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watch VACANT - First Shot Film

Definitely agree with brianluce on the photography and mood, great work there. With the concept (SPOILER)





I was a bit lost too? Was the mask something from her childhood which still lives to haunt her, and so is basically a manifestation of her fear? Thats kinda what I got.

Criticism: One thing I did find, there were some shots of the same thing but you kinda just kept changing the angle of it, felt as if they werent really needed as they didnt really contribute to the story. E.g. 0:26 - 0:31 of her just standing on the stairs. Overall good work though, especially for a first short!
 
I left feeling like I didn't get it. Whcih was a shame, 'cos I was enjoying it very much 'til then.

It felt a lot like a Fewdio flick, btw. They often end with cliffhangers, but with something heavily suggested. (or about to happen). I think that's kind of the angle you were going for?

Great work setting the mood. :cool:
 
I liked it, a bit slow, but I liked it. I think I got what you were doing with the mask, too.

It maybe could have moved a little faster and still held the eerie mood, but well done, regardless.
 
I was liking it right up until the end and then it got a little confusing. I liked the use of the Moby Gratis soundtrack. the mood was great. the girl was attractive and interesting. I liked the mask at the end but was that supposed to mean that there was someone actually there or that her friend was the guy in the mask? ambiguity is not always a bad thing though. I really liked the mood up until the end. empty parking garages are creepy. the lighting was good and not noticeable. the sound was good except the actors talking could have been louder or the music softer at that point. good camera work!
 
I thought this was brilliant _ I would have liked to have seen the masked figure once before the mask in the backseat - (IE 3:18 - 19 seconds)
 
Good start and end shots , the overall photography is well executed too: good job guys!

If I may though - and this only to give a personal view, not to say I would have done it better! - , I felt the garage section could easily be improved by cutting out some - unnecessary coverage (I'm thinking, for example, the staircase shot at 00:35-00:36 or at about 1:00 the back and forth on the mid-shot on the woman and the left-side wide shot) that were diluting the "Tension building": a slightly more effective strategy might have been a close up on the woman's face (reminiscent of the one @00:25, but front this time) and one wide shot from a single angle (otherwise the viewer is put alternatively in a subjective POV (as in the shot with the edge of the car at 00:50 or the one at 1:23) and in a more objective/external position (as @00:59 or 1:29), which can be confusing at this point of the story).

I feel the pace of the whole "garage dream/nightmare" sequence (before the knock on the window at 2:30) is slightly off, partly due to to the mis-alignment between the character inner clock and the camera's: what I mean is that the editing is moving too slow with respect to the real action time, hence a feeling of excessively long pauses (e.g when she "pauses" at 00:56, 1:26, 2:10). If intentional, and in line with the nightmarish thing, it might benefit from some more radical cuts like the one with the mask @2:02 (effective I think, you could have exploited this effect without prejudice I think), that would contribute more to the tension than a - weaker - pivot+push-in @1:35 (that did not work so well IMO).

I wondered also if some color-correction could have help differentiate the two parts/spaces too (e.g. a slightly colder tone between 00:24 and 2:30 and a warmer, falsely reassuring, before and after).

This is all quite subjective stuff of course, and your film was good anyway! :)

Best of luck for your following projects with the Cambridge club!
 
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