Thursday, April 13, 2023

FINALE.

 Here we are, the last plot of this blog, and the last post of my high school journey with AICE Media. This project has been filled with trials and tribulations, but I got through it at the end of the day. In this post, I will be presenting the main components of the AICE Media A-Level short film project. 


Short Film "Demise Of Man":

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JaKGwRA7HRtxkx7nritUkgdOJNlrBmH_/view?usp=sharing

Postcard Film Festival Promo:

 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Y7T0KcEYNAVXH7uEvhoSIyW7bibMiN9I?usp=share_link  

Instagram Page: 

Demise Of Man Short Film (@demiseofmanofficial) | Instagram







CR!

 The short film, Demise Of Man, revolves around gang leader Draco as he attempts to obtain an order of guns to ship to a threatening syndicate. The film is set in the gangster/crime genre, containing many of its typical elements such as drug abuse, violence, and general crime. From the start, the film was an ambitious idea, but I took it upon myself to make that ambition count. 

Still from Demise Of Man

As I started the idea of doing a gangster short film, my idea was to make the gang look lower to the middle class: long-sleeved collar shirts that look disorganized, no jewelry or excessive accessories, and immaturity in terms of characterization. From the start, I wanted to do a gangster story that focused on the dilemma of one man and his demise in the gangster business. I thought a more typical, middle-class look fit the character “Draco” more than the overly luxurious look seen in many popular gangster films. 

In more specific representation terms, I showed the mobster-gang/mafia environment in a pretty stereotypical way. Certain story elements such as the excessive use of cigarettes, mention of weapons, use of cursing, and the characterization of the ensemble culminate into a typical portrayal of the gangster-mob social group. Previous showcases of mobster/mafia gang films display the story in a similar way that I’m presenting, so my short film “Demise Of Man” goes off these stereotypes heavily. Typically, many post-modern productions are now working towards challenging stereotypes or challenging tropes. However, one of my main goals in this production is to go off the stereotypes set in previous portrayals and present them in my way, and I think that’s what I accomplished well. 


My film consists of many aspects that create a strong foundation of “branding” instilled in my production. Firstly, the opening sequence of the film already establishes a general brand outlook. A man holding a cigarette walks into his members fighting and tells them to stop and gather around for a meeting in which he reminds them of the shipment of guns and prohibits the use of cocaine, with a thumping rock score adding to the chaos of the opening. In just the first minute, audiences gain a sense of the brand my short film outputs. It’s raunchy, aggressive, manly, shocking, and generally chaotic with a sense of mischief induced. Those who see themselves as having any of these traits should adore what this film has to offer them. My target audience is mostly leaning toward men as it is a full-man cast that’s part of a mobster, something that teenagers and young adults idolize. Throughout the film, the general gist of branding continues through excessive cursing and drug use, something my target audience would enjoy. 


Other than the film, the most representative element of my production is my social media page on Instagram. @Demiseofmanofficial is my main source of reaching out to my targeted audience of ages 14-30 as well as providing them with content that gives off the general themes my short film will express. As mentioned in my blog, my Instagram contributes much to the branding of “Demise Of Man”, I post reels showing off the characters, behind the scenes, and the best bits of the cinematography in my short. Overall, the brand of my short film that comes off my Instagram gives audiences characters that most people may find “cool” and dominant, as well as those who enjoy simplicity in chaos, which is something my short film does so often. By doing this, “Demise Of Man” attracts more to its intended audience and expands on that. 



Instagram Page

My postcard and poster go off the brand quite a bit as well, the simple, yet audacious pose of my character smoking a cigarette with the back of a blue sky provides my audience with an elegant poster, and those who’ve watched the film, know how impactful that scene is in the wider scope. I also had my friend Joey Coste in the class assist me in the poster, gave me a cleared idea for my postcard. The back of my postcard includes one of the most iconic lines, with a still from the very first shot of the film, again, attracting those in the film festival area to watch something ambitious and chaotic. 


