The Legend of the Red Reaper is a project of either vanity or insanity or both, from Producer, Writer, Director, star, Tara Cardinal. It is truly something.
As a piece of storytelling, when you can understand it that is, it is ambitious, complex and feels intensely personal. If this film is anything to go by, Cardinal is, at the least, a sincere artist with a strong vision.
As a piece of filmmaking though, Red Reaper is abysmal with some of shoddiest post-production work i've seen in any modern picture. I won't harp upon the acting as you gage it's awfulness from the trailer alone. What really needs to be reported from the feature length experience is the atrocious editing. I've never seen colour grading this bad with it's high contrast tones and needless vignetting that is so oppressive, it makes me question whether it's the editors or the cinematographer who are really to blame for this film's extremely amateur aesthetic as the framing as well is terrible, but is even that down to poor blocking? I don't know. This film fails on so many levels.
There is no doubt that a terribly run production and desperate post-production fixes are all that make Red Reaper. Continuity editing is ripped to shreds because most scenes in the film are missing large swathes of coverage and are cut like a bloody montage because there was nothing to fill the gaps. Red Reaper was conceived with just only scraps of people's time and money and is held together with nothing but chewing gum and rubber bands.
It is heartbreaking almost, as this definitely was a passion project for Tara Cardinal, and Red Reaper does have a strong graphic novel feel going towards it (the dvd cover is terrific). However, this is a film, not a novel. The written word might be something else, but what i saw was a film that is the worst example of action fantasy filmmaking i've ever seen. And from a guy who has seen James Cagney impersonating bridge trolls do the can can (SHE 1982), you can take my word to the bank, and save yourself 50p.
As a piece of storytelling, when you can understand it that is, it is ambitious, complex and feels intensely personal. If this film is anything to go by, Cardinal is, at the least, a sincere artist with a strong vision.
As a piece of filmmaking though, Red Reaper is abysmal with some of shoddiest post-production work i've seen in any modern picture. I won't harp upon the acting as you gage it's awfulness from the trailer alone. What really needs to be reported from the feature length experience is the atrocious editing. I've never seen colour grading this bad with it's high contrast tones and needless vignetting that is so oppressive, it makes me question whether it's the editors or the cinematographer who are really to blame for this film's extremely amateur aesthetic as the framing as well is terrible, but is even that down to poor blocking? I don't know. This film fails on so many levels.
There is no doubt that a terribly run production and desperate post-production fixes are all that make Red Reaper. Continuity editing is ripped to shreds because most scenes in the film are missing large swathes of coverage and are cut like a bloody montage because there was nothing to fill the gaps. Red Reaper was conceived with just only scraps of people's time and money and is held together with nothing but chewing gum and rubber bands.
It is heartbreaking almost, as this definitely was a passion project for Tara Cardinal, and Red Reaper does have a strong graphic novel feel going towards it (the dvd cover is terrific). However, this is a film, not a novel. The written word might be something else, but what i saw was a film that is the worst example of action fantasy filmmaking i've ever seen. And from a guy who has seen James Cagney impersonating bridge trolls do the can can (SHE 1982), you can take my word to the bank, and save yourself 50p.