There's Still Time - ID# 566
Riverside Brookfield
Seven Day Challenge
Entry Description
After seeing he isn't featured in the yearbook, a high school senior laments his fear that he missed out and should've done more with his time. Then suddenly, his ghost from future and past appear to figure out what he needs to do with the time he has left.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
Judge 1
Positives: Storytelling structure and writing is spot on here and this was a really fun concept done well. This is also shot very well with a diverse mix of locked down and handheld shots which breathe some life into it. Excellent cinematography and it wraps up nicely with the lead's speech at the end. The title is perfect at the end and you leave the audience with a strong message so we know what your intention as the filmmaker was. Well done.
Improvements: Cheat your eye line out a little bit when you're talking to the time travelers so you can hide the layering effect a little more seamlessly. You could also benefit from an establishing shot before launching into the phone call at the top. On your news sequence, light the reverse shot of the camera operators in blue light so it still looks like darkness but we can see their faces.
Judge 2
Positives: Story: Upon realizing he’s not featured in the yearbook more than the default, a desire to get himself out there more, fueled by visions of his past and future selves, result in a multi-faceted quest for self-discovery. Overall, I love this format. The past and future selves characters feel really strong and distinguished from the present self, which is necessary for buying into it. The effects are strong and the film is technically sound (just watch those eye lines when cloning).
Improvements: Quick note for the pacing during the montage scenes- The newscast and photography moments drag out a bit longer than the flow of this section. A note for the writing is that we don’t really see our character struggle or all of this take a toll on him. We see him get knocked down in football, but this doesn’t really seem to be a setback, and he sort of drifts from task to task rather than push through something difficult.
Judge 3
Positives: The story centers on a very strong and relatable topic. Students from almost any generation can connect to what’s happening here, which makes it especially effective. You also did a nice job of continually introducing new elements, which kept the narrative engaging and maintained my interest throughout. The use of split screens and blue screen compositing worked very well overall. The effects were convincing and supported the storytelling effectively. I’ve included a few suggestions below that could help strengthen the work even further.
Improvements: When working with blue/green screen compositing, consider adding shadows to your characters. This helps ground them in the environment and makes the composite feel more realistic. For example, in the shot at 3:14, adding a subtle shadow beneath each character would improve the sense that they belong in the scene. Be sure the shadow is scaled appropriately. Starting with a soft, minimal shadow is a good approach, and you can adjust from there as needed. In the shot at 2:39, you might want to use a spill suppressor to eliminate the slight blue edge around the character. The edge detail itself is already very well done, so removing that color spill would make the compositing even cleaner and more polished.
Judge 4
Positives:
Improvements:
Judge 5
Positives:
Improvements: