It was very strange how I obtained a copy of this DVD, and I don't want to go into too much detail on how I obtained it. I like to critique movies often on this website and I want to give a firm synopsis for this movie. Its flaws and its other stuff.
After doing research on this film, I found its Indiegogo page. Its funding was $750, with their goal being set at $7,500. With 10% of the goal, I still expect a decent student film. I attended college in the film program and I see amazing 30-40 minute films created with no money whatsoever. The overall time for this movie is around 45 minutes.
So the plot of this movie is very dull. It's about an aspiring student filmmaker named Ryan Pierce, but there's one problem. We never actually see him on set of a film he is making! That was one film aspect I was interested in seeing how it was portrayed but the only time we ever see Ryan on a set is an awkward photo shoot with two students for what I'm guessing is for a magazine? Another huge issue is that almost all of the characters show no actual significance to the plot, I didn't understand why a lot of them were actually in front of the camera. Even the main character was bland and uninteresting, the only thing I found slightly watchable (ironically) were the hilarious reactions this character had to stupid stuff. Personally, I found it absolutely hilarious because of the lack of care in some shots. As Ryan may not be seen filming on set, he is seen sometimes editing his short films. The computer screen will have the Final Cut Pro software on it, Ryan will state: "Pan to the left." There's an issue in this sentence. Being a film creator and student of film, I can tell you with certainty this is not a pan. A pan is where you move the CAMERA to the left or right while on set (which this movie doesn't show), while editing a clip to the left and right it is called a DRAG. Get the terminology correct, but the funniest part is the shot in the viewer says MEDIA OFFLINE in a red box. Meaning that the footage is corrupted, gone forever. Ryan's whole philosophy (according to the Indiegogo trailer) is that he writes scripts for his friends who are going through a lot of struggles. The only friend that is actually seen struggling is the character, Elle. She has boyfriend troubles and Ryan really tries to help her. What I mean by that is angsty, unnecessary scenes. In fact, Elle tries to commit suicide at one point by overdosing on prescription medication. This part truly marveled me. Ryan races to the hospital to see Elle in his Volkswagen. I have come to some conclusion about this shot. To describe it: it's either a very pixelated GoPro export or a YouTube to mp4 file. Very bad choice for either. Ryan tries to stick with Elle as she is on life support. He comes to the realization that he must worry about himself, but this is the final explanation of the movie. Nothing is explained, no conclusion is brought to anything. We don't know if Elle survives, we don't know what happens to his friends, and we don't know what becomes of Ryan. This may be a cliffhanger for a possible sequel, but there is no IMDb page or reference on the Indiegogo page.
To move onto editing and filming. Some of the cinematography was very well done for a student film, but there's another issue: the camera quality switches each shot. I'm not sure if it's the DVD I obtained but there will be a shot when a shot looks fantastic in quality and another when it looks mediocre. I assume this is because two different cameras were used. The shots that had the quality were also very buggy and lagging every frame. I'm guessing this is due to an improper export, another avoidable issue that could have been fixed. A huge flaw in this movie's editing comes down to the transitions. The transitions are unnecessarily placed throughout the film, it is riddled with it! Most of these are angsty shots of a wave rippling beach. Adding something else here wouldn't make it better, this transition is abrupt and shouldn't be here.
Before I come to my conclusion in this review, I must point out a certain flaw in this movie that all aspiring film makers must take into account. This movie felt like 45 minutes with no impact on my conscious. The plot doesn't offer us anything of significant value in this movie. I was utterly disappointed with the characters and plot progression. The use of everything had no meaning. I really hope we have a student director behind this movie that will learn from his mistakes and not repeat them. I'll be reviewing this director's other movies in the future.
Overall the movie is no where in the well done range in both editing and screenplay. The camera work is decent at times, and that's stretching it. I believe it was destiny for the DVD to fall in my hands, strangely enough I don't feel too special about it. I give this movie a 3/10 due to the belief that the people who created this movie are students. The reason I come to this conclusion is due to the setting and the people involved, age wise. Another pro I give to this film is that with all the unnecessary characters and pointless ones, the writer still gave first and last names to every single one in the credits. Nice touch, but as the late Siskel and Ebert once said: two thumbs down.
