Dr Plonk (Palace Film Collection) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-The Making of Dr Plonk Featurette-Juggling Dr Plonk Featurette-The Ball Crazy Dog Featurette-The Hand Cranked Camera Featurette-The Dr Plonk Score DVD-ROM Extras-15 page studyguide - PDF Theatrical Trailer-Dr Plonk Teaser Trailer-Madman Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	81:14
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Rolf de Heer
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Nigel Lunghi Paul Blackwell Magda Szubanski Wayne Anthoney Quentin Kenihan Mike Rann Phoebe Paterson de Heer
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Graham Tardif

    Very few filmmakers would dare follow a film like Ten Canoes with a homage to the silent era of cinema, but that's exactly what Rolf de Heer has done with his 2007 film, Dr Plonk. The film is not only a tribute to Chaplin, Keaton and the like, but to all those who pioneered the road to modern cinema.

    The idea for the film was born when Rolf discovered 20,000 feet of expired film stock in his production office. He wondered how the film stock would look if it was exposed in a camera. This immediately brought thoughts of the silent era and in an instant Rolf de Heer's next project was realised. The prospect of making a genuine comedy also excited Rolf, as this was uncharted territory for him as a filmmaker. In addition, it was very important for the story to have relevance with a modern audience and this was cleverly accomplished in his screenplay.

    If the silent film concept was to be fully realised, they would need to use a camera that was consistent with the period. A trial of such a camera failed due to the incompatibility of the camera with the modern film stock. A suitable compromise was reached when a slightly more modern camera (from the 1940's) was sourced. This camera had the important modification of a hand cranking mechanism, which delivered outstanding authenticity. In combination with the use of older camera lenses and the expired film stock, Rolf de Heer was able to achieve an incredible result. Although some modern technology was used during production, the general aim was to restrict this usage to a minimum.

    As was the case in the silent era, no artificial lighting was used during exterior scenes and obviously, there was no requirement for sound. This enabled the production to use a small crew; some scenes only required an actor, camera operator and director. The limitations of the production also helped keep the budget quite low by conventional standards.

    In post-production, selected scenes had to be degraded, because even expired modern film stock has a much finer grain than the stock used years ago. This resulted in an image that was very sharp in comparison. Because the story of Dr Plonk involves a time machine, it was decided that current day scenes would have a stronger degree of sharpness than those taking place in 1907.

    In the year 1907 the genius inventor and scientist, Dr Plonk (Nigel Lunghi) toils day in and day out in his laboratory. His wife, Mrs. Plonk (Magda Szubanski), together with his less than competent assistant, Paulus (Paul Blackwell) and their feisty little Jack Russell Terrier, Tiberius (Reg the dog) are his constant company. While doing a series of equations, Dr Plonk discovers that the world will end in 101 years. He needs hard proof of his theory, so with the help of Paulus, he constructs a time machine that will travel backwards and forward in time. A series of adventures and misadventures finally delivers Dr Plonk to the year 2007 and to the source of his theory. However, the immediate problem for Dr Plonk is not the world ending, but the fact that he now has an entire modern day police force in hot pursuit.

    Dr Plonk is great entertainment for the whole family. It is also a courageous and ambitious film from a filmmaker who refuses to be pigeonholed.

Video

    Dr Plonk is presented in the correct aspect ratio of 1:33.1, which is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Keeping in mind the ambition of Dr Plonk was to resemble an old silent film, the degree of sharpness and clarity in the transfer was really good throughout. Black and white tones exhibited beautiful contrast and shadow detail was impressive.

    There were no MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were not an issue and film artefacts were non-existent.

    Naturally, subtitles were not required. There is however, English intertitles which are common in all silent films and help to convey the story.

    This is a DVD 9, dual layer disc.The layer change could not be located.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is very little to comment on regarding audio. There is only one audio track on the DVD, Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

    The original music score by Graham Tardif is quite an achievement. Graham has written musical scores for many of Rolf de Heer's films including, Bad Boy Bubby, The Tracker and Alexandra's Project to name just a few. Naturally, his score for Dr Plonk runs for the entire film without a moments silence and in many ways, this is the dialogue of the film. The music is brilliantly performed by the three piece Melbourne group, The Stiletto Sisters (Hope Csutoros on violin, Judy Gunson on piano accordion and Jo To on double bass). The additional performer on the soundtrack is Sam White on piano. The original concept of the entire score being played on an old Wurlitzer Organ was scrapped in favour of this small ensemble. In the end, this was clearly the right decision.

    The surround channels and the subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu is animated with scenes from the film and features a looped sample of Graham Tardif's music.

Featurette - The Making of Dr Plonk (19:18)

    Filmed during the production of Dr Plonk, this extra features many on-set interviews with cast and crew members. Plenty of behind-the-scenes footage has also been incorporporated.

Juggling Dr Plonk (5:02)

    This piece was also filmed during the production of Dr Plonk and features on-set interviews.Nigel Lunghi displays his street performing abilities by juggling five oranges while discussing his casting as Dr Plonk.

The Ball Crazy Dog (7:18)

    Featuring on-set interviews with cast members, this extra focuses on Reg the dog and his obsession with chasing balls.

The Hand Cranked Camera (8:35)

    Director of Photography, Judd Overton and Rolf de Heer discuss the principals of the photography in Dr Plonk. Again, this was filmed during the production of the film and features on-set interviews, together with film footage.

The Dr Plonk Score (17:05) 

    Graham Tardif talks about writing the score and about working with a small, talented group of musicians.

Dr Plonk Studyguide - DVD-Rom

    A 15 page studyguide about the film in PDF format.

Original Theatrical Trailer

    Dr Plonk (1:33)

Madman Film Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall