AICE Media Studies Blog, Short Film

The criticism I received was constructive. The film did not fit the entire screen, so I was given instructions on how to go about doing so. We were also given the suggestion that one of our characters should jump into his car rather than open the door, this would add to the thrill of the action scene. This will however require re shooting, and may not be possible due to complication with the car. I was also told to enhance the color, but this had already been done to the maximum and would be impossible.

Some of the technologies we used include iMovie to edit the first cut. It was in iMovie where we created the original opening credits. We then edited the film some more in Adobe Premiere Pro to add in establishing shots, and to fix the framing of one shot. Adobe After Effects was then used to create the new and improved credits sequence. From there we added animations to title cards making them fade and crawl. For the physical filming, we used a smartphone’s camera.

One skill that vastly improved was my scheduling skills. At first, we planned to have a much larger cast, and a different location. However most cast members have jobs, and some could only be in town for a few days. Due to this we lost some actors along the way, and it was also because of this that we lost access to our original setting idea. This was because it was on one of the actor’s property, however he was not available for filming at the time. This all taught me much about scheduling and created large improvements. Another skill I learned from this was improvisation. After we couldn’t film at the planned location, I did some quick looking around my neighborhood for another spot. With our neighbor’s consent we filmed at a shed across the street from my house. Also with the lack of actors, I had to do some quick rewrites of the original script. I was also introduced to the editing process from working with my partner Sam. Through this I learned much in the post filming process....

Our film engages with what would most likely be a young male audience. This is not to say that women would not be interested in such a movie, but due to the cast, it may be most appealing to those like the actors themselves. This is because it would allow them to relate to the characters, and possibly see themselves in the movie. As of the opening 100% of the cast is younger men, although with a full movie there would obviously more characters and audience groups represented. To be advertised there are several different strategies to take. To appeal to a younger crowd, we may try to video game promotions. This has been done before with games such as Payday 2, was they had in game characters and items from such movies like John Wick. Another demographic that may be interested in the overarching theme of the movie, gambling, is those who play such games. Online adds on “gaming” websites, or posters in a casino may attract attention of another interested crowd. We will of course have se...

I tried to follow the typical conventions of an opening for a crime thriller. This included some colloquial dialogue, the implications of illegal activities, and a sense of tension. A convention for almost all movies that we challenged however was the process of dragging out the opening credits for the entire scene. Instead of doing this, we had them start in stop in a quick manner. We did this with the goal that this would get people to focus on the dialogue and the actions of the actors, rather than our own credits. We followed the convention of placing the title at the end of the scene to create a memorable and interesting shot so that the title of the film would be remembered well.   The social group we aimed to portray was that of criminals or possible gang members. In addition, some of the character’s nicknames imply that they are Italian. This would portray the social group of the Italian Mafia as well, which has been very popular in crime films. This social group wou...