Cover of Postcard


Continuing, my research has also been a huge factor in establishing my products the way I wanted it to be depicted. I researched popular gangster movies and TV Shows such as “Reservoir Dogs”, “The Godfather”, and “Peaky Blinders” to aid me in producing my short film, and to make sure I was going in the right direction that fits my genre. On that note, I also looked into many gangster film productions' Instagram pages to gain some inspiration, I did go my own way with Instagram, but I always remembered the previous pages I looked back upon and I garnered some ideas from them. As stated before, my products utilize nearly all the conventions seen in the gangster crime genre. From guns and cigarettes to talks about syndicates and betrayal, these ideas are played around with at a very high rate in gangster films in the media. 


Still from Peaky Blinders

Still from Reservoir Dogs


In terms of planning, I faced many roadblocks in going towards a successful production. I had a last-minute location change and a last-minute cast change which ultimately changed the scope of my production. Also, I never anticipated how hard it is to direct and star in the same film, especially with such a large cast, so that took getting used to. Speaking about the cast, it was very hard to work with people’s schedules, especially since they were days filming where I would need at least 6 people on set, and this caused many delays in filming. 


All in All, my ten-week journey has been quite eventful, with multiple stories, cast, and location changes, it all came together (somehow). Taking the time to step back and reflect on the whole process has shown that even despite the challenge, one must always make ends meet, and this is my way of doing so. 










Sunday, April 9, 2023

Social Media Update!

 Hey!, I'm glad to announce, that the social media page has been going GREAT. I've posted some quality reels and pictures that gained some traction on the account, I reposted many of the posts as well which helped gained the attention and following of the account. My posts include cinematography from the film, clips from the film, behind the scenes, and some jokes which I intend to post more of in the coming week or so. 

Here's how the page is looking...


This is the cover of the page, I've posted 6 times and gained some followers on the account. I made sure to clarify that it is an AICE MEDIA project and not a professionally done short film since our teacher told us to add that sense of clarification so that companies don't contact us with serious inquiries. Additionally, I made sure to tag myself in the bio just in case anyone was wondering who the creator behind this film is. I've garnered 12 followers on this account with dozens of likes on my posts, the followers include my cast members as well as some of my school friends. 

Moving on to the posts...




Here are two reels I extracted from footage from the short film itself. The first one is a dramedy clip from the one-shot I filmed, as Draco gathers his team around, he reminds them to do no cocaine so they can stay on task. The post was received quite well since a lot of my friends liked my acting in it as well as the humorous aspect of it. Furthermore, I posted the first look of the villain in the story, my friend Joey who's playing Luca. I cast him very well in this story as he does a great job in the role, this clip is when his boys have my character (Draco) pinned down and Luca threatens me, I thought this shot in particular was a pretty showing of Joey's character, he also acted very well in this and people loved it! a friend of mine even left some comments because of his performance. 

Here are the other two posts...




I posted the gorgeous cinematography I got on the day we shot the execution scene, it's good to give my audience a glimpse of how the film would look visually to engage them with the work. I also posted the BTS, most of it just shows my cast members having fun, as well as the walk involved in shooting at the place we went to for that last scene. 

All in All, this may be the last time I'll post on this blog about social media, but as time goes on, the page will keep running with similar content, and then eventually the product will be posted on here as well. 




Thursday, April 6, 2023

THE ONE SHOT IS DONE. FILMING IS DONE.


Hey!, I am so happy right now, I FINALLY got the one shot filmed. It was a HASSLE getting everyone to meet up at one place at the same time, but I finally did it, with some cast changes and some talks to people, I got the shot done that signals the end of the filming process. 

More about the filming process, firstly I was able to get the scenes with the character Luca out of the way since they were available on Monday, I got the scenes with him and my two friends Manny and Santiago out of the way. They came out pretty decently. 




Stills from the Luca and Draco confrontation scene. 

Two days later, is when the magic shot happened. I was able to get the minimum amount guys required for the shot to be successful, and after multiple days of delaying the shot, I was finally able to get it. I had a cast of 4 extra people that I was able to gather for the shot. My friends Yoav Dahan, Jack Sussmann, Martin Rosario, and Zach Simpson were the 4 members of my gang, with Noa Batista doing the cinematography and the one behind the camera for the one-shot. Here are some stills just from that one shot itself. 





I'm very glad about how this all went, after a long struggle due to location changes and cast availability, I was able to finish the filming process and now I can start editing the project. 





Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Filming Story!

