i am Delta

The accidental cropping of this film to 1080p turned out surprisingly well and didn't impact on my enjoyment of the film. This, being the director's cut, has a few other minor tweaks from what was screened at the heats (e.g. credits, AI's voice going into slow-mo, removal of prescribed 48Hours title cards).

Good work on the compositing. Some nice animations. I loved the minimalistic white background with a grid to portray some kind of digital environment. The actor's shadow and the wrinkles in the green screen make it seem like the grid warps under the weight of a man landing on it which is cool.

I liked the sudden shift to forceful urgent instructions from the AI, and the introduction out of nowhere of the father being in danger. These are ominous and unnatural, creating a feeling that the AI is sinister, and raising big questions about what it wants from the protagonist and why. Likewise, the clever composited transition back to reality raises the question of whether he is back in reality, or whether this is just another step in the AI's great deceptive manipulation. Eating the cake is a metaphor for who knows what – maybe something we're already doing collectively as a society.

Using a VR headset to tick off the POV or found footage genre is an intriguing choice, but then we're looking at the character, so I guess it technically isn't POV.

Things to focus on next time could be character development, having more beats in the story, and using foreshadowing early in the film to hint at key plot twists to come.

Between the music and the Christmassy-looking present, the opening shot has a Harry Potter feel to it. Maybe this is deliberate. Maybe there's the possibility of something more sinister and sci-fi.

Great work! I really enjoyed this film.

Some interesting conversation going on in this film between the lead and his AI pal - conceptually pretty good, but falls flat due to it just being a locked off shot of a guy listening to an AI voice. It's pretty unclear what the stakes really are in this virtual world, and the AI voice coming back over the fathers voice at the end only left us with more questions rather than a satisfying conclusion.

THE BEST THING: Some cool visual graphics like the confetti and the outer space stuff.

THE NEXT THING: Clarity of story is key, show don't tell also pretty key with this one. Looking forward to next years short!