The Understudy - ID# 493
Maine East
Division: AA
Seven Day Challenge
Entry Description
A frequent understudy to a female ingenue decides to take matters into her own hands.
Recent Teacher Comments
- 3/13 9:39 am - Comment from Maine East High School: Audio and effects courtesy of Audio Jungle.
Judge 1
Positives: You did a good job of using sound to your advantage - the moment when she snaps the pencil is great! Your main actor was so strong without having many lines of dialogue! She did a great job of really showing subtleties in her face and not having to talk for us to know how she was feeling.
Improvements: You needed to be more specific in the opening sequence that those were different plays that she was getting cast as the understudy in. I know you had the characters dressed in different clothes, but the first time it happened, I thought it was a mistake and the film was starting over from the beginning. You could've either shot them in very different ways, or had the title of the production at the top of the cast list sheet and have it say "fall play" or "spring play" just so we got the idea that time was passing and this has happened to your character a lot of times. Your story actually could've used a lot more clarity. When she's watching something on her laptop and scrolling through instagram - you needed to make it more clear that she was liking all the posts of the girl who got the lead role. When watching I had no idea what was happening or why that scene exists, and only when I went back a second time and paused it during that scene did I realize what was happening. A lot of this film feels too dark (in terms of lighting) and I feel like I had a tough time seeing and knowing what was going on.
Judge 2
Positives: It's an interesting theme and the character arc was probably best developed out of all shorts I've seen this year. The lighting matched the mood most of the time.
Improvements: I wanted more out of the ending. I think the final scene could have been improved in all departments. The repetition in the beginning was unnecessary, it delayed the main part of the story.
Judge 3
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Judge 4
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