Nicky's Girl

A soldier meets a young woman at a dance and they hit it off. WWI intervenes in their relationship and when he doesn't come back she does her best to wait for him but eventually succumbs to the attentions of another. This was a really nice film with appropriate music and great use of costuming. The WWI scenes were very well done, as were the transitions through the ages as the woman grows old. A musical or dance film though? I wouldn't think so as the music was mere soundtrack that wasn't central to driving the story and the dancing only relevant to a couple of scenes. Enjoyable and well received by the audience.

You had a some good scenes and a nice story, but overall this film didn't really connect with me. I think what put me off was the lack of dialogue and some of the scenes were a bit too drawn out for my liking (memorial, ageing). Having said that, I was very impressed my the war shots (miniatures and gas mask). I also liked how you made it into a ballroom dance film, instead of going down the usual contemporary dance route. I'd be interested to see what you can do with a different genre (I would have hated to have got Musical/Dance myself). Oh, and great costumes!

This was a powerful and beautiful film. I was immediately struck by how superb either the lighting or the color-grading (or both!) were during the beginning scenes. It wasn't very clear what was going on until the war scene, but the story moved along really well for how sparse the dialogue was. The "war" scene was really well done, with great effects (visual and aural). The music was really nice throughout and matched the various tones well. The black and white effect was very effective after the supposed death scene/sequence. The cinematography was superb throughout. Whoever was directing really knew what s/he was doing. It got really heavy/emotional during the repeated trips to the war monument, though it lightened up a bit at the end with the dancing and joy between the two people. I wasn't quite sure whether the guy was the same as in the beginning, or just had the same handkerchief or what. Things to work on: I almost feel like it was a little bit too emotionally-heavy, as the war and monuments and loss really hits close to home for Kiwis, especially with ANZAC day in such recent memory. That being said, I doubt that you were intentionally trying to emotionally manipulate the audience, it was just a heavy film for a good chunk of it, so please don't take offense. Other than that, it was superbly crafted start to finish.

Rather than making a dance genre film per se, this team chose to use dance as an integral element in the story they wanted to tell. It’s wartime and there’s a community dance going on. Our protagonist is a wallflower, until a dashing young man asks her to dance. They clearly take a liking to one another, but all too quickly he’s heading off to fight in the war (some elements suggested WWI and some WWII, hard to tell). Anyway, her man is missing and presumed dead. She holds out hope for a long time, as demonstrated in an effective cinematic manner using the motif of successive hands offered for a dance. And as tends to happen over time, she eventually accepts her loss, and finds a way to move on. Actually the passing of time was a major feature of the film, with two or three separate sequences using a repeated action to demonstrate this. I liked the idea of the up at face, down to teacup, then up again to older face sequence, but it just took a little bit too long to make its point, and felt a bit too mechanical. But overall I really appreciated how the film used editing rather than dialogue for the most part to tell its story. The final scene at the war memorial was really sweet, pretty much exactly what I’m sure everyone was waiting for, but still the payoff was worth it. The direction there was perhaps a bit off in terms of performance, with the hug/kiss thing looking really awkward, where a lighter touch like just seeing the moment of recognition, maybe a smile, might have sold the emotion of the scene better. The final dancing shot was lovely, but outstayed its welcome length-wise; also, the actual final shot that followed it (walking away together) felt a bit superfluous, and broke the magic of the end dance (which should have been the final shot) for me. But I absolutely loved the use of the line; in fact, I would probably go so far as to say that it was my very favourite use of the line across the four heats that I saw. So yeah, well done guys, really nice piece.