{"id":3526,"date":"2009-08-04T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2009-08-04T16:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3526"},"modified":"2009-08-04T10:30:07","modified_gmt":"2009-08-04T14:30:07","slug":"shots-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3526","title":{"rendered":"Shots in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"2\">If nothing else, director Peter Hyams&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.avclub.com\/articles\/end-of-days,31196\/?utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_campaign=feeds&#038;utm_source=channel_dvd\">commentary track on <i>End of Days<\/i><\/a> seems to be proof that you can have a personally held and deeply thought-out philosophy of film-making, approach your film with intelligence and care, and still make a crappy film. What you still need is some skill, luck, and a philosophy that isn&#8217;t entirely&#8230;well, <i>wrong<\/i>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Hyams splits his time between enthusiastically praising his cast and explaining why he shot his Satanic thriller by candlelight and suggestion: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All the light used in this film is light that is warmed, so that there is an amber and oak tone in every sequence of the movie.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But he isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just concerned with tone. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m someone who believes that if actors are using flashlights in a movie, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using flashlights for the same reason we use flashlights,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see except what their flashlight is illuminating. So this scene was basically lit with flashlights\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hyams has been criticized for this choice in the past. His response: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think a movie that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mysterious can be too dark. I love shadows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;.His biggest flaw is the forgivable mistake of confusing intention with effect. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When people are standing near a light, I think they should be lit,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When people are not standing near a light, I think they should be dark, or darker.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The result is a dull visual sheen that, some striking images aside, renders each murky set instantly forgettable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never actually seen the film &#8212; nor have any desire to &#8212; but Hyams seems pretty typical: confusing an enthusiasm for film-making (and maybe a pinch of technical skill) with an ability to make films.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If nothing else, director Peter Hyams&#8217; commentary track on End of Days seems to be proof that you can have a personally held and deeply thought-out philosophy of film-making, approach your film with intelligence and care, and still make a crappy film. What you still need is some skill, luck, and a philosophy that isn&#8217;t &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3526\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-3526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}