Short Film CR

 

      A common element that my group’s short film Possessed took part in was the representation of a certain social group and social issue(s). In our piece of work, we primarily represent the social group that is teenagers/ young adults who are just bored looking for an adventure. All four of our characters that follow through our story are all around the same age, 16 – 17. It so happened to be this social group because our group collectively decided that we were going to be the ones who participated as actors and due to us falling within that age group and is who we thusly represent. However practically anyone could be put in our characters shoes and reacted to the peculiar experience just like our young characters did. A couple of social issues are clearly represented in our short as well such as peer pressure and unity. Our character Ava was extremely hesitant and skeptical about entering the mysterious abandoned house, but her friends peer pressured her into coming inside and she didn’t feel comfortable enough to say no due to the pressure she felt from her friends. If this issue wouldn’t have happened, then the horrific mess they encountered could’ve been avoided. Unity was heavily represented as well. Without Morgan and Jake coming together to figure out what had occurred with the mirror and Ava then the secret might’ve never been revealed, and they wouldn’t of been able to save their friend Ava. This shows just how crucial teamwork can be and what a difference it makes.

     When creating our movie package products: our short, social media, post cards etc. we developed all of these for the sake of our brand. We wanted all of them to connect to the idea of a teenage horror film. A big way we did this was in the first presentations of our movie. In our post card, we decided to put photos of our main character Ava in the moments of her possession. When the incident first occurred with the mirror and after her destructive actions have already unfolded. This creative decision  was made because that is the main event of our film and is really on brand with what our movie that because of this, is named Possession. Another main element that we chose to represent that we used for branding was the old creepy mirror. This image of a mirror is everywhere in our marketing and appears like that to get it across that it plays a major role in our film that is horror. We used cliché lighting, fonts, and music that we were all connected and on brand so that it was clear to all of our audiences.

     A significant component that my group and I kept in mind when creating our AICE Media short film, was to ensure that it somehow engages with the audience that we are targeting, because at the end of the day that is who we are selling our product to so we want them to feel as involved as possible. We achieved this goal in a couple of different moments throughout our short film. For instance, several of our camera shots from start to finish are trailing shots from the front or behind. The purpose of doing this was to allow the viewer to follow right along with the characters, as if they were actually with them in the haunted house. We also incorporated a Point Of View camera shot in the scene of my character, Alex, right before she is attacked by her friend Ava. In this particular clip it shows Ava from Alex’s view as Ava’s hand intensely goes to grab her neck. This utilization allows for the audience to experience that same intensity and shock as our character Alex did. Our film Possessed also engages with the audience by having some diversity in the character’s personality. Some more skeptical than the others, some more brave and adventurous than the others, and some more intuitive than the others. With this variety it allows for an opportunity for the audience to have a character that they could possibly relate with somehow based on their personality and therefore builds a connection between them and that character. We wanted our viewers to feel connected to our work and that’s exactly how we did so.

    Each genre of film has its own individual set of clichés and conventions. Before starting such a major project like ours, we wanted to make sure to conduct thorough research on our short film’s genre: Horror. We researched several other horror movie packages to deepen our understanding of the conventions that make up the kind of film we want to make. We researched older and newer horror films and took ideas and styles from both that we thought would fit for us. Doing this intense research heavily influenced our own horror movie package in several ways. It is cliché for horror movies to have striking, gruesome, or eerie titles at the start of their film and that was a major cliché we thought was important to stick with, so we used this red blood drip font to add some of that horror movie character. Another convention we stuck with was the low lighting. Our film was set in an old and dark abandoned house so we didn’t want to turn on and use every single light that we owned or else the scenes would feel lighter and happier, rather than intense and mysterious. Another convention we applied was the style of music we chose to utilize. The music was eerie and would build with intensity through a scene to add some suspense to really get that edge of your seat effect on the viewer. We used spooky horror music, not cutesy coming of age montage music because that’s what fit our genre and our vision for the film.

Short Film Package!

My short film package

Link to short film:https://youtu.be/xkqnh5E8Cws

Link to website:https://possessedmoviemail.wixsite.com/website

 

The Postcard: 

Front

Back:

One last round of editing!

