Melvonna Ballenger's first film "Rain" is a fascinating exercise in several ways, from the small reflective story characterized by lenghty moments of introspection
from the main character, the music playing in the background echoing one feeling, and also the use of imagination the director elicits from us since she didn't
had the budget to acquire the needed elements to present the main topic of the film...which is the rain from the title yet it's the most important element from
the piece.
The movie stars Evlynne Braithwaite as a young woman who ponders about rain and its positive and negative effects on her and other people. On her way to work, she gets a leaflet from a random guy of which she doesn't pay much attention since she only wants to get to work and escape the coming rain but later on she discovers that that paper would change her apparently boring life as a typewriter.
While there isn't much going on except for the amazing John Coltrane track "After the Rain" playing in its entirety while we watch the woman preparing herself to work and other times at work just thinking about things while her boss keeps walking around trying to strike some conversation, the key element though visually absent and completely invisible yet it's there and dominates the piece. Thanks to a grainy black-and-white photography (but it's an obvious sunny day in L. A.), some small sounds of thunder here and there, the rain makes its presence if you're open minded enough to "see it" and just go with the stream of conciousness from the woman, who at first feels down about it but as events unfold she becomes more thankful for the rain. It brings changes, actually, not just in the sense of cooling the air or changing its air quality (physical sense) but also in terms of allowing more introspective indoor moments, some reflections and feelings to ponder upon (poetic/metaphorical way as she feels it and experiences it).
It's a very good experiment that shows how one can use skills and devices in order to make a film and succeed with it. One of the most complex cinema tricks in Hollywood is to create rain or to use it on a film. Ballenger didn't had the chance to have those rain machines that can easily be controlled on a set yet they're expensive, and neither would be interesting to film everything on an actual rainy day - the logistics of it all is insurmountable and far from being practicle, so instead she uses sound effects, music (besides Coltrane track that dominates the film, pay attention to the radio playing in the early minutes where it only plays songs about storm and rain), and the whole poetry-like by the woman, describing her feelings about the waters from the sky. The tool of imagination is amazing when exercised by viewers and I honestly think Ballenger succeed with it. Very enjoyable. 7/10.
The movie stars Evlynne Braithwaite as a young woman who ponders about rain and its positive and negative effects on her and other people. On her way to work, she gets a leaflet from a random guy of which she doesn't pay much attention since she only wants to get to work and escape the coming rain but later on she discovers that that paper would change her apparently boring life as a typewriter.
While there isn't much going on except for the amazing John Coltrane track "After the Rain" playing in its entirety while we watch the woman preparing herself to work and other times at work just thinking about things while her boss keeps walking around trying to strike some conversation, the key element though visually absent and completely invisible yet it's there and dominates the piece. Thanks to a grainy black-and-white photography (but it's an obvious sunny day in L. A.), some small sounds of thunder here and there, the rain makes its presence if you're open minded enough to "see it" and just go with the stream of conciousness from the woman, who at first feels down about it but as events unfold she becomes more thankful for the rain. It brings changes, actually, not just in the sense of cooling the air or changing its air quality (physical sense) but also in terms of allowing more introspective indoor moments, some reflections and feelings to ponder upon (poetic/metaphorical way as she feels it and experiences it).
It's a very good experiment that shows how one can use skills and devices in order to make a film and succeed with it. One of the most complex cinema tricks in Hollywood is to create rain or to use it on a film. Ballenger didn't had the chance to have those rain machines that can easily be controlled on a set yet they're expensive, and neither would be interesting to film everything on an actual rainy day - the logistics of it all is insurmountable and far from being practicle, so instead she uses sound effects, music (besides Coltrane track that dominates the film, pay attention to the radio playing in the early minutes where it only plays songs about storm and rain), and the whole poetry-like by the woman, describing her feelings about the waters from the sky. The tool of imagination is amazing when exercised by viewers and I honestly think Ballenger succeed with it. Very enjoyable. 7/10.
