Education for Leisure

Reaction to this piece confuses me a bit. I guess when some strengths are really strong, it creates a sense of amnesty for glaring weaknesses?

I found the interpretation of the poem to be overall brilliant. Perhaps a bit too literal in some instances, but overall the interpretation is masterful. Pacing is just about perfect. Music selections are strong and apt. And the vocal performances are just plain wonderful.

And that, I confess, is where my fascination with this piece ends for the most part. We could talk at length about the failure to execute animations in a way that does Moviestorm justice as a tool, or the failure to cut around some of the animation clunkiness that is otherwise unavoidable. But even beyond issues that one could easily write off as due to inexperience using Moviestorm, the shot composition and selection is not at the pro level the film's press release might lead one to expect, not in any consistent fashion anyway. The choices there really have less to do with Moviestorm itself and more to do with what constitutes good framing; this film has moments where composition does shine, but they are greatly outnumbered and surrounded by moments where less than ideal choices were made.

And honestly, the only way one can truly laud the sound work is if one completely ignores the low grade foley sounds generated by Moviestorm itself (something it's hard to imagine a seasoned sound guy would be able to stomach doing), and completely ignores the middle grade recording quality on the narration (a real shame considering how well they were performed), and completely ignores the sloppy fader work on the music tracks at points. No, no overall I can't say the sound is "good" here, except with regard to the choices made for ambient sounds when employed.

The interpretation IS really really really strong, though. And not what one would expect if familiar with the poem. And (perhaps a bit sadly) this film IS above the current average in terms of production quality with Moviestorm. So if "best of Moviestorm" is merely a designation assigned relative to the tests and quick-fix animations that are prevalent here and now in Moviestorm's early days, then I guess the label fits. But I've seen "great" things made with Moviestorm, and I'm sorry but six filmmakers or not, as an overall film this just isn't in that tier by any stretch of the imagination.

The sound. Ah yes, the sound! The audio here is what got my attention, from the vocals to the ambient sound effects, it was most excellent! The editing and scene composition was great as well.I think the only thing that could be worked on more was the "puppetry", making the characters more alive, but overall this was a nicely done!

Excellent! Nicely paced and very well acted: in fact extremely high production values all around. I look forward to more!

Absolutely superb. Great voice work, beautifully shot & edited, and fantastic sound. A brilliant interpretation of the poem, and very topical. We've added this to our playlist of the very best of Moviestorm.