The Vast of Night (2020)

[DavidJ]

Title: The Vast of Night (2020)

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction

Director: Andrew Patterson

Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer, Bruce Davis, Cheyenne Barton, Gregory Peyton, Mallorie Rodak, Mollie Milligan, Ingrid Fease, Brandon Stewart, Kirk Griffith, Nika Sage McKenna, Brett Brock, Pam Dougherty, Lynn Blackburn, Richard Jackson, James Mayberry, Nicolette Doke, Grant James, Libby Villari, Gordon Fox, John Gindling, Brianna Beasley, Chamblee Ferguson, L.A. Young

Release: 2020-05-15

Runtime: 91

Plot: At the dawn of the space-race, two radio-obsessed teens discover a strange frequency over the airwaves in what becomes the most important night of their lives and in the history of their small town.

I don't often start threads, and I'm not sure I'm doing this right, but I wanted to start a thread for "The Vast of NIght". As I mentioned in another thread, I'm really excited about this one because I have several friends and former students that were a part of making it and I want to get the word out about it to support them.

It is playing at select drive-ins around the country this weekend before releasing on Amazon's Prime Video. It was going to have a larger and different theatrical run, but you know...global pandemic. It won the Audience Award for best narrative feature at last year's Slamdance Film Festival and played at this year's Toronto International Film Festival where Amazon Studios announced their acquisition of it.

 

[DavidJ]

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_vast_of_night

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Looks terrific!

 

[DavidJ]

Looks terrific!

Glad you think so. I think it does too, but I'm a bit biased. It got another great review with its release to drive-in theaters: RogerEbert.com Review of The Vast of Night.

 

[DavidJ]

Great review by Peter Travers. Gave it a 4.5/5.

'The Vast of Night' Review: Meet Your New Lo-Fi Sci-Fi Classic

'The Vast of Night'—about two teens stumbling across an alien invasion—is an instant sci-fi stunner, says Peter Travers. Our review.

www.rollingstone.com

 

[DavidJ]

“The Vast of Night” is available on Amazon’s Prime Video now. Currently sitting at 85 on Metacritic and 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a great Friday night kind of movie.

 

[Mark Booth]

Gonna watch this tonight.

Mark

 

[DavidJ]

Gonna watch this tonight.

Mark

Looking forward to hearing what you thought about it.

 

[Josh Dial]

Watched it. Loved it.

It crackles with energy from start to finish. The dialogue in the first 10 minutes pops with Sorkin-esque briskness. The undercurrent of tension in some scenes reminds me of Lynch.

There's a long take (it felt like 10 minutes!) with Fay that is absolutely riveting. There's a single take from the switchboard down the street and across a field into the gym and up the bleachers and out the top window and down into the radio station that is simply awesome.

Sierra McCormick is a star.

 

[dpippel]

We watched it last night and loved it as well. However, I must say that it looked absolutely horrible. Blown out blacks and "grainy" as hell. It's like the gamma was cranked up to 11. I'm sure this look was an intentional choice made by the filmmakers, but I found it to be extremely distracting. 4K? Why did they bother?

 

[Mark Booth]

Looking forward to hearing what you thought about it.

I thought it was very well done. Brisk and crisp dialog that reminded me of Tarantino's scripts. Beautifully done sets and cinematography. They shot for an 'Outer Limits' type of feel and achieved it. Some of the image framing choices had me guessing for a possible outcome that was different than how it finished.

Excellent, from beginning to end!

Mark

 

[dpippel]

I thought it was very well done. Brisk and crisp dialog that reminded me of Tarantino's scripts. Beautifully done sets and cinematography. They shot for an 'Outer Limits' type of feel and achieved it. Some of the image framing choices had me guessing for a possible outcome that was different than how it finished.

Excellent, from beginning to end!

Mark

Mark, how did it look to you? Please see my post above yours. I'd be very interested in your opinion.

 

[Mark Booth]

Mark, how did it look to you? Please see my post above yours. I'd be very interested in your opinion.

In the early going, I was surprised by the blacks that were more grey than black and the generally grainy look of the thing, but my brain quickly adapted and I was fine with it from then on. It seemed clear to me the filmmakers were intentionally going for a retro 1950s type look.

Mark

 

[DavidJ]

We watched it last night and loved it as well. However, I must say that it looked absolutely horrible. Blown out blacks and "grainy" as hell. It's like the gamma was cranked up to 11. I'm sure this look was an intentional choice made by the filmmakers, but I found it to be extremely distracting. 4K? Why did they bother?

The original files that they were working with were 6K Red files and an early sizzle reel I saw looked fantastic. Now, I do know that they added some “grain” and other coloring choices after I saw that footage. I also heard from one person involved that as he watched it a couple of times this weekend with friends and family that it didn’t look that great to him, but one setup and viewing was worse than the other. I actually haven’t been able to watch it on my setup yet.

Mark, how did it look to you? Please see my post above yours. I'd be very interested in your opinion.

Me too.

 

[dpippel]

Hopefully this movie will get a disc release. I'll buy it just to see what it looks like.

 

[spshultz]

Gave this movie a watch this past weekend and absolutely loved it. It all worked so well together. I suggested it to a friend and they loved it too.

I watched this on my 4K projector and 135" screen and the graininess was distracting for a while but I must have become so wrapped up in the movie that I eventually forgot about it.

 

[dpippel]

The "grain" didn't bother me nearly as much as the elevated black level.

 

[DavidJ]

So, we watched it on Monday night and this is what the black level during the opening credits looked like. Nothing else that we watch on Amazon looks like this so I’d say based on this and other reports I'm getting that there is something strange going on. Yes, the filmmakers did some things to make it a bit more vintage and lo-fi, but at times the stream is looking worse than intended and inconsistent.

 

[dpippel]

David, that replicates what I'm seeing on my setup exactly. Something's not right.

 

[DavidJ]

An article that goes a bit into the making of the film including some information on the long tracking shot.

Making “The Vast of Night,” a Micro-Budget Sci-Fi Miracle