Sunday, April 18, 2004
And the winner is ... Thanh
Finally, the announcement you've all been waiting for. The winner of the 48-hour film festival is Thanh-hung Ho.
Juror
Today, Paige Peterson, former festival programmer from the Sundance Institute, screened all of your student films and offered her assessment of the best film. She chose the first film submitted. Below is a summary of comments by the judges regarding all of the films:
Checkmate
Best: The "throughline" of the film was never lost. The narrative structure and visuals were compelling, clean, clear and direct. The progression of the film was strong. Theme was strong and clear. Worst: Would have benefitted from sound.
Hot Topic
Best: African American actor was very natural, charismatic, appealing.
Worst: Story was unclear. Seemed to be multiple stories trying to be told. Visually unappealing; camera shots did not seem thought out. Script felt weak and rushed together.
Run Le Run
Best: Shot very, very well. (Multiple judges commented on this for this film.) Shots served the story and were not just to draw attention to themselves. Made the story visually very appealing. Acting was excellent and showed most effective use of props.
Worst: Story needs clarification and clear line. It meandered. Could have been much more effective if dream sequence were more clearly delineated.
Dora
Best: Girl's performance was extremely strong. Male character with initial voice-over was interesting and appealing. Excellent editing; use of editing to convey confusion and frustration of character was good (but over done). Good use of music.
Worst: Way too long. Story really needed to be tightened up. Judges did not get the Pandora's box / mythology. Felt the theme was that sometimes we're afraid to confront things but, in the end, when we finally open the box, there's nothing inside.
Checkmate II
Judges felt this film wasn't necessarily strengthened by more time. Best: Strong theme, clear story and point of view. Good editing but felt more like a music video or something that would play in a dance club with the repetitive beat. Worst: Used a lot of outside images.
