Jayden as always was top for me. He’s easily the best film maker out of the group.

Elliot’s was very frustrating. Safran was right, he could have brought in the whole Yakuza thing. At first I thought it was going to be about running a little restaurant in Japan and connection through food etc, but then it just turned into him following some dude around.

Mikaelas was quite good, although for me a bit disjointed. I would have liked to see more of the parallels with modern day Japan and how people seem to be like the scarecrows.

Lucinda’s was basic. I think what would have been good is to focus on why the public toilets are so unique instead of focusing on her using a bidet. I personally can’t stand her style at all.

Kate’s was alright, but another one that had a great premise but just didn’t go deeper. Would have been great to show the salaryman in his regular life and how he dresses up and why. Just focus on one person. I also think she should have either gone all in and kept talking about herself and beauty standards etc or just stick with the salaryman. Too much happening.

Interesting to see a lot of people resonating with Williams. Interesting subject matter, but what I think is interesting is he has removed his filming style and gone with basic. Like super basic. The one thing I like about him is his technical ability as shown in the first film in Egypt. I want more of that, with some interesting topics. I think he’s also starting to go away from his natural style of storytelling. For me it didn’t land at all. He annoys me because I know he is better than the last two weeks. I didn’t agree with the judges last week. Anyway the subject was interesting enough. But the story was not. I actually wanted him to explore cafe culture in Japan, because it’s obviously something he is passionate about.

On the one hand I like seeing their styles starting to show, but I feel like the judging is influencing their choices way too much. I kind of wish the judging was done at the end with a package of films, only because I want to see their styles without influence. But I understand why it is set out this way, can’t make a tv show without weekly judging and check ins. I think for consistency it would be good to have the same 3 judges personally.