Pine Flat

Pine Flat is a movie directed by Sharon Lockhart with a series of various long shots depicting scenes of youth interacting with nature. Each long shot was ten minutes long and filmed with a camera that did not move. Personally, I was very disappointed with the this film, thought it was a waste of my money, and left after the scene featuring the kids playing cops and robbers. As these scenes are all long shots, each scene represents real time and perhaps attempt to capture the experience which the children felt when they were filmed. However, while this may have been the intent (to capture the details of nature and the experience through long intense shots), the technique she chose was very inappropriate for a movie theatre audience. While Lockhart's use of the long shots does help to bring out the little details in nature which one might not usually pay attention to, I often found myself not noticing these things because I was so annoyed with the monotonousness of the film. This film is a perfect example of where the director has gone too far in terms of capturing and portraying real time. Much like how an artist who draws overly photorealistic ends up with a stiff and lifeless drawing, the same has happened here. By showing a perfect reflection of what she experienced, she has tainted the experience through the medium. Just a little creative license--perhaps some editing or even just a bit of music--would have given the experience more energy and vibrancy. Instead, however, Lockhart has created a film which some might appreciate, but most would deem as a waste of time.