MOVIE RATING:  4.5 stars ( A- )

There are two types of movies. Movies that give us an escape from reality. And movies that give us reality. As moviegoers, we either choose to look at ourselves in the mirror (reality), or we choose to look away (fantasy). Some of us do both. Some of us only do one or the other. There are no qualms about it in my mind: Shame (2011) is a movie that puts a big f**king mirror up in front of our face. I use a masked f-word here because if you can’t get past that, then this movie and this review are not for you. This is a serious film about art imitating life. And it’s a seriously outstanding one.

Shame is rated NC-17, which is such perfect irony for the title. It’s the first film in a long time to take that label, and even turn it into a badge of honor. Michael Fassbender is ABSOLUTELY STUNNING in his portrayal of Brandon, a middle-aged modern male “sex addict”. I put quotes around sex addict because the movie doesn’t actually label Brandon as one. But most reviews and summaries about the film do. I can see both sides of the argument. While I personally think his behavior does probably veer towards addiction because of his obsession with it on so many levels, the behavior itself may be more mainstream and “normal” than many of us would like to think or talk about openly. Sex addiction is a bit of a controversial diagnosis. I do feel that director Steve McQueen has really captured an incredible and poignant slice of the male psyche and modern male life that few films look at, let alone dwell on in such intricate detail.

Without delay, or modesty, Shame delves into the heart of its story right from the opening frame, presenting its full frontal male nudity right away, instead of shamefully hiding it or leading up to it. Shame is not pornography. But some people might view its “European” frankness and equality towards its actors as crossing the line…hence the NC-17 rating. I don’t. The subject matter (“sex addiction” on the surface) and the way the film is holding up the mirror for us to view ourselves in our current times, suggests a bold approach like McQueen has taken. With graphic pornography available at the click of a mouse on our computer (I could have a link for you to click right here), or the touch of our finger on our iPad or iPhone, shouldn’t a movie about sex addiction grab our attention away from that material to really start a serious conversation about it?

We’re peering into a few days in the life of Brandon, his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), and the people in their lives, including Brandon’s boss at work, David (James Badge Dale). Brandon has a daily routine, like we all do. And sex, in all its various thoughts, actions, and forms is a part of that. Like it is for most of us. But Brandon is obsessed with getting physical pleasure more than most of us. And yet we’ve all probably had stages in our lives where our own personal obsession with sex has been close to his.  I think the banal way some of the simulated sex in this movie is shown is a great reflection of the banality that sex and masturbation can take on in mid-life. As I’ve said to friends, sex (solo or otherwise), to some degree, becomes a bit like brushing one’s teeth at some point in a guys life. It’s just something we do each day to keep ourselves healthy and sane. We’re wired biologically to seek that release. Some might argue it’s our “primitive” nature and that with maturity and spirituality, we get past it. I don’t think there’s anything to get “past”. We are human. We are sexual beings…from birth until death. Denial, or repression, is what I would label getting “past” it.

While on the surface, Shame appears to be about sex addiction to most people, it’s really about the emptiness and meaningless of modern life that many of us feel day to day. Sex and sex addiction are simply the “shameful” symptomatic behaviors of those lack-of-purpose feelings that Brandon and Sissy have. We’re all scrambling about in a hurry to get somewhere…anywhere. Yet we have no idea where. And in fact, we are oblivious to the reality that there is nowhere to get. Brandon and Sissy both feel lost and without purpose in life. That is the real content of this film that grabbed me emotionally, because I’ve been in that same place at stages…and may again. Shame was an emotional roller coaster. It started emotional, went in to a flatter, more emotionless period, and ended on a very strong emotional beat. I won’t give away any plot points from the third act, but McQueen really grabbed every aspect of me by the end. And I’m still dizzy in thought about all the meaning in the film and it’s relation to my own life.

There is no doubt in my mind that Fassbender’s performance in Shame deserves the Best Actor award for 2011. He has my vote hands down. There is no Shame without Fassbender. His willingness as an actor, an artist, and a man, to put every ounce of his humanity on the line in this role, both physically and emotionally, is what Oscars were made for. And yet, I doubt he’ll win for this role. The fact that he just got nominated this week for a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Drama at least bodes well for him getting an Oscar nomination. But it’ll blow me away if a movie as edgy and out there as Shame brings him enough mainstream votes to give him the trophy he so richly deserves. This really is one of the best performances I’ve seen in years. It reminds me of the greatness that Colin Firth brought to A Single Man (2009).

