"Exit Wounds"- Commentary

A. Rationale


The short film that my group and I created is called "Exit Wounds". Our working plan was to first create the treatment and script as a group. After creating the treatment and script, we planned out where and when we were shooting. The plot of our film was about a teenage boy and his younger brother who are the only ones left of their family and don't have much money to survive off of. The older brother wants his younger brother to have a good life, but the low income is favoring them. The older brother gets fired from his job and decides to take revenge of it and go back to his work and steal money from the safe. When he ends up getting caught, the little brother saw the whole thing. The older brothers desperation for a better life and more money leads to unhappiness in the younger brother. We wanted to try and create a film that could be also told through the sounds. We experimented with the suspense and emotional genre, lighting, sound, and  camera movements and different angles. The target audience for this film would definitely be teenagers and adults due to the understanding of the situations going on. I believe that this film was a good idea because it help reveals the struggle and low income that families, today, are still going through.

B. Commentary
1-3. My area of responsibility in the film was the editor. As editor, I had to make smooth cuts between shots and put all the music and shots in the correct order as best as possible so that the story would flow more easily. Also as editor, on site I had to make sure that the shots and camera angles were unique and that we got multiple angles of every scene so that there was different views to choose from when editing. Through the editing process, I ran into multiple problems with the audio. When uploading our first couple of scenes that we first shot, none of the audio came out. But when the audio did come out, it was synched together which made it more of a hassle. Also another problem I ran across in the editing process was the lighting in one shot. The lighting was a little dark but to the point where it was disturbing. In order to fix these two problems I got the group together and we came up with a plan. We decided to re-shoot the first couple scenes where the audio was all messed up and we made sure that the audio was coming on correctly while recording. When fixing the lighting, I just used a color correction/brightening tool to brighten the footage a little.

4-5. There was quite a few problems that arose during the actual filming process. One of the problems that we came across during the shooting was making sure our youngest actor (A.J.) would cooperate. He was uncooperative at times. He would either get super hyper and not settle down or he would be moody and not do the scenes correctly. There was times when we had to shoot a shot of his over and over again about 15 times until we got one that was somewhat decent because we knew we weren't going to get anything better then that. We came up with the solution of bribing him to cooperate. We bribed him with ice cream and money! Hey, at least it worked! Another problem we ran into was daylight. One of our shots has to look like it is early in the morning so we shot it around dusk time so it looked like the sun was rising. We had to rush a couple of the shots because it was getting darker and we needed it to look like the sun was rising and not setting. We fixed that problem by adding a little more lighting to the scene and worker faster through the shots.

C. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE FINISHED PROJECT

Script/Narrative/Story
a. The film definitely develops a clear story around the character that moves through 3 events: Liam and Christopher are alone and don't have a lot of money, Liam gets fired and steals, Christopher sees Liams actions and is upset. Through out these sequences of events, the story and characters develop emotions that relate to todays families. In conclusion of these events, we see the disappointment in Christopher that developed as Liams character changed because of the course of the events. 

b. This film gives an impression of a issue that is very big in todays society and economy. In this film, we see the problem arising of low income and no family and financial support. This film help shows the audience what is happening in todays society and that this is actually happening to people out there in our world right now. 

c. I do think that the actions and lines are consistently "in character" and appropriate to the background, motivations and personality of the characters portrayed. Nick P. does a good job of portraying the character of the older brother who takes over the job of being the head family member and the person who brings home the money. He does a good job of showing and expressing the emotions that the character "Liam" should be feeling through the course of the event of him getting fired and stealing. His own character can express the stress of developing a better life for one and how hard it may be to be happy without being desperate. 

d. I would say that through out this film there is a good amount of action really telling the story rather then dialogue telling the story. But some dialogue is useful when helping develop the characters actions. In the film Liam's action of stealing through desperation and anger from being fired helps show that he is in need of money even more now and that he feels like he doesn't have any more options to run to. But the dialogue when Liam's boss and him have the conversation about being fired helps develop the emotions in Liam's character that cause him to steal. 

e. I feel like the climax is unique and effective because it shows how one's emotions can take over the better of oneself and cause one to do bad things. In this story Liam's emotions rise as he gets fired as he is stressed about making his younger brother happy. He develops a sense of robbery in him and takes advantage of it rather then going and finding a different job. The climax of this film is when Liam is caught after he steals them money. But the real emotions step in when we see that Liam's little brother had been watching the whole time and we see a sad and hopeless look on his face as we can feel the pain he must be going through. 

