Harping On

A man is too obsessed with social media to realise he's the last man on Earth (or maybe he knew, and was ignoring it). Neat little concept and great production values, but unfortunately it became quite repetitive quickly. The story never really picked up and went anywhere. If it had been a bit shorter, the gag premise would've worked better.

Really nailed the genre with this one, you are following a man who is the last man on earth and he's basically trying to pass the time by running through his daily routine as if nothing had happened. Not much of a story so much as a series of gags but I think it worked reasonably well, sort of like the ending which kind of just happened but it didn't completely work against it.

I was really impressed with this one. I guess the most impressive part of this was shooting an empty Auckland City...although it SEEMED that way. Nice editing on that! Very simple concept, executed well. My only gripe is that the story was basically a bunch of random scenes put together. Still my favourite of the night.

This was a great little film that nailed its genre and delivered some good gags. The solid visuals and charming tone made up for a barely-there plot enough that this was one of my favourites for the heat. Well done team!

Visually impressive and well put-together, but too thin on plot to be a knockout. The footstep sound effects grew into a distraction.

Sure, the plot was extremely light, but Sinistral's concept didn't need to rely on a complex story - observing a smart phone-powered man who is completely oblivious to his last-man status kept me engaged for the whole 7 minutes. When the film wasn't making me think "How in the hell did they shoot that!?" - and I was thinking that A LOT - it was making me laugh at the main character's very nature. Despite being the only person on Earth, he seemed completely happy and content with his false sense of socialness online via Instagram, texting and Facebook updates - even when no one was liking or replying. Executing this one idea kept 'Harping On (lol)' focused, delivering something rare in 48Hours - smart satire. One of my favourite shorts from this year.