Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Documentary Team Used Everything But the Kitchen Sink

REVIEW: "Seadrift vs. The Big Guy"

Director/Cinematographer Randall P. Dark


Randall P. Dark filming "Seadrift vs. The Big Guy"
"Seadrift vs. The Big Guy" presents the viewer not only with an involving look at a group of very determined sports enthusiasts taking on a daunting physical challenge, but also a technological tour de force of digital filmmaking. The combination of video formats from cell phone to eyewear to 4K is impressively successful, demonstrating that source material can come from any perspective both subjectively from the participants and objectively from observers.

This allows the point of view of those directly experiencing the event to become as important as the cinematography of the filmmaker.

Participants in the Texas Water Safari, the subject
of the documentary

The result is that only the editorial selection of the shots the documentarian chooses to include sets the parameters of the ultimate communication, rather than the limitations of his or her production capabilities. In my opinion, by demonstrating the unlimited potential of multiple video formats, this "Seadrift vs. The Big Guy" is a landmark in the future of potential filmmaking.

Jay Ankeney