'Dead Meet'

Out now online!

Unfortunately this was a very dead meeting indeed both for the audience and the cast and crew involved. Described as being ‘quirky comedy’ with ‘quirky characters’ and hong Kong style action. What this troupe need to realise sooner rather than later is that despite your attempts to make a film filled with "action" the storytelling comes first or you will lose the audience's attention and sadly their affection for you. Telling the story should be the first "action" you achieve successfully in your process. Acting still needs to be on point as it would be in any other genre of film. Francesca L White, a very talented fighter, really did not create a believable Cleo and therefore the comedy dropped entirely. White is often to steadfast and rigid in her approach and therefore was unable to let the lighter elements of the character shine. What we wanted to see was the normal woman behind Cleo taking a risk going on date and being nervous about that date.

That’s where the comedy would have been stupendous, a woman nervous on a date but who can knock several shades of blue out of any man or villain she comes in contact with. She is secret superhero/assassin yes but in order for us to believe her White needed to show us this woman's private persona as well as her public superhero self. Think about the nuances that are created between Clark Kent and Superman for example. White’s performance needed an injection of curiosity and vulnerability badly as it’s these qualities which makes us - the viewers- get on your side immediately. Obviously the director (Daniel J Brant) could have done much better in bringing these qualities out better in White and so is partially to blame.

​​Rueben Williams played a really convincing and comedic version of "the nice guy" simply on a date with no prior knowledge of his dates real job, which she is essentially a hitwoman/bondgirl/anti-hero type. Rueben Williams was a breath of fresh air and utterly enjoyable to watch despite him having a very short presence in the film. He really was very relaxed and created a sense of confidence from the get go. Francesca White is a deeply attractive actress with some serious Zena warrior princess like moves and that her level of fighting expertise has to be commended however as the lead in this film she simply didn’t achieve all that she could have with Cleo.

​There were obvious production failures also with shoddy camera work and little to no imagination when it came to colour grading, graphics and cinematography. A slick cinematographer and an excellent editor with some graphics skills may just have set off that Hong Kong style action that the team were after and some clever stylisation would have covered over the obvious flaws in the acting better.

Unfortunately though for the team and the audience, the production matched the direction and acting and went in a rather dull direction. Leaving viewers feeling a bit frustrated and robbed of the most essential ‘action’ of all - decent storytelling.

Review by Sid Berry.