Hitman

This was an excellent experience. A simple concept executed very well. A nice play between seeing just how far the Hitman's patience will go and what the results are for when it snaps! Thoroughly enjoyed this film and can't wait to see what you do next year.

This short had some great touches of humour and was well acted by everyone - not always easy to act like you are acting badly. Well shot and edited nicely together, which the stabby bits sufficiently not overly brutal or explicit. Still felt every stab though!

The story is pretty funny with the frustrations of the hitman and matter-of-fact responses from the director a particular highlight for me. If I have a note, it's the blandness of the location. I know this was an audition for a play and so we're in an audition space or on a stage which seems reasonable/logical! It just wasn't that interesting. Coupled with this I felt like I was watching a play rather than a film and/or I was watching the filming of an audition given the previously unseen characters at the end. I guess what we were seeing was from their perspective throughout then?

Overall, a very rewatchable short film with plenty for everyone to enjoy - laughs, action & stabbing! Well done on making the CHCH final.

What a charming film to come out of nowhere. So exciting to get a Foreign Language film in the Christchurch finals this year! Auckland and Wellington all had one too and I think that's awesome.

HITMAN has a wonderful sense of humour at its core, and some terrific comedic acting which constantly took me off guard - especially the director getting stabbed and STILL insisting the lead's performance was lousy.

It's a very simple film, but often the best 48Hours films are - and I especially loved how intentionally the whisper is used.

Also great job on the story structure - everything is at kinda cartoony levels of realism, but nonetheless the stakes climb higher, we have a great climax and then an epilogue which effectively puts a button on the film.

It doesn't overstay its welcome, and it makes you laugh. What more could you want?

Challenge for next year: There's not too much to specifically fault this little comedy-of-errors on - I think some of the subtitles were missing punctuation here and there but really you achieved what you set out to do. Next year I'd challenge you to shoot outside! But keep true to your own storytelling compasses, this film has a great sense of humour and I'd like to visit Art and Experience again.