Not
all of their experiments proved as successful, however.
There was one particularly creative transition that didnt
work at all. In the middle of the film, Kevin is starting
to have issues with his girlfriend while he's making his
film and he meets a beautiful young starlet that he thinks
would be more suitable for the film and himself. As he finishes
his conversation with her, the editor strobe cuts between
the starlet and the scene later at home where Kevin is in
a fight with his girlfriend. The strobing cut is designed
to superimpose both scenes and show the juxtaposition of
both women in his mind, but it is extremely distracting
and actually feels like a glitch, even though it's apparent
that it was intentional. To make it worse, the audio strobes
with the footage, which makes it even more distracting.
A slow additive dissolve can give that same feeling of juxtaposition
without the feeling that there was a glitch in the film.
One
thing that should be added is, when Kevin shows his film
at the school theater, there needs to be a simple subtitle
announcing that this is "The Final Thesis Evaluation".
We need to know that Kevin is showing film at his class'
auditorium, rather than at some movie theater, and this
simple subtitle will give us that cue. This also allows
us to understand that he is talking to his instructor, as
we have never seen her prior to this first ending scene.
(Of course, if the additional scene in the classroom is
shot, we will be more aware of who the instructor is and
are more likely to understand that this is actually at Kevin's
college.)
Use of Audio
The overall audio in this film is pretty clean, but it needs
a greater amount of mixing to bring all the dialogue to
around -12 Db so that people can understand what's being
said by everyone without having to mess with their volume
controls.
Another
issue that's kind of a combination of audio and video concerns
are the use of subtitles for Kevin's best friend, Dong Su.
When we first meet Dong Su, he's speaking pretty easily
intelligible English so the director doesn't use any subtitles
to explain what he's saying. However, as the film continues,
Dong Su's accent becomes thicker, his voice becomes softer,
and the director starts adding in partial subtitles for
him. This isn't a problem except for the fact that it feels
uneven, as it doesn't start from the first time we meet
Dong Su and, because there are only partial subtitles not
all of the lines he says are subtitled. Additionally, the
yellow text that is used doesn't have a drop shadow, which
makes it difficult to read sometimes. If the audio for the
actor can't be boosted through additional mixing, which
would probably remove the need for the subtitles, then the
subtitles need to be used every time Dong Su's character
says anything; and the drop shadow needs to be added to
the subtitles so that they can always be clearly read.
The
final audio issue comes in the second ending, during the
brief dialogue between the director and Kevin. This scene
is plagued with the only audio distortion in the film and
needs to be redubbed if it's to be used. Of course, if the
director decides to go with my Idea #2 from the Content
section, then the point will be moot because this scene
will be scrapped anyway.
Use of Budget
There was an excellent use of budget considering how much had to be done for this film all across New York City. Considering that they had to rent the DVX100, pay for food for all their cast and their cast-as-crew and their real crew, and get the props to for the film that was the basis for this film, they really stretched their money well.
Lasting Appeal
One of the ways I know that a film has a lasting appeal
is that, when I watch it, I feel as though I've been transported
to someplace else. Even though the reality of low-budget
filmmaking is something I know well, the way this movie
was made caused me to feel like I was pulled into the fictional
movie-making that was this film's central focus. I've already
showed this to a few different people, as well as our reviewers,
and been very impressed on their thoughts. It's lasting
appeal will only grow with the improved audio mix and refined
ending.
Overall Comment
Mr. Desmond and his team have done a great job of bringing the reality of filmmaking to film and making it fascinating, humorous, and true to life. Currently they've made a pretty nice 90 minute roller coaster ride that's sporting a couple of rough patches and a bit of a bumpy ending. With a little more grinding and refinement to the rails throughout and to the conclusion, this ride will be simply dynamite.
This will definitely be one director and one film that we contact about being part of our Ultra-Indie Film Weekends.