A Silence In Sam's Town

This is an absolutely beautiful film.
At the screening this evening everyone was completely silent throughout and at the last shot you could hear the room's quiet gasp.
This is a film that sticks with you.

The cinematography was amazing, the acting was incredible! You have used everything in your toolbox to create one of the most moving films in the competition.

The only real criticism I have is the mise en scene! There were a few moments when things were on screen and I was like "hmm, is that supposed to be there?" It breaks the tone from time to time.

Over all, really technically strong; I think the serious tone is super tough to pull off in such a tight timeframe.

Absolutely stunning macro!

Over the years, there have been a few 48 films where a person walks somewhere in silence for 80% of the runtime, holding something, only for the twist to be that it belonged to someone who died.(last year i think it was a teddy bear) But this is the first time that I've seen it really be pulled off well. you guys absolutely nailed that final shot, which gave the whole film context and tied it in to the ocean being there for a thematic reason. Excellent filmmaking! And the performance was great!

Sad reflective films about the past death of a loved one are hard to pull off in 48Hours, but this film was pretty good. There were some heartbreaking lines that really spoke to the experience of loss.

This is a visually pleasing film. It's great to see the new townhouses in New Brighton used to great effect with their soft pastel colours.

The shot of the hands, the tide, and the sunset was stunningly beautiful. You couldn't ask for it to be any better. A perfect visual encapsulation of the story.

The reflection shot must have been technically challenging to pull off. A lovely concept, and maybe with more than 48 hours to finetune the edit it could have been pulled off more seamlessly.

I always think these films are the bravest - minimal dialogue, very lean storyline, allowing the acting, the emotion and the cinematography to do the heavy lifting. The acting was tremendous, I appreciated the foley work, and LOVED the hands meeting scene. Thank you!

This is why I don't like making straight up dramas during 48 Hours; because I know some other team is going to smash it out the park in a way I could never even possibly imagine. Such a beautiful movie on all fronts and possibly one of the only times I've seen a team go to the effort of doing foley in 48 Hours. Great work.

Ok I have to address the elephant in the room with this one. In many ways this is VERY done. Beautiful cinematography, beautiful pace, great sound. For some reason, I thought it was going to turn into a dark comedy, but that moment never came. HOWEVER, there is something really unfortunately funny about seeing the guys ripped underwear in the final shot(s) of the film. It was such a massive distraction and really took away from what should have been a serious and beautiful moment. That's the kind of unforgiving mistake that you just can't make when doing a serious film. I'm really sorry team. I'm sure you noticed in the edit, or maybe it didn't bother you, but PLEASE, for next time, don't let that slide. Looking forward to what this team cooks up next.

Wow, the emotion in this film was intense. This film was very strong in many ways, but I want to highlight the acting of your main character - they portrayed a really raw grief that was captivating and heartbreaking to watch, and absolutely necessary to pull off this concept so well done! A really beautiful film - that one shot of the hands in the water was STUNNING, probably the most beautiful shot I've seen this year in the competition. We've been going back and forth trying to figure out how you did it - very impressive! There were a couple of shots that pulled me out of the story a bit - the camera went a bit bumpy during the main character walking down the sand dunes and all I could think about was your camera person trying to walk backwards down the dunes!
More than anything I loved the heart in this story, which was consistently so strong and lingers well after the film ends. As I've said in other reviews I love it when teams give us something more earnest and serious to change it up from the comedies 48 hours is known for, and your team killed it at that! Well done :)

In the midst of his grief, a man ventures to the beach with a note and a necklace for his deceased wife.

This was an emotional hardhitter from start to finish! In amongst a sea of comedies, I LOVE seeing stories like this that don't shy away from laying those heavy emotions bare on the table, that aren't afraid to be bold in their storytelling!

Your lead actor just blew it out of the park, with a performance that I think may be the most emotionally captivating out of the whole of the competition- he felt all of that emotionally brutal heartache that comes with loss, and was pulling us along as an audience with him. Bravo!

One suggestion I might add would be to the story - we felt a lot for this character, but it could have heightened even further if we saw some flashbacks of when the couple were together, alive and happy, to really visually illustrate who and what he has lost, that might help twist that emotionally gut-wrenching knife even further!

We were in a team this year that also touched on death and grief, so maybe I'm a smidge biased, but like I've said before, I love, love, LOVE seeing this kind of emotionally confronting content in this competition. It's a beautiful point of difference, I can't wait to see if you make it through to the city finals, and what you make next year!

There was something about this film that really got to our core and we both went 'hmmm, that's a real contender this year' on our first viewing.

And then the judges said no! Well, most of them, you did have one squarely in your corner! And it did put you guys pretty close to finals territory, but sadly, wasn't to be, and we'll get to that in a second, but first -

The cinematography is GORGEOUS and your performer is really strong, or at least we really felt that he was and do still feel that, even if others weren't so convinced, you had us convinced.

We thought it had just the right amount of story to stand on it's own two feet, and the way the editing cuts between the flashbacks and the reaction of your character were in our opinion just a spot on choice. The wide shot of Sam kneeling with the pier in the background is S tier. For us personally, our only gripe was the walking in the sand shots with the socks and shoes coming off, the shaky cam just didn't quite match everything else in terms of the calmness in that moment before the reveal of the storm. But honestly that's all we really have for you in terms of what we'd change...

The judges however were all like 'uhh no it's not a holiday movie' >:(
Made us mad hahaha

Oh and they noticed the underwear thing too, which we feel is silly, but I guess if the audience noticed and the judges noticed, it's worth noting. They did say the final shot should have been that hand taking the beads away, perhaps they're right, but we liked the closing shot haha

We love this team, and we want to see you come back and smash it out of the park next year!

THE BEST THING: Great performance and sharp shooting

THE NEXT THING: Genre genre genre, apparently, bleh.