Despite all the visual things that this film does right, there were some issues in the visuals department.
The most noticeable issue comes in one scene that is done exceptionally wrong. There’s a fist fight that occurs between one of Archie’s right hand enforcers, Preacher (Allan Carrasco), and the Stranger. Unfortunately, clearly very little was known about fight choreography by the folks who made the film. As such, the fight is painful to watch, reminding me almost exactly of a James T. Kirk fist fight in the original Star Trek, complete with William Shatner’s flopping onto the bad guys. While reshooting is the only way to completely fix the fight’s issue, the impact of some of the blows can at least be improved by adding louder and more convincing sound effects. (For future films, I would recommend looking into John Kreng’s book, Fight Choreography: The Art of Non-Verbal Dialogue, which we reviewed earlier this year.)
The second issue was a bit more minor but still strangely noticeable and that was in the use of side-firing blanks in certain characters’ revolvers. (These blanks fire out of the revolver chamber, not the muzzle.) As such, some scenes, like an execution scene involving JT shooting Archie, clearly show the muzzle fire coming out of the revolver chambers as opposed to the muzzle. This ends up looking very much like a mistake. To draw attention away from these smaller explosions, I would encourage the filmmakers to add muzzle fire in post using something like MuzzlePlug for After Effects or ParticleIllusion.
Other than a few medium long shots between Stranger and Crackhead Joe as they walked through town (which were a little muddied), most of the dialogue was clean and easy to hear. (For future films, if you are getting long shots of characters, it’s always a good idea to consider wireless lavalier mics for those shoot days, because it’s so difficult to get the shotgun mic at the appropriate range.)
The western-based guitar, synthesizer, and harmonica music in this film was top notch. It really had the professional flare you expect from a high-budget western and went a long way toward establishing a believable mood for the film, even when acting issues popped up.
Considering how good this film looks and the amount of work that was put into its audio, as well, $13,000 is very impressive. Even more so since all the main actors and crew were paid, with the remaining costs going to gas, food, and equipment rental.
Despite some of the acting gaffs, there is still a decent amount of lasting appeal in this film. For filmmakers who want to see how good some of the new HD cameras can look when properly planned, this is a film that a lot of our readers would do well to watch. I personally wouldn’t mind watching it again and will be interested to show it to some of my friends, specifically ones who like westerns or Mad-Max-style action films.
While it has some performance and choreography issues, Escape from Darwin is an excellent entry into feature filmmaking. With the technical competency Mr. Criste and his crew have shown in this film, I really look forward to their future films.
