The Lay of Lament

Visually this is pretty cool. Our wounded knight/warrior, being pursued by monsters real or imagined looks great and his trek through the bush is well captured. The environment appears very untouched and wild, and his journey is an absolute struggle at times. An ethereal voice-over poetically tells us everything we need to know. But nothing really happens in this. He makes the journey and then we get a pretty average fire breath SFX, and a baffling out-of-place logo in the corner of a cabin. Is this all a metaphor for the comp? Is it an advertisement? Who is possessed again? Musical, what?

Sometimes if I have to think too hard I just don't bother so I may have missed your point. Overall a great build up that leads to nothing. Probably a CHCH finalist though.

Thank you for the review Mista Teas.
Unfortunately this year it was a 6hr film festival haha. Very sick child at home - didn't get the Sunday. Deleted half the movie and yes tacked on that ending to give it something.

Originally my wife sung a lullaby over the film. A siren song that draws the wanderer to that hut featured in the film. We then encounter her in there and she sings of a druid cursing the woods. Druid appears. There is a 'lullaby off' between the druid and the forest spirit. Wanderer kills the spirit to break the curse the druid has over her and the forest. A bunch of greenscreen footage and 3D druid face in the can haha.

All the best.

What I liked:
This is the typical kind of mind meltingly good cinematography I'm used to seeing from Sons of the Broad Meadow, and it may be their best yet.

What I didn't like:
Also typical - cinematography so good it almost mask the very lite story - This one felt far more like the narrative was an afterthought than previous years (which, maybe that's okay!). Would have probably preferred a sincere ending instead of a meta 48Hours joke, but that's just a taste thing!

Somthing else I liked:
The costuming here was incredible too - so much attention to detail! I said this in 2022 but I really think ya'll should bring on a writer or poach one from another team, because a compelling story combined with footage looking like this will comfortably find its place in the National finals.

Once again, insane cinematography James! Loved the costuming and voice over work. Whoever committed to hanging in what looks like ice cold water is a bloody champ. Just read about your issues above. Sorry to hear that but props for getting something in. Can’t wait to see what you pull off next year (with a smooth ride hopefully).