Mr Morris

by Spud

Average: 3.5 (5 votes)

The High School Movie

In voice-over, a teen tells the tale of her History teacher, Mr Morris, and his relationships with others.

This was an interesting little black comedy that was nicely shot with clear, consistent composition. It seemed very well planned and as a result, managed to sustain its tone throughout. Audio was also consistent although you could argue that the voice-over was rather mundane (but maybe that was the point). A well-written story that was up there as one of the better films from this school heat. Well done!

Zac Neill

One of the rare school teams in this heat that showed that less if oftentimes more.

Very strong sense of style, the sound editing at the beginning of the film is some of the best of the night (all three heats).

The only part that detracted from a very strong film was the ending with the note (maybe the reveal as a whole) as it felt like the easiest storytelling option.

My favourite film of this heat.

Joel_Tempero

The dialogue in this film was OUTSTANDING. Maybe I'm a sucker for poetry, but my gosh was I impressed with the script for this film. Even though the ending may have fell a little flat, you have everything else going for you in this film, it's well lit and styled, the audio was one of the clearest of the entire night, such a great take on the genre.

NEXT YEAR: For a film like this, this isn't so much a critique as it is just an idea, some light piano music could have added to the creepiness possibly? You'd have to add it in to know for sure. Silence is useful but can sometimes get uncomfortable if overused, and music is a great element for pushing the story forward.

I'm excited to see what you guys create in the future ;)

Jos Morgan

Pretty great. 48 Hours films have a bizarre tendency to play to a crisp, no-frills approach and this is one of those; but it works in its favour: all three performances (but especially the two leads) are fantastic and the audio is some of the strongest I've seen in any 48-hours film across two years competing and a few years watching entries.

Alexander Jones

city manager

WOW! A lot of wonderful pieces of filmmaking here.

The cinematography is the stand-out. It's so clean and wonderful to look at.

The acting is really beautiful and understated.

The set is minimalist, but it totally works.

As for that voice over... I'm in the minority here as a lot of people loved it (including the judges ;) ) but it's not my style, I think the film is made or broken depending on how you feel about the monotonous tone. I think there's an interesting idea in doing this film in half its run time with a snappier and more comical narration, kind of like the film "I'm Gonna" by 1:1 Creative which joins the ranks of narration driven films this year. That would be a film that I would like, but clearly not the film you want to make, so you keep doing you!

I could easily see the team behind this film getting into the finals as soon as next year, just work on your craft, create bigger and better stories.

As for your title, "Mr Morris" is a nice simple title, and I can't imagine anything else this movie could or should have been called.

nshady

I thought this was definitely an impressive effort folks, nice work! A very distinct style - I love that you had a real swing and went a) black and white; and b) almost clinically monotone with the VO. It's clear you had a vision and you delivered on it. Great to see. Narratively, it did fall a little bit flat for me. While you took a swing with some of your metaphors (hard out the gate with a holocaust line!) it felt a little bit forced for me, though I did like the ultimate reveal. Congrats on your win - and hope to see you in competition again next year!