 Hey! I just came back from shooting the final fake execution scene of my project! and let me tell you, it went great! Shooting this scene was definitely a long journey, could honestly just make a film about how we got to the place to film in the first place (it was that enthralling). I'll go through it...

Going into this shoot, I knew the place where I was going to film this was in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I mean, it wasn't traceable on the map apps on my iPhone, and it was kind of in a sketchy area.

Map my friend drew to get to the location

The closes place to the lot was this community called Isles of Weston, and then, we had to go past the community and park on a patch of grass outside this place called the "sokka Buddhist reservation", getting to the place and then guided all of my crew there was a HASSLE. However, there were barricades on the road we were trying to pass by, and we had to walk the ENTIRE way in scorching South Florida heat, the place was completely abandoned as well. My crew DESPISED this, I mean, I was really getting it that day for taking them in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Furthermore, as we approached this field, we started filming; I think the shots we got were worth the trip there. 



The Art of Cinematography. 


The shots came out really well at the end of the day and we got some GREAT footage. However, my crew didn't think it was worth it, especially since they had to drive and walk while it was extremely hot, but hey, we got the shot. 

All in All, it was a pretty successful filming day, now all I have to get is that one-and-a-half-minute tracking shot, and then I'm done with filming. 





Sunday, April 2, 2023

Filming didn't go to plan.....

 Ok so, I was planning on filming today, but a lot of things went wrong, let me explain.

So, the warehouse I was supposed to film in (Edy's Ice Cream Warehouse) didn't let me use their space to film, they said they'll let me know a while back when I emailed them, but they replied the other day saying I'm not allowed to film there because operations are closed for now and no one's currently working in the warehouse. Now, I'm planning to film the "warehouse" scene in an open, indoor space at my school, additionally, I have a couple teachers in mind to ask for usage of the office scenes. 

me when Edy's ice cream said I couldn't film.

Additionally, I tried to salvage the day by attempting to film the last scene of the short (execution-betrayal) scene, but my actors weren't available, even though I did find a PERFECT spot to shoot, but sadly, my friends just couldn't make it. However, on the coming Monday, I'm shooting the office scenes with my friend Joey Mejia (who will be playing Luca) and we'll get that done. On Tuesday, right after drama class, I'll gather my friends for the scene the chaotic opening scene and the scene where Draco opens the AR box to see it's empty and bursts into a rage.  Then, the closing execution scene will also be filmed on that day after leaving the school campus.

That's the plan that should be set in motion, hopefully all goes well so I can start editing soon!

Thursday, March 30, 2023

SCRIPT POST!

 Hey!, so here I am, I'm finally making the long-awaited script post, I put a lot into this script. So here's me showing my work off and explaining some of the plot details as we go along.




In this scene, Luca (the name of the syndicate leader) enters his office uninvitedly and questions him regarding the status of the shipment, Draco lets him know that the shipment will be arriving in a week, Luca becomes infuriated and tells Draco that his business is at risk of complete collapse, as well threatening to execute him if the shipment doesn't fall through. Draco becomes stumbled by this and is shaken beyond belief. 

                                            


Leading up to this scene, Draco enters the office and sees all his gang members beaten up, supposedly due to the other syndicate, Draco climbs over his gang members to see the status of his ARs, he opens the box to see no weapons, just an empty box. Due to this, he rages at the members of the gang since it was their task to have the ARs on the go. Now, he hints that he may walk away from the business and that he may not even be alive to see the world much longer. 


Leading up to this scene, Draco goes back to his office where he sees Luca sitting in his chair, and they take him out to an empty field where he'll be executed. Before his eventual death, he takes one last drink, looks up at the sky, and has a little goodbye monologue. After kneeling down to what seemingly is a shot to the head death, a member who betrays Luca shoots him instead and lets him go, sparing his life since another syndicate contacted him stating that there's a job for Draco in which he'll be contacted. After Draco walks away, the camera points to a blank sky and fades to the title. 

So yeah, that's the story. I love the little arc the character Draco goes through, and I like my plot twist ending quite a bit. I cannot wait to finally start filming this coming Sunday. 



FINALE.

 Here we are, the last plot of this blog, and the last post of my high school journey with AICE Media. This project has been filled with tri...