The artistic craftsmanship that McQueen and his production team brought to Shame is simply mind-blowing. Every possible aspect of cinema that makes a movie great in my opinion is present in Shame. The production design, cinematography, sound (or lack thereof), music, editing, acting, writing, and direction are as good as they get. The visuals of the film will probably wander through my mind for days, weeks, months, and years. Some of the camera shots are so simple, and yet so breathtaking. The lighting (or lack thereof a times) really worked for me. The thing that small indie films like Shame have that big productions often times don’t have, is simplicity. I’m a strong believer in the power of simple design and solutions. And when money is thrown at a film, it often times simply goes into something more complex…because it can. More light, more sound, more visual effects. Less money seems to bring simple solutions to filmmaking problems more often than not. And at least in the case of Shame, it pays off.

Having seen Shame via digital projection at the theater, it looked great. It had the feel of 35mm, which it was shot on, which lent the film a bit of grit and rawness. I can’t say enough good things about Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt’s work. The long takes, of which there are 2 or 3 in Shame, are flawless and engaging. One thing I noticed repeatedly that I really loved in the frame compositions was the use of the edges of the frame. So often, we see great subject matter fully within the frame, but I noticed how often McQueen, Bobbitt, and the rest of the crew placed great subject matter at the edges of the frame, sometimes revealing only part of it…just barely giving us enough. There are so many incredible shots to see throughout Shame, showing a fresh side of New York and using its inherent varied lighting to maximum effect. I’m really looking forward to owning Shame on blu-ray so I can study it over and over again.

The film editing by Joe Walker really pairs well with the cinematography and script. There were a few scenes where I was thrown off by how long the scene goes on, making me pay attention to the editing more than normal. But I’m not sure I would say they were a problem, just more of a surprise. I’ll have to see how the editing holds up on repeat viewings, but instinctually it felt right to me. The emotional build-up in the 1st and 3rd acts are simply works of art that definitely got me with the music.

Shame’s sound is sparse at times, favoring silence and no music, which I really loved. And the repetitive pieces of score that music composer Harry Escott wrote are spectacular in their tone and rhythm. At first, I thought they were from Hans Zimmer’s scores to The Thin Red Line (1998) and Inception (2010), but while reminiscent of Zimmer’s work, they have there own uniqueness. I’ve purchased the two key score tracks (“Brandon” and “Unravelling”) by Escott from Shame’s soundtrack and listened to them multiple times. Each is a brilliant piece of work that will be in regular rotation for me the rest of my life. I can’t imagine a better pairing of music to Shame’s visuals than Escott has created. I certainly hope the Academy appreciates this brilliance as well come Oscar time.

Every detail of the production design for Shame has been thought out. The locations and sets were perfect for this story about a modern urban man in New York. Brandon’s costumes were perfect. Production Designer Judy Becker had a fantastic team of people that worked with her to give Shame it’s look and feel.

At the foundation of Shame is insightful, realistic, and engaging writing. The screenplay, written by director Steve McQueen and Abi Morgan, is so clearly where the brilliance of this movie originated. There’s a perfect balance of giving the audience enough to invest themselves in the characters and story, but not too much. We’re left with many questions, yet I don’t feel the need to have them answered. McQueen and Morgan tapped into something universally human and especially male. They didn’t veer away from the hard truths, but delved into them to see what we all could find for ourselves.

Shame is definitely one of my top films of 2011. If you have an open mind, and open heart, and a willingness to look in the mirror and see something both disturbing and magnificent, then Shame is a film you’ll want to seek out and see.

Alfred comes up with a new trick and Robert is convinced that it is true magic. So Robert has to go to the only person who can make him a better trick: Tesla. Tesla is a genius of electricity and Robert asks him to make a machine that will perform real magic. Tesla works for a long time until the machine is ready. Robert shows his crowd the trick and they are all astounded at the results.

The Prestige is a great movie. It has a great plot, a great cast, and a great soundtrack. It’s also full of mystery and suspense.

I don’t have much else to say about the movie. I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend that you see it.

Drew A. 

Luxembourg:

Belgium:

Paris:

I plan to write a post soon on the movie The Prestige… I highly recommend it if you have not seen it.

Drew A.

