Lonesome Jim
by Noni Jones

Lonesome Jim is yet another great digital film production… or shall I say video production…shot on the Panasonic DVX100A.  Directed by: Steve Bucemi. and Written by: James Strouse, the real Lonesome Jim. And just for the record, I only post and/or refer to movies shot on the DVX100 that me or any of my fellow production team members have seen personally. How would you like it if someone posted comments about your digital movie production and didn’t even have the decency to watch it? Okay then. Shall we begin? 

Well first off, the production value of the movie sets/designs and on location shots were spectacular. Their DP incorporated locations in the production that totally complimented the overall pace and feel of the story.  I guess because it was shot in the actual town the story took place.  The actors were real deal Hollywood stars. Casey Affleck as “Jim” Liv Tyler as the small town local nurse “Anika” and Kevin Corrigan as Jim’s older home bound brother “Tim”. Like I say… If the DVX 100 is good enough for Liv Tyler… then it’s good enough for me!

The direction of this independent movie reminded me a lot like Clint Eastwood’s style… very simple, very dramatic, and drawn out. There were hardly any quick tilts or quick panning movements from the DP which kept the image of the DVX100 from delivering any unwanted flickering. The colors of their images seemed a bit washed out. However, I feel they might have wanted to give the digital image more of a grim… or shall I say neutral feel to it to help the mood of the production. Also, it seemed as if they always had diffusion during all of the outdoor scenes. Or is that town always gloomy??

I do feel that there were some troubles with overall depth of field regarding the movie’s indoor scenes because I believe their video production team was working in a real house and not a designed set so I’m sure it wasn’t very often that they could cheat space, like break a wall open to get a deep, high angle shot in the owner’s house. The lighting of the indoor scenes were somewhat fair… there were some instances when you can obviously see that the DP was utilizing different types of lights to help complement the range of the DVX 100… a shade of green here, a shade of orange on Casey’s face and so on. Who am I to say…? I’ve only filmed with fluorescents and standard Tungsten bulbs. Overall it didn’t really matter because the actors really got you involved early on in this digital movie.

Are you ready for the “P” word!!  Pixilation!  Man!! I was a bit displeased with the overall turn out of the clarity of the DVX100 in their film.  If I’m not mistaken they shot the DVX 100 in 24P regular during the production of the movie because the images were a bit soft and fuzzy not to mention they shot the movie in 2004 and the 2:33:2 pulldown for the 24P advanced mode was newly introduced in the pro-sumer NLEs (non-linear-editing) in 2004.  But despite all the set backs of the Panasonic mini dv camera… you have a great story, more than great actors, and a diligent movie production team…slap on some soundtrack… oh yeah I almost forgot… a $500,000 budget and BAAM!!!  A great little digital movie in the making!!  Let’s recap.

Title:  Lonesome Jim

Director: Steve Bucemi (He’s great in all the Happy Madison Flicks).

Writer: James C. Strouse

Lead Actors: Casey Afleck and Liv Tyler (Both have relatives in the industry).

Budget: $500,000. Big ones.

Camera: Panasonic DVX100A shot in 24p regular 2:3 or 3:2 in camera pull down.

Overall Score:  8 out of 10 mini-dv tapes  Great story,  Great budget,  Great actors, and one Great song royalty!!  Rent it!  You’ll see what I’m talking about!  

Don’t forget to stay updated with all our Panasonic DVX 100 movie updates.  It’s a great way to experience the finished products of semi-big budget indies shot on the DVX100 and see how far the bigger budgeters can push the DVX 100 mini-dv cameras.

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