Shadowplayers

"James Nice's documentary on the birth of Factory Records and the Manchester post-punk music scene gets a simple presentation in this DVD release. Shadowplayers has been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the transfer is clean and serviceable, though the film's digital camerawork is not especially remarkable; the film is almost entirely composed of static ""talking head"" shots, some of which are curiously framed (especially the interview footage of Tony Wilson, rendering the quality of the transfer almost moot. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, and like the video is of variable quality; some of the interviews are nearly swallowed by room echo, though most are fully audible and the post-production work is fine. The interviews are in English, with no subtitles or multiple language options included. No bonus materials are included beyond brief ""where are they now?"" profiles of the participants. Shadowplayers will certainly be of interest to anyone who followed the Manchester scene in its formative days, but the stories are what makes this interesting rather than the execution, and the DVD presentation doesn't add anything of interest to the package (though it doesn't take anything away, either)."