404: Adrian Not Found

This film had a great introduction to all the characters, and a lot of humour. The real-time waiting for Windows to load was brilliant as everyone can relate to the frustration, and was a completely unexpected joke for this genre of film.

The whole thing felt like a great introduction to a really interesting film - and then suddenly it was over. The film ended just where it felt like the action was about to begin. It felt like the team had produced the first 5 minutes of a great longer film. On further thoughts, it did have a carefully crafted ending - finding the coordinates and heading off to find them - but it felt like a turning point rather than an ending. Most 5 minute films have to be just part of a larger story - ours being no exception - and it is very difficult to make that snippet feel satisfying within itself. This film doesn't quite achieve that in my opinion. My one suggestion for you for next year would be to try and deliver a more satisfyingly conclusive ending.

The underlying story was excellent. I also really liked the shadows of The Tunnel Man, which added to the ominous tone of the whole thing.

I was quite intrigued by this film. I thought the humour was good, it got a few good laughs out of me at the screening! But I'm going to be a little bit critical with this review just to point out something I think could have definitely been improved on.

I could tell watching this that you had a good script. Your ideas and writing were good, and if a film has bad ideas and writing it's bound to fail from the get go.
But where I think you fell into some problems was in both the filming and editing.
I've heard before that a film is told three times, once in writing, once in filming, and once in editing. Each of the three sections takes the story and tells it in a slightly different way.
Your writing seems good, but if the next two parts of production fall a bit flat (which I think they did) then your film isn't going to work that well as a whole.
As Dennischief said: "it felt like an introduction to a story", But I'm pretty sure your script didn't feel like that.
In essence, you guys definitely had a good underlying story, but didn't quite pull it off in filming and editing.

The humour was still great though! and I thought your title at the start of the film was really good! It was so crisp and felt so nice seeing it behind the characters as they moved toward the table!

You've got great ideas, I hope you keep making stuff and can't wait to see what you create next year!

There are at least 3 insane celebrity lookalikes in this film; see if you can spot them all.
The green colour filter was a great touch; it worked really well alongside the tense closeups, and stylized shadow fight sequence.

What I liked:
Character intros of the team were fun. The desktop background has a lot of interesting icons – “2026 Kill List”, “Taylor Swift dates”, “Cats-movie” and a million “New Folder(#)”. Adrian’s puppet meeting was a nice touch of humour too. Some nice work with shadows in parts and good close-ups on certain things/people.

Take it or leave it:
Logging in and waving at the screen took a long time (and I get the joke) – but it is time that could have been better spent elsewhere in the film. The team didn’t really do anything either – the Hacker, sure, the Brawn sure, and then everyone just ran away. If you’re going to put a team together, they need to do more than just look at a computer screen!

Final hot air:
As others have said, more of the start of something bigger. Why not continue it next year?!

In hunting for what happened to her father, a young woman assembles a crack team of professionals to find any hint of what might have happened to him, starting with his laptop.

This story really felt like the start of a bigger series! The tunnels, tunnel-man, what happened to Adrian, all these big ideas hinted at, and left me curious to know more! You really started pulling us into your world, which makes it feel bigger than what’s presented on screen here, brilliant! Technically, I loved the shot with all five members of the team looking at the laptop - a classic shot pulled off beautifully here, and you had some lovely ECUs in the fold of this piece too!

I loved how you built this intrigue and serious questions of what happened to Adrian. However I do wish you had leaned more into the seriousness of the genre, as opposed to the humour. I do love a good laugh, however the elements without the jokes felt stronger for me!
On a different note, what happened to Adrian?? I wanna knoowwwwww! This story felt like part of a larger puzzle, and as other reviewers have pointed out, just as the story turns to more action it’s over. I’m intrigued to see if we’ll maybe get a part two next year!! (please??)

Overall, great work team - your filmmaking shows real promise and I’m excited to see what you all bring to the competition next year!

Hey team! what an HONOUR to be present during your shooting of the reveal of the tunnel man! lol

There are some cool ideas in here. The classic trope of introing the characters worked well - although it would have been nice to see them all get a bit more to do in the film!

The login page was our highlight - well recieved in the audience on heats night and a great little commentary on how piss poor digital systems are on tertiary and school grounds, that probably wasn't the intent, but I felt it in my soul.

Understanding the stakes of this story was probably the biggest hurdle. We're looking for someone, then we're checking out private documents and embarassing personal videos, then we're shadow fighting the tunnel man, then we're running away - a fair bit of a tonal swing between beats, and a lot of 'and then we can do this, and then this, and then this' and not a lot of reasons as to why we should care about what we're seeing.

THE BEST THING: The login page gag, and a cool collection of clever crew having a cruisy time.

THE NEXT THING: Dig deep into the BUT and THEREFORE rule of telling your story and give us a bit more to chew on, and you'll be well on your way! Great effort team, looking forward to seeing next years entry!