MOVIE RATING:  4.5 stars ( A- )

There’s something about baseball. It just works on the silver screen. I’m not a big fan of watching baseball in person, or on TV, but it can really zing on a movie screen. Following last year’s movie masterpiece The Social Network (2010), screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, and Moneyball co-screenwriter Steven Zaillian, have fashioned this year’s crisply intelligent word game to where it almost felt like the sequel to the Facebook film. The same brilliance that brought the seemingly “boring” business of social media to epic Greek-Tragedy-life, now brings the business and statistics of baseball to that same place. While The Social Network is about invention, friendship, trust, and revenge, Moneyball is about ambition, courage, logic, and intuition. Both to a large extent are tales of underdogs, scrappily fighting their way to the top, reaching their goals however possible with limited resources.

Up-and-coming film director Bennett Miller did an amazing job pulling this movie together and telling a great new story in a genre that is extremely tough to compete in: the sports movie. Not only is that genre crowded, the baseball sports movie sub-genre can easily fill 9 innings or more with good films: Field of Dreams (1989), Bull Durham (1988), The Natural (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), A League of Their Own (1992), Major League (1989), The Bad News Bears (1976), The Rookie (2002), and 61* (2001). While Moneyball doesn’t quite manage the extra greatness that I believe Field of Dreams, Hoosiers (1986), Days of Thunder (1990), and Rudy (1993) occupy as sports movies about underdogs, it does bring a lot to the table to trade with those films.

To begin with, actors Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman really brought their A-games to the Oakland A’s. Some might argue that Hoffman’s performance as Art Howe is too subdued and that he has very little dialogue in the film. But the pure weight of his performance with his somber, quiet, old school heft really works for the character he’s playing: a grizzled, set-in-his-ways baseball manager up against a younger fire-in-his-pants general manager.  Pitt plays the GM, Billy Beane, who wants to shake things up and change the system that they’ve all worked in for years and years. Beane realizes that the system is broken and that the teams at the bottom with limited financial resources just can’t compete against the teams at the top with much bigger budgets to spend on the best players in the game. It’s this conceit that sets up the “risk it all” strategy that Pitt employs by hiring Jonah Hill’s character Peter Brand, a Yale economics graduate whose never played a lick of baseball, to assist him in throwing the traditional baseball scouts on their asses by using logic and statistics instead of popularity, gut instincts, and experience to pick players and create the team with.

I think the strongest asset in this underdog story is the battle between logic and intuition. It’s a classic philosophical debate in every “game” or endeavor in life. And while some might argue that Moneyball’s Beane proves to a degree that logic rules over intuition, I think he’s really just trying to bring logic back into the game to play alongside intuition. Babe Ruth, arguably the greatest baseball player of all time, doesn’t exactly scream “great athlete” in terms of his physical prowess and athleticism by today’s standards. You wouldn’t see a scout pick a player that looks and acts like Ruth today. But his statistics don’t lie. And Beane is simply trying to combine intuition, experience, and talent with statistics to show that sometimes a player might not look on the surface or by their book cover to be a good player, but if their statistics say otherwise, maybe they should be looked at more closely.

The production design and cinematography in Moneyball are right up there with most great films coming out of Hollywood today. Neither overly stood out as exceptional to me, but they definitely aren’t average either. There’s a realism and “documentary” style to the way Moneyball looks and feels. Pitt’s hair and costumes are more average joe, helping portray his character as anything but the sexiest-man-alive movie star that Pitt normally plays. He’s a father, an ex-husband, and a general manager. It’s actually kind of refreshing to see no love interest or romance for the leading man in a movie. We tend to fantasize and dream that we can have it all in the movies: love, career, family, sex, etc. But in reality, lots of men and women who put so much of their passion into their careers, don’t have the perfect personal lives we see on screen. I’m glad this movie didn’t just stick in a sexy momma for Pitt’s character to tango with. Pitt’s love in Moneyball is the game of baseball. That’s his mistress.

There are a number of great, memorable scenes in Moneyball that I keep playing over and over in my head as I think about the film. Scenes from the various games, the stadium, and the locker room. Scenes in the meeting room between Pitt and the scouts. Scenes in the offices between Pitt and Hill. And scenes with Pitt all by himself. Moneyball’s editing, led by Christopher Tellefsen, keeps the film moving most of the time at a good pace, with a few 7th inning slumps. But overall, I felt the film was just right. Some critics and viewers have said that Moneyball is too long and that it drags at times, but I found it engaging nearly the whole time. I can’t remember ever looking at my watch. I was vested in the story and felt the stakes, wanting to see how it all played out.

