The Escape

The Escape Link:

http://youtu.be/TOQPUFe3JSg

Abstract Proposal

         For my project I will be creating a short action film. The film is entitled “The Escape”. In “The Escape” it opens with the female secret agent captured by an enemy agent. She is tied up in a chair. She slowly comes to consciousness. After looking around she then flashes back to how she gets to the room. She remembers being half conscious as he dragged her through the abandoned building and into a room. She then reaches up her sleeve and pulls out a blade.

         Following this, the enemy agent heads to the room to check on her. As she is cutting the rope, she hears him coming and pretends to be still unconscious. Once he sees she is still secure, he pulls out his phone to talk and closes the door, where she is hiding behind. She then sneaks up behind him, takes the rope and swings it around his head. She smacks him against both walls and then hits him with her able. She then walks a way into the distance as he lies there on the ground.

Production Log

         To start, during week one I created a concept. I originally wanted to do an action trailer, but I decided it would be best to do just one scene for what could be an action film. I then wrote the story proposal and created a storyboard for this proposal. During week two I created a shot list, a cast list, a prop list, and wardrobe list. When creating the shot list, I looked at all the shots I wanted and figured out how I wanted to shoot them.

         For instance, I decided whether or not I wanted to shoot certain shots in a wide shot, close up, or medium shot. As for the prop list, the two props I figured we would need were a rope and a blade. When comes to casting my crew and I had a lot of people at mind but ultimately we ended up casting Genesis as our female secret agent and Steve as our enemy secret agent because they played the role the best. One major way they convincingly played the role was with their wardrobe. I told them each to wear dark clothes because spies normally dress in black or dark clothing to camouflage themselves.

         Next, I went location scouting. My crew and I went to three buildings on campus. We looked at there basements because we knew we wanted some place dark, scary, and creepy. We decided on the basement of the Abe dorm. It had dark and long hallways and also creepy abandoned rooms with tore up furniture. Finally, once all this was done, during week four I with the assistance of my crew filmed the project. During the production process, I was the director and I also filmed. We filmed with two cameras. Joshua was also one of the camera guys on set. Before filming the first thing we did was makeup. Kara and myself designed the make up.

         Following this, Brad and I set up the lighting so that there would be dramatic shadows and everything would be very dark, yet still lit. Finally we began rolling and filmed the piece. We had many takes and did all the shoots from multiple angles. This film is a silent film. We didn’t use any sound other than ambient noise. Lastly, during week five I began editing. We shot this piece on a digital camera so all the files were .MTS files. Final Cut Pro, which is the program I used to edit does not read. MTS. Ultimately, I had to convert each of these files to .MOV files using Adobe encoder. Once I did this I went through all of my shots, and I chose the best takes and used my storyboard to edit this piece. In order to show flashbacks I put a unsharp mask filter on those shots. I then added royalty free music, which I downloaded from online. Once this was done, I watched the film and edited some more to clean up things. Finally, once I was satisfied I added titles and scrolling credits and exported the film.

Storyboard:

Self Evaluation

            During this project, I initially wanted to create an action trailer. This idea became condensed. I ended up taking footage from the action trailer I was creating a created a short action trailer. Initially, I started this project by creating a concept, and then creating the storyboard for it. Next I created the shot list, went looking for a location, collected props and began filming with a crew of six people. In this project I was the director of this scene. I also did some filming, to get the shot I wanted when my cameraman didn’t fully see the vision I had. My main camera guy however was Josh.

            In addition did the make up for the actors. In addition with the help of Brad I did the lighting for the scene. In order to get long shadows we had to adjust the barn doors and maneuver with the lights. In order to make the female agent look beaten up, I gave her a black eye with purple eye shadow and put black make up on her face to make her look like she had been dragged through the dirt. After the filming was done, I edited all of the footage and added music. I am very satisfied with the project as a whole.