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Point of View
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
With the invention of the DVD format, there has been a great number of leaps in interactivity as producers of content race to unlock the format's seemingly limitless possibilities. While not all of these are ultimately successful, I tend to appreciate the effort and creativity that went into the production. "Point Of View" is an interactive thriller, meaning that the viewer chooses, at various points, where the story will go next, or even how it will end. The film is from the makers of another interactive film that I'd been interested in, but never seen, called "Tender Loving Care", which became quite a popular seller.
What I was met with while watching "Point Of View" was a rather fascinating idea, but with little budget to bring it forward. The disc stops and asks you various questions about how you feel about what's going on and your life in general before proceeding on a different direction. How you respond to these questions determines which way the film will go next. And there are definitely some rather interesting questions.
The story revolves around Jane, a mysterious artist who generally keeps to herself, with the exception of a few close friends. Soon, though, she develops an attraction for neighbor Frank. Unfortunately for Jane, this turns more dangerous than she'd expected. Or, does it? As the viewer, you decide what will happen between these two.
It's a potentially fascinating idea, but not one that's particularly well-crafted in "Point Of View", which often looks like it was filmed in the apartments of the cast and crew on weekends. Fortunately, the cast isn't half bad - although no one is a real stand-out, Stefanie Von Patten is good as Jane.
Overall, although I was a little weary of the look of the film as it started, the story picked up a bit in interest as it went along, and although definitely not without some very cheesy moments (this is apparently a 12 day production), I liked the interactivity features quite a lot - I definitely didn't see where the plot was going next. I'd really love to see this kind of presentation done with a bigger film with a more well-rounded screenplay. Not a bad start, though.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although "Tender Loving Care" was apparently shot in 35mm, "Point Of View" was able to go faster through the production by using digital video. The picture is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, and although the digital video "look" isn't as smooth as film, it looks fairly good throughout the film. There are times during the low-light scenes that look rather soft in comparison to the outdoor sequences, but these scenes still appeared moderately crisp and well-defined.
There are some minor bits of shimmering and other artifacts that pop up throughout the film, but these didn't cause too much of a distraction. Colors were fine - they looked a bit muddy at times, but overall not bad.
SOUND: "Point Of View" is presented in Dolby 2.0. The film's general audio (dialogue, ambient sounds) is noticably rather low-budget in quality, but the music (as cheesy as its rock/techno soundtrack sometimes is) sounds pretty decent, with fair bass and good overall clarity. Not too bad.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus with film images as backgrounds for sub-menus & the cover for the main menu.
EXTRAS:
Making Of: What I always enjoy about low-budget fare like this is that they have a more intimate, personal "making of" documentary for the most part. The documentary here takes us through what it was like to shoot a movie with digital video on such a short shooting schedule. There is also some discussion of the cast & actors, and a good deal of behind-the-scenes footage of the cast/crew goofing around.
Also: Trailer, production notes.
Final Thoughts: Not a particularly great thriller, those who are into low-budget drama/thrillers like this one, or those who want to see the next effort after "Tender Loving Care" might find the interactive nature of the story entertaining if they pick it up as a rental.
With the invention of the DVD format, there has been a great number of leaps in interactivity as producers of content race to unlock the format's seemingly limitless possibilities. While not all of these are ultimately successful, I tend to appreciate the effort and creativity that went into the production. "Point Of View" is an interactive thriller, meaning that the viewer chooses, at various points, where the story will go next, or even how it will end. The film is from the makers of another interactive film that I'd been interested in, but never seen, called "Tender Loving Care", which became quite a popular seller.
What I was met with while watching "Point Of View" was a rather fascinating idea, but with little budget to bring it forward. The disc stops and asks you various questions about how you feel about what's going on and your life in general before proceeding on a different direction. How you respond to these questions determines which way the film will go next. And there are definitely some rather interesting questions.
The story revolves around Jane, a mysterious artist who generally keeps to herself, with the exception of a few close friends. Soon, though, she develops an attraction for neighbor Frank. Unfortunately for Jane, this turns more dangerous than she'd expected. Or, does it? As the viewer, you decide what will happen between these two.
It's a potentially fascinating idea, but not one that's particularly well-crafted in "Point Of View", which often looks like it was filmed in the apartments of the cast and crew on weekends. Fortunately, the cast isn't half bad - although no one is a real stand-out, Stefanie Von Patten is good as Jane.
Overall, although I was a little weary of the look of the film as it started, the story picked up a bit in interest as it went along, and although definitely not without some very cheesy moments (this is apparently a 12 day production), I liked the interactivity features quite a lot - I definitely didn't see where the plot was going next. I'd really love to see this kind of presentation done with a bigger film with a more well-rounded screenplay. Not a bad start, though.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although "Tender Loving Care" was apparently shot in 35mm, "Point Of View" was able to go faster through the production by using digital video. The picture is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, and although the digital video "look" isn't as smooth as film, it looks fairly good throughout the film. There are times during the low-light scenes that look rather soft in comparison to the outdoor sequences, but these scenes still appeared moderately crisp and well-defined.
There are some minor bits of shimmering and other artifacts that pop up throughout the film, but these didn't cause too much of a distraction. Colors were fine - they looked a bit muddy at times, but overall not bad.
SOUND: "Point Of View" is presented in Dolby 2.0. The film's general audio (dialogue, ambient sounds) is noticably rather low-budget in quality, but the music (as cheesy as its rock/techno soundtrack sometimes is) sounds pretty decent, with fair bass and good overall clarity. Not too bad.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus with film images as backgrounds for sub-menus & the cover for the main menu.
EXTRAS:
Making Of: What I always enjoy about low-budget fare like this is that they have a more intimate, personal "making of" documentary for the most part. The documentary here takes us through what it was like to shoot a movie with digital video on such a short shooting schedule. There is also some discussion of the cast & actors, and a good deal of behind-the-scenes footage of the cast/crew goofing around.
Also: Trailer, production notes.
Final Thoughts: Not a particularly great thriller, those who are into low-budget drama/thrillers like this one, or those who want to see the next effort after "Tender Loving Care" might find the interactive nature of the story entertaining if they pick it up as a rental.
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