The Games We Play - ID# 293

Homewood-Flossmoor
Dramatic Narrative
Entry Description

Every high school student goes through it. The mental gymnastics that one's ego can go through when venturing to sit down and write an essay. This film explores one student's mind has she navigates her conscious only to find that the games we play have little to do with others, and much to do with ourselves.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/28 12:44 pm - What works: Such a universal story. Are you familiar with the book, "The War on Art?" This was a beautiful artistic expression of a lot of the concepts touched upon in that book. The use of light is masterful and clever. It always pushes the narrative along and feels natural to the world you built. I especially love the character entering the shot at 1:27 – very cool! The out of focus moment at 1:56 works very well. The movement is so clean and smooth – very dynamic and cinematic. What needed work: Overall, the sound is good, but sometimes it is difficult to hear what they are saying. With the 5-minute limit, it makes my suggestion somewhat impossible, but it would have provided a huge emotional payoff to have the main character triumph over the voice of doubt. Such a moment is why people love movies. I have full artistic respect for ending on such a somber note, but those moments of triumph are not only crowd pleasers, but they can be inspirational. Final thoughts: Incredible job. I really loved this. You are an artist and a filmmaker. Keep up the great work!
  • 4/28 9:25 am - Works Well - Excellent cinematography and lighting. The red light added lots of cool atmosphere. Great sound design. Exceptionally good acting for a student film. Well done special effects. Great concept for a one-person crew. Needs Work - The story was almost too cliche, but the production quality was so good that it didn’t matter. The ending was sort of abrupt. Try moving the credits from the beginning to the end.
  • 4/27 1:05 pm - Great opening sequence! You have a great variety of camera shots and angles that you execute very well. You use the rule of thirds in a lot of your shots but it works well (especially at 0:32). I think you do a great job with sound as well. You add suspenseful music as well as SFX here and there that help move the story along. There are a few places where some SFX and audio can be adjusted just by a few decibels. You show a strong understanding of lighting and you used it very well! Your editing also has a great pace to it! Overall, great job! Please see my comments below: 0:32 - Great framing here! 1:30 - I think this is a great SFX here. It is a bit loud. I would suggest lowering it by just a few decibels. 1:36 - I like how you angle the camera here. It makes this clip feel uncomfortable. 1:42 - It sounds like the audio peaks here when the character says “hello”. When editing make sure you pay attention to when the audio peaks. Most editors agree that your overall audio level of your audio mix (all of your audio combined) should fall between -10db to -20db (db = decibels). 3:02 - Audio here sounds a little quiet. When editing, listen back to what you have with headphones. 4:010 - Love the framing and lighting in this shot. Well done! 4:57 - Great edit here between two different contrasting shots with lighting. You matched the framing!
Judge 1

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Judge 2

Positives: This is phenomenal. It is a terrific story and I think it is something all of us can relate to. You made a terrific interpersonal story. Don't stop It is incredibly difficult to match shots. Especially with composition and different lighting. You made it flawless.

Improvements: .I wish she faded into the mirror like she faded out. It was very jarring and didn't flow with the editing. You have pixilated coloring in some shots. The light source wasn't strong enough for the sensor on the camera to pickup all the data. I would recommend getting a stronger bulb or a bigger light.

Judge 3

Positives: Great narrative about being your own worst enemy and trying to escape your self doubt the mirror shots worked excellent with this and the whisper sound mixing was superb.

Improvements: Shooting dark shots and making characters still visible is tough, i thought some of the shots were hard to see what was going on, other than that, this was an excellent story

Judge 4

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