Reverse Cinema

Immediately after getting our assignment we all decided as a group, before doing any conceptual work, we would all watch our favorite mafia/mobster movies. I though this would be a good idea because it would give us inspiration of the kind of camera techniques used. After watching my favorite movie snatch I knew that we should somehow incorporate a stop start motion that this movie had adopted. It gives the impression of a ruthless and untamed atmosphere which i believe is vital to what we want to portay within our mafia short film. Not only did we watch snatch but in my spare time i watched lock stock and two smoking barrels, another classic and also a personal favorite of my own. I loved the gritty nature of the film as it showed humanity at its worst. However the atmosphere of all these English films is very modern, loud and fast which is not what I want our final film to look like. I also watched sin city at home, and from this movie I had the idea to use its color filter. All the environment colors are washed out and dismal while particular colors are emphasized. Since red riding hood was the short story we were focusing on, it would be a brilliant idea to use this technique to use the color red as symbolism within our short film to enhance the idea of innocence.

Since nothing was getting done after watching our movies I decided to kick start the project by going to my local cemetery and filming some footage in order to show the group the idea I had in my head for the introduction of the short film. I put the footage together on adobe premier and thus, I was unanimously decided by the group to be the editor and soon to be many other rolls. This was exactly what the group needed as it gave us a starting point and from there we began to plan where and how we were going to record.

Our story is about a group of mafia men called 'the wolf pack.' After a  little girl is killed they gather to her funeral to mourn her death. Upon finding out the address of the man who killed her at a poker game they head out in seek of revenge. In the haste of the act they mistakenly shoot someone inside the hotel apartment where the man was apparently staying. Ironically it turns out that they shoot the little girl who was suppose to be dead. It turns out that an ex wolf pack member had faked her kidnapping and death in order to protect her from the gang life that she was exposed to. This conveyed the strong messages of red riding hood as it shows that innocence has been robbed from her. It also conveys the themes of rebirth as the men realize that the lifestyle they lead has lead them to rock bottom and evidently the death of someone they loved.

 

After much deliberation we finally put together a very brief story line that related to red riding hood in a very modern perspective. On our first day of filming we went to the graveyard on Symonds street to record our opening scenes. We decided to out and film regardless of having virtually no preparation as most of the group had a tight schedule they had to meet. Because it was so hard to find actors to act on particular days we decided that we ourselves would act in our film. However things began to fall into place as we developed the film over time. I felt as if we could have done a much better job of the film if we had taken the time to re shoot some scenes but since our main character was going overseas we were unable to capture what we truly wished to convey to the audience.
                            
                                    

On our second session of filming we went to Reuben's house to record the poker scene as he had a gambling table that we could use. We used a separate camera than the one we used to the cemetery that had a separate megapixel value, and once again, because the Yogi (our actor) was leaving the country the next day it made re shooting very hard. We also shot the kidnapping scene and the murder scene that same night. However, the person who was in charge  of bringing the storyboard forgot to bring it so we once again, had to re invent what we had created during studio to the best of our ability. All in all, it was very hard to edit because of the contrasting camera megapixels that we used. However i tried to use this to my advantage by exploring new and interesting layouts within adobe premier to mask how pixelated it was. An example of this was how I used smaller boxes to compress the resolution so it wasn't so obvious but also tried to maintain an artistic perspective. Overall, i think the idea was great, the story was great, but we should have used our storyboard to help convey the meaning behind what we were showing. We didnt want to create some cliche shortfilm to entertain, we also wanted to convey a message to the audience and have an impact.