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THE MOVIE
Has just been released on DVD and was the feature film debut of star, writer, director, co-producer and editor Scott Ryan.
The film was originally a short film called The Stash. It was made into a feature after Nash Edgerton saw the short and helped Ryan to get the funding to turn it into a film and became a producer and co-editor of the feature film.
Ryan is hitman Ray Shoesmith, a laconic fellow who is the subject of his neighbour, film student Massimo “Max” Totti’s documentary. Max follows Ray as he goes about his daily business and finds himself being dragged into Ray’s affairs, as the boundary between observer and active participant in Ray’s crimes becomes increasingly blurred.
Shot over the course of a year in true independent style guerilla film making The Magician is a compelling debut, a dark disturbing ersatz documentary. All the actors in the film were amateurs being mainly fellow film students Ryan had meet while studying film at RMIT University.
The film is very reminiscent of Man Bites Dog the Belgian film from the early 90’s about a camera crew that follows around a serial killer, though Man Bites Dog is a much darker film that mounts a biting and savage assault on media and violence.
THE TRANSFER
Video:
The video transfer is not a bad one given that it was shot on digital video (bit rate 448 kbps). There is grain and artefacts as you would expect. Colours similarly muted but this all fits the films tone. The layer change is well placed.
Audio:
The film has been given a fairly ordinary audio track (bit rate 448 kbps). The rears are not used and those with a more basic system will not miss out on anything. Dialogue is clear and distinct and there are no lip synching issues. The audio effects and music in the film is reasonably well rendered.
THE EXTRAS
The DVD release of The Magician has been given a full suite of extras, from an audio commentary by Ryan, producers Nash Edgerton and Michele Bennett and actor Ben Walker, to a making of and a series of deleted scenes. The commentary is disappointing being fairly uninteresting and not really going into the making of the film in any great detail and is probably in part a result of including too many people. This contrasts with the audio commentary included with the deleted scenes which is much more focused, interesting and useful in terms of the issue of what to cut and why. The real gem here is the making of, which is styled like a mocumentary with an interview with Ryan and co-star Ben Walker. It also features proper interviews with Ryan, Edgerton and Bennett which are worth their weight in gold in terms of the background they give you to the making of the film, especially when contrasted with the audio commentary.
The full list of extras is as follows:
- 8 deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by Scott Ryan, Nash Edgerton and Ben Walker (approx 15 m – Original opening sequence; Blueberries; Interview 1; Lunch by the Lake; Interview 2; The Hotel Bathroom; More Digging; Hotel Room Extended)
- “Magic Tricks” Visual FX Featurette (4m 35s)
- “Magic Happens” Documentary (22m 2s)
- Excerpt from “The Stash” (1m 14s)
- Unmasking Max (12s)
- Australia Trailer (1m 58s)
- Alternate Trailer (1m 56s)
SUMMARY
The Magician is a compelling debut from writer, director and star Scott Ryan, a dark disturbing ersatz documentary about a hitman Ray Shoesmith who is the star of film students Massimo “Max” Totti’s documentary. The DVD includes an audio commentary, deleted scenes and two documentaries and features a reasonable audio and visual package. It is good to see an independent Australian release getting such a solid DVD release. |
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