Use of Audio
The audio was almost exclusively done in post, being comprised nearly exclusively of sound effects, audio clips, and music. Grammy-nominated composer Frank Macchia orchestrated an impressive mix of original and classical music to show the dilemma of both the wife and husband in this film and sound designer Matt Scott Baker did a great job of choosing sound effects that highlighted the comedy of the piece. The only place that the effects may be a problem was when they chose to use live telecast audio for shows like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which could be a copyright issue if not cleared. If the clearance is not certain, I would suggest creating original TV-show style audio, so that there is no chance the film could be prevented from being shown.
Earlier I said the audio was almost exclusively done in post, but there was one occurrence of live dialogue being recorded. As the enthusiastic wife is telling her girlfriends about the HusBAND, she demonstrates by pulling out her remote and aggressively pressing the “Zap” button. At which point the husband storms in and shouts, “WHATTTT??” Unfortunately, this audio appears to have been recorded on the HD100’s onboard camera mic and was done at such a volume that it “redlined” the audio, so that even when the audio’s volume was reduced in the edit, it was still slightly distorted. Although I’ve heard worse distortion, the fact that all of the effects and music in the movie are so pristine makes the problematic scream sound noticeably off. As such, I would recommend redubbing this outburst with care being taken to record the scream so that it doesn’t overload the mic’s sensors. (If you want to read our article on setting up a dubbing studio, you can get the basic ideas, although the dubbing will not be nearly as intensive for a single word as it would be for an entire scene or an entire film.)
There is one final comment I would make in the audio section. There is currently no listing of songs used in the film in the credits. While this often occurs if the score composer created a completely original score, this should not be the case if there are songs that have been re-recorded and included. Since there are clearly a couple of well-known classical music pieces that are recorded for this movie, there should be a listing of these songs in the credits.
When the wife tells all of
her friends about her discovery...
...soon all the husbands are sporting
the BANDs and miserable.
Use of Budget
$5,000 is a bit on the high side for a 12 minute short with virtually no recorded dialogue, a small cast, and only four sets. However, the fact that it was lit as well as it was means that a decent amount of that budget went to lighting rental, as well as the rental of the HD100, and any necessary consumables for that. In addition, the director paid his crew, his post-production people and would have been covering food for everyone, so this seems like a fair budget.
Lasting Appeal
THE HusBAND is a cute movie. It highlights the differences between the genders and the connections that hold us together in marriage in a light, but clever way. Its musically charged, silent-movie style is quirky enough to make it something that I didn’t mind watching multiple times and wouldn’t mind showing friends.
Overall Comment
The HusBAND is a well directed and produced comedy about the dangers of selfishness in one’s marriage. It is a high-quality entry from Wade Balance and his team and I look forward to seeing what he creates in the future.
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.
