The Office Quest

I had a soft spot for this short because I could see exactly what they were going for. Unfortunately, it wasn't told very well. The ending, while delightfully cheeky, makes half of what happens in the film even more puzzling (e.g. the random wizerd-esque guy). Nevertheless, some gags hit and it was very well acted.

The quest-in-an-office premise made for a promising start, but from there it felt like things kept delaying the quest...although these things could be seen as part of the 'quest'. Overall I felt like more could have happened. Having said that, pairing "Quest" with "One-room" movie has obvious difficulties from the start, and I think Fractured Radius did well with their choice. The location was used well, as were the cast. Camerawork/lighting/colour grading etc was looking good - nice colours, framing, movement etc. "The Office Quest" validated the HD submission option. Good sound also. Any of you doing a(nother) feature soon?

I could kind of nearly envisage what they were trying to achieve here... the thing is they really didn't pull it off in the end. It was confusing, cliche and repetitive. Plus the story didn't go anywhere. I expected a lot more of a movie by such a capable team. Disappointed :(

Nicely shot and nicely lit... and that guy did a good captain jack voice.. but it got boring early.

Poor Fractured Radius, they always seem to be a bit misunderstood and suffer in their ratings because of it. First off, I enjoyed The Office Quest, far more than last year's entry, "Professional Dancer". It was less grating and far less gratuitously silly. There's no doubt that every year this team brings very high production values to the table. Their shots are lovely, their lighting is great, their actors don't let the team down, and I get the impression that these guys work really well together. I'd love to see Fractured Radius take this competition seriously one year. I think they'd produce an amazing film if they weaned themselves off the disjointed jokes, absurd story lines and zany characters. The Office Quest started in a typical environment and got stranger. Our protagonist is sent on a mystical quest by a voice only she can hear, and her workmates become characters in her journey. The disjointed character who criticises every body's claims of where they've been is shoved down our throats in true Fractured Radius style, and is repeated again and again until it's funny. By which point it isn't anymore. That said, the storyline made sense, for the most part is was cohesive, and they had a clever twist that far surpassed their vampire quip last year. As always, their cinematography was beautiful, but most importantly, I wasn't bored.

Another very enjoyable film from 48hours stalwarts Fractured Radius, great performances, and lovely production, but they've made their recurring mistake and opted for goofy jokes instead of sticking to their (chosen!) genre. When they played it straight in 2008 they won the Auckland comp, so it's a double shame that they continue to opt for the jokey approach. (Full disclosure: I am a former member of this team, and love them all dearly.)

This film certainly looked very nice. Good one Joe! And I loved the team intro, but the short itself fell a bit 'short' for me. The concept was great and the twist at the end was very clever. I think more could have been done with the whole office quest thing, rather than just have the main character sat at a desk. The 'one room' genre wasn't really played with, it just happened to be set in an office. Still a decent effort though with great performances from the actors. Ghosts!

A very enjoyable, beautifully shot, highly silly short with some great acting performances. The quest itself didn't really go anywhere, but the jokes and cinematography kept this interesting.