Rootclip

This week was tough. A number of the videos this week are good, real good, like a long slow wet kiss on a cool fall Friday moonlit night. However, by a narrow margin, my vote is for "It's Come to This," just barely ahead of "Crimson Nightmare." The space between them is thin, razor thin, as thin as the cut a scalpel leaves on a smooth, clean cut throat. Okay, I will stop with the Hard-boiled detective/film noir similes. . .but the key to my reading of the videos was how many of the essential film noir elements each group incorporated--BOTH stylistic ones and narrative ones. In addition, how well does the narrative cohere, and hold up, and tie-in to previous chapters. "Moida" was clever. . .but why the color in the opening and closing scenes? The music is noirish, but not nearly enough low key lighting. As much as any trait, it is that low key lighting that gave film noir its name. A bit too light (comic) for a film noir; okay; maybe you went for a spoof here, but too much in the central scene with the femme fatale is too straight rather than filled with satire/parody. You should have used the blinds. How? Hey look closely at some film noirs classics--the stripes of light are another convention of the genre. "Oops," well it is too bad that you ran into technical difficulties. What is there is intriguing, though not really filled with noir traits other than the low key lighting. "Should You Succeed," nice use of film noir music and sfx in the beating--but add some blood and gore, too, some visuals to back up the power of the sfx. Um, what is in the case that he sees? The plotting would indicate money or something of value, yet his reaction is much more shock, like he saw the fingers or face of a relative. Too much high key lighting, other than the outside walking shots. "Crimson Nightmare," WOW! Some awesome effects. And the use of the red in the otherwise black and white shots is generally quite good. Except why is she still bleeeding (let alone bleeding at all) when her VO says that whatever the guy did to make her bleed was obviously in the past? The noirish music is good, but too much high key lighting for a noir clip. And the flashback works quite well. You visually back up the effects of the "puppet master"/hacker with the way the girl with the guy reaccts to his sudden zombie state. However, how/why is the woman in the central scenes upset by/tied to/effected by the "puppet master"? That link is missing, and it is essential. Great line: "I know nothing's that black and white." Noir writers and directors are smiling over that one. very nice. ""It's Come to This." Why color at first? And there was a tiny wisp of noir, sort of, music at first. You should have included that. Not only is ait a key convention of film noir, it helps so much to set and maintain the tone. The use of the phone and matched photos is nice. I liked your ending a bit more of the two top videos; it allows for more options in the next chapter. Interesting twist on the femme fatale, this time she is not a sex queen in red or B&W--but more wholesome and yet just as enticing. Probably needed to do a bit more with the hit man that the hit man "hires." Set up the ending better through some hint that he may have "ratted." These are so good. Really. How you are able to put them together in such a short time frame is pretty impressive. Hope you all get more chances to work with narrative video/film making in the future.