sequence the color shifts to
blue with lots of digital artifacts. These two issues can
be fixed quite easily in post - artifacts usually show up
due to rendering or bad importing. Finally, in the indoor
scenes when the camera pans past a window, there is some
darkening due to the sunlight coming through. This is a
little difficult to fix, but as the effect isn't too dramatic
it could be overlooked. Otherwise, if the filmmakers decide
to re-shoot the scenes, curtains over the windows could
lessen the darkening effect of the sunlight. Otherwise,
a re-shoot could be planned for on a cloudy day or -- the
more expensive solution -- neutral density (ND) film over
the windows.
Use
of Audio
The
interesting part about this film is that there is almost
no audio for about the first 20 mins - not even during the
brief scene in which Steve is watching TV. There are no
conversations that last for any longer than about three
sentences until the very end when Paul meets Dr. Bird. Once
again, this is another thing that seems to add an art film
feel to the movie.
On the
one hand, the lack of dialogue isn't a bad thing, as it
seems to enhance the emptiness in Paul's life. However,
this also makes it difficult to understand exactly what
is going on. It's not clear what the two men's relationship
is with each other, and why Steve is sleeping on the couch.
When I first saw Paul pull out a utility knife and cut himself
with it, I thought that perhaps he might be a cutter - firstly
because he smeared the blood on his arm, which is something
that cutters often do - and also because he simply rolled
over and went right back to sleep after what was apparently
meant to be a suicide attempt. After a while, the audience
can tell that he is obviously depressed and suicidal, but
it might be a good idea to make this fact clearer with some
dialogue or flashback sequences. It's hard to have sympathy
for a character when he or she seems to just be wallowing
in self-pity - I think an audience might find Paul more
of a sympathetic character if they knew the circumstances
that put him in this depression in the first place.
I really
enjoyed the music in this film - it definitely fit the mood
and made for some very nice montages in the driving sequences.
Also, I did notice that the audio volume dips quite suddenly
when Paul meets Dr. Bird; I had to turn up the volume on
my player for the rest of the movie.
