Able Edwards
July 2007 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

It’s not the parallels Able Edwards draws with Walt Disney or the homage its story’s arc pays to Citizen Kane; both details are obvious enough for a lay person to notice, much less a film critic. What writer/director Graham Robertson accomplishes is as much an engineering feat as it is entertainment. By shooting his film against a green screen, Robertson was able to produce an epic story with the meager budget of an independent feature.

Green (or blue) screen isn’t a new technology. Most of us experience it when we watch our local weather report. An object -- usually a person -- is videotaped against a large backdrop painted with a special shade of green or blue. The particular shade is chosen for its infrequency of appearance so that it has little chance of showing up in the clothing or props which would disappear into the background during the "chroma keying" process. Through chroma key, the blue or green backdrop is substituted for a functional façade -- in the case of a weather report, a world map would appear around (or from a viewer’s point of view, behind) the meteorologist so that he or she could indicate different weather patterns across the globe. In the case of Able Edwards, chroma key inserts actors amid venues that would have required time and travel and therefore a bigger budget. Fabricating these backdrops also affords the artistic freedom to create something more visually fantastic than an actual, more expensive, film set could, say a space station above the earth or a gigantic amusement park.

The green screen comes off well for most of the film. Most of the backdrops blend with the live action sufficiently to suspend the disbelief of the audience. I’m not sure if the choice of black and white was for aesthetic or technical reasons. It does reduce visual artifacts that would belie the use of a fake backdrop, though there are instances where awkward motions, miscalculations with proportions and poor audio cues betray the illusion. One noteworthy scene has Able and his middle managers walking down a hall toward the camera. It takes a moment to realize that the actors are actually walking in place while the backdrop is moving against a stable camera. More fantastic elements, such as space ships and amusement rides, compromise the illusion through poor execution. The spaceships are uninteresting and flat -- like paper dolls cut out by a child. The producers of Able Edwards claim it was the first film to be shot with green screen from beginning to end, beating out more famous examples such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

The story does offer some intriguing ideas and genuinely moving moments. Credit should go to the strong cast. Scott Kelly Galbreath does a good job playing Able Edwards as a slightly neurotic, insecure, yet charismatic leader. Obviously, Mr. Galbreath was inspired by Orson Wells’ Citizen Kane but makes it his own through distinctive facial ticks and vaudevillian behavior. I especially enjoyed the way he hides his disdain for others through a smile one second and then mercilessly takes them off at the knees the next. A scene where he summarily fires an employee after an embarrassing commercial spot is priceless.

The DVD presentation is good enough to deliver the story and its characters. The black-and-white image is as sharp and clean as the stereo soundtrack. You won’t use this disc as a reference to show off your home theater. But this is not the intent. Given their low budget, the filmmakers made the right technical choices for the narrative.

Special features are also produced with budget and practicality in mind, yet they are even better than those on other Hollywood-produced DVDs where the endless extras are thinly disguised filler. The commentary, the green screen excerpts, and the behind-the-scenes documentary convey useful, interesting information without extra fat or promotion. It’s this sort of bread-and-butter practicality and economy of scale which are a welcome benefit of independent filmmaking.

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