After doing research on this film, I found its Indiegogo page. Its funding was $750, with their goal being set at $7,500. With 10% of the goal, I still expect a decent student film. I attended college in the film program and I see amazing 30-40 minute films created with no money whatsoever. The overall time for this movie is around 45 minutes.
So the plot of this movie is very dull. It's about an aspiring student filmmaker named Ryan Pierce, but there's one problem. We never actually see him on set of a film he is making! That was one film aspect I was interested in seeing how it was portrayed but the only time we ever see Ryan on a set is an awkward photo shoot with two students for what I'm guessing is for a magazine? Another huge issue is that almost all of the characters show no actual significance to the plot, I didn't understand why a lot of them were actually in front of the camera. Even the main character was bland and uninteresting, the only thing I found slightly watchable (ironically) were the hilarious reactions this character had to stupid stuff. Personally, I found it absolutely hilarious because of the lack of care in some shots. As Ryan may not be seen filming on set, he is seen sometimes editing his short films. The computer screen will have the Final Cut Pro software on it, Ryan will state: "Pan to the left." There's an issue in this sentence. Being a film creator and student of film, I can tell you with certainty this is not a pan. A pan is where you move the CAMERA to the left or right while on set (which this movie doesn't show), while editing a clip to the left and right it is called a DRAG. Get the terminology correct, but the funniest part is the shot in the viewer says MEDIA OFFLINE in a red box. Meaning that the footage is corrupted, gone forever. Ryan's whole philosophy (according to the Indiegogo trailer) is that he writes scripts for his friends who are going through a lot of struggles. The only friend that is actually seen struggling is the character, Elle. She has boyfriend troubles and Ryan really tries to help her. What I mean by that is angsty, unnecessary scenes. In fact, Elle tries to commit suicide at one point by overdosing on prescription medication. This part truly marveled me. Ryan races to the hospital to see Elle in his Volkswagen. I have come to some conclusion about this shot. To describe it: it's either a very pixelated GoPro export or a YouTube to mp4 file. Very bad choice for either. Ryan tries to stick with Elle as she is on life support. He comes to the realization that he must worry about himself, but this is the final explanation of the movie. Nothing is explained, no conclusion is brought to anything. We don't know if Elle survives, we don't know what happens to his friends, and we don't know what becomes of Ryan. This may be a cliffhanger for a possible sequel, but there is no IMDb page or reference on the Indiegogo page.
To move onto editing and filming. Some of the cinematography was very well done for a student film, but there's another issue: the camera quality switches each shot. I'm not sure if it's the DVD I obtained but there will be a shot when a shot looks fantastic in quality and another when it looks mediocre. I assume this is because two different cameras were used. The shots that had the quality were also very buggy and lagging every frame. I'm guessing this is due to an improper export, another avoidable issue that could have been fixed. A huge flaw in this movie's editing comes down to the transitions. The transitions are unnecessarily placed throughout the film, it is riddled with it! Most of these are angsty shots of a wave rippling beach. Adding something else here wouldn't make it better, this transition is abrupt and shouldn't be here.
Before I come to my conclusion in this review, I must point out a certain flaw in this movie that all aspiring film makers must take into account. This movie felt like 45 minutes with no impact on my conscious. The plot doesn't offer us anything of significant value in this movie. I was utterly disappointed with the characters and plot progression. The use of everything had no meaning. I really hope we have a student director behind this movie that will learn from his mistakes and not repeat them. I'll be reviewing this director's other movies in the future.
Overall the movie is no where in the well done range in both editing and screenplay. The camera work is decent at times, and that's stretching it. I believe it was destiny for the DVD to fall in my hands, strangely enough I don't feel too special about it. I give this movie a 3/10 due to the belief that the people who created this movie are students. The reason I come to this conclusion is due to the setting and the people involved, age wise. Another pro I give to this film is that with all the unnecessary characters and pointless ones, the writer still gave first and last names to every single one in the credits. Nice touch, but as the late Siskel and Ebert once said: two thumbs down.
