True.

I'd say many may have been confused to begin with - I was for a little bit. No team intro, the opening and closing credits only crediting the 'fake' crew of the film we saw as the 'director' and 'actor' did there DVD commentary over the images. I think probably a get subversion of the genre here. Some great acting (on both the actors on screen and off screen) and many laughs from the audience. My 2nd favorite of the heat. Solid camera and cutting going on here too and well played out script. Loved the juxposition of a lot of what we were hearing vs. what we where watching.

Obviously a good idea here, and got some solid laughs. Overall made for an enjoyable yet at the end of the day forgettable film. It was well made and acted, the script had some very clever moments, and also dry moments. Real potential to create a good film here, I was particularly impressed with the voice acting and production quality, just needed to be more snappy and memorable for me personally.

This. Was. Great. It had issues, everyone and every piece does, but the idea was solid and the execution of it quite good. Particularly liked the 'botched' compulsory line and the use of genre - the inspirational film was the one being discussed, not the one we were watching. The cutting from chapter to chapter was a necessary evil, but still detracted from the experience of it for me. The audience seemed to enjoy it, with a good crowd reaction even though I think perhaps it took awhile for some to figure out what was going on. Overall I think the concern with this piece, for me, is that I can remember very little of the film only a few hours later. The idea, sure, but some of the works tonight stand out vividly in my mind and unfortunately this one doesn't. Perhaps this is a consequence of a greater focus on the audio, or maybe I jut wasn't watching it right. A great effort though, and definitely one I would watch again to have another look!

A DVD Director's commentary over a Rom-com/inspirational film by the film's key three or four players. For most of it they argue about certain aspects of the film; a consequence of their collective off-screen relationship. This film within a film was a pretty clever way to attack this genre and create a point-of-difference. Getting to the key moments of their off-screen conflict film was handled by skipping chapters which served the purpose of allowing us to see the important plot points of the rom-com. The commentary was well voice acted albeit somewhat repetitive in nature - the argument side of it does go on and on. The visuals were nicely filmed (and acted) but for me I often found myself distracted from the commentary as I attempted to read lips! So while the DVD film may have been sort of inspirational the package as a whole wasn't in my opinion and as mentioned by others this film isn’t really top in the memory banks. Still, as mentioned, a different approach which often goes down well in this competition.

I am surprised that I also found myself almost forgetting about this film also because of how clever and unusual it was. Not to mention that the cinematography pretty great as well. I really enjoyed the commentary about an inspirational story, it was so funny and cute. The only big drawback was that it did have me a little confused in the first instance - and this could have been solved by having a clear 30 second intro at the beginning, so that when the fictional characters introduce themselves you KNOW it's part of the film. I think the other thing that made it a little less memorable was the boring title.

Holy smokes, where do I start? This was really something else. A "director's commentary" on a movie that was made a decade ago, so you really are only hearing the "commentary" on it, with only a few intrusions of the "movie" itself. I wondered if they botched the main movie and resorted to this, but my out-loud wonderings caught the ear of one of the team, who assured me it was planned like this from the start. Excellent use of voice-over throughout. Really interesting and compelling. SO MANY SHOTS! I can't believe they got all the various shots in during the competition. I was told that the "movie" in the movie was a full story, too, so I have no idea how they managed that feat. They must be a solid team that really knows how to work together. Awesome cinematography throughout. You guys clearly know what you're doing from a technical standpoint. Nice shot transitions synched up with people walking by. Nice focus pulling. The outdoor scenes looked amazing, and the crane/jib shots were fantastic. You guys clearly weren't fumbling with your equipment. I laughed a lot at the dialogue that followed the "gratuitous 17-minute sex scene" and I loved how the people commenting were getting mad at each other and having their own drama off-screen. Great color-grading throughout (you guys NAILED the technical stuff on this). Super impressive start to finish, and I was becoming more and more impressed as it rolled on. Probably the most interesting/unique concept I saw in the three heats I sat through, considering the meta-ness of it and the drama occurring both on and off screen, practically interwoven. Things to work on: I can't think of anything. I hope you guys win a solid gold boat on which you can sail around the world, winning the hearts of beasts and men alike.

Sometimes, on the Friday night of 48Hours when you’re sitting with your team and brainstorming ideas for your film, someone will come up with an absolutely bonkers idea. “Wow, that would be awesome,” you think, before dismissing it as too ridiculously over-ambitious to pull off. Except that this team seemed to miss that particular memo, and went ahead with the wonderfully meta concept of making a film which is someone watching the 10th Anniversary DVD of a film with the audio commentary on, and skipping forward through the scenes regularly. Was it a gimmick? Sure. Did it actually work? Absolutely. Interior shots, exterior shots, intimate moments, wide establishing shots, day, night, sunshine, rain – this production went to great lengths to make you feel that you were seeing excerpts from a feature-length film. And I hear that the largely sound-off film that we are seeing makes perfect narrative sense also, as the visual story beats certainly seemed to suggest. That film was the literal Inspirational Movie of the genre, but the real story of TRUE is in the commentary, in the clearly embittered relationships between the director, the star, and the author of the original novel the film was based on (I think). At first it was the standard audio commentary fare, some funny anecdotes, and just general amusing banter (the use of Nicky Brick was especially hilarious). But eventually the strain starts to show, as things get decidedly less civil in the room. I even sensed that maybe there was some neat narrative synergy going on between the film-story and the commentary-story, reminiscent in an odd way of the Black Freighter story in the Watchmen comic. In any case, the audio side of things develops with surprising force into quite a drama, and despite the peculiarity of the chosen format somehow manages to resolves the characters’ arcs very satisfyingly. And a case could be made that there is (eventually) somewhat of an Inspirational aspect to this sound-only tale also. It’s a really tough call, considering all of the great films I saw on Saturday night, but at a push I might just be inclined to say that this was my favourite. Five stars for the sheer audacity of it. EDIT: So I just saw this again at the City Finals, and it totally stands up to a repeat viewing. I was paying much more attention to the 'feature film' narrative (ie: the visual one) this time, and was delighted by how easy it was to follow the story beats. Great work.

