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Richard's place of employment is a large office building with a massive glass front. One might expect that his desk would be in a small windowless office filled with television screens, but is instead in the building's lobby. This space is cavernous - all of the floors in this building look out onto it. The floor is all tiled and one whole wall is comprised of massive windows that give a clear view to the outside. The location is, basically, a cinematographer's worst nightmare. But this location - which was shot from multiple angles during both day and night time - looked amazing. There were some really beautiful wide shots that showed the whole space, including the windows looking outside, perfectly exposed. The rest of the film followed suit; all the other scenes looked great. Although a high end camera, the Sony HDW F900r - a camera that retails for around $70,000 or rents for around $1,000 a day - was used, I’ve seen plenty of films with high end cameras that didn’t look this good. Clearly the cinematographer should be praised for his impressive work on this film.
I was also very impressed with a sequence of Richard's workplace being robbed and him chasing after the thief; especially a great shot that followed both of them running through the parking garage. At first I thought it was a dolly tracking shot, but when both individuals crossed over where the track should have been, it must have been a steadicam or some other very clever rig. The shot looked perfect - hardly even much shake, either. There was another sequence where Richard was waiting outside to be picked up by the Ascension Agency. He sits down and soon nods off, drifting into another memory. When he wakes suddenly, the shot is in the same position as previous, but there is now a vehicle parked in front of Richard, but he can be seen through the open back doors. It's a little touch that most people wouldn't even have thought of, but was an excellent choice.
As with the above category, the sound design at Richard's workplace was amazing. If there is one place that should have had tons and tons of echo, it would have been that great cavernous space. But I didn't notice any at all, which certainly means the production had an amazing soundman (or woman). Ironically enough, there was echo in the scene where Richard first goes to meet the Ascension Agency - it is a small sparsely furnished room, painted completely white; not unlike where Jim Carrey first meets God in 'Bruce Almighty,' but creepier. If the color white could ever be creepy, it certainly is in this case. Normally echo (or reverb) is highly discouraged in audio recording for film, unless a scene is set in a location that would naturally have reverb, but even then it should be very controlled. Although this room appeared to be full of hard surfaces, one wouldn't normally intentionally add reverb to the scene. But in this case, it was a great choice. In further props to the sound designer, the reverb matched perfectly in every take; whether it was shot that way or added in later, it's still a wonderful effect. Once again, the filmmakers chose to get good equipment for their short by using the Sennheiser 416 shotgun mike, among others.
There is a really nice mix of music in this film. It opens with a beautiful minor piano piece, then there is more of an action theme song while Richard is chasing a thief through his building, and, finally, a modern song that plays while he is at a pub. It all sets the tone for the film very well. The only problem is that volume levels aren't always consistent, and I found myself having to turn the volume up and down quite frequently. There is also a scene where Richard is on the phone and the dialogue from the other person becomes overpowered by the music because its volume is too high. As a reminder, in many films, the standard audio levels that everything is mixed to are: -12 Db for dialogue and sweeping music, -18 Db for music beds, and –6 to –8 Db for special effects.
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