Supernova

This was my favorite out of the out-of-towners heat. Fantastic intro sequence. Great story that was clear and engaging. Nice color-grading and cinematography throughout. Great voice-over work and the music was excellent. I really liked the shots of the guys walking along the train tracks, and the shots that made it look like a desert/wasteland. The re-commissioned Nerf gun looked super-sweet. Great performance by the lead (who it looks like wore many hats during the production!). I really liked the music in the scene where he "found the sea". Great ending and a nice tie in to the beginning. Things to work on: Some of the gun "blow back" stuff wasn't completely convincing, and it would have been neat to have muzzle flashes instead of having it out of frame. Some of the later color-grading wasn't quite the same as the earlier, but this is an incredibly nit-picky gripe considering how awesome the color-grading was throughout. That's it... it was a fantastic film that I'm hoping gets into the finals!

I was waiting for a good movie all heat! Great idea, shots could be a bit better but otherwise impressed! Congrats on winning heat!

Wow, what a way to end the heat. With a good story, nice performances and some gorgeous cinematography, this film easily outclassed its stablemates in Heat 7. First of all, let me just say that if you’re looking for a decent location to film an End Of The World movie, you really can’t do better than the seeming desolation of Western Australia. My mouth got dry just watching the thing, a really visceral connection with the audience was created. Even nice little touches like the man at the end having sand covering his face, it all added a fantastic texture. Perhaps my only gripe would be with the brief shot of the girlfriend/wife reading the letter back in New Zealand, because the room she was in just looked a bit too much like your average modern white-walls flat, and somewhat broke the illusion of a bleak future. But that aside, there really wasn’t much to fault here. A simple story, but evocatively told and with terrific cinematic flair.

The sun has scorched the earth. A released prisoner, Nicky is trying to make his way back home to his wife, Sylvia. As he travels he writes her a letter and we hear its contents by way of voice-over. Along the way, his initial companion is killed and Nicky comes into contact with other people as he tries to make it to the sea. Oldschool Cinema have been a Christchurch entrant for a number of years now and have again delivered a fairly polished piece. This was nicely filmed and the burning colour grade was top-notch. It was well acted and the minimal dialogue approach suited the isolation of the film. I was a bit confused by the motivation of the gunman at towards the end of the film which can happen when you introduce characters late in the piece. Overall, pretty nice work that was well received by the small crowd at the screening.

Wow, what a way to end the heat. With a good story, nice performances and some gorgeous cinematography, this film easily outclassed its stablemates in Heat 7. First of all, let me just say that if you’re looking for a decent location to film an End Of The World movie, you really can’t do better than the seeming desolation of Western Australia. My mouth got dry just watching the thing, a really visceral connection with the audience was created. Even nice little touches like the man at the end having sand covering his face, it all added a fantastic texture. Perhaps my only gripe would be with the brief shot of the girlfriend/wife reading the letter back in New Zealand, because the room she was in just looked a bit too much like your average modern white-walls flat, and somewhat broke the illusion of a bleak future. But that aside, there really wasn’t much to fault here. A simple story, but evocatively told and with terrific cinematic flair.