lukerosspost

Post-Party Pickle

Awesome concept and good effort - the quiet audio was very noticeable and detracted from the experience, but great pay-off at the end with the dad coming in to save the day!

HEARTH

Great film! I agree with William, incredibly sassy performances that had the audience laughing nonstop. Chasing the car down the road was my favourite part, hilarious stuff.

PS - I wish I had the confidence to shut the door on my neighbour like that!

Dead of the Day

Dead of The Day appealed to me so much this year because it was a audiovisual stunner. Its interesting colour grade and great use of sound design grounded the audience in this otherworldly film that kept the secret right until the punchline at the end. You knew that something wasn't quite right, but I definitely didn't expect where the film was going. The payoff was fun and provided satisfying context to the film that left me happy and chuckling. Also, dancing should 1000% scare off any otherworldly monsters, maybe next time!

The Lurhman Brothers

This was by far the creepiest film of our heat, and I would argue one of the most stylistic. I loved the atmosphere that the film created, and it could easily be mistaken for an art piece or long-forgotten New Zealand archive. This is a slow burn film, but the pay off is worth it!

Beware the Kraken

This film was a slow burn and the payoff was quite clear, quite soon, but this film was a joy to watch. There's nothing like the sweet, inevitable doom of a poor kiwi who just wants to take a girl out to get a mince and cheese pie. Midsommar meets White Man Behind A Desk, and I'm here for it!

Thicker Than Water

'Death at a Funeral' meets splatter - the combo that we didn't know that we needed. I thoroughly enjoyed this polished film that showcased Isla's strong direction and smooth performances from the entire cast. Although there was no surprising or unique character arcs, this helped the audience get right into the main event: the vomit, which by the way, made me gag more than I would have liked during my first watch. The build-up of this film was stellar and the pay-off was satisfying - Thicker Than Water was an extremely confident film from extremely confident filmmakers. Bravo!

Zero Mum Game

Zero Mum Game was a satire that knew exactly what it was doing and easily drew the audience along with them. Fantastic over exaggerated performances from the cast balanced the line well between silliness and humour, and the final line hit so, so well. Although the story was simple, the cast really made this stand out and feel unique. Great work!

Henrik The Barbarian

Loved the Fred Flintstone costume vibes and the "fight" sequence - very fun film. The end felt a little flat, but overall I really enjoyed it!

The Crowning

Cinetrance always lifts the bar on what can be expected from a film made in 48HRS, and this was no exception. Great story with a slow start that has a BANG of an ending - aided by a fantastic use of light, shadow and camera-work to sell the end scene. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and my god the mise-en-scene was perfect, but my only critical note is that it would've been great to learn a bit more about the main character during the opening few minutes. I felt a little disconnected from her, which limited the impact of the scary and lonely world that she was surrounded by. The ending made me gasp and laugh at the same time, so that's a win in my book!

Chef's Kiss

I can honestly say that the first 30 seconds ensured that I had absolutely no idea where this film was going. Strap yourself in, because this was the most memorable possession film that I saw this year, featuring stellar acting, great editing and music choices and a sexy chef that stole the show. The audience at the grand finals could not stop laughing as this film gets progressively more steamy, until the ending (which I did not expect) delivered a clean punchline and a satisfying payoff. I think this was an audience favourite, and it was definitely one of mine. Love your work Permanently Confused!

We Scream

As an Onslow alumni, I was super proud to see that Evil Cutlery took the prize for Best National School Team this year! I hadn't seen the film until now, and I was curious to see what the standard was for school teams in this very competitive year. If you're wondering what the answer is: it's bloody fantastic! This is very confident filmmaking from Rowan and crew, featuring a fun concept, great acting, bold editing and cinematography (great colour grading decisions too!) while keeping the most important thing about this competition at the forefront: simplicity. This team is setting the bar to a very high standard, and if this is what these rangatahi are creating now I think we've got some big laughs coming ahead over the next few years of this festival.

Gutted

'Gutted' is built on a ridiculous premise, but man, it delivers some comedy gold! They nailed it out of the park with their Splatter genre, contrasting some jaw-droppingly-funny guts and gore with the mundane small talk of a nice evening dinner party. It's rare to see a film in this competition make everyone laugh so consistently - but from the minute the bloody action begins, the comedy gold doesn't stop until it's over, with a fantastic and simple end that frames the entire story perfectly with a fun twist. A well deserved national finalist (and a strong contender for the overall winner IMO) and I can't wait to see what they cook up next year!

S(p)lash

Although I'm not sure I understood the story of S(p)lash, I was captured and intrigued the entire way through. Lovely shot compositions, great performances and those finger-like peppers made me shudder. One of my highlights was a composite shot of the sea that was one of my favourite VFX shots of the competition so far. This film pulls you into its world and holds you there!

Sweets

A strange film that comes from a filmmaker with a lot to show (literally). This film was uncomfortable, but warm and fuzzy at the same time. I'm not sure whether I would personally suffer through the discomfort (or ecstasy?) of obtaining sweets from the creatures that inhabit Tim's world, but it sure makes for a fun story. I always enjoy and appreciate Tim's ability to create otherwordly cinema in this competition and I'm never bored watching his work. Even though it's not pornographic, I probably wouldn't recommend watching with your parents.

