First time working with video - critique? *school application

Hey guys,
Right now I'm in the process of applying to the University of Victoria's visual arts program. I plan on studying photography and video art. Part of the application is to put together a portfolio consisting of a video and five pieces of art. I have the fives pieces down pat, so yesterday and today I took a stab at putting together the video. I've never spent much time working with moving images but I did my best. As I'm sure you can guess this was all filmed on a DSLR. It's such an obvious style, I dont want my footage to be so easily recognizable. How do I get away from that cliche SLR look? Ahh anyways, I digress. I put this together with my limited knowledge in video - I edited it with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Please, tell me what you like, what you dont like, and any tips you might have for me when working on future projects.

Note: I downloaded After Effects with aspirations to do some work on this video in there, but after an hour of tip-toeing around that program with zero knowledge I gave up. Being able to do proper colour correction and having more creative control in the final product appeals to me, maybe I'll start watching some tutorials of that program, it just seemed so overwhelming at first.

Cheers guys, and thanks for any words you have



http://vimeo.com/20575991
Short little film documenting what will probably be Abbey's last few months. Abbeysi my 13 year old chocolate lab, and everyday it becomes more and more evident that she's fading. She was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago and since then we've been injecting her twice daily with insulin to keep her going. Slowly but surely Abbey is loosing muscle mass in her back legs and she can no longer really support her weight, hence the little grippy booties she wears. This is a final portrait of Abbey's life.

Equipment used:
Canon 60D
Tamron 17-50 f/2.8
Canon 50 f/1.8