'Night Is Day' is set in modern Glasgow - a place of car parks, alleyways and more car parks if the film is to be taken at face value. Jason Mckenzie is a superhuman with an extraordinary power one attribute of which is that he can cast force-like lightning from his hands to combat eveil from street muggers to supernatural adversaries. Glasgow's corporate sector,police and political infrastructure make up the members of the underworld Jason has to combat until more demonic entities make their presence felt.
I was aware of 'Night Is Day' during its preproduction phase and as someone on the lower rungs of the arts and media in Scotland, I was aware that all was not entire buoyant. Helmed by Filmmakers who conducted themselves as if they already had top jobs in Hollywood, there was a jettisoning of many people who had helped create 'Night Is Day's webcast forebear - 'Night Is Day: The Series' - and many arts and crafts people who offered their services for minimum cost or even freely were dismissed as not being required.
Having seen the "film", they had a narrow escape. 'Night Is Day' pours glosses of a host of influences into its story. 'Highlander', 'Star Wars', 'Hellboy', 'Spider-Man' and 'Doctor Who' are all in evidence plotwise, but the camera-work, acting and plot fail to live up even to a 'Doctor Who' episode on an off-day.
Coull needs his audience to know the shorthand rules of his scifi-fantasy/comic book influences to even begin to find his ideas plausible or cogent. There is little sense of threat from the villains who serve as vessels of acres of scripted exposition. The special effects are just about special for a production of this budget but creature make-up and in-camera effects don't cut the mustard here.
The hero and heroine, Jason and a damsel in distress rescued early on by Jason, are actually quite likable and natural - so it is a pity that the villains and the actors playing them, to mediocre pantomimic effect, occupy far more screen time. Scottish soap opera 'River City' is more edgy.
Coull is far more preoccupied with his idea of what his film would be and planting a flag in the ground as the first media person to have recognised the potential of Glasgow as a sci-fi-fantasy location. This would be fine, but bigger budget films 'Unleashed' and 'The Jacket', not to mention Robbie Coltrane's 1992 misfire 'The Bogey Man', Grant Morrison's Glasgow superhero 'Captain Clyde' and Gavin Cunningham's fantasy novel 'Glescu'
have tread that ground before. Glasgow is a place of some breathtakingly impressive architecture and archetypical people and not much use of either was made.
Coull must be praised for his ambition, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, particularly when it is rumoured that he deflected a lot of help from film artisans that would have helped him. It was his sandpit, his rules, no-one else was playing in it. The script is built around set-pieces rather than a story that took nto consideration budget and limitations enforced by budget. Basing scriptwriting technique on modern special effects blockbusters is fine - but they have the money to deflect attention away from the shortcomings in plot.
This is a greatly missed opportunity, particularly in an epoch that sees Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johanssen bring movies to Glasgow.
I was aware of 'Night Is Day' during its preproduction phase and as someone on the lower rungs of the arts and media in Scotland, I was aware that all was not entire buoyant. Helmed by Filmmakers who conducted themselves as if they already had top jobs in Hollywood, there was a jettisoning of many people who had helped create 'Night Is Day's webcast forebear - 'Night Is Day: The Series' - and many arts and crafts people who offered their services for minimum cost or even freely were dismissed as not being required.
Having seen the "film", they had a narrow escape. 'Night Is Day' pours glosses of a host of influences into its story. 'Highlander', 'Star Wars', 'Hellboy', 'Spider-Man' and 'Doctor Who' are all in evidence plotwise, but the camera-work, acting and plot fail to live up even to a 'Doctor Who' episode on an off-day.
Coull needs his audience to know the shorthand rules of his scifi-fantasy/comic book influences to even begin to find his ideas plausible or cogent. There is little sense of threat from the villains who serve as vessels of acres of scripted exposition. The special effects are just about special for a production of this budget but creature make-up and in-camera effects don't cut the mustard here.
The hero and heroine, Jason and a damsel in distress rescued early on by Jason, are actually quite likable and natural - so it is a pity that the villains and the actors playing them, to mediocre pantomimic effect, occupy far more screen time. Scottish soap opera 'River City' is more edgy.
Coull is far more preoccupied with his idea of what his film would be and planting a flag in the ground as the first media person to have recognised the potential of Glasgow as a sci-fi-fantasy location. This would be fine, but bigger budget films 'Unleashed' and 'The Jacket', not to mention Robbie Coltrane's 1992 misfire 'The Bogey Man', Grant Morrison's Glasgow superhero 'Captain Clyde' and Gavin Cunningham's fantasy novel 'Glescu'
have tread that ground before. Glasgow is a place of some breathtakingly impressive architecture and archetypical people and not much use of either was made.
Coull must be praised for his ambition, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired, particularly when it is rumoured that he deflected a lot of help from film artisans that would have helped him. It was his sandpit, his rules, no-one else was playing in it. The script is built around set-pieces rather than a story that took nto consideration budget and limitations enforced by budget. Basing scriptwriting technique on modern special effects blockbusters is fine - but they have the money to deflect attention away from the shortcomings in plot.
This is a greatly missed opportunity, particularly in an epoch that sees Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johanssen bring movies to Glasgow.