Casting/Acting

a. The actors that we chose for the parts of Liam (older brother) and Christopher (Younger brother) are Nick P. and A.J. When selecting the actors we knew that had to look like they could be brothers and we happened to find two people that did have similar looks. I think that both of our actors had the appropriate personalities and physical attributes of the characters that they are portraying. Liam character needed to be a teenager, which Nick is, and Christopher needed to be a young boy, which A.J. is.
b. I believe that our actors portrayed their roles in a totally believable manner. They did the lines the way they were told to. And they added emotions to each line. When they needed to be angry, they were. When they needed to be sad, they put some tears on. These actors were one of the most easiest actors to work with. They listened and got everything down in a proper amount of time and manner.
c. The actors definitely have distinct personalities that give each character a clear and distinct identity. Both the actors had personalities that were open and wanted to go far in life, which helps develop the story because Liam wants to give Christopher a better life but because of the struggles for money, it makes it hard to do so.
d. Our characters were definitely capable of involving the audience emotionally. Nick did a good job off portraying a mad older brother who was figity when in a rush to do a bad deed. Also A.J. did a good job of expressing emotions of concern and disappointment that helped shows the audience how Liams struggle and decisions affect Christopher in all way and forms. As a crew member and an audience member, I feel that we do care about what happens to them in the end. This is because we see the struggle for money everyday in our society and now we see an experience that is seen through the crew members eyes. 

Music and Effects

a. The background music doesn't really ever inappropriately call attention to itself. This is because the music and effects used helps express the emotions that are being portrayed in the film. It helps bring a more emotional theme to the screen and to the audience. 

b. The music is definitely loud enough to the point where it is at a appropriate level but not a over whelming level. The music is at a low level to the point where you can still hear it and develop the emotions while still hearing the dialogue. 

Titles and Credits/Editing 
a. The titles and credits are appropriate for the nature of the production because it helps shows that there is going to be scenes with dark lighting in it.
b. The credits do remain legible on the screen for a good amount of time, but I feel like they could of been drawn out a little longer so that it develops more emotions and feelings towards the characters. 

c. All of the cuts are motivated and are in harmony with the pace and nature of the subject matter. The use of fade in/fade outs helps draw attention to a lapse of a period of time. It also helps draw out the emotion in a scene into the next scene.
d. The visual perspective is maintained throughout the film. We tried not to confuse our audience as much as possible because I feel like our beginning scene is a little rusty. We stayed on one side of the 180 line the whole time while shooting this film. We payed close attention to that.
e. The shot selection follows what the audience expects, wants, and/or needs to see at each moment. When Liam gets fired, they want to see some sort of rebel that you can see building up inside him and the audience sees that he goes back to his works and steals money from there.  

f. Yes both technical and general continuity jump cuts been avoided.
g. I feel like for the most part, yes the editing is fluid. There is one spot that I can recall on that is not as smooth as it should be, but because of the time thats what had to be done for the time being. My favorite scene to watch is the robbery scene because the cuts are fast and the camera movement is fast which helps draw the emotion and suspension to the audience and to the screen. I felt like the most difficult edit to do was the beginning scene because of all the problems we ran across with it. But once we got the new footage in, it was a little easier. Also the first shot of the film is not as smooth as I wanted it to be and I wish I could go back and fix it, but we learn from our mistakes so that we can make the next film even better. 

Cinematography

a. Our cinematographer really made sure we had an excessive amount of camera shots so that in the editing process it made it more fun to pick different shots that looked better then others. It also helped me have a bigger range of shots to add to the film to make it more unique. For the most part, I think our camera movements weren't that shaky and were on key. 

Production Design/Mis En Scene

a. The set design that we came up with is definitely appropriate for the time period of the film. This is because it is set in the present. In our present time, there is an economic fall which is shown in this film and how hard it is to maintain financially happy. We didn't create many sets but we did rearrange some sets. We shot in San Bruno and San Francisco. 

b. The location lighting was actually pretty well lit for the most part. But we had to add some light for the robbery and when Liam gets caught after he has done the crime. In the beginning scene it was all natural light but for the rest of the time, we had to add lighting here and there to help portray the time of day and the mood of the scene and characters. 

Overall I felt this film was good. I felt it was a success even though I know it could of been better. There is always room for perfection. We may not have envisioned it the way it came out to be, but it came out pretty good from the looks of it. I am also proud of all the crew members who were always working and never had nothing to do because it made my job as an editor more easy to have others working. Also I am also proud of the actors and how well they preformed and portrayed their characters! I hope you enjoy our film "Exit Wounds".