Higher Calling - ID# 184

Lyons Township
Comedic Narrative
Entry Description

"Higher Calling" is a story about a pastor who is having a hard time engaging with his flock, and the solutions he comes up with to reignite his own passion and his church. This is an original short film that I wrote, directed, and edited. I'm very grateful to two of my teachers for playing the lead roles, as well as countless family and friends for playing extras and helping out on the crew.

Copyright Info

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/23 11:21 am - There is a lot of great stuff going on here. Your photography, editing, and sound are top notch. The performances are excellent. The story leaves me with questions, but in a good way. I think you have given the audience the ability to engage with multiple interpretations of your narrative. Is the path this pastor has chosen a good one? Is church a business? A form of entertainment? All interesting ideas and you blend story, character, and theme really well. Great job all around! Keep making films!
  • 4/22 2:07 pm - Overall, this was fantastic. In particular, I really loved the dialogue. Your conversation between the two men in the beginning was great with some awesome J and L cuts on the audio. Speaking of, your audio mix was fantastic. I really appreciated your shot choices and set-up, from your rack focus to the various lighting elements (stained glass, office lighting, silhouettes), the outcome was evidence of a lot of thought and practice, you should feel accomplished with what you set out to do. My one area to improve would be that the ending felt rushed, and didn’t really do a call-back to something else. There’s a thought in comedy that the audience loves being in on an inside joke, so comedy employs “call-backs” to a bit or something that was brought up earlier to tie in a punchline that we all, audience included, can be in on. To that end, you could have it end with him on the couch, sleeping, but maybe there’s a donut or something that could represent a “fellowship pasty” that recalls what the one guy said earlier. Overall, fantastic work and you should feel really proud of executing such a professional and entertaining piece. Oh, and the music choices were superb!
Judge 1

Positives: Beautifully shot and edited! Very snappy, genuinely funny writing. Also, worth noting that using adult actors as the leads was an inspired choice! They really nailed the roles that were written for them. The montage sequence was a ton of fun! And you managed you compete the narrative arc of the lead character in a fun, satisfying way! Really great film here. I'd be really proud of this, had I made it! Please, please keep making movies.

Improvements: This is a nitpick maybe, but considering the cast was almost exclusively adults, it might be nice to feature some credits at the end for the students involved. That said, I don't think you typically see credits on a lot of short films on youtube, so that could be the rationale there. In any case, I genuinely loved this film! Keep at it!

Judge 2

Positives: The story was very engaging and easy to follow. The props and setting were both used effectively. The charts were especially funny! And since the story took place in a church, it's a good thing you had one to use!! Casting was believable and obviously very talented.

Improvements: The story seemed to stall a bit while he was doing magic for the churchgoers. And I would have liked to have seen more resolution to the story. The shot of him sleeping at the end could mean he was tuckered after a long day of magic or it could mean that he fell asleep thinking about doing that... and missed church completely! The end became a showcase for the song and the magic. While that's entertaining... it seemed to take some of the power away from your story.

Judge 3

Positives: i think the story and dialogue is really strong. your story is super funny and engaging. the cinematography in the shot of him writing and going back to watching the tv is one of my favorite parts.

Improvements: i wish there was more intentional production design. a lot of the framing felt really crowded and distracting. a lot of the shots felt a little over-exposed, but that's my only big note on cinematography.

Judge 4

Positives: Great job capturing the dialog! Bad visuals can be ignored or downplayed, but audio can't be. The script is lovely, and directing that line delivery from actors is showing. The camera always felt intentional it's placement, eyelines cutting together correctly, movement intentional and precise. The whole scene at 2:45 shouldn't go un-noticed, the golden warm lighting mixed with the purple backlight are great contrasting color schemes.

Improvements: At times it felt you were shooting at a proper shutter speed/angle. It should always be for 'natural' motion blur double the fps or if you have a camera that does shutter angle 180 degrees. Make sure to properly level your camera to the horizon (unless you want to make a statement about it not being so). Example of this is the shot at 3:53.

Judge 5

Positives:

Improvements: