One of the nicer things about the “past” is its look; the scenes have a sort of yellow/gold tint to them. It’s a bit subtle, but not only does it look good, but gives a visual differentiation. This was a technique employed in the film The Matrix, where the “real world” had a blue tint to it, and the Matrix had a green tint. The interior of his parents’ house was tinted more blue, but there was still a bit of yellow in the tint there as well. The only scene that didn’t match the tinted theme was when Brian first arrives in the past.
There were also some nice dolly shots, especially in one scene when Brian’s mom is in the shower. (In that particular scene, I was hoping for an homage to Psycho, as clichéd as it may have been.)
The only problem I had with lighting was in Brian’s parents’ living room, which was lit a bit too darkly, especially compared to their bathroom which had no windows but was a lot brighter. Given the dramatic scene that takes place in that living room, it should have more lighting. But the camerawork and lighting in the rest of the film was great!
There’s a whole bunch of great music in this film. It is mostly haunting piano pieces, but also creepy music to go with the more eerie scenes, and a hard rock song to go along with Brian’s breakdown montage. Though I’m not a fan of the particular scene (as mentioned above), the music did provide a great jarring effect that matched it very well.
There weren’t any issues with audio quality, either; no big variations in volume or pitch at all, which is quite impressive.
In writing this section of the critique, I’ve actually only just now looked at the film’s submission sheet to see its budget.
I was expecting somewhere around $10,000, but it actually cost $3,000. I have to admit to still being bug-eyed (and a wee bit jealous.)
The money was used for actor’s expenses, food, tapes, lights, a storyboarding software, sound design, the music score, and camera repair. Certainly the cost of post-production sound and a score was money very well spent. And the added cost of camera repair (because it was dropped on the last day of shooting! Ouch!) though it had to have been a real pain, was certainly better than packing it in or trying to get a cheaper camera.
This was especially entertaining for my husband and I to watch as we tend to argue quite frequently about this subject (can we say nerds?). But even his overly-critical self (who usually gets kicked out halfway through my critique stack) really liked this movie!
Overall Comment
“Man ... can go up against gravitation in a balloon, and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension, or even turn about and travel the other way.” –H.G. Wells, The Time Machine
