E N V O Y (2014) Mastery Journal
VIMEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/106786265
This nine-minute short film E N V O Y (2014) directed by David Weinstein, with the help of Adam Coggin the VFX Supervisor of the film. David modeled this project after classic action and science fiction films of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Though this story is very compelling it is far from over. This film only serves as a proof of concept for a longer feature film.
The premise of the film is to provide a solid vision and tone of how David Weinstein would see in the production of this film in feature length. The story is essentially about when a young boy discovers an alien robot, and ends up being involved within government affairs.
The short-film opens and ends with the young boy, Kyle, in an interrogation room being questioned by what seems to be a high ranking individual in the military. The tone is set to be very cold, and intimidating as with most holding facilities. This can be conveyed by the us of low-key lighting. After that sequence is over, a flash back sequence begins on Kyle showing his brother the undiscovered alien. The tone of this sequence is very bright and vibrant, conveying innocence, and good will. This is captured by the setting, and the use of natural lighting. At some point I do believe they use a reflector to bounce light onto the actor’s face.
The basic dramatic structure can be broken into three different segments. The beginning which arises the the conflict, which is in when Kyle is being questioned on his alien friend. Then the short film goes into the scene of which how Kyle actually came to meeting the alien creature. Then in the same scene you can see the alien being attacked by what looks like military. I believe this portion of the film sells the boy’s innocence. After the outside scene is finished, the short film cuts back into the interrogation room where the pay-off of the film happens.
There is a lot of dialogue throughout the short film, and a good portion of it contributes towards the plot, especially the interrogation sequences. I believe the dialogue mostly has to do with character development, which adds to the story. The alien doesn’t say any words at all, yet the audience can tell that it is a good creature, for the simple fact that he saves the boy Kyle, towards the end of the film.
As explained earlier through the contrast of moods between settings, color correction really enhanced the film’s overall feeling. Speaking of color correction VFX has an enormous roll in this segment. From color correction to full all character animation, this film has a little bit of it all. Starting with the opening shot, you are in the perspective of the camera in the interrogation room. Followed by that is the birds flying from the corn. After that bit of the film the biggest VFX portion is the alien. After watching the VFX breakdown of this short film, I learned that they didn’t even use motion capture for compositing the alien into the live action footage. So by default the post production team went with the compositing technique of motion tracking to set the alien in the scene. The subtle things that are background assets, but easily spotted when done wrong include gun shots, shadows, explosions, and most importantly sound.
The sound design of this short film was done really well in my opinion. The dialogue was very clear throughout the film. The sound effects where done nicely as well, and sold the believability of the alien. Also the score of the film was a subtle but nice touch to help the viewer feel emotion. There were other sound effects to build suspense, and used to aid transitions, and they were all done beautifully.
Taking a closer look at transitions and cuts within the short film, I see that barely any clips last for more then 6-8 seconds. But the shots that do, serve a certain purpose. For example, the cut from interrogation room to outside, holds a little over 8 seconds to show the setting. Also the scenes of dialogue are slower paced, whereas the scenes with a little bit more action have quicker shots, which would mean that they are faster paced.
I felt like the performance of the young boy Kyle was executed really well. On the other hand, his older brother doesn’t really sell it well, but still serves the roll, and conveys the story. The interrogator acted well enough to make me feel like he deserved what he had coming to him at the end. That being said the “costume” design was also fitting for the characters. There was no special need for much costumer design for the characters other then the military interrogator. All in all this short film is assembled in such a way that conveys emotion, and tells a story with a really nice pay off.