Sound effects are very much needed in any film, but they cannot be acquired with the tinny mic onboard a camera. Unfortunately, the film’s creators chose to go this route rather than getting pre-recorded sound effects. This results in very tinny, hissy background sound (or “Nat” Sound) and sound effects that cut in and out in a most distracting way. I would recommend removing all the Nat sound and simply replacing it all with sound effects. You can get a huge selection of these from Sony’s Sound Effects Library, or you can also get many free sound effects from Soundsnap.com.
Use of Budget
As the camera appeared to be handheld throughout the entire film, the mic was the onboard camera mic, and no special lights seem to be employed, I’m not sure how the $2,000 was spent that made up this budget. The only thing I can assume is that this is the cost of buying a GL-1 used, which still is not a great use of budget if that is where the entire budget is coming from. For future films, more time needs to be spent thinking of what things are really needed for the film, besides just the camera, ahead of time and that needs to be worked into the budget. Examples of minimal things that really need to be considered would be a decent shotgun mic and adapter for the GL-1, a home-built light kit, and a tripod.
While some of the letterboxed
stock footage is nice...
...It doesn't blend at all with the
full-screen handheld footage.
Lasting Appeal
Honestly, because of the sheer number of problems in the film, I do not have a desire to watch it again or show this film to my friends. The overall premise was interesting, but the problematic implementation removed rewatchability from the film for me.
Overall Comment
This was an ambitious first project for Mr. Watkins and I commend him for getting out there to make his first film. As he is learning more of the basics, I would encourage him to maybe try a shorter film, say a 3 – 5 minute one, to cut his teeth on. Then when he has done a few shorts, move up to a longer film once he has mastered more of the basics of filmmaking. I think Mr. Watkins’ voice will be a very interesting one in future years as he refines his craft and nails down more of the basics of filmmaking.
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.
