“The Vast of Night” (2019) is the Art of Film Making at Its Best (Part II of II)

(Continued from Part I)

The movie opens with Everett at the gymnasium helping the crew prepare for the basketball game. Fay eventually joins him as they walk out of the school gymnasium, through the parking lot, into an empty town, and off to their respective workplaces. This 15 minute scene between the two is a classic walk and talk. In the conversations they have with each other and anyone they come across, the audience learns quite a bit about Fey, Everett, their friendship and the town. Kudos goes to cinematographer M. I. Littin-Menz for making an art out of the ordinary; the scene consists of long cuts of the camera following Everett and Fay mostly from behind and sometimes from the side, but rarely from the front.

This opening sets up the feel for the rest of the film. The scene that follows is a single ten-minute cut that has the camera now focusing on Fay from the front as she routes calls, captures the mysterious sound, calls anyone she can think of to try to figure out the source of the sound, and converses with Everett who is working the radio. It’s hard not to appreciate this scene, if only from the technical skills required of McCormick shooting a scene this long in one cut.

The camera work is remarkable throughout this film. In the way the camera follows the events in the small town, it’s as if the camera itself is a character in the film.

This movie is more than just creative cinematography, though. Andrew Patterson, who directed the film (as well as co-writing it under the pseudonym James Montague), creates a wonderful sense of mystery and intrigue through the set design and the music.

“The Vast of Night” goes to show that great films aren’t about elaborate special effects or even a unique story, even in a genre like science fiction. It’s ultimately simply about what the filmmaker can do with a camera. The makers of this film may have only spent $700,000, but they showed all the possibilities that a camera can bring. To appreciate this film is to appreciate the pure art of film-making.