Dark Days

For my third post I decided to watch Dark Days. I did some research on the film prior to watching it. I also read some viewer feedback on Netflix as I was preparing to click play. So I can’t say I wasn’t warned! Dark Days was horrifying to watch. People smoking crack and people frying up rats were two unnerving instances. After I got past the subjects activities I began to notice a common camera position when interviewing the subjects. The film maker used a medium, straight on shot almost throughout the film. There was little camera movement, enough to follow a subject as they paced around a small shack. Marc Singer produced, filmed and directed this documentary which made me conclude that the camera was most likely positioned on a tripod so Marc could multitask during a shoot.

Some further research online informed me that Marc Singer had the subjects themselves help with the production of the set to include the lighting and handling of the camera at times. Singer actually lived in the community for months before the idea to create a film about it came about. The film began with an establishing shot of Penn Station cutting to an extended shot of an Amtrak leaving a subway. This established an idea of where the film was being shot but I think there could have been a more creative way of opening the film. One that would have allowed the viewer a more specific description of what was going on. I would have added some text to the shots describing the community or the importance of Penn Station.

This film was very easy to follow due to the lack of effects and the set camera position used throughout the film. The dialogue was hard to follow at times but there wasn’t a lot of pertinent information each subject was conveying. The film consisted mostly of staged interviews of the homeless people talking about how they came to the subway and some regretful decisions they have made throughout their life. All in all, I wasn’t impressed with the film. I think the idea to capture a subway community lacked relevance.