The IAC's London International Film & Video Festival - 1993
Awarded the Silver Seal
Comments
In 3 minutes you've clearly encapsulated a young man's despair. Newton's Cradle tick away time, with biting aural and visual clarity. Cut cut cut, "I've got something to tell you", and , "what am i gonna do?" words that lead us to the flick knife, the hopelessness, the end.
A clever music and sound mix add to the tension. The silence as the balls stop their mesmerising dance. However, I felt that the flick knife shot was held too long and unnecessarily contrasted with the rapid cutting earlier. But don't let this small criticism deter you Geoff. From great intro to sudden end, this film shows mastery of many facets - lighting, photography, editing, acting and post production. Thats praise indeed for film lasting all of 3 minutes, and your IAC award is well deserved.
I know you wanted your film to be just a fragment of life, but it was just this aspect that stopped your film going further in the award scheme. We felt that had we known more, and therefore become more involved with this plight, a complete story could've been built up. As it was, these 3 minutes seemed just part of a longer film and its hard to empathise with characters when we're told so little about them.
The viewer was unclear as to whether their 'trouble' was linked. I like to think it was and if that's the case then i think it worked quite well.
The only thing I felt was that the Newton's Balls were better lit than the rest of the film. Even allowing for a depressive feel I think that the level of exposure could have been more even.
I feel that the overall film was a bit too short to form any afinity with the characters. However within this length the production was very concisely made with very good camerawork and editing.