The score and music by Mychael Danna really worked for me, giving the film the deeper emotional connection that I wanted from it. And the sound department did an amazing job with their work, certainly challenged by some of the locations they had to record in. At some point I want to listen to Moneyball’s score all on its own to really appreciate it. I have a feeling there’s more to it than meets the eye.

You can’t go wrong in watching Moneyball. The intelligence, wit, emotion, and craft in this film should appeal on some level with just about everyone. Just like The Social Network is not really a movie just about Facebook, Moneyball is not really a movie just about baseball. This is the movie I’ve been waiting for all year. And it’s currently the best film I’ve seen in 2011. We’ll see how it holds up after the next three months, but I’m pretty certain it will be on my Top 10 list at the end of the year. I’m anxious to see Moneyball several more times to see how it plays. Both my logical mind and my intuitive gut tell me it has the stuff to hold up for years to come and be a regular performer in my movie library.

5. This photo was taken on Mont Blanc in the Alps.

4. This photo was taken at a lake near Cincinnati, OH.

3. This photo was taken at Lake Michigan in Chicago, IL.

2. This photo was taken at a lake in Northern Michigan.

1. This photo was taken in Chamonix, France.

Innocents is one of the local Phoenix, Arizona independent film projects that I worked on earlier this year (in May and June 2011). Written by Jeff Houkal and directed by Joshua M. Lambeth, Innocents is a feature length dramatic film. We shot about 5 minutes worth of selected scenes from the script to create a trailer for the film to promote the work of the cast and crew and garner funding for the production of the entire feature. The director and screenwriter are hopeful that production on the entire film will be possible in the near future. The cast of Innocents includes Kasim Aslam, Gina M. D’Atri, Jeff Houkal, Xavier Christian, Cecilia Coloma, Suzanne Ziad Yacoub Yatim, Tim Valdisera, Skyla Cochrane, and Robert Jakob.

Shot entirely on location with a Canon 5d Mark II DSLR camera in 1080p HD, Lambeth served as both Director and Director of Photography, two roles he is well suited to. Lambeth has a knack for lighting and shooting detail images. He simply has that photographer’s eye and his body of work so far shows it. I previously posted a review of his short film Time. My favorite scenes from the Innocents trailer are the interrogation room scenes between writer/actor Jeff Houkal and actor Kasim Aslam. I absolutely love the lighting and cinematography. In collaboration with director Lambeth, I assisted as Production Designer for that scene, suggesting the black wall backdrop and selecting the stainless steel table the two actors sit at. So I guess you could say I am a bit partial to it. But even with my normal impartial film critic hat on, I do stand by my love of that scene for it’s writing, acting, cinematography, and production design.

My specific roles on Innocents were mostly in the sound department. I was the Boom Operator, Co-Sound Mixer, Sound Editor, and Sound Designer. And I dabbled in Production Design on the interrogation scene, and assisted Josh Lambeth with a bit of editing. The sound was recorded with a Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun microphone (provided by Broadcast Rentals in Tempe, AZ) and a Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless lavalier microphone. All sound was recorded onto a Zoom H4n portable digital recorder and edited/mixed/mastered in Avid Pro Tools LE 8. Sound work was a bit challenging on this project with some dynamic locations, but I think it turned out decent in the end. This was my fourth short film project where I worked on sound, and I learned a lot. I continue to improve my work and I really appreciate sound on movies like never before in my life! When I see that a film like Unstoppable (2010) had a team of 28 people in the sound department, I can see why my work, along with my fellow crew members, pales in comparison. Their is strength in numbers when it comes to good sound I think! Josh’s brother Christopher Lambeth and Max Goessing created the musical score for the trailer, lending it some emotional gravitas.

I gotta say it was a pleasure working with the cast and crew on this project and I look forward to working on the entire feature film.

