13 going on 14

A young lad reflects on life and changes as he turns 14 years old. A great effors from a young team! The start was awesome and there were great comedic moments throughout that were awkward and adhered well to the 'Cringe Comedy' genre. Some cross fades in the audio would have helped the transitions between scenes as in places the audio levels could be a bit jarring, but that comes with more editing experience and is an easy fix when you've already got a handle on how to put a story together. The actors were very enthusiastic and there was some great contrast between the characters' personalities. Nice ending :) Look forward to seeing more from this team in future, well done!

Watched this in the Screening Room. A fair effort that managed a few good laughs from the numerous awkward moments. Yip, do some work on audio and get in a bit closer with the camera to catch those reactions. I also got confused about whose story it was as the little annoying character got a lot of screen time.

Obviously the work of inexperienced film makers but you clearly had fun and I'm sure you'll be able to do better things in the future. Some awkward laughs although sometimes it felt like straight cringe more than cringe comedy. Like another review said, I didn't get the bit about the annoying other kid bothering the girl because it didn't come across as his story, maybe there was another cringe comedy to be made about that situation.

The tale of a an awkward 14th birthday, with a cringey mum who gets things a bit wrong (veggies at the party, providing a book about reproduction to her son bizarrely late?) and three in your face energised friends who don't seem to have come close to hitting puberty like our lead has. Finger spinners, hamburger slippers and joke books for children seem a bit out of place to say the least for presents. Well, at least until one of them confidently and aggressively asks a girl out by the river and takes her off hand in hand despite weirding her out, in a slice of action that definitely feels like its own tale. I liked the positive energy on show here, and whilst I'm not the biggest proponent for flinging the camera around I'd advice to utilise some motion to match movement inside your framing, as this will engage the viewer by directing our focus. I would also recommend mixing up your camera angles as this is the biggest advantage a film medium can give you. For example utilisation of close ups would have driven the point home as to who was made to feel awkward (assumedly the lead) but by keeping the camera long it avoided the cringe comedy aspect and just made the action on screen as cringe. I hate to be overly critical but it seemed like having almost everything recorded through long shots meant the camera was a bit far away for recording audio, creating a slightly echoey effect to the sound. If the camera was closer it would have also allowed cleaner sound (or else an external mic will also be of huge benefit). I did enjoy the energy and liked that you got outside to shoot! But due to the technical limitations and lack of clear storyline I've unfortunately given my low rating. Sorry :(