On the
other hand, most of the dialogue seemed to be ad-libbed.
Characters would frequently talk over each other, making
it extremely difficult to understand what people were saying
and (sometimes) what was going on. While it was evident
in some parts that there was scripted dialogue, for the
most part it seemed to be off-the-cuff. This is really unfortunate,
because I could tell that the movie had the potential for
some funny and witty writing. Because the plot is a fairly
direct one, it would've been nice to see better interaction
among the characters and more in-depth explanations of certain
things. (For example, why do the girls hear the ice cream
truck in the street, but not Gary screaming out on the front
lawn? Why does Naomi hook up with the drug dealer at the
end of movie?)
Because
most of the acting seemed to be ad-libbed rather than solidly
based on a script, it greatly diminished the quality of
the actors' performances. Rather than appearing professional,
the acting was more similar to what you'd see in a college
project. Again, I believe that this could be dramatically
improved by tightened dialogue and having the actors stick
to the script. (Note to the Directors: Don't worry
about limiting your actors' desire or ability to adlib by
making them stick to the script. It is much easier to deviate
from a memorized script than it is for everyone to make
it up or re-create it as they go along. It's the old "once
you know the rules you can break them" idea.)
Visual
Look
It's
apparent that the young women at Xyrus got a pretty decent
camera to shoot their debut film with. Getting a good quality
camera is a good idea, but you also need to spend time learning
how to operate it to its greatest effect. There are a few
main parts to work on to create a more solid visual look.
The
first part is to work on controlling light and white balance.
Trying to light vastly different scenes (incandescent lighting,
fluorescent lighting, outdoors in direct sunlight, outdoors
in the shade, etc.) is difficult, so I can't fault the film
too much for that, considering also that this is Xyrus'
first full-length feature. However, every time the environment
changed, the lighting and colors changed; this shouldn't
happen. Proper white-balancing before any change in light
or camera position could have really helped improve the
quality. (This is especially true with digital media, which
is rather touchy when it comes to lighting.) Also, for a
good part of the film, Gary and Cary's white t-shirts were
nearly radioactive, they were glowing so brightly! White-balancing
every time the light changes, using an ND filter in bright
sunlight, and having the actors wear slightly darker shirts
would remedy this in future films. (Note to the Directors:
While lighting can't be fixed in post, Final Cut Pro actually
has a way to white balance in post, as well as remove some
of the glowing quality to the white clothing worn in the
film. It's not perfect, but it will definitely help in this
situation.)
The
second part is stability of shots, usually through artificial
means. (There are some people who are rock solid hand-held
shooters, but they're rare enough to not be counted on-especially
at this budgetary level.) There were several scenes where
the camera movement was quite shaky, thus distracting from
the action. This is easily fixed by using a tripod, dolly,
or steadicam. (I've seen wheelchairs used for dollies, and
that works really well. Also, check out the
how-to guide on making your own steady-rig in this issue!)
The
third part, is paying attention to your environment for
visual continuity. One example of this is the shift in time
of day from one shot to the next. A specific instance occurred
during the scene when Gary and Cary get bike-jacked. Gary
and Cary ride in from a mid-day sky whereas there attackers
approach them from an early evening sky. It's not unusual
for this to happen when the shooting schedule is short;
however, this is a very noticeable continuity error which
could have been eliminated (or at least diminished) with
careful planning ahead of time.
