Essentially a quest film as our protagonist searched for the ingredients to replace their missing beard, which had placed them in high esteem in a MULTIPLICITY-like beard club. The loss of the titular facial hair produced one of the best reaction shots of the Dunedin heats, and I applaud you for getting out and about to provide a sense of adventure to the film with the cliff climbing being particularly commendable. Your lead actor was energetic and had a solid screen presence, and this film was a really strong example at times of how to use the 50/50 line effectively for shot-reverse shot.

For mine, the script could have used just a little bit of polish, as some of the dialogue was a tad expository. The zany characters were fun, such as the rambling herbit, but muffling a voice with a mask can create issues hearing dialogue for any director (see: TENET) so I think I missed a critical plot development about 2/3 of the way through the film. I was definitely engaged, but the ending seemed slightly random in that I was not sure whether it was a celebration of gender diversity or trying to get us to laugh at a woman wearing a beard? Maybe both? But overall this was a fun film.

Story: 3/5
Technical: 2.5/5
Elements: 3.5/5
Overall: 3/5

Who you gonna call to solve a robbery? Security Steve of course! But only once he has written 'SECURITY' on his crime stopping t-shirt. Through voiceover we are told he is always watching, everyone is a suspect and he is not sure if he can do the job. The tone here was lighthearted and fun.

Some inventive cuts were the highlight that played with framing, and Steve was entertaining to watch and hear on screen, with the team focusing on the unlikely hero aspect, making our bumbling investigator a good foil for the crooks.

Just personally I would have liked to have seen a bit more meat to the story because despite using the full allocated 5 minutes to the film, several of the shots were held for a long time, which if trimmed could have freed up more time for character/story/plot development.

Story: 1.5/5
Technical: 2/5
Elements: 3/5
Overall: 2/5

Giggling flatmates and a mime seems like an innocuous enough plotline for a film, but this played the shit just got real card very fast and was all the better for it. With a few f-bombs here and there and invisible guns that actually went off, this had a classic casual Kiwi tone.

The camerawork was top quality, and the framing was tight but involving ala John Carpenter. It was a fast paced, nicely edited film of a shootout with a catburglar mime, but the cast also delivered their lines with aplomb and the payoff was well earned.

Now my review book notes are what I'm sticking to here because I don't have a way of rewatching the film, but yeah whilst this was thrilling the characters were a little underdeveloped for my liking, verging into stereotypes. But on the other hand this was just presenting a slice of action which is in my opinion the best way to approach a short, so hard to argue with. The other minor issue I have was that you only shot in your flat, which I understand may have been your only location, but it did mean that the set came across as a bit plain.

Story: 3/5
Technical: 3.5/5
Elements: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

I tuned in specifically to see what Toowit Toowoo would produce this year, as I always love their shorts and we animators gotta have each others' backs :) They did not disappoint! I was following your posts over the weekend and saw you post the small ocean snippet at the 24-hour mark #theanimationstruggleisreal!

But it was so worth it, I love love love how the animation on the ocean looked, and I'm a big fan of a musical as you know so love that you took on the sea shanty challenge. The eggs were great, and as steelpotato said the mouth movements were great.

It was the same for me though--I just wanted more! Which I know is just a time constraints thing given 48 hours, so not really a critique. I just enjoyed watching and wasn't ready for it to end yet. Fantastic effort, and really inspiring!

Some of the cuts are a bit jarring, especially when cutting from a quite scene to a louder one, or vice versa.

I would suggest having some audio start and fade in before the next scene in some cases, such as when it cuts to the flowing river. The audio of the river flowing could have started to come in before the cut. Then you won't have such a startle when it's suddenly really loud.

The sudden change of characters felt like it came out of nowhere. There didn't seem to be a reason for the change of character, I would suggest start hinting at a change or morals earlier on and let it slowly build up to the stabbing at the end.

The choice of location was great! Stunning shots of the mountains and the forest setting was very appealing.

I liked the jump cut to the White Shirt person wiping the blood of their knife. Only thing I could suggest there is not showing them taking out their knife but rather just them approaching the Dying Kid and having a reaction shot of the Pink Shirt person before jump cutting to the knife wiping. This should give a more intense effect, as the audience will be on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen, then BAM. Bloody knife! Give a bit more of a shock rather than just showing what's going to go down.

Good job :)

My first key point of advice to this team is to be really careful about avoiding getting wind distortion on your audio soundtrack. It is very distracting, and whilst field sound is great if you can get it clean, I would recommend doing ADR for anything where gusts were captured on your takes.

Now onto the film itself, where the locations and outfits were fantastic. A reluctant guest really threw a knife wielding cat amongst the pigeons in the woods here as a boy needing help got the 'help' he needed.

I felt the team tried to present an eery approach to proceedings, with a deliberate approach to proceedings in the deep dark woods and making the invite itself ambiguous but clearly important.

Now murderous black comedy can be grand. VERY BAD THINGS is for example one of my favourite films. But you need to earn the right to put the audience on side for dark acts. With some of the actions taken here jarring through by character actions and edits, it meant it was hard to feel any connection to proceedings because unclear motivation meant mean spirited resolutions and therefore the film played as bleak at its key moments. Promising in tone though.

Story: 2/5
Technical: 1.5/5
Elements: 2.5/5
Overall: 2/5

Really enjoyed this film. Some of the lines were LOL-able.
Even though the location was flat (a literal flat by the look of things) it didnt detract from the great elements of humour and cheesy deaths
Cannot wait to watch it again!

Boy oh boy do I love me some age inappropriate casting in 48 Hours, which Cinnamon Cinemas delivered here with an upbeat investigation into a serial killer.

Perhaps more than age inappropriate casting in things I love in this comp though, is silly disguises to hide the fact! So a suit and moutstache was absolutely my cup of tea for selling the idea of a teenager as a homicide detective. Lol. I'm not throwing you shade by the way, your lead actress gave a really strong performance.

As to the film itself, it was short and sickly sweet in a loop around fashion as a couple of grizzly inventive murders got looked at. The number 8 wire effects for example with the hair dryer death were what this comp is all about, in my book.

If I was to be critical, the film felt very light in terms of actual story and the twist was highly predicatable and could have been sold a lot better to give either dramatic or comedic impact, but it was zany, fast paced and entertaining.

Story: 2/5
Technical: 2.5/5
Elements: 3/5
Overall: 2.5/5

There's a lot riding on your shoulders when you are the first film to play in the first heat across all of NZ! But kicking things off this year with a cheeky charming puppet superhero film was a great way to start proceedings.

Good voice work here across the range of characters in the film, and there were some tellingly truthful messages here that a real hero does not use their powers to do bad things.

Quite a detailed script giving the characters depth to be honest, comparing and contrasting one with a broken heart and others who are casual and have moved on with their lives. I like how you kept everything grounded in reality, albeit with animal puppets.

Visually really appealing, and whilst you worked with what you had I think the lack of mouths on the characters was the minor detail that did create slight issues for me. This was because every time there were 2+ characters in shot, even though the voice work was good, it made it a tad confusing to follow due to one person doing all the voice work.

But on that note I'm incredibly impressed this was a 1 person school entry. Well done and please come back next year and keep making films!

Story: 3/5
Technical: 2.5/5
Elements: 3/5
Overall: 3/5