Surface Pressure

I loved this, so much to admire about the subtle performances of the two leads here as it’s a very difficult subject to encapsulate, particularly in a five minute short! Could easily have stagnated at single-level playing of emotion, but this rose to heights that really made you care about the plight of both.

The cinematography was stunning; film school warned of using lens-flare and that it should be avoided. In places here, it raised the bar. Felt like watching something truly cinematic.

A great piece that stands in isolation as a collaborative effort of the highest quality, outside of the competition. A film to be proud of.

Looking forward to more next year…

I just wanted to say well done, first up, for a touching, expertly crafted watch. The cinematography was excellent (I also loved the lens flare, and think it's a good reminder that rules are never black and white!), and music was used very effectively. In fact, the entire soundscape was fantastic! The music choices effectively complemented the emotion. The scenery noises and editing of echo/texture in voices/whispers combined so well to set the mood!

Excellent chemistry between leads, and a fantastic performance by the loved one left behind. Grief is raw, non-linear, and unpredictable, and I felt you showed this really clearly.

Generally speaking, it's been so nice this year to see such a variety of relationship types coming through films, and I think the "anniversary movie" was a good catalyst for more of that!

The dramatic climax is well built up, and has a good payoff into the ending.
All the elements in this film combine really well to create a lot of feeling in a film where, action-wise, very little happens. And that's not a complaint--you know you're doing something right when you can make people feel something with minimal action, and still have a significant emotional shift in the characters.

Look forward to seeing what you create next :)

Surface Pressure is an incredibly polished film that incorporated some interesting editing techniques to keep everything flowing in a compelling way. I've noticed that having a character grieving over a lost partner has been a common theme for the Anniversary genre and this film seemed to pull it off in an elegant way.
Though the film has a solid emotional core I do wonder if it could have done more to hammer home the death in the short or elaborate on it a little bit further to give the second half of it a bit more weight. There is some implied stuff going on which can be good but I think a bit more detail could've helped. There is also a melancholy to the music in the first half of the short which makes me wonder if we are watching a flashback or if the film is playing out in sequence.
All in all, it's a quality short film.