Visual Look
Without
a doubt, the most interesting aspect of this film is its
visual look. Rather than being shot on a normal film or
video camera, director Patryk Rebisz experimented with
using the burst mode on a digital still camera. Burst
mode is a setting in which multiple pictures are taken
in rapid succession; so long as the shutter is depressed,
the camera continues taking pictures. A friend of Rebisz
had recently bought a Canon EOS 20D, whose burst mode
recorded at five frames per second (standard film shoots
at 24). However, the camera could only shoot for about
12 seconds before the memory card filled up and the filmmakers
had to empty the card to a laptop, so the shots had to
be short and concise. This seems like it could have been
quite a hassle, but I actually think it added to the look
of the film. It's important that your look match your
medium, and any long and complicated camera movements
would look very out of place in this film - which is essentially
a story told in pictures.
One
advantage to shooting a film in this manner is that there
can be less concern for shaky camera movements. So long
as the images are not too blurry - which is pretty easy
to avoid with a good digital camera. There were some moments
in the film where the images blurred, but they coincided
with the attack on the female protagonist, so they matched
the rather frantic mood of the moment.
One
disadvantage of using photographs would be some aspects
of continuity, because certain pictures may look better
than others, but would not match in color or action. And
digital cameras can be notoriously difficult to keep a
uniform color, especially when moving from indoors to
outdoors and in all different lighting conditions. However,
Rebisz did a very good job at keeping the white balance
consistent, considering that this film was shot in both
interiors and exteriors, during the day, evening, and
a night.
Use
of Audio
The
background music used in the film was very good. It was
subtle without being too overpowering - which can be tempting
in a film with no actual dialogue. The music also matched
the mood of the film very well. In addition - something
that I thought was very clever - the director added a
"clicker" sound effect to the background in
order to indicate that the viewer was watching a series
of photographs; not a film that kept dropping frames or
a poorly-compressed web movie. I didn't really even notice
the sound effect - a good indication of its subtlety -
but it didn't take me long at all to catch on to the fact
that photos were being used.
The
audio in the film was mostly background music; however
there were some added sound effects particularly in the
scene in which the girl is being attacked. In most films
it seems inconsistent to use sound effects in only a few
places (i.e. using sound effects during an assault scene,
but not while a character is jogging), even when there
is music underscoring the entire film. But because of
the slideshow-esque nature of this film, it didn't seem
all that strange to go without sound effects in its less
intense moments.
