PowerDown

A self-contained superhero origin story where our hero discovers he has the power to make things happen/grant wishes when he gets angry enough. Certainly, the old "With great power comes great responsibility" rings true in this short.

Nice chemistry between the leads led to some genuinely funny moments and the film is well-paced. Some of the camerawork and sound is a little rough in places, with the sync being slightly out. Some of the transitions between scenes could be a little smoother too.

It's good fun though and instantly rewatchable. Nice work.

Some pretty great jokes in this film, I found myself laughing away at a few of the jokes.

There's a lot of ambition with the story, I would have loved to have seen that same ambition in the locations, as watching people muck about in their house is maybe my least favourite genre of 48hour film.

Things you got right: Super funny jokes, a cohesive story and an ending that obviously took some thought.

Things to work on for next time: Be more adventurous, find some cool locations, heighten the stakes!

Through lockdown and frustration we get to see the unleashing of our protagonists powers in this energetic origin story.

I feel the team took an interesting approach of sitting down and thinking, talking about what great power meant in terms of responsibility after some initial jokes such as making an invisible chair. No flying/bullet absorbing SHAZAM type montage in site here, the team stuck to what they could do.

And by going small, they were able to come up with a topical dramatic question that drove the film. What if the powers could end lockdown for just 1 day in Christchurch? This youthful aspiration to be free was relevant and played to a pizza-fuelled punchline.

Excellent buddy chemistry between the 2 leads, again it's a shame I haven't but a performance rating on my score system this year as that was the most charming thing about the film.

Camera framing was ok and I like that you took the time to make your own announcement video to play on the TV in the background. There have been a few other teams who didn't pay as much attention to detail regarding the legalities of pre-recorded footage this year I can assure you, so thank you for playing by the rules!

Sound was a bit raw and out of sync slightly a couple of times, but no biggie because I could hear what your characters were saying.

I think that also while I have labeled this energetic at the beginning of my review that was more because of the friend without powers and his manic charisma. It (energy and movement) was definitely something that could have been expanded in scope, because sitting down in a house when you got superhero was a little bit of a missed opportunity.

Story: 2/5
Technical: 1.5/5
Elements: 2/5
Overall: 2/5

Good work team - good to see a team of youngsters putting together a relevant story of today with some adulty themes going on there - shows for some good story writing - well done.

Use of elements were good, a lot to work on with tech - but meh. Shots could have used better white space, audio needed tending to, I didn't understand why the screen went red for the portion that it did - and if it was trying to communicate something, could it have been done better?

Funny seeing the alcohol there in the background for some of the mid shots lol good effort from our young actors. Cool crisp cut conclusion - good job team!