RECIPROCITY
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review written 2/23/2003

First, let me inform director Scott Zier that he ruined my life. I can no longer hear the word reciprocity (which I do sometimes in classes such as sociology and economics) without thinking of his movie.

The opening shot is an interesting change from the usual. I loved the Senate scenes in TPM and AOTC, and it is so well-handled here—can't afford to do a Senate scene in a fan film? Sure you can! Reciprocity did, and cleverly.

We meet our heroes, and a consistent problem of poor production audio, in an elevator at an impressive CG environment. (Don't you love how their small platform latches onto the big one?)

Something struck me while I watched Reciprocity again for this review. I hadn't seen an action sequence in... in...

I started fast-forwarding it and watching the time-code whizz by. A genuine act of physical violence does not occur until 10:47. (In a neat location, I might add.) 10:47! This is a Star Wars fan film that has kept me watching on the strength of its story, characters, occasionally incomprehensible dialogue! The saber duel itself is a bit lackluster, but it's followed up with some great looks, and…

… and what the hell is that? A directorial touch, but... I know exactly what filter he used to get that look. It's out of the box, and doesn't look good.

Compare with the blue sequence later on. Hooray for "color correction". I appreciate the effort, and it looks better than some executions of it. (But why, in this film of often excellent costumes, is the girl wearing a t-shirt, and what looks like a sweatshirt on her head?) In that same sequence, at 18:02, we get an interesting and original special effect that almost saves it. What really saves it, though, is the quiet moment, the touching of person to person.

No. What's that planet I just saw at 22:22? It looks green. Please don't.

A FOREST! OH, GOD, NO!

But wait. Look at the first time we see that forest. That's a nice composition!

Where'd y'all find that tree? Or did you cut it down to do that? Either way, beats the hell out of having your guy just walk around in the woods. And hey! Water! A lesser fan film might be afraid to take that time to have this quiet moment.

This is a darn nice forest to, of fan film forests (I feel like someone should put together a travel guide). The lush greenery with just a hint of yellow adds a nice storybook feel. This is not the clichéd washed-out (in terms of picture quality and clichédness) forest shot.

A duel, of course, begins in this forest, and I can't say I'm a fan of the weird ecru jacket with the brown pads that takes part in it. And the duel seems a little forced, a little rushed.

As I watched the attractive and interesting credits sequence, I felt privileged to have watched a fan film that did something new and different. There's a lot of talent to go around that's evident in this film. Sometimes the movie choked, yes. But when I gave it my time, I got something good, made with craft and care, in exchange. That's what I call reciprocity.