Thomas Devlin Arcadia

I confess the purple wig lured me in to watching this film. Overall it is very well done and the story flows with only a few choppy moments. The audio matches the emotion of the film without being too overpowering which can be very easy to do (see boondock saints 2, or most modern action films). There is a good balance between the actual music and the dialogue so that you can hear and appreciate both. What I do not like and I understand it is a part of the script and feel of the movie is the constant swearing for the sake of swearing. A personal pet peeve. Good job on this film, next time maybe you can try some stage blood for a few more of the kills, and play with the lighting more.

This movie is incredibly well down and I think that is the only negative I can find for it. Clearly a high budget film, the actors are good, the camera work is good especially on the car scenes. It is very difficult to get a smooth recording on a road with a rear facing camera. I do feel that the professional element goes against the test film genre, it does not seem like these very talented individuals will ever have an issue in movie making if this is their "test" film.

This is what a test film should be, hands down. I have not submitted any pieces because of how many COMPANIES are STEALING the prizes. If you have a full film budget, fully paid staff and professional actors you do not belong here! This is for people who are starting out, who are testing the waters and seeing the capacity of what they can accomplish. They should be rewarded for their hard work given their circumstance so that they can become the next big thing. A commpletely polished movie is not a test film and this movie definitely is not polished and I like that about it. So after viewing a few ready for theaters movies that are good but in the wrong competition I am going to give praise to one that fits the test film category how I think it should.

The story is weak at times and does not seem to flow well and it is distracting that there is no audio for sections of the movie but I think if it is reworked that it could for sure be an award winner because it stands out. Some other test movies are just animated pieces which require work to sync audio to video but to put together a test film that has real people shows true dedication and effort. There is no doubt that it is harder to record live people, getting them to do what you want when you need them to without someone messing up in the background than it is to make a character in second life and record your game screen and put audio over it.

The characters are put together well with unique personalities that stand out but do not take over the entire set. The set itself is well designed which many actual movies are missing now. Somebody's home should feel like a home, not a set and the personal touches in this film with the posters, calendar, living room and kitchen help to make the film seem real and less clinical than in new movies. If it were only possible for someone to live in the movie set before filming so that it has the proper disarray it would be a positive change.

The dialogue is good when there is dialogue (silent treatment) and where there is no dialogue you still know what the characters are trying to say without words through their expressions. I feel the movie got choppy in the middle and the story skipped around too much. They were trying too hard in editing to string together as many shots as possible but over all it is a good test film and if it does not go far then a revision should. I would watch more from this director to see the progression.