Much of the memorable areas that fall into the visual look area fall into wardrobe and sight gags. Some of these are memorable for being humorous, and some of them are memorable for being bad.
For example, there was one funny scene where, just after his arrival on earth, Bum Man models several new outfits for his new friends Gutter Girl and Hobo Boy. Now, Bum Man is not exactly built like Brad Pitt, so his whole routine of “making love to the camera” in various outfits - including a dress – inspires a lot of laughter in both his fellow bums as well as the viewing audience.
However, when it comes to clothing, it seemed that Gutter Girl and Hobo Boy were dressed awfully nicely for being homeless people. Their jeans had a couple of rips in them, but both their jackets looked quite nice, and their clothes matched as well. It wouldn’t have been too hard to get some non-matching goodwill clothes and attack them with a scissors, a couple splashes of oil, and maybe a mud puddle or two. Bum Man’s clothing looked appropriately well-worn, so I’m surprised that more attention wasn’t paid to the other homeless characters.
In perhaps another nod to Ed Wood, there were a couple scenes that took place in a room set with little else but black sheets on the wall. The first was in the Mayor’s office. The Mayor (who isn’t identified as such until much later in the film, which is very confusing for the audience, especially since he is addressed as “Your Honor”) is sitting behind a desk, and Mr. Rich addresses him from a chair on the other side. While Ed Wood tended to cover walls with black sheets to create extra locations, he at least had the advantage of shooting in black and white. I had to wonder why the filmmakers hadn’t just shot in a different angle at the hotel suite that was rented for the scene in Mr. Rich’s house, and just dressed it up with an American flag and/or a picture of a famous person. Most hotel suites have desks or tables that can double as one.
In another instance, there was a brief scene that I believe was supposed to be in a strip club. It consisted of a room covered in black cloth, a shot of a girl dancing, and Sharley’s boyfriend Mike ogling her while drinking a beer. However, this scene seemed a bit unnecessary. The audience is already aware of the fact that Mike is not a stellar example of a human being – as evidenced by his earlier insistence that Diane quit her job as a reporter and become a stripper. Plus it smacked of gratuitous nudity as well. All that aside, the set certainly did not look like the typical strip club. It wouldn’t have been too difficult to get a couple blacklight bulbs from Wal-Mart (they screw into any ordinary light fixture), or an inexpensive strobe/multi-colored light from Spencer’s. Considering how short the scene is, these probably could’ve even been returned once the scene was shot to save money.
As in the old Superman TV shows, a green screen is used to create the effect of Bum Man flying. (Actually, the old Superman shows didn’t use greenscreen. One of the shows used bluescreen while, I believe, an older incarnation used a harness and rear projection.) Unfortunately, unlike the old Superman shows, Bum Man’s cape doesn’t flap in the breeze as he flies. As such, for future Bum Man movies, it would be a good idea to set up a fan to create a bit of wind effect. Yes, it’s a little cheesy, but I do think the scene would benefit from more movement that the gradual motion of Bum Man’s arms
Use of Audio
There weren’t too many major audio issues to this movie. I did notice several instances where indoor audio had a bit of an echo, particularly in an early scene between Diane and her boss. Since this particular room looked awfully bare, that was probably the reason for all the echo. In future, when shooting in a room with minimal furniture and blank walls, make an effort to cover up any space not on camera with surfaces that will absorb rather than reflect sound. (Rolls of carpet, foam, or pillows can do a good job of breaking the reflections bare walls generate.) Even a couple extra bodies (preferably the live ones) in a room can do a lot for sound absorption. Of course, if all else fails, there’s always the process of re-looping the audio, but, obviously, it’s best to get it right the first time. (If this is necessary, though, MFM has a great article on setting up your own ADR studio here.)
