In a year of pretty bog-standard found footages, your take on it took me by surprise. Not sure if you guys have seen the endlessly memed Unfriended film but this holds a somewhat similar premise of a found footage using a video call, which I'm surprised didn't get super popular during COVID lockdowns but that's besides the point. I liked the in-universe excuse for having multiple angles (like the final fight of Chronicle, okay I'll stop with the references).

The monster hand looked genuinely so good, it got me wondering if you guys just had that lying around somewhere or if you bought it specifically for the festival.

You guys pulled of your premise with such unwavering confidence that my only real suggestion would be that the plot was a little confusing. Other than that, bravo team!

Fantastic sound effects, fight choreography, and a healthy amount of fake blood. The flashes for the gunshots definitely made me sit up and go "ooh".

Joel tells school teams to "act your age" every year and I'm not saying he's wrong but I get how annoying it is to hear it when you very rarely see short films made in the noir genre that fit your age range. I'd recommend you watch Sub-Par Cinema Society's submission this year. Reputation does a really good job of fitting the noir genre whilst being accurate to the age of the team. Don't be discouraged, team! Creativity is one of the few things that thrives when you lock it in a box with no sunlight (like an editor)

"Great job team" – a quote from my notes on this one.

I sincerely hope you come back next year and blow our socks off.

Wow wow WOW!

This is one of the only films this year (adult teams included) that really scratched an itch for me. Really reminded me of Edgar Wright, specifically Scott Pilgrim vs The World with that fight game break. Some really incredible filmmaking here, I'm so happy this one won Best School this year.

"Action sequences are actually sick – especially as a one-take (big fan)" – a real quote from my notes

May or may not have noted down the director's name as someone to keep an eye on in the future. Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with next!

A pretty great mockumentary, this one.

Style choices for the titles ended up looking sooo good. Give the editor a pat on the back for that one and maybe let them out for some fresh air.

Audio is hard for school teams working with very little equipment but this was especially crunchy. Next time, using phones to record audio or renting/borrowing a cheapo mic would definitely be worth it.

I can tell you guys had a blast filming this and that's a must for 48Hours but part of the fun is getting everyone in on the concept and being able to laugh at the fact you made a pretty good film with these ridiculous moments.

Overall, I hope you guys come back! You could have a really cool future in this competition with your own distinct style (think Herms Heroes). Hopefully see you next year?

"Brodie is my favourite character ever" – Lois during the first watch

Let's go team! Great job Bethany!

There is nothing scarier than Mark Rickerby wearing a hat...

This and EOD... man I really liked the horror films we got this year. This has definitely got to be my personal favourite from Christchurch, though.

Really reminds me of "Other Side of the Box", one my my first introductions to short-film horror and definitely still a favourite of mine.

Woof, I can't describe the feeling I was left with at the heats. Pretty sure my jaw was on the floor.

Bravo!

Firstly, congratulations on your Christchurch victory rip focus: Tokyo Drift! I've heard the finals were a wonderful night and it's genuinely great to see long time competitors take home the much coveted Apee for their region.

Here we have a woman home alone on a Saturday night, scared because she thinks she hears something in the attic; who calls the guy she thinks she can rely on for support and comfort and instead gets gaslit, emotionally abused and interrogated whilst at at the same time the ominous dread builds towards a chilling climax.

Technically really impressive for a one-shot. Whoever was operating that camera and gimble did one heck of a great job tracking the film with super smooth precision.

The film was also very cleverly pieced together using moments of light or dark to blend the seams and I can only imagine audience reactions of 'huh? how did they?...' so I get why you were nominated for best editing (even though I don't agree with it on principle for this particular genre :p). Low-lit lighting and the 4:3 tight framing also gave you more legwork to work the edges of what was off camera.

Normally I'm not a great fan of shooting at houses, but the location was perfect for the vision you presented as allowing for literal physical wraparounds really played well to allowing disorientation and the audience tension to rise as spaces get filled by persons or creatures that are unclear if they're even from the same dimension.

It's clever, and I get that by presenting our central protagonist in clean cut white that you went for the good vs evil sledgehammer metaphor.

Just personally I found the story itself took a little bit away from your technical wizardry. Its hard to be particularly critical because the lead performance was phenomenal, and intimate domestic abuse is a sad but all too real indictment of New Zealand in general. But just from a form point of view we got our lead who were were supposed to like, and the vile boyfriend on the phone, and the menacing threat.

But the problem is that when it's all one side is black and the other side is white, without making our heroine having more clearly defined traits than being a victim I wasn't fully sold on rooting for her escape or worried about the threat especially when the creatures from the attic were so mysterious (and done very similarly in [REC] back in 2007)

And whilst audio was generally great throughout there were several moments where the use of space did not fit the phone from a continuity point of view.

Overall a great achievement for 48 just with a couple of elements that I wasn't 100% about.

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. ❤️👏