Out of Ammo- Reflection

Our short film, "Out of Ammo", provided many experiences for my group and me. Everyone in our group was actively involved, so I don’t think there is a MVP in particular. When we started out, we planned Yousuf to be the director, Steven V. to be the cinematographer, Stephen N. to be the producer, and have all of us become actors. However, many things changed as we faced the challenges of producing the film. Eventually, I became co-executive producer, editor, make-up supplier, and actress. Yousuf was the director, actor (cameo), editor, and provided us his house to film in. Steven V. was executive producer, actor, editor, and provided a camera. Matthew and Stephen N. were the editors, actors, cinematographers, and provided props. We all had to share the roles and help each other out because it was extremely tough to do everything ourselves as novice filmmakers.

Personally, during the pre-production stage, it was a bit awkward for me because I didn’t know most of my group members and didn’t know some of their names. Because of this, I don’t think I was able to help plan the plot as much as I wanted to and interacted as much in the beginning. Also, as the only female in the group, I expected to be “bossed around”; however, things were much different as everyone was diligent in trying to get the movie finished. Overall, in the Production and Post-Production part of the filming, our group had great chemistry, and I am tremendously thankful I was able to work with my group members because I was able to make four new friends, who are all extremely sincere and hardworking.

The production stage proved to be a great challenge to our group. We used the school’s video camera to film the beginning scenes for our project, but when we played back the scenes, there were random horizontal, gray streaks across the film, which ruined it. Thankfully, Steven V. had his own video camera, and we were able to use it to film our project. However, less than a week the film was due, we tried to edit the film by connecting Steven’s video camera to the computer, but it wouldn’t connect for a couple of days since the computer couldn’t sense the camera’s driver. Steven V. eventually figured out a way to download all of the film we took, but the video had a time stamp and the quality was tremendously degraded and very “pixilated.” In the long run, we had to re-film the scenes with only a couple of days and used my Mac to edit the film.

The inspiration for our film came from the zombie apocalypse movies we watched in class. Usually, in these types of films, the humans prevail over the zombies in the end; however, in our movie, the zombies are smarter than the humans. Our film basically shows the zombies planning their attack on the humans. In between the planning, there are cuts in the scenes that show the actual attacks occurring against the humans, and show the lazy humans always just eating and playing video games. The zombies ultimately find the “weapon” that kills all humans through their many raids.

The first cinematic technique occurred in the establishing shot. In this shot, there was a close up on the map with zombies, and we zoomed out on it in order to show the long shot of the zombies and humans positioned strategically on a map. This technique allowed the audience to get an idea of the storyline. The second cinematic technique we used is a canted angle. We used this type of shot in the scene where the zombies first attack the guards. This shot was appropriate because it foreshadowed something dark that would happen to the humans. Third, we used a tracking shot when the human (me) went into the “Human Top Secret Training Center”. This shot was significant because it showed how lazy the humans were. Fourth, we used the camera in a first person perspective of a human in the last part of the film to show what the zombie will use toS destroy the humans. Last, we used a low angle shot whenever we filmed Stephen N. because he represented the leader of the zombies.

The different cinematic techniques used strengthened the film, but there were many weaknesses. After editing the movie, we came to realize that the overall storyline didn’t make sense when one watched it unless one had the basic summary of the film. This will most likely be the main problem when we screen it to the class. Also, there were some errors in continuity, and even though our movie is a zombie movie, it isn’t very frightening. My favorite scene in the film was all of the attack scenes because it was entertaining to film, and interesting to see the expressions of the neighbors who were passing by the house while we had on our face paint.

Next time I make a film, I will spend most of my time using a storyboard and writing out the entire script before filming. Before we finished writing the script, our group decided to start filming, but we ended up spending about 6 hours filming only two scenes because we kept on adding and removing lines from the unfinished script and we kept on changing the story line to try to make it more understandable. From this project, I learned that producing a film is a very challenging process. Before taking this class, I never knew anything about cinematic techniques, and didn’t realize that certain shots can create certain effects. Overall, this project was an unforgettable experience.