Isolation

Though I was watching an episode of Black Mirror- high production value as always from this team. What a cool house! How many secret passages does it have? Was the security footage live? So many questions. In order to improve, I would have like to see more effort with props etc, like a minigun. That's just me though. JJ

Quality !!!!! So intriguing, epic music, I want to see more :)

This film was carried by a once again stellar performance from Tom Trevella and some beautiful cinematography. Spoilers below, I guess. I saw the twist coming as soon as she was let in through the gate, but then you totally broke that expectation with the blood and the "I'm human" line, so in the end I didn't see it coming! Only thing I would say was that I was a little confused at the end. Part of the problem may have been that Tom's character wasn't panicked enough, and we didn't see as much of a shock on his face at the reveal as I would've expected. Perhaps some tense music could've helped that moment also. But take this all with a grain of salt, because everything tastes better with salt. This was the first film I saw of the evening so forgive me if I've misremembered some of the details!

Very tight production here as always from Little Old Lady - I always look forward to your work guys. Cool to see a different angle on the android / techno-takeover theme. Really loved the establishing shots throughout - helped with pace and time. Beautiful location and well acted once again. Well done !

Your film was beautifully executed. Amazing acting, production values and set. The pacing was good but would like to have seen a little more payoff with the ending. Great job!

Stunner performances from all the actors in this film. Fantastic location seemed like a legit film set. My only question is why the robot lady bled. Is it like a Doctor Who cyberman type thing where she's upgraded enough to bleed? haha, easy to overlook that question when you see the full picture of this film though, loved it.

A news report fills in exposition that the Robot vs Human debate is an issue. Our hero is an robotics engineer but who is he working for? Obviously a very slick production. Great location, editing, camerawork - all very professional. However, it's very easy to get caught up in that and overlook a pretty conventional, uninspiring story that revealed its predictable conclusion at a very early stage with a tropey piece of attempted misdirection. I also didn't buy that the male robot couldn't have just entered the property when he wanted to. Sure there was a defence system but it didn't seem to scale any great height and the robot was certainly enhanced so easily could have jumped over. I didn't really care about the lead human character's plight at all as there was little reason to get behind his survival. So overall, high in style - lacking in substance.

Some very good production here, with quality acting, direction and editing. Nice work on pulling off something with that kind of standard on such a deadline. Unfortunately, this fell down for me a little on a genre and narrative basis. I guess I was expecting a little bit more technological in the mix, given our ostensive lead is some kind of reclusive hacker. But the man has no real agency in the film - his work is meaningless to us as he doesn't demonstrate his computer skills in any fashion, so we don't know why it's important or even why we should root for him. He's a tech millionaire in a secured compound, so you're gonna be pushing uphill to build a connection already. But then he lets the woman in and checks she's human AFTER she's already inside. And the film just kind of meanders along as she explores the house and we don't see what he's doing or why he needs to leave her alone, and we kind of toy with the audience because she's bleeding and she's swimming, but then shocker, she's a robot too and she's been waiting to let her partner in for... no real reason? It just didn't really add up to much for me. Too many whys. Anyway, just my two cents. You have a ton of great skills in front of and behind the camera, and I'm sure you've got plenty more films in you. Good luck with this one, and looking forward to seeing what comes next. :)

Probably the most tightly made film in Christchurch this year. Expect performance nods for the two leads and directing and cinematagrophy nods My only gripe would be that the ending was a touch generic or predicatable. But as a piece of science fiction pulp cinema it’s strong. Technological imply’s ideas and content, Thriller sets the tone. So Technological thriller is a very specific genre. The best way to thrill your audience with technology would be to present some scary new concept or idea. But good luck coming up with something that hasnt been done before with such short notice. All you can do is Prey that someone in your team has been sitting on a great science fiction idea. Isolation is *I think* the only Technological Thriller that ive reviewed so far, because i dont think any other teams really pulled it off. I’m thinking now it was easily the hardest genre teams could get this year. So Little Old Lady Produtions is the only team that got it right, in large part because they’re the only team that got the thriller part of the genre requirement right. (Subjective, im only able to judge how i responded to the various films of this genre) Technological Thriller is an inspiring genre. But pulling it off without subversion in 48hours is pretty close to impossible and limiting the teams to 5minutes is just cruel. I imagine a 7minute runtime would be just the shot in the arm this film needed. Great use of location and *i think* the only film in the whole comp that used the drone shots without it feeling forced City Finalist no doubt, probably has a solid shot at the city title too.

Hot damn this is a beautiful film to look at. Production value is off the chain here in every department, from the stupidly good camerawork, to the swift invisible editing, to the professional actors and their nuanced performances, to the motherfuckin' mansion this film is set in. Do you guys just set aside thousands of dollars each year to make your films as high quality as possible? A couple of other reviewers have echoed my thoughts here; this is definitely the most authentic Technological Thriller in Christchurch, adhering to both the key words in the genre with style and grace, which by the way, if I was in charge I'd just have called it "Black Mirror Spec Script", and this film absolutely leaned right into this. I would say the only thing I'm a little unclear on/let down by would be the story itself. While the techno is there with the glowing robot eyes and the software components, and the thriller is there because the film is tense, the story kind of just plods along in a way that isn't entirely unexpected or unpredictable, and this is a shame because a more unique and original concept would have bumped the film up a few notches for myself and the judges, and probably would have placed. So for next year, I'd encourage you guys to really work on that narrative concept. Get yourself a simple and unique story, and there's almost no doubt in my mind that you guys could take out the whole competition in the future. As for your title, these ominous one word titles like "Isolation" often suit thrillers, and this is definitely the case here, so good job guys.