Length: 01:40
Logline: A man reminisces about past ventures.
This is narration to a series of shots. The concept seems to be about living your life to a certain optimistic philosophy and is juxtaposed against images of various legs and feet shots engaging in differing actions.
Philip Banks is the smooth talking voice over artist who delivers his lines clear and crisp like a true professional. It's the lines he's reading which hamper this short. I found the story disjointed and couldn't fathom what he was going on about half the time. Who "they" are is confusing and not resolved clearly. I guess he means the general "they" but more information would have been helpful when trying to follow the tale. The tone is smug, sanctimonious and by the end is almost rubbing your face in it. This character has walked his own path and is proud of it revealing no flaw, no regrets or much conflict or struggle to empathise with.
I found this a hard film to categorise so ended up suggesting drama. This was another reason I didn't gel with it. I can see that the filmmakers are trying to deliver a message to the audience but am not convinced it has been achieved due to a lack of coherence plus the repetitious visuals leaves plenty of time for audiences to tune out.
Camera quality is nice and the film does have a certain style to it. The jittery edit actually fits well with the feet shots and also complements the idea that we are watching someones memories. I found that some shots, the rollerblading over the coffee cup in particular, didn't tie in very well with the dialogue we are listening to and this complicates the flow.
The soundtrack goes well with the positive attitude of the narrator though and there seems to be at least some consideration towards structure. But ultimately, the film lacks definition, the ability to engage emotionally and is a bit boring to watch.
Best Bit: The aspect ratio.
Worst Bit: The boring story.
Final thought: Jog on.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment