Finals Week (2007)
Synopsis: Two college students become entangled in a web of murder and blackmail while studying for finals one evening.
Cast:
Crew:
Tech Specs: 15min/NR/B&W
Other Links:
Matt's Thoughts:
EDITING IN FEBRUARY/DRAFTS!
It's February, cold outside, the film is in a rough shape that needs alot of polish. It's a feeling I know very well after doing 15 or so films like this one.
But it's getting there.
The evoloution of this film does make for some good tidbits, however.
The idea was to shoot just a basic "three people in a room" type short. So I started writing and cranked out a first draft, which had everyone dying in the end when the apartment building where all the action takes place explodes.
I sent the first draft to several friends and the general comment was the script starts out good, then just turns into a bloodbath. Plus a few of the character's actions were not believable in terms of the situation in the story.
Thus I started rewriting -- draft #2 transformed things into a more devious-scheming-ish sort of plot. I liked it, though there were still problems with a few things.
Draft #3 came about after we held auditions. I tried to mold the characters around the actors we cast in the roles to make a better fit.
THE SHOOT/FINISHING THE BEAST
Shooting went like a mini-marathon over a day and and half and was a test to see how many complex storyboard shots I could bag in a limited amount of time.
Mid December rolled around and started the longest post-production I've ever worked on a film. This was due to several techincal issues, including an attempt to convert all the footage to my laptop with no avail. (this wasted two months)
The music took way longer than expected with no less than three attempts to get it recorded right (third's a charm, right?) but Leslie, the composer, survived it and I think her score is rather brilliant.
So in the end, I'm buring DVD's of the final film and thinking "never understimate a even a project of the smallest proportion". Lesson learned, haha.
Images from the film: