Top of Sidebar
Mission Statement
Do It Yourself Tips and Tricks
Books, Equipment, Software, and Training Reviews
Film Critiques
Community Section
Savings and Links
Editorials
Archives
Bottom of Sidebar
Back to the Home Page
   Final Short Critique: 
   A New Perspective

   Director:
Thomas Harris
   Production Company: Brownstone Beam
   Distribution: No Exclusive Distribution
   Budget: $300
   Genre: Experimental/Documentary

   Running Time: 14 minutes

   Website: http://www.BrownstoneBeam.com
   Clips: Click Here

   Review Date:
January 15, 2006
   Reviewed By: Jeremy Hanke

When I got Thomas Harris' A New Perspective, I became a little confused after I watched it the first time. It's a cross between an advertisement for Thomas Harris' new Brownstone Beam hand-held crane and a promo-video for BMX-star Jim Dellavalle. After chatting with the director and rewatching the piece a few times, I decided that the film leaned enough toward X-treme sports documentary for us to review it. (We don't review advertisements, thus the reason why it was up for debate.)

With that said, let me cover the basic content of the video. The video opens with an interview of Jim Dellavalle. He explains how he got his start in BMX freestyle riding and tells a few stories about some of the parks he's ridden in. After that, there is a montage from three different parks throughout the East, showing Dellavalle pulling off stunts in indoor and outdoor arenas. Additionally, we see some stunt riding from special guests, Adam Hauck and George Ryan.

This short goes from courses
in the woods of Pennsylvania...
...to ramp parks in urban
New York CIty.

Content
Content is where this short suffers the most because it doesn't seem to have a clear understanding of where it is going or to have had a lot of forethought put into it. As I mentioned before, it seems to have grown out of the desire for Jim Dellavalle to have a cool reel of some of his stunts and Mr. Harris to have some good examples of what his Brownstone Beam is capable of.

As such, the resulting mini-documentary kind of rambles all over the place. The basic beginning doesn't explain who Jim Dellavalle is to those who are unfamiliar with him nor does it tell us all that much about him, other than that he's from Pennsylvania and got into BMX when he saw his cousin do a 360 bunny hop. Then, after the stunt riding sequences, there's no real ending to the film. Rather, at the end of a bunch of tricks at the third park, they just pause Dellavalle's last trick and fade into credits.

Visual Look
The visual look for this film is a mixed bag. Mr. Harris explained that he had some volunteer editing done and it almost looks as though two different editors did the interview segments versus the actual scenes of Jim Dellavalle busting tricks.

The interview section has a number of problems. The layout and lighting for the interviews are drab with Dellavalle being plastered to the robin's egg blue padding they used as a background, which causes shadows to show up a lot. Additionally, there are strange editing choices that involve replays of the last phrase Dellavalle would say and grainy enlargements of his lips during the replay. Another strange editing choice in these scenes is the lack of a 1/3 graphic with the name of Jim Dellavalle and some info for those who aren't familiar with him. For all I know, he's the next Dave Mirra, but the lack of info makes a viewer think he's just some kid they found at a local skate park.

Mission | Tips & Tricks | Equipment & Software Reviews | Film Critiques
Groups & Community | Links & Savings
| Home


Contact Us Search Submit Films for Critique