“In A Blink” Wows at Secret City

Seymour's resident film director Dusty Clark was thrilled by the reaction of the audience following the first public screening of his new short feature "In A Blink", filmed and produced entirely in Seymour. "It was great - we took second place," Clark said after the voting results were in. Viewers of the 20-minute feature were treated to an impressive showing, most especially considering the budget constraints that Clark had to deal with in self-funding the venture. No one watching the feature would know how financially strapped the producers were. Quite simply, "In A Blink" is top-notch. Production values on the film are absolutely stunning, and there's no visible corner that has been cut. And though "In A Blink" is impressive enough on that basis, what will matter to most watchers is not how much was spent on the feature, but how well it plays. They won't be disappointed.

"In A Blink" combines taut plotlines and veteran acting skills to tell the story of a troubled youth at the edge of a disaster. The players are superb, the pacing brilliant. At no point does the film lack for tension, starting from the opening shot and extending to the mysterious ending. The cinematography is likewise excellent, as is Clark's eye for telling a story by establishing a setting. Color and light are the director's palette, and Clark amply demonstrates a mastery of them, supplying rich hues and brooding shadows, dappled sunlight, or flashlit starkness exactly where it is most effective. His penchant for allowing his actors the space to do their work synthesizes an electric dynamic among the players, most especially between the two principal characters, mother Jane and daughter Emily, played respectively by Leigh Ann Jernigan and Laurel Hackworth. That dynamic is brought home more forcefully by the fact that the two never share a frame of the film together - they always interact at a distance, perhaps symbolizing the gulf between the two that brings the plot to its ultimate conclusion.

Their inability to effectively communicate with one another is portrayed in the film as a technological problem, but one suspects that the issue between them goes way beyond dying cell phone batteries and lack of coverage area. Short films are a very difficult medium. When one can spread out and tell a story at a leisurely pace, it's a simple matter to fill in all the missing pieces. But the tight constraints of a 20-minute feature allow no such luxuries, demanding of the filmmaker that not a single frame be wasted. Clark accomplishes this readily, and the alert viewer will catch a hundred small touches that help the director move his story forward without sacrificing an instant of emotion. In A Blink is without question an impressive vision. One hopes that Clark can use the film to leverage himself a lucrative place among aspiring young filmmakers. His skills demand recognition.