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Final Critique: Film 101, Pg. 3

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.)

Whimiscal graphics help keep a
light tone throughout ..
...while on-set antics keep the
chuckles coming.

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.

 
Content            
      8.1         
Visual Look            
      9.1         
Use of Audio            
8.1         
Use of Budget            
8.5         
           Lasting Appeal            
           9.0         
Overall Score           
  8.6         
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