Motanka

Loved the stop motion dancing elements and great use of sound effects during the puppet sequences. I found the plot a little confusing and it felt the film didn't have much of a structure - but I feel like this was more of a creative art piece rather than a three-act structure kinda film. Great job!

After the Flare

'After The Flare' had some really strong elements, including lovely dialogue and simple visual compositions that aided the storytelling and created a sparse, lonely world. Overall though, for me personally, this film fell a little flat. Although it was praised for its simplicity, it left me wanting a little bit more, and I'm not sure I completely understood the all of the clever clues the film left for me on the first watch. Perhaps I didn't follow the breadcrumb trail closely enough. Overall, a strong film that might hit better the second time that I watch it!

Front Yard

Twotors made an excellent, simple film filled with great dialogue and a hard-hitting concept. One of my favourite shots definitely has to be the pull-focus to the empty yard. Great use of a repeated technical element to propel the narrative forward. The story is fantastic, you empathise for these two characters and you want things to be different, but they're not. Great filmmaking that's made even more impressive that they were a duo team (like, how do people do this?!). It was lovely to have met these two talented filmmakers in person at the Wellington Finals and I'm looking forward to see what they produce next!

Liberachi’s Lament No.9

This was such a funny concept - embracing the fact that your actors can't really sing and making it the plot point was a great call. 3/5 stars!

Man Hand

Man Hand was a subtle, slow film that probably left a few members of the 48HR audience feeling like they may have missed something. This stunning visual film was let down by the lack of a punchy sound design, but had a menacing tone throughout, led by great performances and one of the creepiest mise-en-scene on display at the grand finals. Although the story was clear, I think shots held slightly too long and lost momentum and interest in the overall story. Does that mean that I didn't think this film was impactful? Not at all. This was a great demonstration of filmmaking that for me, needs to be 100% perfect to hit as intended, which is an extremely tough ask in the 48HRS competition. Glowtime tackled an impressive subject matter and stayed well-away from your standard, easy comedic tone and I applaud them for their creepy result! Well deserved cinematography win and sign me up for a ticket to your next horror short.

Walcom to New Zillund

This film made me chuckle and the mind-reading scenes had me in stitches. Great concept and overall vibe - the only critical thing that I have to mention is the audio mix! Unfortunately I struggled to hear most of the dialogue / internal thoughts of the characters during the Wellington finals, which was a shame, as there was some fantastic dialogue in there. Overall strong film that was let down a little by the technical gremlin that is audio.

Lonely Man

LOVED the shot of the actor rolling around on the floor at the end - made me chuckle. A few of the scenes felt a little flat, but it had a great editing and great pay-off at the end!

The Bureau

This film had great performances from their two main actors and created a mysterious mise en scène through stylistic lighting and interesting costumes. This was paired with a fantastic edit and some intriguing post-production effects. I'm not quite sure I understood the story, so I've got to admit that I felt a little lost towards the end. Although I don't think I understood the deeper meaning of the film, it was a fun watch!

Loose End

Loose End was a beautifully composed film with a strong concept and fantastic production design. It played to its concept strongly and the actor's gleeful performance provided fun energy that seeped into every aspect of the film. I felt like the story fell a little flat towards the middle of the film due to a lack of stakes / risk? There was a lot of build-up regarding the importance of following your string and not letting go, but when it actually happened, I think the sense of drama would have been heightened with the string police (lol) or whomever chasing the main protagonist. In saying that, the actor's strong performance carried the piece with strong editing making it a delight to watch. Great work GLFS!

CATASTROPHIC

I was shocked that this film didn't receive more nominations - this was such a funny watch and such a tight story. The dialogue during the strangling scene, the commercial-styled beauty shot of the can of salmon and the poor woman being bottled were pure comedic gold and had me in stitches. The cat arms worked so well as a narrative device and set this apart from other animal POV films I've watched in the past (I chuckled whenever those lanky arms showed up on screen). Great camera work, strong filmmaking and I'm looking forward to Kettle of Fish's next film!

The Long Neck Job

This was a fun, cheesy film that took a stereotypical cliche and spun it on its head. There was some surprising, laugh-out-loud moments that took me by complete surprise (the end shot had me in stitches) - but the real question is, how did you get that Alpaca in the car?! One of the funniest shots in the entire grand finals was that Alpaca poking its head out of the window. Great work team Kratos, looking forward to seeing what you make next year!

CHICKEN

"You know what would be real funny g?" This entire film, that's what!

This well-deserved national winner had the entire theatre in stitches, with endearing performances from the two leads and an intense build-up to the best two match cuts in the competition. The editing, sound design and cinematography were epic. The audio mix (especially at the beginning) was the only thing that could have improved slightly for legibility/clarity, but that's nickpicking and it didn't affect the film's impact at all. Honestly what a banger of a film, I'm super excited to see what comes next from the Nugget's team.

Also, film name Chicken, team name Nuggets? Iconic.

Jig's Up

This was the first splatter film that I saw in the competition, and it delivered with gruesome and well-timed torrents of blood! Gross, but in the best way possible. Great story and edit with a varied set of locations and a charismatic cast. I especially enjoyed the lead actor's performance! Unfortunately the audio mix made this film quite tough to hear at times, so make sure to boost the volume and keep quiet to capture all the goodness.