Here are some still images from the Innocents trailer:

For 20+ years, I’ve always eagerly looked forward to my annual edition of Entertainment Weekly’s Fall Movie Preview. And this year was no exception. I just finished reading the magazine’s buzz on 98 new films planned to be released in the remaining four months of 2011. The Fall movie season is the best in my opinion, since typically most of what end up being my Top 10 Movies of the year, tend to come out in these last 4 months. This year looks to be no different. I gotta say, this was a tough list this year since there were about 25 films vying for the top ten spots. One film that would definitely be on the list if it were certain that it was to be released this year is The Wettest County in the World. But alas, it wasn’t in EW’s issue and it has not officially been granted a release date for 2011. I’m still hoping it sneaks in though. But here are my Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2011 as of right now:

10. Pearl Jam Twenty

As a big fan of Pearl Jam and their music since their epic beginning, I started feeling a bit nostalgic for the early years of Pearl Jam when I heard about this upcoming documentary from director Cameron Crowe. A great rock band and the writer/director of the ultimate rock band movie: Almost Famous (2000)…seems like a match made in heaven!

9. 50/50

It will be interesting to see if the numbers 5 and 0 bring good fortune to actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt again, like they did with 500 Days of Summer (2009). The concept for this film, along with what I’ve seen in the trailer, make it look like it has that magic combination of comedy and drama.

8. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

The real question is, can the fourth Mission: Impossible film finally live up to the quality of the first film? I’m hopeful with director Brad Bird behind the helm and actor Jeremy Renner on board. Plus the trailer looks pretty darn good!

7. Margin Call

It’s simply the trailer that got me so interested in this movie. But it definitely helps to have the amazing cast that it has.

6. Moneyball

I’m always a sucker for a GOOD sports movie. This one looks like it has the potential to be a good one with writer Aaron Sorkin and actors Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The trailer has set my expectations high on this one.

(UPDATE 10/01/11:  Read my review of Moneyball)

5. Contagion

Director Steven Soderbergh. An amazing cast. A worldwide virus epidemic. This movie has the potential to be as good or better than Outbreak (1995), which is currently my favorite virus movie.

4. War Horse

Director Steven Spielberg with a story set during a war. Enough said. I just hope he doesn’t go too “sappy” and “sweet” with this film, as the trailer kind of implies. Nonetheless, I’m always highly anticipating a Steven Spielberg movie.

3. J. Edgar

There’s no poster and no trailer yet. But the teaming of director Clint Eastwood with actorLeonardo DiCaprio in a historically set biographical dramatic movie about the life of famous FBI man J. Edgar Hoover has me very curious. I’m also curious to see the work of writer Dustin Lance Black of Milk (2008) fame.

(UPDATE 10/10/11: Now there’s a poster and a trailer.)

2. In Time

Writer/Director Andrew Niccol so impressed me with Gattaca (1997) that I will probably forever anticipate his movies highly. But the concept of this story is so incredibly intriguing to me, and the cast of young actors so incredibly amazing, that this film has unbelievable expectations on my part. I only hope we get a lot more Gattaca than S1m0ne (2002) on this film. I’ll definitely be at the theater opening day for this one.

1. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The trailer really speaks for itself as to why this is my #1 most anticipated movie of Fall 2011. It just barely squeaked ahead of In Time. And if the trailer, with it’s incredible remake of the classic Led Zeppelin “Immigrant Song” by Trent Reznor is not enough, I’ll just drop the name of the director: David Fincher. Come on…Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999), and The Social Network (2010)? Is there any question about the potential greatness of this remake of the original Swedish film?

Other movies that were in contention for this Top 10 list include: Young Adult, The Ides of March, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Anonymous, The Descendants, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Immortals, We Bought A Zoo, A Dangerous Method, and In The Land of Blood and Honey.

FILM RATING:  3.5 stars

To my surprise, Russell Crowe’s latest film, The Next Three Days (2010), was a better than expected action/suspense “heist/caper” film. The trailer, and many critical reviews I’ve read, don’t do it justice. But writer/director Paul Haggis came through here in my opinion with a gripping drama that starts slow, but builds the stakes to a good climax. It definitely reminded me of the now classic Harrison Ford vehicle, The Fugitive (1993). But it was a fresh twist on an old concept. It even has a bit of Enemy of the State (1998) and director Tony Scott’s iconic style mixed in for good measure.

