Date With a Chicken follows the format of an old-time silent movie, down to the jerky movements and sepia-tinted footage. The movie was shot with 35mm film stock, which always gives a great look to this style, and any supposed mistakes will (usually) only enhance the visuals.
Even with the monotone coloring and "low" quality, there was still no shortage of visual interest. The camera sat on the ground for many shots, such as a really nice one where both the man and chicken were walking together. There were also quite a few nice rack focus shots, particularly the obligatory post-coital cigarette, and, despite film being difficult to light for (especially at night!), the harsh shadows in the images looked amazing!
With a movie that is supposed to appear to be lower quality, its always difficult to judge what “mistakes” appear to be purposeful choices, and what are the result of sloppy filmmaking. It's certainly tempting to get lazy when it comes to this particular style but, much as “destroyed” jeans cost far more than regular ones, it sometimes takes even more effort to make a film look purposefully bad than just following the normal “rules” in the first place.
Given the silent movie format of this film, the soundtrack category is all that needs to be considered here, but a good soundtrack is vitally important to help set the tone and enhance the action on screen. This one was composed by the director and, although it sounded great, I don't think it matched terribly well with the movie. The music had more of rock music feel which gave an overall suspenseful tone, where the film itself had jerky Charlie Chaplin-esque images and an overall humorous tone - dark humor, though it was. That particular music matches a bit better if the director intended to take the film in the aforementioned early Hollywood seedy underbelly direction, though I still think that the quirky nature would be enhanced by a soundtrack mimicking the typical tinny piano of the silent era.
Date With A Chicken was shot while on two days' vacation in Paris with a budget of only $1,000. That number is challenging alone while shooting on 35mm, let alone in one of Europe's more expensive cities! Besides film stock, the rest of the money was spent on incidental accessories, as well as the “star” - a live chicken purchased from a market. And for the more “intimate” scenes involving closeups with a chicken head and foot, the crew used parts from a butcher shop.
Not only was the director resourceful (yes, it does seem a little disgusting to use the severed head and foot from a dead chicken as a prop, but it did look a lot more realistic than trying to model these parts), but also managed to shoot a very good quality 35mm film on a very small budget.
