I reviewed a short film called The Golden Turtle on Studentfilms.com. In this short, three-minute film, the holder of the golden turtle must protect it from being taken by those who want to have it. There is very little spoken dialogue but a lot of action and fighting. For this reason it is very important to pay close attention to the actions of the actors in order to understand what is happening.

     The film is in the style of late 80s Japanese action films. The film actually reminded me of a TV show that ran for three seasons in the early 90s called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. While this TV show was originally created in Japan, it was remade by an American company and broadcast as entertainment for children. The Golden Turtle may not necessarily have been targeting entertaining children but it certainly used many of the same techniques that the Power Rangers TV show used.

     One of the most distinctive characteristics of this film is the way that the pivotal cuts are shown. In nearly all of the cuts where the action currently taking place is pivotal, the character or background is transformed in some way. Most of the time this transformation is created to indicate a series of quick and swift movements that are critical to either characters’ success. In other cuts where the character is moving rapidly over a large distance, the character and background speeds of movement don’t seem to match up. What I mean by that is that there is a noticeable difference in the speed of the background passing across the screen and the speed of the character moving across the screen.

     A technique that the film uses to emphasize pivotal points in the film is to change the background in some way. For example, instead of showing the action with the “normal” background or in the current setting, the background is transformed into something different. An example of this is when the woman who is holding the golden turtle picks up a large rock. She picks up the rock because a robot is trying to take the turtle from her. She spins around a couple of times to build some momentum and then releases the rock which hits the robots head and knocks it clean off the body. From the time that the woman begins spinning around the background becomes blurred and somewhat difficult to make out any details. When she hits the robot’s head, the background takes on a red tone. The trees, sky, grass, and other elements look as though a red lens has been placed in front of the viewer’s eyes. Actually, in any cut that has an action that either the character is in danger or realizes that they are potentially in danger, the background transforms into a red tone. This sends a visual message to the viewer that something is about to happen that warrants warning or is going to be damaging.

     As I mentioned earlier, this movie reminded me very much of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show. This film helped me to realize that had it been shown in a more time-relative and realistic manner that it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting or entertaining. This film helps to prove that the way that material is presented can and will make a major difference on the impression that people get and the reaction that they will give in response to the material. But it also shows how critical it is to pay close attention to the details so that the desired effect is achieved.