To all the nay-sayers out there who insist that video will never, ever look as good as film, I say "Happy Birthday."

In spite of all its pixels, and even the compression I've subjected it to, it's far more pleasing to the eye than about 95 percent of student and independent films on film.

Because soap-opera style overlighting (the industry standard of student films) is just plain ugly, however much money you spent, whereas a cinematographer with a real sense of light can make a beautiful image out of ten pixels, let alone a few hundred thousand.

As for the subject matter, I don't usually go for sentimental stuff like this, and whenever I see a pregnant woman in a student film, warning bells go off: something terrible is going to happen. 

But this film is so well constructed, it took me along for the emotional ride in spite of myself.