This 'making of" is much more fun, with better production values, than the unfortunate feature it commemorates. Editor\producer Adam Harding should be commended for eliciting better work from film actors Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Michael Ironside, Cheri Oteri and child newbie Ryan Simpkins as themselves than the uncomfortably off-putting job they do for SURVEILLANCE director Jennifer Lynch, who seems to have told them to pretend that they are sleepwalking through a film directed by her dad, David.
The one big short-coming of this "making of" is that interviewer Kathleen McInnes does not confront anyone about the wholly underused, extraneous, and mismanaged aspect of both the film and this featurette's title, i.e., the voyeurism by camera. While it is crystal-clear from the feature, the deleted scenes, and Jennifer's commentary on both that Jennifer fancies HERSELF a voyeur without parallel, the movie's biggest flaw is that she in not capable of incorporating that into the plot of her movie with a Steven Soderbergh little finger's-worth of a "sex, lies & videotape effect." No matter how many quick cuts Jennifer made to surveillance cameras in the feature, she doesn't come close to even the level of LOOK in using this device effectively. It is as if the directors of CLOVERFIELD or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT had their video cams pointed into the ground for 99 per cent of the time. But perhaps Adam and Kathleen made this "making of" before they were privy to Jennifer's botched final cut of SURVEILLANCE (maybe at a time when the feature's title was something more appropriate, such as WHEN COPS GO CRAZY). In that case, they're excused.
The one big short-coming of this "making of" is that interviewer Kathleen McInnes does not confront anyone about the wholly underused, extraneous, and mismanaged aspect of both the film and this featurette's title, i.e., the voyeurism by camera. While it is crystal-clear from the feature, the deleted scenes, and Jennifer's commentary on both that Jennifer fancies HERSELF a voyeur without parallel, the movie's biggest flaw is that she in not capable of incorporating that into the plot of her movie with a Steven Soderbergh little finger's-worth of a "sex, lies & videotape effect." No matter how many quick cuts Jennifer made to surveillance cameras in the feature, she doesn't come close to even the level of LOOK in using this device effectively. It is as if the directors of CLOVERFIELD or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT had their video cams pointed into the ground for 99 per cent of the time. But perhaps Adam and Kathleen made this "making of" before they were privy to Jennifer's botched final cut of SURVEILLANCE (maybe at a time when the feature's title was something more appropriate, such as WHEN COPS GO CRAZY). In that case, they're excused.