I recently had the opportunity to catch a theatrical screening of the short film "Scope of Practice" by fellow WNY filmmaker Brandyn T. Williams. The film did NOT meet my expectations (see the last paragraph for more on that point...) and it occurred to me that something needs to happen.
Brandyn needs to leave Buffalo... seriously...
He needs to go as far away from here as possible and get properly reimbursed for his work in a market that can and does support artists. Most of us here that waste precious pixels on storytelling are busy escaping our lives for a short bit by making fanciful and popcorny stories. Nothing wrong with that at all... It's fun, it entertains, and it lets us leave some sort of mark on the world that we existed as opposed to useless paperwork at a useless office.
Brandyn's film, a carefully crafted piece of storytelling, wisely avoids excess and builds credible characters with what probably involved some real directing of the actors. Performances that are very believable and warm encourage a confident directorial style that ignores flourish in favor of pressing the one constant drumbeat... of a man facing a hard choice to be what he had always grown up to be... someone who won't let it happen.
The film benefits greatly from the use of higher-end camera equipment most of us couldn't hope to afford, but even if it had been shot with a DSLR the effort to involve actual emergency vehicles and police vehicles, crane camera-work, recognizable public locations, etc... and to film those things in a very calm, measured manner, reserving flourish for only one or two quietly impressive shots, makes this piece of film all the more satisfying.
I had a real concern watching this that it might become a tired after-school-special type of affair, heavy on emotional context but without substance, but where a lesser director would have played on our heartstrings for the plight of Arlynn Knauff's abused housewife, Brandyn focuses instead on his surrogate character and the internal conflict of knowing the right path, but being pushed far from it. It's a theme that deserves exploration in a full feature.