Great concept, well executed. The voice acting and production value were fantastic. Although i do agree that the lack of a strong plot made this film less memorable.

I'd say many may have been confused to begin with - I was for a little bit. No team intro, the opening and closing credits only crediting the 'fake' crew of the film we saw as the 'director' and 'actor' did there DVD commentary over the images. I think probably a get subversion of the genre here. Some great acting (on both the actors on screen and off screen) and many laughs from the audience. My 2nd favorite of the heat. Solid camera and cutting going on here too and well played out script. Loved the juxposition of a lot of what we were hearing vs. what we where watching.

I am surprised that I also found myself almost forgetting about this film also because of how clever and unusual it was. Not to mention that the cinematography pretty great as well. I really enjoyed the commentary about an inspirational story, it was so funny and cute. The only big drawback was that it did have me a little confused in the first instance - and this could have been solved by having a clear 30 second intro at the beginning, so that when the fictional characters introduce themselves you KNOW it's part of the film. I think the other thing that made it a little less memorable was the boring title.

Holy smokes, where do I start? This was really something else. A "director's commentary" on a movie that was made a decade ago, so you really are only hearing the "commentary" on it, with only a few intrusions of the "movie" itself. I wondered if they botched the main movie and resorted to this, but my out-loud wonderings caught the ear of one of the team, who assured me it was planned like this from the start. Excellent use of voice-over throughout. Really interesting and compelling. SO MANY SHOTS! I can't believe they got all the various shots in during the competition. I was told that the "movie" in the movie was a full story, too, so I have no idea how they managed that feat. They must be a solid team that really knows how to work together. Awesome cinematography throughout. You guys clearly know what you're doing from a technical standpoint. Nice shot transitions synched up with people walking by. Nice focus pulling. The outdoor scenes looked amazing, and the crane/jib shots were fantastic. You guys clearly weren't fumbling with your equipment. I laughed a lot at the dialogue that followed the "gratuitous 17-minute sex scene" and I loved how the people commenting were getting mad at each other and having their own drama off-screen. Great color-grading throughout (you guys NAILED the technical stuff on this). Super impressive start to finish, and I was becoming more and more impressed as it rolled on. Probably the most interesting/unique concept I saw in the three heats I sat through, considering the meta-ness of it and the drama occurring both on and off screen, practically interwoven. Things to work on: I can't think of anything. I hope you guys win a solid gold boat on which you can sail around the world, winning the hearts of beasts and men alike.

Sometimes, on the Friday night of 48Hours when you’re sitting with your team and brainstorming ideas for your film, someone will come up with an absolutely bonkers idea. “Wow, that would be awesome,” you think, before dismissing it as too ridiculously over-ambitious to pull off. Except that this team seemed to miss that particular memo, and went ahead with the wonderfully meta concept of making a film which is someone watching the 10th Anniversary DVD of a film with the audio commentary on, and skipping forward through the scenes regularly. Was it a gimmick? Sure. Did it actually work? Absolutely. Interior shots, exterior shots, intimate moments, wide establishing shots, day, night, sunshine, rain – this production went to great lengths to make you feel that you were seeing excerpts from a feature-length film. And I hear that the largely sound-off film that we are seeing makes perfect narrative sense also, as the visual story beats certainly seemed to suggest. That film was the literal Inspirational Movie of the genre, but the real story of TRUE is in the commentary, in the clearly embittered relationships between the director, the star, and the author of the original novel the film was based on (I think). At first it was the standard audio commentary fare, some funny anecdotes, and just general amusing banter (the use of Nicky Brick was especially hilarious). But eventually the strain starts to show, as things get decidedly less civil in the room. I even sensed that maybe there was some neat narrative synergy going on between the film-story and the commentary-story, reminiscent in an odd way of the Black Freighter story in the Watchmen comic. In any case, the audio side of things develops with surprising force into quite a drama, and despite the peculiarity of the chosen format somehow manages to resolves the characters’ arcs very satisfyingly. And a case could be made that there is (eventually) somewhat of an Inspirational aspect to this sound-only tale also. It’s a really tough call, considering all of the great films I saw on Saturday night, but at a push I might just be inclined to say that this was my favourite. Five stars for the sheer audacity of it. EDIT: So I just saw this again at the City Finals, and it totally stands up to a repeat viewing. I was paying much more attention to the 'feature film' narrative (ie: the visual one) this time, and was delighted by how easy it was to follow the story beats. Great work.