 

Hello! If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the first half of this year being in AICE Media A level it’s that there’s always more to be done! Always more editing and switching things up! As my group and I were evaluating our short film we felt as though it was still missing something. That it needed a little more storyline in the beginning of the film. More of the four of us walking in through the haunted house and  characterizing it. So that it’s a lot more clear to the viewer what’s going on. Also more build up to the discovery of what’s going on with the mirror and how it’s connected to Ava’s unusual behavior. We wanted to show that side a little bit more. Instead of boom! All of a sudden she’s figured it out. We feel as though with these additions it helps the clips flow together more. After we added in these additions we also re evaluated where our music was and if we wanted to switch that up as well. We added in some here and there or altered the volume to better here the dialogue. We also switched up some of our transitions that we had so they weren’t so basic.  We each individually had great idea contributions that were super helpful when I actually went into the IMovie editing software. With these few final touches I think this might be it. The end of the editing road. We’ve done all that we can and we believe that within the film you can really see all of our hard work in it. I cant wait for everyone to be able to see the film and hear their feed back !!

Updating our website and working on postcards !

 Hello!! Even though my group and I are nearing the end of our short film journey it seems as though there is always still something to do. Everyday we continue to tweak and add to our different avenues of the project. As I’ve mentioned before my group and I do have a website. We’ve recently added some more info listed on here that we weren’t able to before. Making sure our website is up to date is very important and could heavily effect the success of getting viewers for our film. In the real world and even for this media class. This website allows for others to keep up with our group’s project. We’ve added in more about our plot. Added in new media pictures and dates of releases. Whilst we have been working to better our movie’s website we have also been working on drafting and creating our post cards! Flyer like- post cards are a huuuuge part of marketing for a film of any kind. It can grab the attention of a potential viewers by the cool eye catching graphics and gets them interested. Not only that but it gives them the quick facts that they need about it. Such as release dates and contact info. This also includes social media’s for the film to follow along with the creators. I made the front and back of the post card by using the app Canva. I used pictures shot from our filming days and some other creepy aesthetic background photos to add to the feel we are shooting for. I used titled that matched the tone and color scheme and that were bold/easy to see. We are still drafting and working on them to get the best possible result. But so far so good! I will be making separate updates and posts about the finished post card later next week! 

What’s need to be redone for our film

 

Hello and welcome back again! It’s a bittersweet feelings that my group mates and I especially are experiencing as we near the later end of our project. We’ve put in so much effort into this short film within these past few months. Lots of planning and directoring and filming and decision making and editing. The list goes on and on. But as I’ve recently piecing together all of the first wrap of film we’ve got I saw what parts aren’t working in the way we would like them to. This means we needed to refilm some scenes. There weren’t any MAJOR parts that needed to be fix. It was mostly little things like positioning and making sure things lined up smoothly and made sense. After we were able to get it all the way we’d like them it came time for re editing. I feel as though we are constantly re editing. Adding in and cutting out parts. The editing part is one of my personal favorites. And now after we did some re filming I helped in re edit and adjust these clips. This part of the process, I’ve learned is so crucial. Because I always want to be improving my work and making it better. And the way I do this is collaborating with my group and keep going back to edit our short. And so far this method has been working great. It’s a good practice too. This what the real filmmakers do all the time, it’s a constant cycle. I believe we’ve all done our best and gave this project our all. And I believe it’s really going to show in the final product. 

Adding in titles to short

Hello! And welcome back! We’ve come a long way in terms of the progression of our short. The last piece before we have our first complete draft is adding in our titles. A very important part in the production of any project is the credits. Accrediting to those who took part in the work. We have to include actors, writers, editors, costume, director, and many more. Each of these consists of one out of my 4 group memebers. As I said before in previous blogs, the way in which these titles appear has a huge impact on the overall feel. I discussed with my group our options on what we wanted to do. We wanted something similar to what we used in our two minute movie opener last year. So I knew we weren’t going to be able to use any of the fonts provided by IMovie since they are so limited. That’s when I suggested to Jake we utilize the same website that we found last year. We agreed that this would be the best solution. We worked together in picking location and timing for each of our titles along with the font itself. We made sure to space it out enough that they were readable to the audience. Not only that but the order of them as well. I made sure “Directed by:” was last on the list. We also made sure that these titles were only in the beginning and didn’t take up the full short film. Because that wouldn’t be realistic. I believe the one we choose looks great and it really adds a lot to our film. Our movie gets better and better as the days go on. I cant wait to begin sharing our work with everyone!! 

