Hello all, as the vote closes I'd just like to share my quick thoughts on the remaining I've yet to review (I say quick, this seems quite long to me). I'll start with MANICHUS TV as that was requested.
MANICHUS TV - trying not to hold poor production value against people so I won't mention it too much, but I have to say this is easily one of the worst in it's design and edit with an obvious lack of decent equipment (I saw you mention you were filming using and eyetoy so less than ideal). It's unfortunate considering some of the high standard of the other entrants, it seems those lower down the technical food chain are being left behind but in a tie break situation the better produced film is always going to win and this film isn't really strong enough in it's writing to overpower the competition. Curiously the best joke in my opinion is the only joke that has nothing to do with gaming, the stabby chef, but all the jokes drag on a little too long and would have benefited from being quicker and punchier.
THE PITCH - not particularly interestingly shot or edited although certainly not the worse example of this and the script works well enough even if it is a little slow, but it felt a little rambling and I failed to care about the characters enough to want to see more.
THE FRENZY - well put together, not really sure what it has to do with this website which I kind of think will be a factor against it so not a winner in my eyes but putting that aside it's a very well produced very exciting and interesting promo to a series or feature film, and I think if I saw it on it's own merits outside of this competition I'd certainly be interested in seeing more.
THREE-LEGGED RACE - very hit and miss, some good elements and some that just didn't work at all. I'd probably say the animated sections are the best and rest is either boring or annoying.
THE COUCH - didn't find this funny at all. The jokes themselves are okay as ideas but the poor writing and performances kill them completely. Comedy is all about timing and this doesn't have any.
GUITAR ZEROS - a well structured idea that is a good example of somebody using their limited resources to peak efficiency and I love a good mockumentary. It's well put together and the characters are really nicely written and performed. There's plenty of potential here.
THE GROUP - unfortunately with TALES FROM THE TABLE in the competition this just looks like a cheap knock off of that. Curiously I think THE GROUP actually has a slightly better script so if you mutated the two films together then something amazing could be the result. As a side note the line "drop it like it's initiative" is something that from now on I shall be using as much as possible when I game.
JUST ANOTHER ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE - nice idea but the script never seems to come together and the characters are all annoying in their own way. All in all I liked some of the gags, the oblivious gossiping girls for example (even though it's been done before), but as a whole it just didn't seem to work.
WORKS IN THEORY - nicely written with pretty good jokes but poor performances and unimaginative shooting let down an otherwise quite inventive idea.
SCARS - I like the animation and the script is good but the pacing is all wrong and it plays much too slow which means I saw the jokes coming before they had time to make me laugh.
PARADIGM - nice idea but poorly constructed although some good jokes and some pretty decent writing overall. I would say the writing is definitely the strongest element here, but unfortunately everything else needs work.
THE WRITERS - the characters and the performances are good and the story and the script work, the problem here is that there's nothing about this film to make it stand out from the rest of the sitcom selection so whilst it's good I think it's going to just blend in with everything else.
UNDERSTANDING THE EULA - not particularly well animated but an interesting idea which is well written and could work as a series of critical reviews of most anything annoying in the world, after all everyone likes a good moan every now and then.
DO IT TO IT - this actually confused me at first as to whether it was a sketch show or a series because the sketches drag on a little. Well written and pretty funny, pretty well shot and edited as well (although far from perfect) and you guys certainly look like you had fun which makes for a more enjoyable viewing experience with this kind of thing.
THE ADVENTURES OF PETER - the voice over is a little dodgy, not for sound quality as such but there's a thumping noise of something hitting the mic, the reader stumbles the words and it breaks a couple of times presumably because the person speaking made a mistake. Other than that it's good, the animation and music work really well together and the story is well written.
ADDICTS - well written and performed, a little dull to look at so whilst it works in this promo episode not sure you'd be able to keep up a whole series of nothing but monologues to camera. That's not to say you couldn't do it but you'd have to be bringing your A game every week to cover up the fact that nothing's really happening.
LAMER - main character a little overacted for my liking but the other guy plays the role really well and most of my laughs came from watching him. All in all I didn't like this but I think that's just because of the main guy being so obnoxious. I get that the guy he's controlling bullies him a little but he's still not a sympathetic character.
GAMETAG - this is okay, some good gags and it's nicely edited even though the shoot itself is a little dodgy. I can see this holding my interest for a while but as I keep saying like a lot of the other sitcom structure videos in the competition ultimately it's out shined by the more original films.
MACINEMA - didn't find the opening funny and didn't understand the point of the rest. It was well put together but the stilted nature of the visuals makes it a bit repetitive as the script wasn't really strong enough for it to not feel like we're simply watching somebody play the game.
THE WASTELANDS - kind of funny but the jokes all really come from the visuals and the dialogue is pretty weak in my opinion. Not bad but certainly not amongst the top comedies submitted.
SMASHING DICE - this is nicely written but the animation and the audio has a lot of problems that are a little distracting and whilst I didn't find it particularly interesting the writing was good enough that it will probably hold the attention of people interested in the subject matter.
UNEARTHED - the design chosen is nice in it's uniqueness and offers a more interesting animated style to watch but this is a little too slow and hard to get into.
THE MIDNIGHT CHANNEL - ultimately very boring although that actually seems to be the point to some degree. The dynamic of the trio is kind of interesting and it did make me think that instead of the guy you had it would be fun to watch somebody with next to no knowledge of gaming trying to play something, like if you made a series out of watching your mum trying to figure out how to play the Final Fantasy series. That would make me laugh.
Q.E.D. - a bit too weird to look at for me, gave me a bit of a headache. Certainly an interesting choice but not a good one in my opinion. The story and dialogue is bizarrely stilted and the performances are pretty bad and I don't really understand what was going on or why I'm supposed to care.
BLUE SKY - interesting idea for the opening, although I suspect it arose out of a lack of time to animate a full episode as much as for any artistic reason. I like the script and the reveal when the lens cap comes off was actually a nice surprise which worked really well so I'd say this has potential for a whole series.
--- I think this covers them all, best of luck to everyone ---
