Friendly Fire

Cinematography was great. Acting was also pretty solid. Some of the audio was peaking abit and with some added sound effects, I feel it would've made it a little bit more solid. Sometimes I didn't really understand what was going on exactly. Other than that I would say that this team has potential in the future for sure.
Overall 6/10
Good job guys

Well well well here we are at Sweaty Hands 2022.

I'll start with the good: Visually this film is stunning, the cinematography looks awesome and the golden glow of Bottle Lake forest is so nice that it's obvious why there's a cultural joke around filming there. How can ya resist!? Plus, one of few films not set inside a house this year, so that was enjoyable to see.

The editing as well, while unfinished by the deadline, shows a lot of potential, moreso in how it cuts between different shots and characters talking - less than when someone shouts so loud it nearly blows up the Little Andromeda speakers.

I'm not sure about everything else here though, and in different ways both this film and your film last year demonstrate you're a strong technical team who are missing a few important roles in your team - I've yet to see a particularly strong story, nor particularly strong performances in a Sweaty Hands film, and if you can finish editing by the deadline next year, these two elements are the only things stopping you from getting into the finals and probably maybe even winning.

I must admit, I found it quite difficult to follow the story, beyond the fact the characters were camping and they seemed to fuckin hate each other. There's some kind of spooky story about Hell Hounds who end up being real, but we don't actually see them and the spooky stuff is set during dusk, so tonally I'm not feeling like I should be scared, nor am I convinced the other characters would be either.

There's a lot of telling instead of showing here - characters telling us the plot, characters telling us how they feel, characters telling us what spooky dogs await out there in the trees. This grueling exposition certainly doesn't help with line deliveries either - none of you are terrible performers but I winced a bit when the opening dialogue from Connyr's character had him sigh TWICE and explain that this was the last time these characters will spend any time together before they go off to university. Why is he saying this? Is he clarifying this to the people in the car who already know? This is such an easy plot element to slip into the story without a character just blurting it out when everyone already knows.

I also found it odd that none of the characters seemed to like each other at all, and I think this was a big turn off for me. Coming-of-Age is a genre about youth and conflict, sure, but it's hard to know who I'm supposed to identify with when the cast are all assholes to each other.

While I praised the cinematography, one thing you'll need to work out properly is character blocking - a lot of characters just standing around, waiting to say their lines, and unconvincingly getting spooked. I think you guys were going for something claustrophobic, but there's so much open space it feels contrived that anyone would be that nervous.

Horror/spooky isn't a bad choice, but I do think there was a better tone and a better story to tell with these characters and this location and this team.

Challenge for next year: I reckon rope in an accomplished writer (or study up some story structure and the films you like and the stories you want to tell) and maybe one or two accomplished actors. I think do that, and you'll soar as a team. Both years you've been so close, and I think this is a step in the right direction. 2023 is your year!