Film Reviews
My name is Ellie Wright and I am a year 10 student at Andrew Marvell Business and Enterprise College. I am currently working with the Cascade team as part of my work experience project. I recently watched the four short films made by Cascade and First Light Movies and I really enjoyed all four. Each were very different but all were fantastic for their differences. All the actors and actresses within the films were substantial and each individually showed great talent as did others working on the films such as camera crew and sound technicians.
Secrets
Secrets is a short film which delivers an atmosphere of curiosity and suspense due to the death of Sarah’s Grandma. The film begins at a funeral where distress and melancholy emotions are not the only feelings to arise and we see this due to a contrast of upbeat music which makes it clear that suspense is set to be provoked later on in the film leaving the audience to question what is due to happen. In the middle of the film Sarah discovers that her recently deceased grandmother led a double life. A strange tale unfolds as she begins to uncover the mysterious truth. Cascade and St Mary’s College present the First Light Movies film which draws to an end on an intense cliffhanger leaving the audience wanting more.
My verdict of this short film is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and thought that the use of suspense made it appealing. The acting was great, and Sarah played by Laura Evans delivered her character to an exceptional standard making it much easier for the audience to comprehend the position which she is in.
B10ND(E)
A viral pandemic causes the mass extermination of the blonde population. Mel (played by Emma Waslin) communicates and incorporates all her ideas in a desperate attempt to find a cure for the extermination only to find herself confronted by the authorities, leaving the pandemic in more danger and having to spend the night in cells. At the end of the film a telport communicator allows Mel (Waslin) to escape from the police station and return to a place were her dad’s work is being continued.
The quick opening of the short film appeals to us as it only delivers a short insight into what is going to happen later on. The things about the film which I particularly believed to stand out were the choice of music, setting and the opening. The introduction all corresponded around science including key things such as scientific fonts which stand out to make the film all come together, the fast paced beat played along with several areas of the film which builds up an atmosphere of suspense. B10ND(e) Trailer won 3rd place at the Screen Yorkshire Presents event which I believed it really deserved due to all the efforts of all the people who worked on the film.
TASTR’s Task
The films is about a family who appear to be the average family, with the arguments such as brother and sister and small family feuds, seem to unlock a deeper secret due to all the Dad’s (Edward Hunter) hard efforts contributing to the future of earth and scientific knowledge which no one has previously obtained. The dad of the family creates a robot which is so powerful is can travel through time causing his daughter Amy (Kelsey Drewery) to travel ten years previous, leaving her brother Matt (Joshua Wright) stressed as to where Amy has dissappeared to.
The main concept of the short film is all about technology which is a popular thing in the news currently and scientists are constantly attempting to reveal new technological items just how Amy’s Dad did in the film. The acting in the film is fantastic even down to the smaller things such as Amy and Matt’s dispute at the beginning. Everyone portrays their characters brilliantly and details such as music added to the film have an evidently great affect on the outcome of the film.
The Song
The Song is a ten minute long film which is mainly focused on the outcome of the film where Cassie and Toby (Jodie Hannath and Perry Pullman) perform a song as part of a talent show written by their close friend Ellie (Michaela Turnball) who runs away due to overwrought emotion after discovering that her friends are now dating, and after her dad dieing everything is harder for her now. I think Michaela portrays Ellie as an upset yet angry character here amazingly and I believe if it wasn’t shown to such a great standard feeling and empathy could be lost to an unlikely response.
This film works really well and appeals to younger audiences as Ellie is put in a realistic situation making people comprehend and sympathize with her problems. Later on in the film Toby and Cassie keep practicing the song to perform and dedicate it all to Ellie. Each character individually represents a different person but they all successfully place themselves in the position of the character they are playing greatly.
WELL DONE EVERYONE! 
