Three-By-Three

A dagger, skull and necklace must be collected within 3 minutes or our protagonist will be lost in the timeline of her quest through medieval times to the 1920s.

Here we had a relatively simple story done effectively with assured performances and direction. Personally I feel that this sort of structure is something that many teams would be begging for when plotting their films at 4am on the Saturday morning of the competition. It gaves a natural pacing to proceedings and allows a clear beginning, middle and end to the film, though this team made a couple of nice adjustments because of their time travel mechanic to avoid being labeled as generic.

Costuming was really good. I particularly liked the attention to detail for the 1920s actress, whilst I could tell that the medieval knight was clearly having a lot of fun on set portraying a brave and stoic defender of his family heirloom.

Good clear sound was also on hand here and so overall it was a good short film. My main issue is that the film whilst not being exactly generic came across as a bit plain in terms of storyline.
I felt that a lot more could have been done to emphasise the threat of being stuck in the previous timeline because to be honest the way it played made it seem like all 3 eras she traveled to were relatively nice places. Albeit with sample sizes of 1 character per era but nevertheless it never really felt like the stakes were very worrying. But just to me there was a missed opportuntiy for character development in terms of the present she was supposedly so desperate to stay in and what drove her in her current life.

I also had slight eyebrows raised at the ending. It felt like a nice 'oh shit' suprise at the time, but on reflection it was kind of a bit throwaway. Was it meant to be a commentary on how we do work without question? Slave to the wage etc? Or that actually she would have been better off in the past? Arguably open ended but I feel like the film would have benefited from a clearer ending myself.

But as this was technically sound and well acted it gets positive marks from me.

Story: 2.5/5
Technical: 3.5/5
Elements: 3/5
Overall: 3/5

This is so cool guys! My team is also an under18 Auckland team, so it’s cool to see different schools involved. I haven’t watched many of the other films, but I’m surprised you’re not shortlisted after this! There seemed to be a couple of lighting issues (esp outdoors) but I can understand how these may have been unavoidable considering the short time you had, alongside the sunny wether of the shoot weekend. Big props to your writer and main actress- the whole thing flowed well, with no stinted lines or delivery. Also a big thumbs up to your DOP- compared to many school teams, this was very well shot, with relatively simple (but often overlooked) ideas followed- like the rule of thirds and not crossing the line. I was crossing my fingers that the film wouldn’t end on the last line, where she asks what the items were for, and it didn’t (nice one!) I feel like the gag final line maybe didn’t need to be included since it wasn’t relied upon for the ending. Overall this was an awesome and entertaining film (loved the use of her past? future? self as reflection). It’s a shame you guys aren’t shortlisted but I’m really looking forward to see what you come up with next year! Great job!

This is so cool guys! My team is also an under18 Auckland team, so it’s cool to see different schools involved. I haven’t watched many of the other films, but I’m surprised you’re not shortlisted after this! There seemed to be a couple of lighting issues (esp outdoors) but I can understand how these may have been unavoidable considering the short time you had, alongside the sunny wether of the shoot weekend. Big props to your writer and main actress- the whole thing flowed well, with no stinted lines or delivery. Also a big thumbs up to your DOP- compared to many school teams, this was very well shot, with relatively simple (but often overlooked) ideas followed- like the rule of thirds and not crossing the line. I was crossing my fingers that the film wouldn’t end on the last line, where she asks what the items were for, and it didn’t (nice one!) I feel like the gag final line maybe didn’t need to be included since it wasn’t relied upon for the ending. Overall this was an awesome and entertaining film (loved the use of her past? future? self as reflection). It’s a shame you guys aren’t shortlisted but I’m really looking forward to see what you come up with next year! Great job!

Good effort team!
Though using a recycled concept, I was engaged with the story the whole way through.
Though engaging, I felt there was a bit of repitition, in these sections it could have navigated through scenes faster - but meh.. the story left me with more questions than answers tbh - could have worked a bit more on that.
Clever use of time travel. I thought the main actress did well, I thought the shots and edit was pretty clean - all round, I enjoyed watching the film.
Big ups!

A fairly simple premise "three items, three minutes" is a great kick-off to a film that was all round quite enjoyable!

Audio across the board was really well done, with great foley, music & sound effects throughout.

Camerawork was fairly decent, though some different lenses here and there would have brought this film closer to the attention of the judges i reckon.

Editing was fairly smooth, only jarring a couple of times. The colour-grading contrast between timezones was an cool display of attention to detail! Sweet use of the reflection element too.

Usually the biggest let down for 48 films is the story but this one keep it quite tight and didn't leave me scratching my head. though dialogue at times could have been tighter. The twist at the end felt unmotivated but was a pretty cool idea otherwise, the missing motivation is easily chalked up to being a short film and simply not having time to develop it.

All-round an awesome effort from "Fun Team" especially as i believe they are an U18 team. A little more attention to the cinematic aspect of their films could easily see them shortlisted next year.

I judge 48 films by asking myself "does this look like it was made in 48 hours?"

No! looks like it was made in a week at least, well done!