Pros: I wouldn't change anything with the editing or the pacing of the film your timing is perfect. I'm not a historian, but I love the attention to detail in the production and costume design. The story concept is interesting. The music brings a lot of production value to the piece. Overall this is a solid film.
Cons: Keep in mind all of these criticisms and solutions are centered around making an already excellent student film something worthy of film fests, you should consider remaking this and submitting it to film fests, use filmfreeway.com.
IMPORTANT! I had to take out half of the review because it didn't fit into the character limit. I will message you the rest.
Sincerely,
Sam Gannuch.
Cons: Keep in mind all of these criticisms and solutions are centered around making an already excellent student film something worthy of film fests, you should consider remaking this and submitting it to film fests, use filmfreeway.com.
Acting: My main criticism is the dialogue delivery felt that it could have used more power behind it. The physical acting was very purposeful, and the facial expressions were great, which makes the dialogue performance stand out even more. I feel that this could have been fixed with a little more direction (Explained in the solutions section).
Characters: For the first few minutes it felt like there wasn't a story, almost as if it was just a soldier running around. There was nothing to invest me in the characters. I felt nothing when he got shot. Once he was saved by the sniper, it became a whole lot more engaging and emotional. I was finally invested in the film, but then it ended when it felt like it had just started. The ending was perfect, but I didn't walk away feeling that I had gone through the full journey that character went through.
Nonsense: There where a couple of things that I felt could have been explained a little better or I just didn't catch. Why are the two soldiers separated from the army? I know that there was guerrilla warfare in the civil war, but I am not sure if it was implemented how you portray it (I could be totally wrong). As much as I love it, I wish the scene were the soldier saves him was a little more in-depth and realistic. He just lightly covers his wound gives him water, and he's healed? Maybe do some research on how they treated gunshot wounds in the field it would give the character a little more to do and would make the scene even more interesting to watch.
Sound: The film sounded great. But could have been enhanced with foley and sound effects.
Cinematography and Color Grade: For the most part the shot selection was excellent. Some of the compositions could have been stronger though. I wish you would have used a more extreme telephoto shot for the sniper scene. It might have been cool to utilize a wide angle lens like a 12mm for some of the closeup handheld work, Revenant style. The color grade had the right intention but could have been done better. I also wish you had done more with the lighting.
If you have any questions, message me.Characters: For the first few minutes it felt like there wasn't a story, almost as if it was just a soldier running around. There was nothing to invest me in the characters. I felt nothing when he got shot. Once he was saved by the sniper, it became a whole lot more engaging and emotional. I was finally invested in the film, but then it ended when it felt like it had just started. The ending was perfect, but I didn't walk away feeling that I had gone through the full journey that character went through.
Nonsense: There where a couple of things that I felt could have been explained a little better or I just didn't catch. Why are the two soldiers separated from the army? I know that there was guerrilla warfare in the civil war, but I am not sure if it was implemented how you portray it (I could be totally wrong). As much as I love it, I wish the scene were the soldier saves him was a little more in-depth and realistic. He just lightly covers his wound gives him water, and he's healed? Maybe do some research on how they treated gunshot wounds in the field it would give the character a little more to do and would make the scene even more interesting to watch.
Sound: The film sounded great. But could have been enhanced with foley and sound effects.
Cinematography and Color Grade: For the most part the shot selection was excellent. Some of the compositions could have been stronger though. I wish you would have used a more extreme telephoto shot for the sniper scene. It might have been cool to utilize a wide angle lens like a 12mm for some of the closeup handheld work, Revenant style. The color grade had the right intention but could have been done better. I also wish you had done more with the lighting.
IMPORTANT! I had to take out half of the review because it didn't fit into the character limit. I will message you the rest.
Sincerely,
Sam Gannuch.