With
the amount of depth that the director crammed into the film
it's shocking that this was a first film for Mr. Ikimi.
One of the few things that does give the director's newness
away, however, is the attempt to over-saturate the film
with symbolism. His goal was to have every character in
the film represent an aspect of morality or philosophy.
Unfortunately, some of the characters didn't have enough
screen time to convey the depth of impact he desired.
Most
noticeably in this was Lasloe the Great, who is supposed
to represent a Satan-like character--someone who perpetually
tempts Adam to become evil. Unfortunately, without having
read a behind-the-scenes character write-up, I wouldn't
have realized this due to the fact that he seems more a
representation of madness and delirium than a malevolent
force that professes to have answers. While Lasloe is interesting
as a maddened character, I think he would have been much
more interesting if there had been sufficient screen time
to establish him as the more evil, tempting personage the
director intended him to be. Now, the director does try
to overcome this issue with Lasloe through strange flashbacks
in Adam's mind when he is most maddened, but, again, it
ends up feeling like a representation of madness rather
than evil. (These disparities are probably due to the fact
that the film started out at 180 minutes and was cut down
to 93 minutes for a variety of reasons.)
Outside
these few issues, the content of Limbo was surprisingly
deep and impressive. I honestly felt that much in this film
came close to being comparable to the moral questions brought
up in Memento. If all the symbolism Mr. Ikimi attempted
had come through, the film might, in fact, have surpassed
the Christopher Nolan epic.
A
mysterious redhead
named Rebecca...
...and
a drug festooned madman
are Adam's only eternal companions.
Visual
Look
With a dark element of noir, this feels very much like a
Hitchcock film, with strong use of lighting and shadow to
portray a tortured man who is slowly growing more insane
as he in turn allows his own demons to possess him. While
there are some shots in Adam Moses' office that have lighting
that is too directional, most of the lighting in the film
is very professionally lit and looks truly incredible.
Before
I get into the more general elements of the visual look,
I wanted to bring up something that is especially nice:
the opening credits. Coda VFX, a Manhattan-based
effects house, created a nicely complex set of motion paths
to direct the names and titles for the credits, combining
them with moving waves of gray and a waving dissolve that
honestly looks like it could have been used in a very expensive
film. (I bring this up especially because credits are
an area that most indie films have a lot of trouble with.
While I understand the desire to have our work speak for
itself and not "waste time" on "flashy"
credits, the reality is that taking the time to create a
nice looking intro credits sequence establishes a feeling
of professionalism in the mind of your audience, regardless
of whether they're conscious of this fact or not.)
The
shooting of the film from start to finish is very impressive.
The use of facial close ups to show madness creeping in,
long shots to show feelings of isolation, and insert XCUs
of things like Adam Moses' twitching fingers as he longs
to lash out and kill someone all come together to convey
the angst of the protagonist's unending plight.
The
film is matted to 2.35:1, which is a mixed blessing. On
one hand, shooting for a 2.35:1 presentation is more professional
than the more commonly shot 1.85:1 ratio. However, the fact
that it was shot to be matted rather than with an anamorphic
lens creates a less refined image due to the limitations
of the XL1-S.
Mr.
Ikimi decided to use the FilmLook process to desaturate
his film, giving it a more filmic gamma and contrast ratio
and converting it to 24 fps. This was a very good call,
as the end result really does resemble film tremendously.
(For those unaware of the FilmLook company, they are a company
based out of Southern California that created a patented
process by the same name which incorporates a special combination
of filters, gamma corrections, and contrast adjustments
to allow prosumer and professional DV footage to look as
though it were originated on film. While FilmLook offers
other services which aren't quite as refined, they have
gotten this particular offering down to a science and it
really does look good.)
Rather
than going with the more common convention of color, Mr.
Ikimi chose to go with black and white. From a style sense,
this is a way to portray good and evil in a very tangible
sense. This combined with lighting and the shooting in general
worked to great effect.
Despite
all the visual choices that worked well, there were a few
problems. We'll start with some of the more blatant issues
and go through to the more subtle issues.
The
one issue that unfortunately stuck out like a sore thumb
came in the form of two situations in which they switched
from 24 FPS to 30 FPS. Both were hand-held follow shots,
one of which tracked Adam and Rebecca walking down the street
and the other followed a chase in which Adam was running
after a hooded man. The director explained to me that the
footage was too shaky to be converted to 24 FPS without
looking very strobe-y, so he had the FilmLook process applied
at 30 FPS. Unfortunately, because 30 FPS is so similar to
the way the human eye perceives the world, these sequences
immediately look like they came from a black and white reality
television show.
One
way to have more stable shots for future films would be
to create a steadycam with the simple $14 plan from last
issue and the optional sled to support the XL1-S. Another
way is the way Doug Liman pulled off his 'following' shot
in the casino in Swingers: have your cameraman sit in a
wheelchair and push him after your talent. This last way
can allow you to smoothly follow two people down a street
or even follow a chase if you set down a thin piece of wood
to use as a ramp down a curb.
