Mike Glasswell

Night Shift

great effort, from the one person animator. this had a nice story, and good use of the ULTRA elements, the only gag the hit with me was the ending twist. the sound and song design were a bit uneven, and i did not find the character designs appealing at all, the rendering time for this project must have been intense, unless they had access to a render farm. nice work overall

Perp

I enjoyed this film a lot, my favourite of the heat. Great production value and character interactions. the two partners discussion in the car was nicely acted and genuinely funny. great jokes and humor. fantastic work

Mother Ship

Great Production Value in this Film, I loved the lighting and camera Work. the use of split screen was well utilised, by showing the outside of the space station and on some display screens. even though if sometimes the monitor screen was out of sync with the real time action and dialogue, it worked well. I think they could have used better use of the cringe and gross out aspects of the genre. overall great, acting, great production value and beautiful cinematography

A Matter of Time

Really enjoyed this film, lots of different cooky characters at different stages in the lead's traumatic future coming back to warn said lead of impending doom. the actor created several different looks for different stages of time travel. by doing the the shave a beard down in different stages. i really liked the crazy inventor and the the technical time travel elements were great. ending was the icing on the cake to an already solid film

Mahnamana

Fantastic film. The puppets were gorgeous. A great subversion of the zombie genre also. Great work all round

Pizza money

Very entertaining. my Audience favourite. Jovial's cinematography and polish on their film continue to impress. A very simple, action chase sequence, a likable main character, just trying to do his job. the Roller skate sequences were great the actor has great comedic timing and acting chops. I loved how it escalated into a big action set piece at the end, with great effects and violence. I would have like both of the head phone ear pieces to be in the pizza delivery boy's during the fire fight, to give a reason for why he didn't freak out by the gun fire. perhaps he is use to this sort of thing. great work all round.

A Familiar Feeling

a great little 2 character piece. nice dialogue and a great little story. the use of the double take worked particularly well as it was tied to the story. nice film over all even though the overall premise was very simple. but a simple story executed well, is better than a complex story executed poorly

Munchies

Great film. I really loved the community 'paintball' episode vibe. It had some great characters. And some small elements of world building that wanted me to know more. I would have liked a stronger set up for the cookies, perhaps at the beginning with an oven timer. Setting up the mayhem ahead. Great job Very deserving of audience favourite.

Double Date

very clever use of the split screen, one line of dialogue while to events are happening. i found this film very entertaining. simple in its execution, and the story didnt really lead anywhere. thought was fun to see what each piece of dialogue represented in the others screen

Toasted

Great little superhero flick about shitty superpowers.
I enjoyed it, but the ending newspapers felt rushed and the visual effect could have been stronger.

rather than the female hero reveal herself to be superpowered, you could have dropped subtle hints throughout the film, through her actions.

then, she moves out at the end because she cant take it, and then the newspapers start appearing, this would allow the audience to have that 'ah ha' moment.

great work

Lil' Bro

Always a pleasure watching a Jovial Entertainment film. there brand of action and comedy always sit well with me and i look forward to their films every year. This one was no different. a cool buddy film about two brothers escaping a hostile situation. the Acting was great and the main action star was handsome and buff. great eye candy. some good action set pieces with cool gun effects and a great sugar glass bottle prop.

when you have a room or a warehouse location, with similar looking boxes and scaffolding. its hard to set up your geography especially for action sequences. it was hard to track how many goons there were and in what direction their prize was. it made some of the action hard to follow.

great film overall loved the back and forth between the leads and the action was fun.

4/5

PLAN B

Great, another Superb film from the Jovial crew, my favourite of the night. Great use of the split screen as the members of the gang are planning their heist and it taking place at the same time. i loved the purple colours and cinematography very much. the time travel gag was well done, and it gave the audience the ''click'' moment. ah i get it. nice characters that were simple and easy to identify by either costume, mannerisms or personalities. the ending part even though it took a moment to realise, did feel very quick, and perhaps a cool effect could have been added. but maybe the simple approach was the right one. hope to see this in the finals.

P.A.N

another one of my Favourites of the night, i love the Documentary crew angle of the film. the little narration and showing bits of equipment helped solidify the shooting style they were going for. the main actor was very good and i loved his zany character. there is a candid moment of him handing out flyers, and i hope it was done with real people, as one lady gives a great line with brilliant comedic timing. the ending gets hectic and fun as the camera crew run off, each succumbing to a hilarious fate, but i think it would have been great for a stronger ending for our hero, rather than facing his impending doom.

La Coquille

man, that HD camera. some beautiful shots, feeling straight from the show planet earth. a good little story with a tragic finality. though I feel it was more visual gags and absurdity of situation which made it great. the dialogue felt inconsequential and not really that necessary. my favourite of the night. what a great team.

Pop

My personal favourite of the Auckland Finals. a simple date film. great dialogue and shot very well. both actors were very handsome. the tension is built from the start and the dialogue keeps the focus on the overall problem, until the eventual POP. great gross out moment. (which upon talking to the team afterwards, was just mayonnaise. i do prefer a simple film executed well, rather than a complex and grandiose film executed poorly .

Odd Socks

Good Effort with this animation. Animation is tough during the 48hours, so good work sticking with it. you used the software to help you track the eyes and mouth shapes to save time, which was great in a dialogue heavy film. some of the dialogue fell flat for me, the old grumpy sock was a bit annoying and not very funny.

I think you could have set up each sock a bit more with clearer visuals at the beginning when you were locked on the establishing shot, you could have cut inside to each sock, established their design and then the power cuts out, setting up each sock, and who they belonged to through stronger drawings alone would have helped.

I liked the general idea of each sock could be paired with the other in the group, just needed a stronger execution.

great work, look forward to seeing more animation from you in future

Daddy's Little Angel

I love these guys. their stuff keeps getting better and better. the cinematography in this film was great. it was 'shot' well. forgive the pun. great cast and actors. and used the child actor well. the zany set ups and payoffs for death gags were done very well and the ending was a great gag. the only thing i found hard to understand was establishing the environment of the office. perhaps setting it up and normalising it with some establishing shots of some everyday office activities, before hell breaks loose. I didn't know wha tthe office was, if it was a FBI type office, government, or just a regular office. kudos. great work Jovial. it was a blast

Sidney Manson and the Twin Factor 2

a great little 8-bit short. this was an Ultra entry, though i had not seen many of the previous entries so the story was hard to relate to, as i didn't know what it was a sequel too. the crude 8-bit artwork worked very well and the jokes and shock value worked well. the story was a bit non-existent but the visual gags were great. the Wilhelm scream was implemented the best on the night.

Punkinson's Payback

Very funny. Loved the punkers. Had a very cool bad taste, brain dead vibe. Nice work and great blood effects