Shades of Colour
The directorial debut of Dan Deering with SHADES OF COLOUR definitely shows promise. A short film with no dialogue set mostly to music with a moment punctuated by the silence of the main character’s emotional breakdown. The film itself follows a young girl (Kate Franz) on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to find out where she belongs as she moves in between different worlds of higher education. Her biggest cheerleader is her mother, who leaves inspirational post it notes to urge her daughter on.
To read the director’s synopsis of this movie and to watch it are almost two separate entities. The depth that we’re supposed to infer from the images given don’t exactly match us with the description that is implied. That’s not exactly a bad thing though. The ambiguity of some scenes gives the audience a bit more to think on and can let them fill in the gaps in the story on their own, which can mean a different experience to different people; a more personal experience in some cases to be sure.
The opening audio and imagery didn’t give me high hopes for this film and feels a little rough. The audio in the water especially felt unfinished, or just poorly mixed. The bookends of the short film aside, the rest of the movie has a great look to it, and the director definitely has an eye for getting a good shot. The lighting was a little mixed on the indoor scenes, but anything shot outdoors looks stunning. One thing the director definitely did well was capture the beauty, innocence, and internal struggle of his main character. We definitely feel that we’re a fly on the wall of her life.
There are a few cliched shots, and the ending could use a little work as it seems to jump from an intensely emotional scene right to the end without really giving a cause-and-effect explanation as to why she’s seems content at the fade out. The scene in the shower is a bit melodramatic but understood given the subject matter. The performances are excellent, and Dan’s use of his varying locations really create a full palette and world for his characters to live in. Overall, SHADES OF COLOUR is a noble effort by a first-time director that has a lot of room to grow but has a firm grasp on what it takes to make compelling cinema.
