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Also,
there are a couple instances in which, in the middle of
a scene, Billy turns to the camera and has a sort of a
private dialogue with the "interviewer." For
example, after spending a night out with Susan, Billy
follows her back to her apartment, and the two have a
brief discussion in the hallway. In the midst of the conversation,
Billy turns to look at the camera and expresses his desire
to kiss Susan. Even in light of previous "interview"
scenes, this type of "aside" still seems very
awkward. I think it would be a better choice to cut to
the interview setting where Billy could have these private
conversations with himself.
In
addition, there is no sort of visual break between the
film itself and these "interviews." The sudden
cuts between the two can be very confusing for the audience,
especially since the interviewer's voice is often muffled
and hard to understand. I think it would be easier on
the audience if these interview segments were shown in
a different style (black and white, for example), just
to give a clear differentiation between the thoughts of
the characters and the "real" world. It would
probably also be a good idea to use a distinctive transition
between these segments, such as a white dissolve - it's
rather boring, but it's a convention that your audience
will recognize.
Toward
the middle and end of the movie, the story does tend to
drag a little bit. It might be a good idea to tighten
up some of the scenes, maybe get rid of some minor ones,
and put in a few more of these interview scenes to keep
it interesting. These little vignettes match well with
the random nature of the film, as well as the psychology
of the main character. So long as they aren't overdone,
they'll not only add to the film, but will help a lot
with the pacing.
Visual
Look
This
film does a good job at keeping things visually interesting.
There are several good shot montages throughout that help
to show the passage of time. My favorite is a sequence
in which Billy is working at several different menial
jobs, such as garbage collector, janitor, sausage stuffer,
and, dressed in a mascot uniform, flyer distributor. These
various scenes are sped up and put to music that shows
the monotony of Billy's period of employment. There are
several other shot montages where time is sped up -- it's
a great technique to get across the passage of time without
boring the audience, plus the format works great with
a comedy of this nature.
There
were a few moments, however, when the changing speed of
images got a little out of hand. For instance, at the
very beginning of the movie when we first see Billy's
character, he is initially shown walking in slow-motion
which then changes to a fast-motion shot. This is very
visually jarring, and doesn't seem to serve much of a
purpose. It would be a good idea to choose one or the
other, or perhaps just show him walking at normal speed.
[Note
to the Director: It might even be interesting to open
the film with an interview shot of Billy talking randomly
about his awful life, and then cut directly into the opening
credits. This would tie in with his rather ADD nature.]
This
film also has a lot of random cutaways, which fit in well
with Billy's almost ADD personality. While having lunch
with Susan, he is talking about all the stress in his
life -- which is strange, considering how he really doesn't
do much of anything -- and all the different ways in which
he has tried to cope with said stress. These methods include
going to a Buddhist meditation group and an acupuncturist.
During his conversation with Susan, there are some brief
cutaways to Billy at both the meditation group and the
acupuncturist. Using visual cutaways can be tricky, because
sometimes it ends up looking cheesy, but these particular
shots do a lot to add to the humor of the film. Though,
as with the interview-type segments, it might also be
a good idea to differentiate between them as well, once
again by using a different color scheme and/or dissolves.
There
weren't any major white balance or color issues that I
noticed, though there were some slight color inconsistencies
in a few of the indoor/outdoor scenes. I was impressed
with the scene where Billy, Susan, and his parents are
watching TV and there are several cutaways to the TV screen
itself. Shooting an image of a television is very difficult,
but in this instance the filmmaker did a very good job.
A
lot of the film appears to have been shot handheld. This
format seems to match well with the haphazard way in which
the main character lives his life, but when shooting handheld
there's always the danger that your audience will get
seasick. I am seldom bothered by moving shots, but there
were a few instances where I even started to get a bit
of a headache due to the movement of the camera. In those
cases, the film ceases to look like a movie and more like
The Blair Witch Project gone wrong. It may be a
good idea to find less shaky takes, or even to do a couple
reshoots of some of these scenes.
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