The Darkening Sky DVD hit the proverbial shelves a few days ago. (Note: Distributors release films when it works best for them, not as soon as it’s delivered, which for us was way back in Spring). That means “it’s out there”, which means reviewers will (hopefully) be letting us know what they thought. Yikes, but at this point I’m so far into The Next Thing(s) that I’m way less concerned about what this might portend that I thought I’d be. Still…

Anyway here’s the first review I came across (thanks Google Alerts!). If the annoying POP-UP AD window doesn’t put you off (you can dismiss it as soon as it loads), you’ll find that the reviewer actually wrote a very thoughtful critique to go along with his 3 out of 4 stars. Sounds like a screenwriter himself (taking me to task on structure, specific acts, etc.). Bless him for taking the time to watch, digest, and put his thoughts in order.

For me the most exciting thing about filmmaking is having smart people get involved with your work. It starts with offering feedback on a concept, progresses to reacting to drafts of the script. Then once you have a movie rolling, you have brilliant creatives weighing in, picking apart the script and the vision as pertains to their particular field — strong opinions about everything from who might be best to cast in a role to which story nuances might need clarification (or toning down!). Eventually you get input on how a certain character should look, what they should wear, what the set should look like, etc., etc., etc… I suppose reviewers are the very last part of that chain — opining on how it all turned out.