Hey everyone,
glad to have submitted this because it was so fun to shoot and the ideas we came up with were really interesting, just wished we had a little bit more time to develop the story. There's a little bit of a twist I hope is obvious enough for people to figure out, but otherwise I'm quite happy with the story and how it turned out.

Hope everyone enjoys and please feel free to question, comment and criticize.

I think you have a very deep concept here. I like the concept a ton.

The production quality was great, good lighting, audible...audio?, anyway. Good job.

The only unbalanced aspect for me was that the first half of technology was quiet and introspective, it had a heavy emotion to it due to the silence. The latter half with the friend is where I thought things would get deep but it almost came across as any-old conversation with a friend. I think I was thinking more deeply about crappy technology than friends and family because of this. Probably a slight thing that only affected me, really.

But seriously, this is a deep concept and a good message to fit into this. I really like the fact that her technology lost its memory but she kept hers. Clever.

Nice work.

The acting was pretty good, some of the shots you used were very nice as well.
I'm not sure if I would have used the word "memories" as part of the dialogue at the end. I think we got it without that...

Very good overall though.

Mike

Being a tech nut, I was expecting some kind of tie up of the tech crashing around her with other things in the film. In my mind, everything was left hanging without resolution.... Feel like the story line needed to be tightened up. Great camera work, lighting, etc. Looks like a dolly shot on first scene coming down stairs ? That was a great opening..

I had to watch it again to get over my second half "Oh man, it's a chick movie!" thoughts. (I should have kept a more open mind.) Kind of like Brent and Chris I kept waiting for something more in the technical realm to occur. But after the second run and reading these insightful posts, I agree that it's quite a good concept, plus, you did a good job of shooting. :)

You had a lot of great things happening in your film. I thought the acting was terrific by these two ladies and the camera work was very nice.

I liked the many angles in your shooting which made it very interesting and you cut it together quite well. I loved the rack focus shot on the ornament too.

Like some who have already posted, it felt like there were two stories happening here. The technology story and the friends and family story. I see you mentioned the twist in your post and believe I may be too thick headed to have seen it. Please let me know?

Well done!

Best wishes~
Bradley

It's a strong entry, nice job but if her electronic difficulties got paid off in the end this would have been a very strong entry.

Keep up the good work.

I have to second all the others comments about the acting, camera work, etc. Dialog flowed very naturally, and that Brittany's projection of presence and mood was perfect.

Your control of depth of field was excellent, were you using one of those 35mm lens adaptations?

The whole thing was a pleasure to watch.

Bruce

Hey everyone,
glad you're enjoying our little film. I agree with the fact that the story needed to be developed more. In fact, our original script was a lot more complicated and we shot a lot more than we ended up actually using - I believe about 50 minutes of raw footage and due to the time restrictions, I couldn't make the story as complete as I wanted to.
But in a way, I kind of liked how there wasn't really a resolution because they admit that the memory in all their gadgets isn't what matters at christmas - it's the times they shared together and similar experiences that really make it special.

The twist was the fact that all the failing gadgets had a "memory" and it seems people got it. Only reason I was concerned was because some of my friends didn't get it but I figured everyone here who for the most part are very "technologically literate" would get it right away.

In terms of the technical aspects, I'm pleased everyone likes my lighting and camera work because it's what I enjoy most about filmmaking and stuff like this. It was shot on an XL2 without any 35mm adapters. DOF is something I really enjoy using as a creative tool and I really like the 20x lens on the XL2 gives me a surprising amount of control if used in the right way. Audio was captured with a Sennheiser ME66 and editing was done in Final Cut Pro.

I'm happy to share any technical information so please feel free to ask about anything you'd like.
Thanks for the comments and again, I'm glad everyone likes it - feel free to continue commenting.

good sound design, nice rack focus on the ornament. It runs a bit on the long side. Trimming one or two of the technology break downs might have saved some time since they were only indirectly related to the theme. I mean, I get it, it's not about the stuff it's about your memories. But you might have achieved the same effect by showing one and letting her list the rest to her friend, like you did with the DVD reference. Liked the editing, it made it flow well.

Smile,
Kris

EDIT: or maybe I didn't get it. Reading the thread now, I had actually missed the point that the stuff was losing its memories but she wasn't. Now that I get it that's kind of clever, but you need an audience that isn't as dense as me for it to really work.

Hi Kris,
in a way you're right - I suppose I could have gotten the message across that she wasn't losing her own memory while everything around her was using one or two of the gadgets, but by repeating I felt that I also got her frustration across quite well which I don't think would have been as apparent if I only showed one thing - I guess everyone sees it from a different perspective though which is why I love these contests (and filmmaking in general) so much. Thanks for commenting:)