A shipping container in the middle of nowhere creates a high level of tension for a couple of prisoners, one who begins the film in a mask whilst the other spouts dialogue whilst bound and restrained.

I liked the subversion of character expectation here, as "Thomas" in the clown mask was the serious type desperate for freedom, whilst our more sinister player with the maniacal life was given the more vanilla visual appearance.

Mood building was well done as well, with the stillness of the middle of nowhere springing to life with banging against the walls and strange visual motifs quickly coming to the fore. I also liked that you had a go at world building, with 'The Swap' not really being explained in any great detail, but referred to in a way that made you feel it had great importance.

Now for monologues, the titular jam piece of dialogue was well done, but boy oh boy I fucking hated the cold mean spirited description of murder that was espoused. And then to end like...that. Yeah guys, that's not the way. I'm not saying be uplifting by any stretch, you can be mean spirited and dark, but you need to earn it for your payoff to have any gravitas because otherwise I come away from the film feeling "fuck that was bleak, what was the point?". And sadly that was the case at the end, undoing a lot of great work such as your expertly staged edit.

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

Brilliant animation, I don't know how you guys pulled it off in 48 hours. I loved the cheeky main character and the reminder of the sneaky rule breaking of our youth

What a great short film. I loved the different multiverses and thinking she had travelled back in time to her parents wedding only to find it was a different mum. Then seeing her mum as a drunk it was sad and sadder again to see that in that universe her "Charlie" was actually a different kid. I was worried the ending would be the creepy old house but seeing her return home was nice. Then the mums face at the end!!! Good work. What a ride.

It was kind of hard to hear the lead actress as she was mumbling/rambling although this may have been for effect,
her hysteria over the roast really made me laugh . Great story, I loved the silliness of it all. My favourite character was the girl outside who whispered about the chicken.... Really great comedic character! A great film. Good effort.

Some amazing shots in this one, well done team!

I have been eagerly awaiting this film to come up on the screening room since it absolutely floored me in the Dunedin heats. For a new team to come up into the competition this fully formed, ticking all my personal boxes for what I'm looking for in a 48 hours film, most definitely consider me blown away by what they filmed here.
Make no mistake, this is THE film from Dunedin this year that I see on the potential grand final list, a confident, beautiful, pulsating film that oozes a love of cinema through its veins and breaks down the door to celebrate the new blood coming through. I'm still giddy thinking about how absolutely amazingly you interpreted the gatekeeper element.

For those playing along at home you might be interested in what I loved about the film so much. Well we've got the film within a film element first of all, with regal decor of a classic cinema calling to mind FADE TO BLACK and CINEMA PARADISO, but portrayed with such visual flourish that you could feel the warm rich oak aromas and velvet curtains infiltrating your senses as you watched.

Then there's the storyline itself, as 2 young filmmakers are desperate to show off their self-made film to a director they idolise at his premiere, not to steal the limelight but to pay respect, and getting buy ins all along the way with a theme that art is all about 'taking a chance'

The gatekeeping brilliance? Very much a case of showcasing how cinemas like to keep things big scale, emphasise the grandiose and never give a chance to the small team. Do we maybe even do this with 48 Hours? Really had me thinking.... Yet the team had the bravado to not only call but deliver a 'Instant Cinematic Classic'. You have my sword because your confidence was incredible with amazingly written and believable characters.

The edit was slick yet perfectly placed, costuming and characters well defined, the lighting (that shot towards the end, you know, THE ONE...wow) and camerawork superb (my minor nitpick was a slight reliance on focus pulling from slight out of frame to focus in static shots), music perfectly placed, sound crystal clear and it was genuinely a sweet, uplifting film.

One of my immediate favourite 48 Hours films of all time <3

Story: 5/5
Technical: 4.5/5
Elements: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

This one got a lot of laughs from me!

Great story - partly hoping for a gory justice ending but the quick draw riff was fun and 'townies' played all too well!

Such cool closeup shots. Loved the heaven scene and the jokes. Loved the floating poison jar.