Dee7

Elijah's Ladder

That portrait 🥹💕💕💕 And 💅🏻!

This is such an epic POV film. And, of course, that close-up with Mark's expressions is so great.

Absolutely deserved the best use of close-up, and being Chch finalists. Honestly could’ve/should’ve been the Ōtautahi regional winner for 2026.

Tiny bit of nitpicking: some of the shots felt slightly too close to the objects, or didn’t quite show both hands interacting with them. At times, that made it feel a little more like handheld footage than seeing the world directly through the character’s eyes. But only slightly. The POV works really well overall.

The next bit isn’t really a criticism of the film, but something I’ve been learning myself as a DOP: believable POV is surprisingly difficult to shoot with normal camera gear.

I’ve been experimenting with a helmet rig, but that means putting nearly 2 kg of camera gear on an actor’s head 😭 and even then, I suspect I’ll need an anamorphic lens or another way of getting that wider, more human-like field of view.

For smaller-budget setups, I’m starting to think an action camera or 360 camera (Mark 😏) on a neck/chest-style mount might be one of the better ways to simulate convincing human POV without torturing the actor. 😂

Which honestly makes me appreciate what you pulled off here even more. POV looks deceptively simple until you actually try to shoot it, and making an entire film through that perspective while still getting the performance, emotion and storytelling across is seriously impressive.

Such a clever film, beautifully performed and executed. ❤️👏