Fan Film Friday: Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl fan film

  As will be common for this feature I typed in "superhero fan film" into You Tube and picked the first one that interested me.  This week it's Powers.  Uploaded by user brianbedell and directed by Michelle Massey, it stars Brian Bedell as Christian Walker and Madeline Blue as Deena Pilgrim.

  I picked this because I know nothing about the comic book Powers other than 1) it exists and B) it's pretty good.  But I haven't gotten around to actually reading it.  I am familiar enough with the premise behind the book to not get lost so I thought I'd give this a go as something different.

  I'm glad I did because I really liked it.  It's shot well, there's good framing, the cuts don't get in the way, things are balanced in the frame.  The camera work isn't obvious, I didn't notice the camera work at all, cinematography can be thankless in that respect because unless you're using your frame to say something that isn't being said by the characters or the setting the best you can hope for is unnoticeable.  I mean unnoticeable in a good way, with unnoticeable you aren't actively detracting from the scene and are enhancing the scene subtly.   So I give props to cinematographer Adam Goral.

  The acting is actually really good, Brian Bedell manages to put some emotion in his performance, you can empathize with the character and it never feels wooden or hokey.  Madeline Blue does very good as well, her characters personality works as a good foil for Christian Walker's displayed personality.  In this scene she plays the role of a plot device, something to induce exposition so the role she's supposed to play isn't dynamic.  That being said her line delivery is good, she has good body language and get's across what she needs to get across in the time she has to do it with what she has to work with.  Having not read the book I can't say if the portrayals are accurate to the written characters however.  I found the roles to be well played and believable.

  I was impressed with this choice and it's a good way to kick off Fan Film Friday with a bang.  It made me really want to read the book so I can see if the page translates to what I saw here and, really, isn't that the goal of a fan film?  A well made fan film will encourage others to become fans and a poorly done fan film will turn potential fans away.  This is a well made fan film.