Final Critique: The Ethereal Plane, Pg. 3

The freeze-frame effects were another problematic area in the film due to the low-resolution images that were used. Film and video are both fairly low in resolution, but because there's sort of a vibration to it when it is in motion, you don't notice this fact normally. (It's basically a soft blur that's created by vibration.) However, when one of these images is frozen, its low resolution becomes very apparent. This is why, in big budget films, they'll capture the still images with high resolution digital cameras, stitch them together in a 3D program, and then composite them around a green-screened actor. While you can do the same thing with lots of photos from a 5.1 megapixel camera and AfterEffects, this would be very time intensive.

A more feasible alternative for showing "paused time" could come from thinking of time in a different way. In the current film, time is like a DVD player in that it can be reversed and paused cleanly, which causes us to pay attention to little issues that show up when that clean pause doesn't look so clean. However, what if time were like a VCR in SP mode? If that were the case, then tracking lines could be implemented to cheat the small problems.

What do I mean by that? When a tape in a VCR is paused, there are horizontal lines of static (called tracking lines) that are visible across the screen. Whenever one of the main characters rewinds or pauses time, all the areas that are affected (outside the main character) could have those horizontal bars and static in them. While the reverses don't need the improvement this technique would provide, it might be just the ticket to hide the issues in the time pauses and make them much less noticeable. While this isn't exactly what the director had in mind originally, this is an example of an outside-the-box way of distracting people from problems in low resolution still images that come in this type of special effects work at this sort of budget.

	As Damon discovers how to use the alien time device... ...he gains a powerful weapon against the evil Federal pursuers.

Use of Audio
The audio suffered from a lot of ambient sound bleed, which usually resulted from the mics not getting close enough to the main characters. Due to the amount of action in this film, this is a common problem. Additionally, because of the issues with mic placement, the audio levels were all over the place.

[Note to the Director: If you want to get a professional and even sound to the film, redubbing the film will give you the best quality. Most Hollywood action films require a lot of redubbing, so it is, unfortunately, par for the course in these type of films. To assist with dubbing, we'll be doing an ADR issue in a couple of months which will include how-to ADR articles and reviews of Synchroarts Vocalign Project & Vocalign Professional, two software programs which will assist in conforming newly recorded audio with the original production audio, so that the sync is more easily preserved.]

Additionally, during an intense scene in which Harrison is being interviewed and stabbed by agents in a car early in the movie, there is the sound of the crew giggling outside. If it weren't quite so evidently the crew, it might be able to be written off as outside noise. Of course, if the film ends up getting redubbed, this issue will go away.

The temp music is quite good and I look forward to hearing the original score that will be composed for the final version of the film.

Use of Budget
Considering this film was made for a year and a half on weekends for a total budget of $7,000, they did a whole lot with virtually no budget at all. Even in the rough stage of the film, there are some amazing successes in the effects department and the story is intriguing.

Lasting Appeal
With some refining of the film that's here, there's a lot of lasting appeal in this film. In fact, one of the reviewers I had watch it with me in a group brought up the fact that it had grown on him even more the day after we watched the film.

Overall Comment
The Ethereal Plane has a lot of potential. Even though the film has been shown at a number of film festivals, there are still quite a few things that would be good to change in order to make it the best it possibly can be. I look forward to watching the film with a little more polishing for the final review.