Critique my short exercise for cinematography class?

[Duncan Trevithick]

I'm a second year undergraduate student studying film production in England. This semester I've just started to specialise in cinematography. One of the exercises we were given was to shoot a short scene with the following brief:

 

Warm low evening light dimly lights the room. A character pours a cup of tea, picks up a letter, opens it, puts on their glasses. They go over to a table lamp and switch it on to read the letter.

 

Here's what I ended up doing: https://vimeo.com/40769245

 

I'd be really grateful if you could give me some constructive criticism.

[Mei Lewis]

What's she got painted on her forehead and are those fake freckles???

[Adrian Sierkowski]

A little too bright for my tastes, I think. I'd've liked to have gone darker with some light spilling in from the hallway and then, boom, when she turns on the table lamp, have it light up her face. Of course you'd want a dim base-level ambiance prior; but that's just me.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about the makeup. It's cute, I supposed, in a Raggety Ann/Andy type way; but I kept staring at it personally.