Tanning Trials

Wheaton-Warrenville South

Seven Day Challenge

Entry Description

A couple of friends, who were chillin' out, maxin', relaxin all cool, start making trouble in the neighborhood when they find a flash drive that fell out of the sky. Persued by hitmen, how can they escape their strange predicament?

Judge 1

Positives: The opening montage of all of the outdoor shots work really well with the music and do a good job of establishing our sense of time and place. The cut from all these nice looking exterior shots to the boys lying around inside is a nice juxtaposition of images and actually ends up being fairly funny. Great sound effects/color grade for when the flash drive falls our of the sky. It not only showcases a technical skill but it works really well for the story and shocks us since this is literally coming out of nowhere.

Improvements: I was a bit confused about the girl on the computer. When the boys first come into the room we see her look towards them - but then the cut to the shot where she turns her head feels like that should be her first time looking at them. Also if the point was to have her see the boys and try to hide that she's looking at cats (and then have her turn around after she's hid everything), when we later see the wider shot from behind the boys, the picture of the cat is still on her screen. Be careful about the difference in room tone between shots. Some shots had a lot of noisy ambiance under the dialogue, and when you cut to a shot that's much quieter is can be a bit distracting and takes away from what's actually happening on screen. If that's just how different shots ended up sounding (which can sometimes be out of your control), maybe extend the sound of each shot on both ends and fade it up and down so its a more gradual change in room tone rather than having it appear and disappear. You can also just add a room tone track to the more silent shots just to make everything sound more cohesive.

Judge 2

Positives: The scene with the hacker girl is clever and demonstrates a good use of visual and audio comedy. The from above shot of the boys in the park at the end is well composed and effectively ties up the end of the story.

Improvements: The titles over the beginning of the film feel drawn out and only delay the start of the film. Perhaps they could be placed at the end. At times the music felt overly emotive. Additionally, the film felt slow at some points, perhaps it could be more tightly edited.

Judge 3

Positives:

Improvements:

Judge 4

Positives: Great shots running through the forest. I like the natural sound you use on these shots as well. Funny story, just wish there was more about the two guys.

Improvements: There is background sound on the playground. I can hear kids playing, and that is a little distracting. I do not have a real connection to the two people, so I am not sure why to care about them being chased by agents. There are a couple of shots that are too long and can be shortened. One example of this is when they are walking to the car, make an edit and trim it down a little.