"Quarantine" (film), Act I -- lame?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
Anybody else here see the recent DVD release Quarantine? I thought Act One was pretty lame in the sense that it moved so slow, did not feel dramatic, and I realized why-- there just was no CONFLICT in Act One, nada, zero, it just felt exactly like everyday life, like a real journalist going to do a documentary of a firestation and its crew. Now I know that is what it was supposed to be in the sense of what was needed for exposition. But really, IMO it could have been done with conflict added--geez, just about any type of conflict---like a fireman telling the protag and cameraman to get their fricken camera out of his face, etc etc. Or she might have come there to the firestation uninvited, been pushy, told to leave, but presses for first amendement rights, etc.

Anybody here agree, disagree? I just saw Act One of this film as an opportunity to learn a lesson about Act One setups.
 
I agree 110%. I loved acts two and three. Just not act one. =)
Another observation-- a bit off topic regarding the writing of Quarantine-- I do not recall much if any music on the soundtrack, but it might have been there and I was distracted by the action; it seems most or all of the film was sound effects, drones, etc., but little to no music; i just found that interested from a filmmaking perspective, shows how an indie filmmaker (although Quarantine was not an indie) could get away with a film without music if the story and genre makes that work.

filthrich said:
The rest of the film made up for that. I Really enjoyed this one.
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Randall_Oelerich said:
I agree 110%. I loved acts two and three. Just not act one. =)
Another observation-- a bit off topic regarding the writing of Quarantine-- I do not recall much if any music on the soundtrack, but it might have been there and I was distracted by the action; it seems most or all of the film was sound effects, drones, etc., but little to no music; i just found that interested from a filmmaking perspective, shows how an indie filmmaker (although Quarantine was not an indie) could get away with a film without music if the story and genre makes that work.
Click to expand...

Act one was pretty weak now that I think about it. But I don't see how they could have done it any other way, Keeping with the real time thing and all.

Did you watch the making of on the DVD? I have a new respect on POV films now. I did not think it was that tough to do.

I really can't remember any music either. What I do remember is that Skinny Man/Woman thing in the attic. That creeped me out.
 
Yes, the featurettes were cool. It surprised me how the entire "apartment house" was a three story cube artificially constructed on a sound stage. And yeah, the "skinny guy" really helped create a "killer ending". And I smiled a bit when I saw that Almost Human did the special makeup effects, because just about a week ago I discovered Almost Human on the web, emailed them about the cost for creature effects for a horror script I am writing, in case I dreamed of indie producing it myself.

Still, I think act one could have been written much better, with conflict scenes-- without conflict there is no drama, without drama there is no story. I gave a few ideas in my original post on how drama could have been written in to act one; curious on other ideas for a 'script fix' that others here have for that lame act one.
 
I must have been snoozing when the captain turned off the lame light...

Cause I thought this one took off and landed lame.
 
lol

i liked it okay.

as a way to spice up act 1, what if the reporter girl had just dumped the cameraman before they found out they had to work together on the fire fighter story. lots of conflict with the firemen flirting with the reporter and the cameraman being jealous...
 
I liked the movie, I thought I blockbuster put the wrong movie in the case at first but then as you got farther into the movie it got better......and at the beggening when they told that first infected old women to calm down and it started running at them a woulda shot her 9 times so she could be like 50cent LOL
 
I thought this was a pretty weak horror flick. I didn't mind the setup so much, but I thought the middle was extremely repetitious - one nearly identical 'screaming zombie lunges at/bites someone' scene after another. After about 4 or 5 of 'em I just sat there saying "yep, here comes another one, just like the last one". And then another, and another, and another...zzz.

I also thought the lead actress through the entire "horror" section played it utterly one-note - a whimpering, whining PITA baby in every scene. More relentless sameness to ice the boredom cake re: the above.

And no backstory about the infection until near the end, when it was *finally* implied, pretty sketchily with the newspaper clippings etc., and the skinny creepy guy. Yawn. I do have to admit though, that by then I was so bored with the film's lack of dimension that I was pretty easily distracted by almost anything. I might have been trimming my toenails or something while a piece of "important" exposition got by me.

A wasted opportunity. The only part of me that had a good time was my toes...
 
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