I Finally saw "Devious Beings"

[B5_Obsessed]

I Finally saw \"Devious Beings\"

This in an independent film featuring Jerry Doyle that was released last year. Extreme profanity, drug use, slight sexual content, and lots of violence (Joe Bob says check it out ).

It was not much to get excited about, but there were some clever moments in it, including some very sick humor. The movie might have had a chance, had it not been sabotaged by a man named Brian Calloway (thanks IMDB!). Mr Calloway is listed as the Sound Department Boom Operator. Fortunately, this film is his only credit to date, because the microphone appears in so many scenes and SOOOO close to the characters' heads that you can convert this movie into a drinking game called "Spot the Mic" and get seriously smashed. Sadly, it takes you out of the story pretty quick every time so you might as well drink up.

Jerry did well with what he was given. In a film full of villains and unsavory characters, he takes the cake as a brutal detective doing very bad things for the right reasons.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Re: I Finally saw \"Devious Beings\"

Did you see this in a theater or on home video. If the latter was it widescreen or "full frame"?

90% of the time when boom mikes are visible in films it is because they are misframed, not because anyone did anything wrong. (And if someone were to blame it would be the director or the cinematographer/director of photography, not the sound guy. The director and DP are responsible for framing the shots and for ensuring that extraneous stuff like boom mikes and electrical cables stay out of frame. A sound man might scew up once and put the mike where it doesn't belong, but no director or dp worth his or her salt would put up with that happening repeatedly.)

Most films projected at 1.85:1 are shot at 1.33:1 with "padding" at the top and bottom of the frame that is never meant to be seen. The projectionist at the theater is supposed to set the mattes in the projector and properly align the film so it displays properly. If he screws up you get a variety of bad results. If he shifts the frame up, you get visible boom mikes, down you see that the actor in the tux is wearing sneakers, or that the supposedly naked chick is wearing a bikini bottom - and you might see the lighting cables or the bits of tape that make up the actors' "marks" - the spots where they have to stand to be properly lit and in focus for a given shot. If the projectionist just gets the ratio wrong - setting it to 1.66:1, say - you get a combination of these things.

A "full frame" home video of a film that was not "protected" for that kind of release will show all sorts of errors. Probably 90% of the boom mikes, con trails and other "flubs" reported in movie mistake books were never seen by a theatrical audience. They only show up on full screen VHS copies of the films or in airline versions because those contain the full exposed frame, something the filmmakers never intended to let anyone see.

Regards,

Joe

P.S.

I used to see "Devious Being" every single work day. Of course, I was working for a law firm at the time...

 

[B5_Obsessed]

Re: I Finally saw \"Devious Beings\"

I saw it on widescreen DVD, Joe. Like I said, the boom came within 6 inches of people's heads, diving into the scene like a buzzard on the highway. I wondered myself why they couldn't crop it special for the DVD. I assume money was the issue.