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I’m returning to you today to heap still more praise on Amazon Prime. You might be wondering what has gotten into me.

On a whim, I picked a movie I’d never even heard of before – Coherence – and watched it the other night. It was pretty good; well worth the time if you have Amazon Prime, where it is currently free. That’s not what earns Amazon Prime its points, though. What I’ll praise Amazon for is its understated summary; the blurb you read as you are scrolling through your night’s viewing options. Amazon sets expectations for the type of movie you’re about to watch but gives you no details except to say that it is science fiction, has something to do with a comet, and takes place at a dinner party.

Far be it from me to ruin it for everyone. Although I’m going to write about some of the movie’s details, I will try to avoid giving any more away about the plot. If you doubt, however, my ability to do so effectively and do want to watch this piece in the future then you might want to skip ahead to another post.

I guess one thing that I do want to add is that my first impression – maybe through the first third or so of the film – was that this was a remake of a Twilight Zone episode. I’m tempted to tell you which one, but I’m not sure it matters. Once pieces of the mystery began to reveal themselves, it became obvious that Coherence was a new story and not a rehash. Also, I am not crazy (see, again, the YouTube link)… writer/director James Ward Byrkit has acknowledged his debt to The Twilight Zone for bits and pieces that he did borrow.

But what is even more interesting, post viewing, is how the film was made.

James Ward Byrkit had film industry experience from Pirates of the Caribbean but this was to be his first try at making his own film. He didn’t have any funding for it and that problem got him to thinking that maybe he could use his lack of funding as an asset. He based his film around what he could do for little-to-nothing and then grew everything else to match.

Even the story itself formed after his idea to constrain the shooting to (mostly) his own living room. The sci-fi angle came about in an effort to make his limited set feel far bigger than it actually was.

Having dispensed with the costs of a set, he also decided to shed the script. The film is made with improvisational actors performing almost entirely without pre-written dialog and stage direction. At the start of each day’s shooting, actors were given note cards with a handful of key points that they were to convey during their scenes but it was left up to them as to how to express that vision.

This is not to say that the film was entirely unscripted. Byrkit had spent a year developing the story and plotting the outside events to advance that story forward. One of the film’s writers also played a character in the film, giving him the opportunity to drive the dialog in the direction that it needed to go in service to the story. Semi-famous* actor Nicholas Brendon, who plays semi-famous actor Mike, said that he hadn’t figured out what all of it meant until after he saw the edited version of the film. “Oh shit, this is awesome!” he summarized.

According to Wikipedia, the total production cost for the project was $50,000. If accurate, the film barely doubled its investment in the theaters, which is kind of sad given the quality of the film. The work is frequently compared to Primer, a 2004 science fiction film that made back 100-fold its production cost of $7,000. That’s a success story! I sincerely hope that Coherence is going to be making its money through the streaming and rental market, not through its seven theater conventional release.

And do well it should. While this isn’t Citizen Kane, its a well-put-together film that also demonstrates that quality filmmaking does not require large budgets and massive CGI. The next guy out there who can make a truly good film for $50,000 needs to be encouraged to do so.

– Photo by KID CANDY on Pexels.com

*Brendon is probably best known for a recurring role in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In Coherence, he plays Mike who had a recurring role on Roswell. One of the other characters, despite being a Roswell fan, fails to recognize him.