Before starting the shredder
![Wink ;) ;)](/images/smilies/wink.gif)
congratulations to your friend on getting an idea into "hard copy" that we can see.
![Clap :clap: :clap:](/images/smilies/clap.gif)
OK the shredding ...
The first thing that struck me was the sound quality - it's pretty hard to hear, and very "dirty". As
@Alcove Audio says, a soundtrack is half the movie, and in a video like this where the voiceover is
more than half the movie, it needs to be much cleaner. These days, it's really easy to get a good quality recording using a smartphone and good blanket. When you don't need to worry about a mic being seen in any of the shots, there's no excuse for not having a great voice-over recording.
Partially related to that, was the theme/title ... I just can't figure out what the paradox is! But neither can I hear what
he thinks the paradox is, because I just cannot hear what's said in the last couple of phrases. That's partially due to the quality of the recording, but also to accent/diction. Again, if the spoken word is all-important - as it is in this piece - then it has to be perfect in every respect.
Visually, it's all pretty good, with the exception of the bed/night-time scene (1:33-2:03). That looks like it was filmed in low light/at high ISO, at the very limits of the camera's ability. If that's the case, it'd have been better to film it in brighter light and darken it in post-production (plenty of YouTube videos on how to achieve this). Some of the transitions to what I assume is stock footage are a bit jarring, from a colour balance point of view, but the editing is smooth enough.
Overall, a good practice piece.