Zokk Reviews Prism

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Prism: Official Trailer
Prism: Full Movie

As a fan of science fiction in general, and a writer of it, as well, when I first saw the trailer for Corridor Digital's new, upcoming science fiction short film Prism, I was excited, to say the least. While Corridor Digital is known for their visual effects production over their writing, they have proved to be at least decent in the storytelling department, going by their past works, such as Frozen Crossing, their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 fan film (the first part of which, incidentally, was filmed in and around the next town over from where I currently live).

Looking at the trailer, it would be easy to infer that Prism is a sleek, well-crafted, sci-fi action piece with plenty of quality visual effects and a throbbing, heavy drumstep and techno soundtrack to boot. This is not quite so, unfortunately. While it is visually stunning, the new short film falls short in several other important places, in which the action, the soundtrack, and the colorful explosions and gunfire can't really make up for very well.

First off, is the writing. While Prism's behind-the-scenes episode states that Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer, the co-directors of the film, shot the entire thing in about ten hours, over a period of two nights in downtown Los Angeles, that's no excuse for not spending the time in the weeks or months leading up to the shoot, writing a good, coherent script to go by once everone's on set and production is underway, and no time can be wasted asking questions about the context of a scene or a piece of dialogue.

While there isn't much dialogue to begin with, what little there is is neither insightful nor informative to the story or the universe in which it's set, as it's mostly just the two main characters spouting off casual danger dialogue, or the soldiers' radio chatter during the hunt for them. Even when the characters say each other's names, it's obscured by gunfire or other sound effects, so you have no idea who they are until you read the credits. It also would be nice to get a little insight into what the state of the world is like, why the characters are there in the first place, and who they all are, both the protagonists and the antagonists, among other things.

The second thing was the acting. I'm pretty sure the problems with the acting stemmed from the fact that the script was not well written. It felt like the actors were more than a little lost when delivering their lines, probably struggling with the fact that, like mentioned above, there was little to no establishing context for them to base their emotional deliveries off of. Or, possibly, they're just not the greatest actors, after all; but it could be both, or neither. I don't know; I haven't seen the script.

My third topic is the music. The soundtrack itself is quite good, composed I think, almost entirely, if not entirely, by DJ Zardonic, known for his heavy, distorted drumstep and techno tracks. While that kind of music worked quite well for the scene where the two main characters are fighting the soldiers in a parking garage, a slightly different, lighter, more upbeat track comes in during the downtown shootout scene almost directly following it. The major key and higher octave of this new track make for some rather noticeable soundtrack dissonance, especially compared to the last fight and the fact that the climax is fast approaching.

That's not to say Prism is all bad, though; it just didn't meet my expectations. There were definitely some good points in there, though, too, as well.

Related to music, is the sound design of the film. This is one of the things Prism does get right, in a big way. There's a notion that, the higher your video quality, the more noticeable poor sound design is. This is very true. With high picture quality comes the expectancy of high sound quality to go with it. The film certainly has high picture quality; it was shot in full 1080p HD, and the sound design and quality matches it magnificently. Sound effects are leveled and balanced well with the dialogue and the soundtrack and the sound effects themselves are creative and well placed (except in a couple of places where it actually matters).

For the most part, the cinematography and editing was top-notch, and so was the lighting. The cinematography made sure to establish a recognizable setting, for the most part, and didn't break the hundred-and-eighty degree rule more than once or twice throughout the whole movie. There were a few places here and there where the framing of a shot, or series of shots, caught my attention and distracted me from what was going on on-screen, but those were mostly at the beginning. One noticeable part was the strange jump cut from when Vadim (Jimmy Wong) climbs over the fence, to when he helps Nessa (Mary Kate Wiles) over right after him.

Another thing I noticed about the parking garage fight scene was the editing. For the pace of the music, the cutting was a tad too slow. Maybe if they'd tightened up the framing of the shots just a bit more, they could have made up for pacing the cuts that slowly in comparison to the music, but I think they could have achieved the same effect with the footage they used, and just cut it faster to obscure all the medium shots they used. I think it might have had something to do with lack of coverage, considering they filmed everything in about ten hours, total.

The lighting was absolutely great, though. Sam and Niko made full use of the studio lighting gear they had access to, and made good use of it, too. I never noticed shots that were uncharacteristically dark or too light, and the use of colored light and post-production color correction was well done, as well. Some of the richer colors, such as reds, blues and purples, felt just slightly overbearing and caustic in some shots, but overall, I feel like they helped establish a sleek, larger-than-life feel to some of the settings.

Another thing were the props and costumes. Both helped greatly to establish a mostly-believable near-future setting, where clothing styles and some technology hasn't progressed too far along towards a singularity. The soldier costumes were by far the best, blending contemporary private security uniforms with little flashy science fiction touches, such as glowing lights and cables. The guns the soldiers carried were also impressive, high-quality airsoft weapons that looked convincingly near-future, matching well with the soldiers' uniforms. The plasma SMG Nessa picked up was also neat- a modified, repainted Nerf Firefly that actually looked relatively believable.

And finally, to the visual effects; the last thing on my list. Now, if there's one thing I can't validly dispute for quality, it's the visual effects. Sam and Niko are known for their high-quality visual effects, and have been for quite some time, and they don't slack off here this time, for sure. Out of all the short films they've done, I feel that Prism has, by far, the most well-integrated visual effects of any project they've ever undertaken. For the first time in a while, they've made a video that's not purely about showcasing effects, but that actually tries to incorporate them into valid elements of the story. Well, what story there is in there, anyway.

Overall, Prism is a visual feast of entertainment, but that's about all it is, sadly. The story is not particularly well thought out, or at least, not well-conveyed, but the visual effects are worth the eight or so minutes of your time to watch. Basically, Prism could have been so much more than it was, if only the time had been taken to define a story among all those special effects. And they seem to have left it open for a sequel, for some reason. Let's hope that if they do make a sequel, it makes more sense than this one. Only time will tell.