Visual Look
At the beginning of the film, there’s a nice series of old footage that sets up the story of the prison’s warden who allegedly engaged in the occult practices that led to the modern-day zombies lurking in the basement. While this is a nice use of old stock footage, it is combined with a voice-over and occasional shots of a woman narrating the story. She is shot in black and white, but slightly colored to duotone; my guess is to imitate the old film look. However, her visuals just end up looking really mismatched with the rest of the old footage. While this sequence does a good job to explain the story, it might be better with just a voice over.
While it’s surely impossible to shoot a microbudget movie inside an actual prison, the trick is to find locations that will double for one. These filmmakers did a pretty good job at finding locations that doubled for a prison. There were plenty of scenes with cinder-block walls, industrial piping, and metal everywhere. It didn’t look totally realistic – especially the lack of prison bars - but on such a low budget I’m sure it’s difficult to find these types of locations. I noticed quite a lot of extreme close-ups, which I’m sure were strategically planned. There’s nothing wrong with shooting close-up to disguise a not-so-realistic location, but it’s confusing to an audience to jump from close-up to close-up without the benefit of a wide shot to set the scene. The filmmakers included exterior shots of a prison, but that’s not quite enough in this case. The audience already knows that our characters are inside a prison; they need a bit of context. The extra expense of stock footage could be really helpful here – interior shots of a prison and the yard and so forth. It might be difficult to match the two together, but it would be a bit easier for the audience to get a sense of where the characters are. (Additionally, some creative and well-planned greenscreen work can allow you to place your characters in a set you couldn't normally afford to shoot in or into the aforementioned stock footage. For more info on doing this well, check out our Greenscreen Issue. Additionally, our edtior, Jeremy Hanke, is writing a book on this subject, which should be out by 2009 from MWP.)
There was a brief shot of Jared and Miguel looking at a map of the prison while discussing their exit strategy, which was a nice touch, although it’s still not quite enough to give the audience an idea of the layout. By using enough wide shots early on, the audience will have a better idea of how much and how far it will take to get these two out of prison. (Think of the heist explanation scene in Soderbergh’s version of Ocean’s Eleven; it’s a bit too high-tech for a microfilmmaker, but it sets up the heist perfectly.)
And speaking of stock footage, another thing that was lacking in this movie was extras. We’re always hearing about prison overcrowding, so one has to assume that even in a small prison there would always be people around. Yet there are only a few prisoners in even the wider shots. There’s also a rather conspicuous lack of guards as well. Getting enough extras is always a challenge, but never underestimate the willingness of your average stranger passing by to be in a movie. (Just make sure you get them to sign a release form first!)
There was a nice visual effect when the zombies began to appear: a very eerie looking fog that crept from the basement and up the stairs. I’m guessing it was footage played backwards, but it looked really good – a very creepy look for quite cheap.
Unfortunately, the film had quite a few visual issues. There were a few instances of repeated shots – the same footage used a couple times during the movie, a big no-no. Also some of the images looked off-color, as though the white balance was off and the color was over-saturated. Some of the exterior stills of the prison were shakey, as if they were copied from a paused movie.
Use of Audio
I really liked the score of this movie. There were some great eerie sounds that helped to set the mood. There were a couple instances where it started to sound a bit like video game music, especially during one scene where the same musical sequence repeated itself several times without having been blended together. There was also very little ambient “prison noise” in the background, mostly because the music was so overpowering. While the music did help to set the scene, it also detracted from the realistic factor. To reiterate MSNBC documentaries, it seems as if prison is always noisy, and the lack of yelling, slamming, and metallic noises in this movie didn’t help to give the illusion of an actual prison. (Conversely, strong use of sound effects can often overcome weaker visuals. Adding great sound effects can be found in Sony Picture's Sound Effects Series or in Digital Juice's SoundFX libraries.)
