The
ambient sound in the film was good, though sometimes a
bit too loud. Additionally, there were a few times that
background conversation which was intended to be a bed
for a scene ended up threatening to overwhelm the main
characters' dialogue, specifically when Marnie goes out
to a bustling restaurant early in the movie and then when
she goes to a friend's party a little later in the film.
The
only music in the film occurred at two house parties that
Marnie goes to in the course of the film, and these were
quiet beds that were clearly from motivated sources, like
small boomboxes at the parties. There was no soundtrack
music in this film at all, not even in the credits-which
were completely silent. While this might be a problem
in some films, it really fit the slice-of-life world Mr.
Bujalski was attempting to create.
Use
of Budget
To shoot a 16mm color film for $30,000 is amazing. (Don't
forget that, 12 years ago, it cost Kevin Smith $27 K to
make a black and white 16mm!) Even if all the budget went
to film and developing, Mr. Bujalski counted his pennies
very carefully.
