Prey

This is my final film done for New York Film Academy's one month digital film making course.

From the very beginning this production was plagued with problems. I checked out the camera equipment on a Friday evening. Unfortunately, I didn't even have an idea of what to shoot, let alone a script . By Saturday afternoon, I had everything down on paper, but I couldn't find actors. I asked my friends to help out even though none of them are actors. On the first night we shot in a hotel. While waiting for my actress to arrive(four hours late) I tried my first attempt at a neck slash. It came out horribly, but we had to press on if we were going to make it to the second location in time. Then, after getting five shots in the can, the camera died. No amount of fooling around with it would bring it back to life. My AD had to go home by then and we were left with a paid for hotel room and next to nothing to show for it.

The next day I brought the camera back and switched it out. I gave it to my AD as he had his own film to shoot which I could no longer help him with. I borrowed camera equipment from a friend and began shooting all over again the next day. The neck slash came out much better and we even found a better hotel to shoot in. Everything seemed to be finally going well until I captured the footage. EVERY shot was grainy. I didn't notice it while filming because the cameras viewfinder was insanely small. I also used a 35mm adapter so I assumed any grain I saw was coming from that. It wasn't until after that I realized the gain switch was set to high the entire time(Ill never make that mistake again.

I eventually learned to live with the grain and all the other issues, but the sound needed to be fixed. There was no way it would be done by the time I had to show it in class, so it screened with all its audio issues intact. I eventually got the footage over to my buddy who is an audio engineer. He was really busy at the time, so he couldn't work on in until recently.

Finally, I received a final mix of the audio track. However, when I went to sync it, I discovered that the original video files were missing from my Final Cut project. A day of searching later, I recovered everything.

This is the final edit of Prey. Please enjoy, even though some problems still persist.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Prey
• Tim
• Brooks
• Justin
• Austin
• Tiffany
• Tabickman
• NYFA
• New
• Jersey
• York
• Holiday
• Inn
• Hotel
• Slash
• SFX
• Makeup
• Dan
• Montero
• Joseph
• Meli
• Rape
• Murder
• Bar
• Last
• Call
• Beer
• Serial
• Killer
• Knife
• Blood
• Bathroom
• Bed
• Psycho
• Maniac
• John
• Jane
• Doe
• Prime
• 15
• Wanaque
• Haskell
• Canon
• XH-A1
• Final
• Cut
• Pro
• Suspense
• Short
• Film
• Digital
• Academy
• Latex
• Special
• Effects
• syxxgage
• syxx
• gage

[HunnyBunchFilms]

For all the trouble you went through getting this short done, none of it shows. I read the description first and I expected a train wreck but this is a good short. I've been in class where people have said they had great days shooting but their footage was awful. Its like the saying goes "Art from adversity". Your film is short, sweet, and to the point. Congrats dude.

[merc45]

Good job