25 Apr 2012

Drop The Tough ★★★☆☆



Review of 'Drop The Tough' which can be found here at Future Shorts.

Length: 03:24
Written & directed by Alex Garcia & Wayne Yip from A+W
Genre: Music Video
Date: 2009
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Logline: A group of friends get together to execute a big plani involving lots of mirrors.

The track for this music video is Groove Armada's catchy disco beating Drop the Tough which is quite apt as the gang involved have got together to create the most elaborate way to set up a disco ball you can think of.

There is the run of the mill set up: Some shots of the city set to the beat of the music, people traveling about etc. Then our interest begins to develop with different people walking about carrying mirrors. The scale of the project seems big, all the people are smiling, this must be something really exciting. After about a minute in, the film has quickly evolved into a kind of 'making of' with elements of planning and execution and it doesn't take long for the audience to piece together and realise this will be some mass laser experiment.

The structure and pace suffers after that as we are shown endless shots of the same thing: people moving mirrors around. It fails to capture the rising pace of the music track and reaches a sort of stale mate for a while where it doesn't feel as though we are moving forward very quickly. The only thing which semi-improves pace and loosely holds audience attention is the increasing onset of nightfall where the anticipation of the end result comes in. Once the light show begins though, again the impact is somewhat less than expected as the result of all that effort is a green beam of light shone onto a disco ball somewhere across town. That end shot, where the most impact could have been gained is cut short as the track stops and the achievement diminishes because of that.

Camera work keeps busy with plenty of movement which at least adds a bit of excitement to a bunch of people standing about and the edit keeps an equally good pace with the music. The documentary style shoot is done well with good camera quality and enough shot variation to keep our eyes busy. On the whole, I like these on mass grand scale plans which involve lots of people and effort but in this instance, I can't help think that there was definitely an easier way to get a disco started and I felt kind of sorry for the poor individuals left standing in a stairwell holding a wee mirror and not even getting to really see the idea at its greatest. Overall, big idea, bit of a waste of time.

Best Bit: The prospect of watching something brilliant.

Worst Bit: The disappointing climax.

Final thought: Long way for a shortcut. Also look out for the large girl with the smallest mirror, lol.

Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.

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