The Third Factor

Funny premise and I think a clever use of the genre. There’s a couple cool things visually, however it would have been cool to see some more visual things like overlays and perhaps more b-roll which could work to sell the advertisement as one of those overly corporate things that you see pop up in TV or YouTube ads. The lead performer does a good job, but it can just feel a little stilted to be watching nothing but a piece to camera for the majority of the film.

This is another one where it would have been cool to see this film condensed and used as a set up to a deeper story. eg Actually having a character sign up to use the service and the potential dramatic and/or comedic consequences it has on their life.

That scene where the guy is inside the system is really cool though. Adding more fun and wackiness to the film I think could have really amped it up a bit.

The Third Factor is one of a couple of films this year in which the entire film should have probably served as the premise of the film instead of the whole plot.

Having Soul Validation be third factor of password protection is a hilarious concept, but almost all of the film is used to explain this - with only a brief glimpse into what all of this looks like at the end. I think it would have been fun for this entire psychedelic journey to authenticate one's log-in to be the majority of the plot. Take me on a trip.

It's frustrating too, because film looks and sound really clean, but this is used exclusively on the ad, which is filled with so much genuine actual information about online security that it was hard to discern the jokes.

Challenge for next year: Apply this same technical proficiency and creative storytelling to a film which actually takes us on an adventure and explores the world building with action instead of words.

This is a nicely constructed film and as others have said it looks and sounds great. Libby does a fantastic job delivering all that information on the Soul Validation and is an extremely convincing infomercial host. You should do training videos!

At only 2:30 run time there really was a heap of space for something else to happen that would have actually delivered a story we could grasp hold of. The premise was intriguing enough but we just got a little lost in the ad. There's a definite level of dark and sinister at play - a shame we didn't get to see more of it.