Two ghosts’ is a new short movie style musical created by Sean Devany and his team as a part of their university studies. This 20 minutes movie has a constant level of professionalism through and showcases to the viewers the team’s creativity, knowledge and experience, which is the entire purpose of a university project in essence. Not only does it look like a surreal amount of time and money has gone into the filming and creation of this product but also it is clear that a lot of thought has gone through it too. Everything in this movie has been thought out meticulously and everything that has been included is there for a specific reason/purpose which is an indication of a carefully thought through the show.
Uniquely this is a show that Is heavily based on real-life. Not only is set in and about real issues that many people face but also it seems to debate from the classical musical style tropes. The reason many people dislike musicals is the cheesiness of them but two ghosts almost entirely remove this idea. The songs are beautifully and smoothly woven into the story at logical points which is insanely clever to watch as a viewer. The show has the idea of dance kept close to its heart and shows this throughout.
The opening scene of this movie was just like something you would see in a professional movie created by people with years of experience. It was beautifully crafted and helped set the scene and laid out the basic themes of the entire show but also the dancer in the box is introduced on this scene which is a key symbol for the rest of the scenes. This box reappears and is talked about multiple times throughout the rest of the film which helps make it easier to watch for the viewers as they have something tying together all the scenes. The first scene of dialogue in this show was somewhat disappointing as at times it was difficult to fully understand what was being discussed. There was obvious interfere overlaying the dialogue within the show but this was never really explained. It appeared that Julie (whom the story follows) was phasing in and out or was distracted but this was not particularly clear and did cause some confusion. The only other qualm I had with this short film was that during one scene there were cartoon/shadow dancers that became the focus of the scene and while this was a representation of dance and its beauty, I don’t think they were particularly necessary for this movie. They could have not been included and the viewers would have still thought about the elegance and beauty a dancer posses.
As this was a musical film there were a few songs through all of which were really good. The opening song titled ’do you hear me?’ was equally beautiful as it was mysterious and dark which was excellent. The build-up and drawback of the music matched the emotions someone on Julie’s position would feel which again shows the creators of this movie was thought carefully about the songs in this musical. This song was performed as an almost monologue with the other characters on this scene blissfully unaware of what Julie is singing as they are frozen still and because of this the audience could really get into the mind of Julie to feel her emotions which were very clever. My personal favourite song in this movie musical was the second song which was titled ’dance in the night’ and was Julie’s expression of her repressed passion for dance. This song entwined slow elements as well as full musicality to show the build-up of excitement in Julie. This song was AN ANTHEM and I can see numerous theatre kids wanting to sing this is auditions etc. As this show is all about dance I did think this number could have utilised a little bit more dance elements but apart from this, the song was excellent staged and performed. The third song In this musical movie titled ’confrontation’ was a defiant / fight style song between Julie and her mother that was great. The two voices sang two different parts that worked excellently together and the emotions of the actors were clear to see which is fantastic for the audience to watch.
A highlight for this film was the choice of locations they decided to use. While there are numerous fantastic backdrops and scenery used in this film there are two in particular that really blew me away. Firstly there is a scene in which Julie is In an isolated phone box in the middle of the countryside and while at first, I thought this was very unusual it all made sense what it was revealed what she was wearing. My personal favourite location was the dance/practice room used during a throwback scene. This scene was lighted in an eerie and dark manner that the audience isn’t particularly aware of until the mood of the scene changes and they it is painfully obvious. To have a recognisable location that appears to change (despite nothing but the mood actually changing) was a stroke of pure genius that fitted perfectly with the ideas and themes of the entire movie. The actual acting in this scene was also excellent which made what happened extremely emotional.
Overall this is a very clever piece of both theatre which is unlike any musical I have ever seen before but I also also a clever film that has been meticulously thought put that makes it such an easy watch for the audience. I would rate this movie/musical 4 and a half stars but I would love to hear what everyone else thinks of it. Two ghosts can be seen on youtube by following the link https://youtu.be/Y_q6_H1JMAY.)
Rhysreviews 