Reviews
Formosa (2005)
Lots of fun with some sparkle
Saw this at a busy film festival in Santa Monica. I was working that day, and could only cut loose for one film, this was the one I was most curious about.
I thought it was a charming period piece where people looked like they were having fun. It was well paced and had a nicely directed story.
Good cinematography. The only visual that bothered me was a CGI rendered Greyhound terminal that didn't look quite right (but my wife didn't see this, I'm hampered by working with it... :O).
Recommended for a good time, and perhaps getting a couple of things to think about too.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Noah Kadner will come up with next, he seems to be on a roll.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Twice-Told Twist (1966)
Medium episode, shot in color but lit for b/w
Just saw this for the second time on KDOC.
It's easy to see why viewers were so shocked when they saw this episode that the series was canceled immediately.
1. The "More is Better" approach to color makes it look a bit like colorized b&w film. This is especially apparent in the faces of all the actors, looking like they were just plucked from a fruit bowl.
2. The contrast is way too great between these faces and especially their clothes, there is a feel that the conversations are between free-floating heads sometimes (on a calibrated NTSC Sony PVM monitor).
I think the DP and gaffers just didn't have enough experience with color design yet at this time. Can't help think what could have been done with today's way more subtle film stocks...
This episode is on the DVD series, would be interesting to convert it to monochrome and see what that would look like (I'm talking about a competent professional conversion, not just reducing the color saturation which looks just awful).
The back story was OK, but somehow not quite gripping in this presentation, and the lady from "Mechico" (Lisa Pera) although offering a passable performance, sounded like she had an Italian accent...
Cool to see a glimpse of the now gone L.A. Downtown funicular!