Visual Look
This film had some great visuals. It opened with a musical montage of images of the country and small town area in which these characters live, which helped set the scene and background. I was also surprised with the film’s handheld look; initially, it seemed a bit odd and at times too shaky, especially when compared with the earlier unmoving camera, but after I got used to the constantly moving images and frequent extreme close-ups, I really loved it. A constantly moving camera creates visual interest and helps the viewer feel as though they are looking through the eyes of an individual observing the entire scene. On occasion, some of the rapid pans and handhelds became a little too shaky, but overall it was a good look.
One thing that really impressed me was the good job the filmmakers did at avoiding washout from the windows. The majority of the interiors were shot in the kitchen/living room area, where there are two doors – with people constantly coming in and out – and a rather large window. There were a couple of instances of washout when a character opened the door, but mostly both the interiors and exteriors were well exposed, with very little washout. This can be very difficult to accomplish and says a lot about the skills of the filmmakers doing it so well.
The film’s sequences were divided into morning, afternoon, night, each denoted by a black title card with white letters. At first this seemed a little odd, but it was probably a good choice as the entire story happens in the course of a day, and without the title cards one might not realize that fact.
There were a couple minor issues that I noticed. Firstly, there is quite a long sequence with Mike at work that, while it providing character insight into him and his co-workers, it is rather long and doesn’t do a lot to advance the plot. Also, in a scene where Virginia talks to Alex about her feelings for Jason, there are multiple jump-cuts in what would normally be a single, one-shot of her as she rambles on. At the first cut, it looked like a mistake, but after a while I realized it was a purposeful edit. It’s understandable to convey the frantic nature of Virginia’s monologue, but still looks a little odd since this technique doesn’t match the rest of the film. Finally, there were a few skips in the video toward the end of the film, which could probably be fixed by proper rendering or re-burning the DVD.
Use of Audio
This film had a nice soundtrack. The choice to incorporate entire songs periodically, in combination with a montage of images, was certainly an interesting one. Just like the title cards, it served to separate the film into sections. It was also an interesting choice not to use mood music, except during the montages. I think it worked well, as too much music can easily detract from the mood of a film. In addition, there was a lot of nice background noise, particularly at night with the sound of crickets chirping.
The biggest problem was the inconsistent audio level, wherein the movie started out with music that stopped when the dialogue started, and then the volume became significantly lower and I had to turn it up. On occasion, throughout sections of dialogue, the levels would dip or rise unexpectedly and, whenever a character was facing away from the camera, their audio was almost unintelligible. Then every time a song started it would be too loud again and I’d have to lower the volume. This is something to be addressed – audio levels are very tricky, but they have to be consistent so an audience member doesn’t have to keep adjusting the volume on their TV. A skilled audio engineer should be able to help with this and would be a worthwhile investment.
