Visual Look
Perhaps
the strongest element of this movie was its visual look.
I really appreciated that the filmmakers incorporated their
natural surroundings, especially in the outdoor shots. In
many of these, one can see the white cliffs of Dover in
the background. Not only does this give a clear location
for this story to be occurring, but it's also a beautiful
natural element that serves to greatly enhance the film's
visual look. Incorporating natural surroundings is always
a good thing because it adds both an authenticity and a
visual interest to a film, so long as it's not overdone.
I also
like the fact that the camera was always moving just slightly,
especially since there are a lot of wide shots in the film
and very few cutaways or close-ups. The moving camera helps
to keep things interesting, as a static wide shot can get
boring if it's held for too long. Also, the movement was
slow and subtle which matched the mood of the film and wasn't
too over-the-top.
There was only one outdoor scene in which the footage was a little bit overexposed, and a couple indoor scenes that were a little under-lit, but other than that, everything was exposed properly with no white balance issues. As this film was shot both indoors and outdoors, and in several different kinds of lightning, the filmmakers did a very good job at keeping the colors pretty much consistent.
Use
of Audio
Considering
this film's genre, I was quite surprised that it didn't
use any music at all. M. Night Shyamalan's films rely very
heavily on dramatic music to help build up the tension,
and sometimes the music is also use to mislead the audience
-when it builds up and builds up and then nothing happens.
However, there are a few movies that rely on the absence
of music in order to build up tension. In Frank Oz's film
The Score, for instance, the director purposefully
avoided using too much music and instead inserted room tone
to fill up some of the more intense scenes. Oz explained
that when one hears music in the background, there is somewhat
of a comfort level involved and the audience is more aware
of the fact that they are watching a movie. But as there
is no soundtrack to real life, using only room tone does
in fact add to the tension, so in that respect it could
be a good choice. However, using room tone to build tension
only works if there is something visually interesting happening
on screen, which isn't always the case in Dead Time.
Also there were several scenes -mostly outdoors- where the
background noise didn't match. This can be a real pain,
especially when shooting outside, as sometimes the microphone
will pick up even the slightest amount of wind.
I think
it might be a good idea to at least look into getting some
music for some parts of this film and to consider ADR -or
at least recording a consistent room tone- for some of the
scenes in which the background noise doesn't match. The
choice to minimize a musical score can be a good one, but
only if it makes the film better. Besides, despite its many
instances of silence, The Score did also have some
very dramatic music during some of its scenes.
[Note
to Director: If budget is a significant issue,
check out our musician page for songs to use. And if you
want a customized score, we do have two composers on our
roster of musicians -John Plenge and Ljova - who are willing
to work for deferred payment.]
