Educational Media Reviews Online

Stand-up comedian Chris Mancini has been able to keep his night job on the comedy circuit while at the same time dabbling in his lifetime love, filmmaking. Myopic Visions, a compilation of all his 6 works to date, includes a Super 8 claymation science fiction film he made at the age of 13, two 1993 films presumably from film school at Temple University as well as his more mature work, his last three films. Microcinema Inc. should be commended for their commitment to making available independent and avant-garde films that would normally not have an outlet for distribution outside of film festivals. They should also be commended for their vision in making works by independent filmmakers available with educational public performance rights at home use only prices. Their forward thinking marketing in this respect will make the works of artists they represent accessible though numerous public and educational libraries and create an actual market for their shorts DVDs.

Myopic Visions is a very professionally-produced DVD with an impressive array of extras, rivaling that of a commercial feature-length film. In an interview Chris Mancini, a prodigiously affable man, discusses how he was able to work in very low budget conditions and collaborate with colleagues whose technical skills made his films look like they cost more money. Through clever editing he was able to give the impression of costly CGI effects when in fact there were none. In a featurette for his most recent film Rainbow’s End (2005), he talks about starting with an image of a leprechaun tied up in a high chair and developing imagery that no one else has done. (The concept of making a featurette/documentary on the making of 15-minute is a funny one in itself!) This 15-minute film was shot on HD allowing for easier lighting and filming. It is his most accomplished work and displays a unique and personal sense of humor.

The Sci-Fi Cable channel gave him a “future of film” award for his 1997 film Skins, and a grant which partially financed his next film, Hitclown in 2000. The concept of Skins is interesting in that it plays on the notion of clothes making the man where a shlub puts on a suit and becomes an office charmer with somewhat Faustian repercussions. This film closes the door on film school for Mancini where some of the drawbacks such as problems with focus in a few shots and more blaringly in casting individuals with varying degrees of acting ability are unfortunately highlighted despite the very funny script. Hitclown pays homage to filmmaking, from quirky killer clown movies, to b/w California noir hitmen movies and even to what Mancini may have been taught in film school – an appreciation for the filmic space of Michelangelo Antonioni with his shots in the desert. The film is well executed because there is so little dialogue to mess up. It is a purely visual experience and a remarkably successful one at that. Film students should learn the very valuable lesson in this film: if you do not have really good actors, don’t make them talk if you can help it by not writing exceedingly talky scripts.

The collection of films on this DVD shows us the progression and development of a filmmaker. His early student films, where an interesting 2-minute idea is stretched to 5 times its limit, greatly diminishes its appeal in The Man Who Loved Donuts (1993). It does however point to the creativity in Mancini’s comic mind. Rainbow’s End, on the other hand, is a delightful mature short that shows his growth as a director, playing up each actor’s abilities. It is well paced, cleverly cast, and an example of the kind of work film students should strive to be able to make. They should set their sights on Mancini not Spielberg or Lucas. Every filmmaking student should watch this DVD as a how-to teaching tool considering that it could be sub-titled “the filmmaking education of Chris Mancini.” Microcinema has priced it so that every filmmaking student can afford to buy for themselves.