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Two shots are especially noteworthy, both of which occurred in night shrouded environments. The first is a crane reveal of the cat being hunted, which moves up a fence to show the cat leap on the top of the fence and then moves up to a full moon in the sky. While the shot has tiny tell-tale elements of being digitally composited (as the perfectly exposed sky and overly large moon just don't exist in reality), it truly looks exquisite and professional. The second shot is a beautiful rack focus down the barrel of a sniper rifle with an 85mm prime lens, starting with the cat hunter targeting down his scope and ending with the business end of the rifle. This definitely reminds you of some Robert Rodriguez shots from movies like El Mariachi and Desperado.
Considering that one of my larger issues with Ocatilla Flats was with the lighting during night sequences, I'm struck by how much Nils managed to improve in this area—even more so since Nils apparently covered the entire cinematography department himself. I've really got to give him high praise for doing all the research he could in this area to turn out such a high quality project.
The film's editing was competently cut together, telling the story in a logical and easy to follow manner. As Nils used the Adobe's CS3 Production Premium to edit this, I assume he probably also made use of OnLocation CS3 as his production monitor to make sure everything was in focus in the field. (This is always a good precaution when using a 35mm lens adapter, as it can be very easy to get out of focus if you're not very careful.)
While the narration was the dominant audio source in this film, there was lots of nat sound and effects recording done, like the sound of ceiling fans whirring and the sound of the cat hunter crunching on cat food. These were all recorded well with a Sennheiser shotgun mic.
The original score created David McRae was awesome. The first time I watched this film, I simply let it wash over me and noticed that it complimented the story nicely. When I watched through it again and listened more closely both to the timbre/tempo of the score and how McRae combined it with deep cats' purring and other feline sounds, I was blown away at the cleverness of the composition, arrangement, and sound design.
The $650 budget was spent mainly on transport, props, and food, so clearly the main camera, gaffing, and grip gear was part of Nils' pre-owned equipment (as opposed to being rented). These are all very logical expenses, especially with the high quality of the film that was able to be turned out.
While the ending may not be completely shocking, the overall storytelling of The Cat Hunter was well done. That, combined with the polished visuals and audio, make sure that this is a film I will rewatch myself and show to others. This can definitely be an encouragement to other low budget filmmakers of how professional a project can be that's shot on a very low budget.
When I critiqued Ocatilla Flats, I said that, now that Myers (who had experience shooting on traditional film) had gotten his first taste of shooting a completely digital film, I looked forward to seeing the next digital film he released. Well, after a year of polishing his style and finding ways to bring his film skills more prominently to the digital realm, Myers certainly hasn't disappointed. With this sort of improvement, I can't wait to see what his next film will be. Mr. Myers is definitely becoming a filmmaker to watch out for!
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Content |
9.0 |
Visual
Look |
9.9 |
Use
of Audio |
9.9 |
Use
of Budget |
9.8 |
Lasting
Appeal |
9.5 |
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9.6 |
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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. |
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