With that said, let’s move on to the other aspects of the audio of the film.
In my first critique, I mentioned that the audio effects were a little all over the board. The effects for the crucial gunshots for the killing of Kevin by Ray and, later, when Ray takes his own life were excellent. However, early in the film, Ray gets into a scuffle at a club with no sound effects being added to the fight. Many of these issues were still there in this new version of the film, only they were more noticeable because so much work was being done with the audio in general. As such, when a sound effect wasn’t where we expected it to be or it was too soft, it’s now even more noticeable that it’s gone. It’s almost like there’s a skip in the audio. [Note to the Director: I would recommend looking into the Sony Pictures Sound Effects Vol. 1-10 that we reviewed here a few month’s back.]
Now, one thing that has been improved since the last critique in the effects department was the inclusion of sound effects when the actors are playing video games, which is a nice touch that ads more immersion to the film. (Although, one choice of SuperMario 3’s music and sound effects as an Xbox game might be a bit problematic, as the music is too well known by much of the 20-something population that would watch this film and therefor a bit distracting. Not to mention, it’s undoubtedly copywritten by Nintendo.) Another nice touch is that he’s added in audio for films and TV shows that the characters are apparently watching, which really adds to the believability. (Strangely, everyone in the film seems to be watching TV shows and films that have to do with making films.)
The music for the film was quite good for almost all of the film, with a pretty good rap soundtrack that really got you into the heads of these urban youths. The transitions on the songs worked very well, with the only complaint I had in the last critique on this subject being smoothly fixed by Mr. Shahin and his audio engineer.
The only time where the music was ill-suited for the scene was in a segment where Chris is at the graveyard talking to Carlos’ grave. A very clearly looped piece of music plays in this scene that sounds like it was quickly cobbled together in Soundtrack Pro or GarageBand. This is a very long scene, although it is cross cut with a scene between Ray and his older brother in prison, and really needs music that suits it better than this very looped track. Probably one of the best economical solutions to make good sounding music in a situation like this would be either with Smartsound’s SonicFire Pro 4 (available for Mac or PC) or Sony’s CineScore (available for PC), both of which retail for under $200.
Use of Budget
For the $16,000 they had to put into this film, the filmmaker and his crew made all the correct choices, including trying to get some decent audio equipment and putting $2,000 toward redubbing and remixing after my rough critique.
Lasting Appeal
I absolutely wanted to watch this film again after I had finished it the first time and I absolutely wanted to show it to people. The fact that there are now fewer audio issues then there were make it much more rewatchable than it was before. While some of the very noticeable audio issues at the beginning of the movie are still problematic, the audio work has definitely brought this film much closer in rewatchability to movies like Requiem for a Dream and American History X.
Overall Comment
This is an amazing film debut from Michael Shahin. A compelling plot, realistic characters, awesome camerawork, and the fact that it’s rooted in truth make it a film that needs to be seen.
His hard work on the audio since the last release of this film is very evident, causing the film to be much more watchable and rewatchable. While it still could use some work in the beginning dubbing sections, this is a film that has evolved nicely from it’s rough cut to the final draft. I look forward to seeing what the next film Mr. Shahin releases will be, because he’s really a very talented director (and actor, for that matter).
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Content |
9.0 |
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Visual
Look |
9.0 |
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Use
of Audio |
7.5 |
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Use
of Budget |
8.6 |
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Lasting
Appeal |
8.9 |
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Overall
Score |
8.6
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