Escaped

Escaped- Short Film

Overview

The scope of this project was to create a final short film that was 3-5 minutes long, and somewhere in the film we had to incorporate a water bottle, a hat, a source of light, and the words "lights out". We got the freedom to come up with our own groups, and from there we had to put our creative minds together. I was in a group with Trey, Makenzie, and Katie after we got paired up we needed to agree on a story, get actors, and story board. We decided our film would be called Escaped. The film shows James (Trey) touch a cube at the very beginning which puts him in a simulation. When he wakes up in simulation he finds Derek(Geoff), who guides James throughout the film. The film is all explained when he touches the cube again, and remembers how everything happened in a flashback. 

Pre-Production

After our group came up with the concept of the story it was time to start story boarding. Katie is a quick drawer and story boarder, so Trey, Makenzie, and I informed Katie on what shots to use, and the story because she was gone when we came up with the concept. After the story board was complete, Trey and I started working on the script. There is very little dialog in the film, so when script writing we had to make sure that whenever the actors did talk it advanced the story forward. Our group made the decision the film outside of school, which was a risk that we were willing to take. We set the date to film on Sunday, May 3rd.

May 3rd: Filming

Ernie Miller Park at 4 p.m we met each other; ready to film our final project. We headed into the woods looking for a place to film the opening scene. About 1 mile into Ernie Miller we found the perfect location. We had filmed around half of our film then we ran into a big issue. OUR SD CARD RAN OUT OF SPACE. Fortunately, Geoff, one of the actors was willing to run home and grab his laptop, so we could take some clips off the SD card. Around 5:30 p.m he returned, and we imported the clips onto the laptop. Now, we had to worry about the sun setting, and the film lightening being off. We finally reached the end of Ernie Miller ( 4 miles in) where we filmed our closing scene. 

May 6th: Filming 

It was time to film essentially, the most important scene of our film. This is the scientist scene where the whole simulation and cube are explained. We called Geoff out of class, so he could come act. We filmed the scene and went to watch them back. At 2:50 when watching them on the computer, there was no audio. The next day we needed to re-film, but our actor, Geoff was sick. We had make-do and film without him. 

Post-Production

Fortunately, my group had a 1 1/2 weeks to edit because we filmed outside of school. Finding the perfect music is essential for any short film. Personally I spent a day searching for music, and sound effects on ismfilms.com. In Final Cut Pro I went through the clips and organized them, cut, color and audio corrected them. I met the time requirements and imported my film into youtube. 

In the End...

Overall, I was very happy with the end result of my film. Our group met all the deadlines, and even though we had many things go wrong all we had to do was laugh it off and move forward. I am so glad Trey, Makenzie, and I were in a group together because the film would not have been as successful without any one of them. We all contributed in some way. Trey directed and acted, Makenzie filmed and acted everything, Katie drew the storyboard, and I filmed, visualized the filming spot, and acted. I hope you enjoyed the film Escaped!