Revision of The Boss's Shadow

 Rather then creating a entirely new story and narrative our group decided to build upon our midterm film and improve it. The title of our film is The Boss's Shadow. The original version established the core narrative, but our goal now is to refine cinematography, pacing, and tension using stronger genre conventions.

The original story centers on four characters: The Mafia Boss, the loyal right hand man, mafia member (hitman), and the jealous Mafia Member who seeks the power. The opening scene begun with three members seated at a park bench. The Boss assigns a task: disposing of a body at a bridge. This establishes hierarchy immediately through dialogue and blocking.

The disruption occurs when the jealous members privately suggests killing the Boss to gain power. This aligns with the crime genre convention of betrayal within the crime family. According to Todorov's narrative theory, the equilibrium is disrupted by ambition and suspicion.

The Right-Hand Man suspects wrong doing and spies on them as they dispose of the body. He follows them to a house, where the final scene occurs: a car slowly approaches the house after another car. You see the right hand man run to the garage. The screen cuts to black, followed by a single gunshot. The ending uses restricted narration and sound design to increase tension.

When we reshoot, the focus will be on strengthening cinematic techniques and a easier story line to follow for the audience.

- Low angle shots to emphasize authority

- Shallow depth of field to isolate characters 

- Low Key Lighting to increase secrecy

- Controlled pacing rather then a rushed dialogue

In the midterm version, the park location lacked strong visual dominance because it was shot with limited light control and during the day time. With the Sony a6400, we can change exposure and create stronger contrast to reinforce genre expectations.

The most important lesson we learned from classmates critiques and revisiting our concept is that the narrative alone does not create genre authenticity. While the story contains betrayal and hierarchy, the original film lacked visual control with camera shots and lighting. We want to make the storyline less confusing and more of a fluid plot. We plan to change locations and make some significant changes to our film keeping the main themes of corruption, and jealousy.

Midterm Film:

https://youtu.be/7Er2RNjweCI