Review and critique at least one short film production

Title – Before The Storm

Director – Jake Churchill and Prokopi Constantinou

To begin, this is a short 10 minute documentary follows a small but growing biking/cyclist subculture which through there shared enthusiasm for the hobby have seen the drop of violence in there community and wish to spread awareness through a mass ride of 3000 through London. The doc take a very indirect style of presentation as we follow from various normal members of the community and at time its pillars.

To elaborate on the style and how it is “indirect”, it does not have a presenter asking questions in an interview format, rather we only get to hear the answers of the various individuals we follow. They really take advantage of the amount of dialog taken with soundscape as they continually switch between the participants speaking the activities taken around them which means they use the natural sounds of the scenes the background. The also effectively use a kind of hip hop/techno(I’m really bad with music)for the backing track at certain intervals which really immerses you in the setting.

The first thing I noticed that no matter what shot the camera is always moving, even in static shots the camera as a hand held feel which I believe better relates us to a down to earth kind of feeling. The camera also is quite dynamic when it comes to witnessing the community conduct all tricks which really show of the level passion and skill they have for this lifestyle. This along with editing that was fast and constantly kept a quick and steady pace really effectively told this story, never boring me.

The more you look at the setting of London and all the young people enjoying and sharing this activity with each other you may have assumed is was meant to only try and get young people to join the lifestyle/hobby but it has evidently a much deeper and obvious message . This is about make a unified stand against violence and how these kinds of community teach younger people to rely on and respect others, especially when they share the same passion as you no matter the background. This as my full recommendation, it really showed me about this community and what its all about in compelling way.