Not bad! The camera work was very nice as well as the flow of the film. Visual effects were done nicely as well. The plot was okay but it wasn't very engaging or new. One of the weak points that I saw with this film was the volume of the acting. And when I say this, I mean I had trouble hearing the actors as well as understanding them at times (your character I could hear and understand though). This is probably because they simply were not talking loud enough and I'm assuming the audio was recorded using the camera's built in mic.
I found it a little odd that the main character and the hostage were both very young (around 12-13 I'm guessing). Not because I think you should have had older actors, but because of how they were matched with the kind of violence used in the film. I think the young actors would have worked better if you had have placed an emphasis on the fact that they were young and maybe tied that into the story somehow, instead of making them take on the role of an older individual. Does that make sense? Another thing I was curious about were the characters. I haven't seen all of your previous live action work, but were these brand new characters? If so, it probably would have helped the story a lot if there was more character development. By the time the video ended I hadn't learned much about the characters at all.
Technical aspects aside, you did a good job with the camera work and the video as a whole. I especially enjoyed the very first opening shot where the camera pans from the lamp shade and you see the phone and the gun. Wonderful shot! Also, the scene where the agent prepped to go in was nicely done with the quick cuts that displayed what happened well. The scene where the villain points the gun at the hostage was also done well I thought with some good camera shots.
With all of this being said, the main area I would work on is the story. This video seemed like a FreddieW action flick. Sure, that may not be a bad thing, but if you can pair a good plot with your good camera work and action sequences, I'm sure you will have one awesome film. Keep up the great work! Looking forward to more from you. (Oh, I forgot to mention your shooting location. I really enjoyed the set and the place you chose to film at. It fit the video well.)
