Use of Audio
The audio was clear and easy to understand. The sound design was well created, with believable effects and emphases. The music that was chosen sounded like it was originated from a child’s music box, which fits with the kindergarten classroom theme. Despite the logic of the music box music, I personally found it somewhat distracting and would have preferred music with a more driving beat for this suspense/action film.
Use of Budget
Considering the cost of renting an HVX200, along with feeding his actors and lighting his set, I feel that the budget of $1000 was probably right on target.
As with Ferrari's other films,
the camera angles are great...
...and powerfully
in your face.
Lasting Appeal
While this movie has some problems, not the least of which is an ending that’s arguably even more ambiguous than the one in Broken, it does have some lasting appeal due to its creativity and effects work. As this was made to be sort of a spec trailer for Mr. Ferrari’s feature film, I think that, if some of the problems that are mentioned in this critique are addressed in the full-length film when he’s not under a time crunch, then his film will have a lot of lasting appeal. For the short, however, the lasting appeal isn’t really high for most folks.
Overall Comment
While I will enjoy seeing what action film Mr. Ferrari creates when he isn’t limiting himself to a beautiful kidnappee, I must say that Cyn has piqued my curiosity to see the Red Princess Blues. In that sense, it is very successful as a spec trailer. (Plus, I think we all really want to see what Mr. Ferrari does with a feature in which he actually must answer questions at the end, rather than leaving all the questions unanswered as he has a tendency to do in his shorts.) As a short, I don’t think it works nearly as well, but I don’t think he ever had any intent of having it stand on its own. I think we all suspect that, in the back of his mind, he was thinking, “Hey, this will make a good extra feature for the Double Disc Collector’s Edition of Red Princess Blues.”
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
