Rootclip

Great entries this week. Each team really focused on the storytelling and took it in interesting directions. Additionally, "Drugs, Rope & Halloween" brought great production value to the screen. The camera moves help sustain action. Good POV photography. NIcely edited. Creepy ending. Again, I appreciate the production value. The team brought the right amount of sizzle with the steak. Congratulations.

Although the competition stiffens, "Drugs, Rope & Halloween" holds truest to the rootclip while keeping the mystery going. I liked the drugged POV shots from the party and loved the sound effects, dripping water and ominous footsteps, as Mark and Kevin are reunited. Easy Annie turns treacherous as one wonders, "What's next?!?"

Kudos to all the other entrants for keeping it interesting. The "Italians" and "Nobody Messes with Annie" get honorable mention.

The use of cross-cutting, a variety of camera angles and distances, the choices for the music, and the change of focus and "playing" with the sound once Marc takes the drink are well planned and well executed in "Drugs, Rope, and Halloween." Also, the through-story elements are clever, but not overly so. You probably needed an eyeline match from Marc's POV in the closing scene just before we are shown the shadow of the figure who enters the room. Without it, that transition and cutting is a bit flat and makes the ending scene and shot not nearly as unified and powerful as it could be. Also, nice use of futzed sound in the "tied-up" scene. Finally, the ending offers a wide variety of possibilities for the ways for next chapter to be written, shot, and edited. So my vote is for "Drugs, Rope, and Halloween."

The great opening shots and editing of video #2 ("Nobody Messes With Annie"), get lost with the rest of the scenes. The sudden "letterboxing" of only some of the shots in the "flashback" segment seem to have no real purpose. And the flashback idea. . .eh. It needed to be clearer how/why we get to the flashback, and then the end is just fair narrative-wise.

The opening of #3 ("The Italians") is probably the best use of the way the previous chapter ended visually and narrative-wise; however, the music is a bit bothersome. And the rest of the video, while shot and edited fairly well, is mostly composed of way too much telling/talking heads. (The flashback scene was very well integrated, though--nice.) And "The Italians". . .far too overdone/cliched. And why does he just walk in and sit down and listen to this man when he seems to have gone there to meet the woman. Why not just leave, or ask about it, or something? What force on the part of the man in the room who tells us so much of the narrative keeps Marc there?

In #5 ("Sorry, Annie"), the through-the-mask effect was okay. . .but really good when he looks out the window and we get some tie-in back to the original chapters. Way too slow a build-up, though. What is the relationship here between the two characters? Make more set-up of wearing the mask before when he simply has taken it off and she notices. And the tension that your narrative should have created in the closing just is not there shot-wise, dialogue-wise, editing-wise.

In #4 ("Spirit casing")--hey, much better than your first effort. Some really sharp shots and editing and visuals. . .but while very "Brick"-like, Rian Johnsons's indy film has much better dialogue. Way too flat and dull in the initial interchange of the young man and the woman. And the ending--eh. And what the hell IS "spirit casing"? And why are shots of the young woman used to represent spirits/ghosts?