Student Short Film: Let's Get Murdered

This project has greatly improved my skills in communication as well as my understanding of technology such as the boom microphone and different LED Lighting Kits to get the best shots ever since the beginning of my filmmaking career. I feel as I have definitely honed my skills and my understanding of technology.

A teenage girl with draining depression is sick of living her torturous life and asks her murder-obsessed friend to help her get murdered.

Synopsis:

Charlotte is a sad 14 year old girl who despises her life and everyone around her because her only friends went to a different high school, her dad left and her mom doesn’t care about her. Everyday she sits alone at lunch and cries alone while writing her deep feelings into her diary. Until one day there was a new kid at her lunch spot. The boy’s name was Atticus and he is obsessed with murder and gore. They meet there everyday and as each day went by Charlotte became more and more enticed by the idea of escaping her boring life by being romantically murdered. And because of that Charlotte asks Atticus to help her get murdered and the two set off and go up to every no good they can. Will she succeed in her task, or will she end up living miserably for the rest of her life.

Crew: Director: Gavin McCaffrey - Directed the whole film as well as being main supporting actor for the film. Helped Canela with casting as well. ​Producer: Canela Larrea - Created the story for the film and scouted locations. Helped with casting along with Gavin. Cinematographer: Kylie Westergaard - shot the short film

Reflection: Let's Get Murdered is a dark comedy film inspired by the likes of Heathers, I'm Not a Serial Killer, The End Of The F***ing World, and elements seen in Donnie Darko. I was the key grip of the film crew. I was in charge of setting up equipment, setting up lighting for the shots, and operating the boom microphone.

Some of my favorite shots from the film were:

- The medium shot at the Surf Protest - The medium shot of the ghost-busting scene due to the excellent choice of lighting. - The medium close up of Charlotte and Atticus during their conversations with a matching pink lighting. - The close up of Charlotte entering her new house.  ​- The extreme close up of Atticus pulling props out of his suitcase. - The medium close up of the undercover cop.

My Contribution:

I operated as Key Grip for this production. I was in charge of carrying the equipment as well as lighting each shot with the LED lighting kit. I feel as if I did my job of getting the best lighting possible in order to fully represent the meanings of each shot as they go along with the story we were trying to tell. I really felt like the lighting of each shot represented the type of situations that said characters were facing. I also contributed by operating the boom microphone. All of which I did not have experience in, but this really helped me to grow in my diversity for filmmaking.

Unfortunately, we ran into major problems. The worst of these was when our original actor for Atticus Finch canceled on us for the shoot. He took a paying gig the week before our second weekend of filming. Just when he was about to help us out, he gets into a car accident and cannot film with us. This resulted in our director Gavin McCaffrey taking the role of Atticus Finch for our re-shoots. This could have been detrimental to our short film had Gavin not done such a great job at playing the role of Atticus.

The short film turned out a lot better than I expected. Although, the editing did seem a bit choppy and there were a few inconsistencies to the film. If we had more time, this would have easily been an OCFF winner due to the amazing storytelling and genius writing behind Let's Get Murdered. 

Working with my crew was great. We could have had much better communication skills, as we had many scheduling issues and even hat to cancel some days of filming. But, we were able to bond and get to know each other better than we ever have beforehand. 

The locations we found for this film was the best planned part compared to other student short films we had seen in class.

I feel that as a filmmaker, I could do such great things if I put my mind to it. I cannot slack off and I need to have as much and possibly even more passion for my work as I did for helping out with this short film. Overall, I hope you enjoy it.