After all, if everything you do is being recorded for posterity, what can you get away with?
The film owes a debt of inspiration to such classics as "Bladerunner", as Hakman is surprised by what he learns about himself, even as he takes baby steps into the world of the Zoe-resistance, and cult films as "Strange Days", (in the Zoe-perspective sequences). There is even some visual homage to "Minority Report" as the way Hakman operates his Guillotine, as the Zoe-editing machines are called, is reminiscent of the way Tom Cruise does his research through the pre-cogs´ visions at the beginning of Spielberg´s film.
"Final Cut" holds a place in film distribution history because AMC theatres screened digital copies using its proprietary Digital Theatre Distribution System, which until then had only been used for its pre-show advertising content. This was the first time an exhibitor and a distributor partnered up for a relatively wide-scale (117 theatres in 27 markets, which had the movie file downloaded to them via satellite) release of digital copies using a system that was not compatible with standards set by DCI, the seven-studio digital cinema coalition.
Video:
The film is presented in its original 16:9 Widescreen aspect ratio. "Final Cut" is beautifully shot by Tak Fujimoto, with a lovely, warm, retro-futuristic production design by James Chinlund, and carefully contrasted hand-held point-of-view "Zoe" sequences, a real tour-de-force contrast between classical editing and subjective editing.
Audio:
The DVD is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and 2.0 Dolby Digital. There is a classic, melodic score by Brian Tyler.
Extras:
The extras include a "Making of "The Final Cut", an excellent production design featurette, a special effects featurette, storyboard to on-set footage comparisons, and a commentary track by the film´s director, director, Omar Naïm, as well as deleted scenes, trailers, subtitles in Spanish, English close captioning and of course the scene index.
The extras on this DVD almost make up for the feature´s failings. Altogether, the extras are an excellent primer for any filmmaker about to make their first fiction film. Most interesting is the featurette on production design, especially the Guillotine, the combination of old Steenbeck and modern Avid editing system, a high tech machine made out of solid oak and plasma screens. The consistency of design is carried through to the DVD menus, which are all about getting viewers to buy Zoe implants for their progeny. Also of interest is the ´making of´ featurette, which illustrates how hard those Zoe implant scenes were to produce. The best example are the memory shots of people looking at themselves in mirrors, which entailed building "mirroring" sets, and the actor has to play his Zoe-view of his own reflection, while a stand-in has to play the hands with the razor or hairbrush that occasionally swerves into frame on the camera side of the action. Of course, filming such actions, even something as simple as someone brushing their teeth, took hours of careful coordination – the second unit director estimated that it took ten hours to film each such 15 second sequence.
It is a sign of how subtly done the Zoe sequences are that when Naïm deviates from their convention in the final shot we are jarred and moved without quite knowing why.
Closing Thoughts:
The director was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, the film was nominated for Best Film at the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain, and Naïm won Best Screenplay at the 2004 Deauville Film Festival in France. This last award is incomprehensible given the poor quality of the script. Naïm is a director to watch, but this film is destined to be a footnote in his future career.
"Final Cut" holds a place in film distribution history because AMC theatres screened digital copies using its proprietary Digital Theatre Distribution System, which until then had only been used for its pre-show advertising content. This was the first time an exhibitor and a distributor partnered up for a relatively wide-scale (117 theatres in 27 markets, which had the movie file downloaded to them via satellite) release of digital copies using a system that was not compatible with standards set by DCI, the seven-studio digital cinema coalition.
Video:
The film is presented in its original 16:9 Widescreen aspect ratio. "Final Cut" is beautifully shot by Tak Fujimoto, with a lovely, warm, retro-futuristic production design by James Chinlund, and carefully contrasted hand-held point-of-view "Zoe" sequences, a real tour-de-force contrast between classical editing and subjective editing.
Audio:
The DVD is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound and 2.0 Dolby Digital. There is a classic, melodic score by Brian Tyler.
Extras:
The extras include a "Making of "The Final Cut", an excellent production design featurette, a special effects featurette, storyboard to on-set footage comparisons, and a commentary track by the film´s director, director, Omar Naïm, as well as deleted scenes, trailers, subtitles in Spanish, English close captioning and of course the scene index.
The extras on this DVD almost make up for the feature´s failings. Altogether, the extras are an excellent primer for any filmmaker about to make their first fiction film. Most interesting is the featurette on production design, especially the Guillotine, the combination of old Steenbeck and modern Avid editing system, a high tech machine made out of solid oak and plasma screens. The consistency of design is carried through to the DVD menus, which are all about getting viewers to buy Zoe implants for their progeny. Also of interest is the ´making of´ featurette, which illustrates how hard those Zoe implant scenes were to produce. The best example are the memory shots of people looking at themselves in mirrors, which entailed building "mirroring" sets, and the actor has to play his Zoe-view of his own reflection, while a stand-in has to play the hands with the razor or hairbrush that occasionally swerves into frame on the camera side of the action. Of course, filming such actions, even something as simple as someone brushing their teeth, took hours of careful coordination – the second unit director estimated that it took ten hours to film each such 15 second sequence.
It is a sign of how subtly done the Zoe sequences are that when Naïm deviates from their convention in the final shot we are jarred and moved without quite knowing why.
Closing Thoughts:
The director was nominated for a Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, the film was nominated for Best Film at the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain, and Naïm won Best Screenplay at the 2004 Deauville Film Festival in France. This last award is incomprehensible given the poor quality of the script. Naïm is a director to watch, but this film is destined to be a footnote in his future career.
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[release]15004[/release]