The concept of The Next Three Days is pretty simple. It’s a story about a family of three who are living the idyllic modern suburban lifestyle. Elizabeth Banks plays the mother, and seemingly the breadwinner, in the family. One morning, their calm house is stormed by the police and Banks’ character is arrested and charged with murder of her female boss at work. The story pretty much jumps forward three years to where Banks is locked up in jail for life after being found guilty in court. Her husband, played by Russell Crowe, doesn’t believe she’s guilty for a minute, but they could never find evidence of her innocence or the actual killer to take the blame for the crime. Banks’ character can’t seem to deal with the loss of her life and attempts suicide, adding to the pressure that Crowe and their son already feel from their fractured family. So Crowe decides he has to break Banks out of jail. And he finds out exactly what thats going to take from ex-convict Liam Neeson. The rest of the plot goes where you are probably guessing it goes. So I’ll let the film fill in the rest.

I will say that some of the “extraordinary” (or coincidental) circumstances and events within the story make one suspend belief in order to really enjoy the film. Usually these kind of unrealistic and overly “lucky” sequence of events take me out of a film to a degree. But somehow, Haggis and Crowe and the rest of the cast and filmmakers pulled it off with this one. I can see how some film critics and viewers of the film might not let the far fetched conceits of the film work for them. But as I’ve written before, movies by definition are creating a “fantastical” world in which they exist. Every sci-fi or alien movie requires one to suspend belief to some degree. And just because The Next Three Days doesn’t live in one of those genres, doesn’t mean that it can’t ask you to suspend your sense of realism. Enough said!

There’s no doubt in my mind that one of the key aspects of the success of The Next Three Days is Russell Crowe’s performance. He plays a middle-aged, slightly overweight, married father quite well. And yet he also transforms during the course of the movie into a badass criminal. All at the same time he remains a caring father and loving husband. And I think it’s that process of personal transformation with his character that makes the film interesting. The first hour of the film is a little too slow in that process maybe, but it does really build-up to the engaging third act of the movie. I think maybe the writing and editing could have been a little tighter to keep the movie moving along more. But after listening to an Apple “Meet The Filmmaker” podcast with director Paul Haggis defending his purposely slow build-up in the first half of the film, I can also buy into that philosophy. But I think if the film did have a little faster pace to it, it would elevate the film to higher level at least in my eyes. Nonetheless, this is a successful film and it works.

The production values in The Next Three Days are really solid like so many films today. The cinematography from Stéphane Fontaine is good, but nothing I haven’t seen before. The production design by Laurence Bennett is also well done and gives us very realistic sets and locations for the story to take place in. Sound Editing led by Renee Tondelli is really well executed with a full array of surround sounds we all expect now in an action film of this type. And I was very impressed with Danny Elfman’s music. He continues to shine and gives this film a better score than one like this typically gets. And I do think that is part of what helps elevate The Next Three Days above its peers like Unstoppable (2010).

I missed seeing The Next Three Days in the theater last year, but it was a nice surprise seeing it in HD recently. I continue to be amazed at how much better many movies look at home on blu-ray or in HD than they do in the theater. The theaters really need to invest in modern digital projection technology and bring back the aura of the cineplex. While I can’t make the direct comparison here, my intuition tells me that I didn’t miss anything in this film’s theatrical presentation. And I couldn’t have asked for a better home theater presentation. The high definition mastering of this film is about as good as it gets. So give your living room an aural shake-up with The Next Three Days.

Check out details on the film and its excellent Blu-ray presentation at Blu-ray.com.

I’ve been in love with this song ever since I first heard it. It’s just got a raw energy that I connect with. The Script is one of those bands you’ve probably heard on the radio but maybe haven’t connected their music with their name. This song is the one that finally made that connection for me. The music video for this song is excellent. I love the mixture of different looks they’ve thrown together here: black & white, modern and vintage colors, and all the shades in between. It really works. And the weaving of a sort of cinematic story between the 2 characters and footage of the band is a technique that almost always works in music videos. I’m not sure what kind of cameras were used for shooting this video, but some of the footage has the look of the Canon 5D with its extremely shallow depth of field. The in-and-out of focus look of the band footage really works, especially in contrast with the rest of the video. I can’t say enough about the impressive use of lighting in this video, both natural and artificial. Just ponder the beauty and artistry in the 70+ still images below from the video. Each one tells a story and fits beautifully with the music. The filmmakers involved in this project really came through and created a piece of work that matches the craftsmanship and talent within The Script. I’m looking forward to their next video for sure!

Purchase this song or the entire Science & Faith album at iTunes or Amazon, and incorporate The Script into your music collection if you haven’t already. You won’t regret it.