Deviant Perspectives

DEVIANT PERSPECTIVES: If Looks Could Kill…

“Well, pumpkins, looks like it’s the age-old dilemma. Style… or substance.” – VIDA BOHEME Peter Lawton In my time, I’ve watched quite few indie action projects, hundreds if not thousands by now and there is always something that sticks out about most of them, something that just didn’t sit well with me. It’s only in the last year that I finally was able to pinpoint this flaw as it were, as I continued to expand my own skillset as a filmmaker. That flaw is a lack of Visual Theme. As an Indie filmmaker, having a visual style, a particular way of creating a film, is really important because style is visual information and we as artists work in a visual medium. This is known as “Mise En Scene” or “Visual Theme” in traditional filmmaking and it’s something I wish more indie action filmmakers took seriously. Too often, indie action films […]

DEVIANT PERSPECTIVES: A Constructive Analysis Of Independent Action Cinema

BTS Photo: Krystal “Honey” Pizarro on the set of Black Betty (2018) “Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”– Some Dude Who Probably Learned This the Hard Way. In the world of action cinema, quality certainly reigns over quantity; A single well choreographed, well shot action sequence can excite more than two and a half hours of “lights and noise”. However even in action films both large and small, not much is mentioned of the things that had to come before that DVD started spinning in your player. Action filmmaking is highly technical, more so than most other genres that tend to offer more creative interpretations of on screen physicality. Being an indie filmmaker is already tough, but indie action filmmaking takes those challenges and complicates them even further. As of this article, we are just over one week out from going into production of Black Betty, a action short film that […]