Additionally, the attempts to simulate security cameras went a little overboard. Most noticeably in the area of a fisheye lenses, which, like Caesar’s over-the-top persona, a little goes a long way with. Unfortunately, they used so many overly blown out fisheye lenses, that you started to feel like you were watching parts of the film through a soap bubble.
Presumably because of the limited number of days for shooting this film, there were a number times where an edit is made between a single camera, an effect commonly called a jump cut. This is extremely bizarre and jars you completely out of believing that this is a reality show, especially since most of these jump cuts happen in the middle of a conversation, rather than at the end, where you could believe that they were showing time passage. [Note to the director: Most reality shows and documentaries use a short dissolve between a single shot to show the passage of time.] To prevent folks from noticing these problems, a simple solution would be to periodically cut back to the folks in the control room as they monitor the show. That way the viewer could hear the audio of the scene as they watch the producers editing the show on the fly, and wouldn’t see the jump cuts in the video. [Note to the Director: Speaking of the producers, in the scene where Caesar walks in on them, there are no images on any of the monitors that they are working on. I would recommend compositing video screens of the show on the monitors so that the editing suite looks like it’s actually in use.]
The final issue in the visual category of the film was the fact that the editor uses strange wipes constantly to cut between many shots in a single scene. I’ve never seen any reality show that does this inside a scene, because it is very distracting and looks unprofessional. Simple cuts and dissolves are the most common cuts in reality television (and any other form of television) shows. [Note to the Director: If you wish to use wipes as a signature move, I would recommend that they be used to conclude scenes, rather than in the midst of scenes. They simply take too long to not become distracting within a scene. At times, I know you were trying to cover jump cuts, but, there again, I would recommend cutting to shots of the producers in the studio.]
Use of Audio
The overall audio for the film was fairly decent, although, sometimes--specifically when Caesar was screaming--the volume tended to redline. The only way to prevent that is to have a designated audio guy watching your levels during shots and to “shout” for a microphone rather than for a stage audience.
The use of subtitles in the show when audio was a bit hard to hear was a good touch, although the actual information conveyed by the subtitles was a bit problematic because often they weren’t the same words as those that were actually being spoken by the characters. This is a problem because, even though they were a bit soft, the actual words were able to be heard. [Note to the Director: If you want to leave the subtitles as they are, then you’ve got to provide wind noise over top of the voices so the audience really can’t hear what’s being said beneath them.]
The music that was used in the film was pretty good and went well with the film itself. Props to the composers on doing this well.
Use of Budget
The use of money was pretty darn good, considering it was all shot in LA. They shot a full-length film for just over $700 which honestly didn’t have very many audio issues. For that, I think they did an amazingly good job.
Lasting Appeal
As it stands right now, the lasting appeal for this film isn’t great due to the overly-stagelike nature of Caesar, the shallowness of the characters, the problematic editing, and the predictable. While the editing can be fixed and the ending can be improved, the other two issues are going to be very hard to fix.
Overall Comment
Considering he shot this on a whim in a fairly short period of time for very little money, Dave Campfield should be impressed with what he has accomplished. After seeing two pictures from him, I’m interested to see what his next project will be. I’m also interested to see if he will break a way from the spy-cam concept or if he will find a new way to inject them into a new film project!
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Content |
6.0 |
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Visual
Look |
6.0 |
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Use
of Audio |
8.0 |
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Use
of Budget |
9.5 |
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Lasting
Appeal |
5.0 |
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Overall
Score |
6.9
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