Content
Content is where this short suffers the most because it
doesn't seem to have a clear understanding of where it
is going or to have had a lot of forethought put into
it. As I mentioned before, it seems to have grown out
of the desire for Jim Dellavalle to have a cool reel of
some of his stunts and Mr. Harris to have some good examples
of what his Brownstone Beam is capable of.
As
such, the resulting mini-documentary kind of rambles all
over the place. The basic beginning doesn't explain who
Jim Dellavalle is to those who are unfamiliar with him
nor does it tell us all that much about him, other than
that he's from Pennsylvania and got into BMX when he saw
his cousin do a 360 bunny hop. Then, after the stunt riding
sequences, there's no real ending to the film. Rather,
at the end of a bunch of tricks at the third park, they
just pause Dellavalle's last trick and fade into credits.
Visual
Look
The visual look for this film is a mixed bag. Mr. Harris
explained that he had some volunteer editing done and
it almost looks as though two different editors did the
interview segments versus the actual scenes of Jim Dellavalle
busting tricks.
The
interview section has a number of problems. The layout
and lighting for the interviews are drab with Dellavalle
being plastered to the robin's egg blue padding they used
as a background, which causes shadows to show up a lot.
Additionally, there are strange editing choices that involve
replays of the last phrase Dellavalle would say and grainy
enlargements of his lips during the replay. Another strange
editing choice in these scenes is the lack of a 1/3 graphic
with the name of Jim Dellavalle and some info for those
who aren't familiar with him. For all I know, he's the
next Dave Mirra, but the lack of info makes a viewer think
he's just some kid they found at a local skate park.