Beginning of editing

 Hello and welcome back! We've done our planning. We've done our filming. Now it's time to edit. Since my group and I did all of our filming on our phones, this made the editing process a lot easier. There was footage on all our phones so we shared all of them to each other via AirDrop and IMessage. The first editing software that we used was IMovie. The first thing we did was go through our clips and selected which take we wanted for each scene. Then I opened the IMovie app and selected each of those and put them in chronological order. We took some time watch some clips together to see how it ran together. Then we cut and clean up parts to not make it so choppy. We got rid of parts that we didn't need or parts we stuttered in while acting. As we went along editing our clips we had to keep the run time in mind. Our finished short should be around 5-6 minutes. So we had to make sure it fit that. Turns out we ran a little over what we thought it was going to be. So we all got together to discuss this. Picked which parts could be shortened or taken out to get it to be the right time. Then we picked where our special effect sounds and music should go. We used the song Rob Zombie in the beginning of our film where the titles would begin. We felt like this alongside some non copyrighted horror background music really added to the creepy effect we were looking for. We've come a long way in piecing together our film, but it is not done yet. There's more to be done. We still need to add in all of our titles. However we are going to need to use a different software than IMovie. The reason for this being that this software doesn't have the font we would like. So our next step is to talk as a group to figure out what software to use to get our perfect fonts!

Our obstacles and how they’re affecting our process

 

Welcome back to our short film adventure. Whilst in the smack middle of this process our group ran into a major obstacle that surely flipped our process upside down. This has to deal with our group member Morgan. She unfortunately has to go into a major back surgery very soon. This is incredibly important for her health and will take a toll on her for a little so of course this is going to switch up our group’s dynamic. Because after all, the group just isn’t the same without her. She will be in the hospital for almost a week and then will be home recovering but unable to work as she did before. But just like in the real word movie industry, set backs like this happen all the time. It is a good thing that we are all super close and are able to effectively communicate with each other to keep on progressing. Even though Morgan can not be as hands on as she would like right now she’s still just as much in this as ever. Jake, Avalon, and I consult with each other everyday on what to do and how to continue with our short. That is why we planned on doing all of our filming before her surgery. So now we have all of footage that we need as of right now. Then when editing time rolls around we can figure out which scenes work and which don’t. We may need to re film. When and if we do we will just have to work around Morgan’s situation. She is being so strong right now and we are all so proud of her and can’t wair til she’s better. With the help of each of us I know this is going to turn out to be the best short film ever! Morgan is just a phone call away. Plus, Avalon is always right there with her and can keep Jake and I updated as we work through this. 

Short filming continues!

 

Hello and welcome back! I've been having the best time working through the filming process for our short film. Its always a blast working on set with my amazing group members and together we always end up with a fantastic finished product. We all spent a good few hours working together to film a few days ago and got about half the scenes done, so now it was time to film the other half. So we all got back into costume and went to work. First I helped Jake set up the rooms we filmed in. I took out some modern decorations and threw blank white sheets over furniture to help make the rooms look more abandoned. Then I took out my phone to look at our script and see which scenes were left to film. Throughout the night I helped direct and set up each of the scenes.  Telling our helpers, Savanna and Kate, where, when, and how to film us actors. Along with where to shine the light. In the scenes that I was not acting in I helped film on our IPhone cameras. After each cut we got together to rewatch the clips and see what needed to be adjusted. We collaboratly decided what we liked and didn’t and went from there. I also helped to suggest what could be different than what we originally planned in our storyboard. I feel like our shots look very professional and could be taken as a serious short. We put in so much effort while filming and put on our best performance. I enjoyed this part of the process so much, it definitely tops as my favorite. I can not wait to begin editing and see it all come together. 

Research for Titles

 

Hello! As my group and I move further along in our movie making process there are some additional things we needed to think about. One of those being that, like our big project last year, we needed titles in our short. We all have some experience with using titles and some background information from our work done last year. The titles that will be integrated are our credits, what production, company, editors, music, actors, costume, and the last being the director. My media group makes up these credits. When editing time rolls around we will split it up depending on who did what.  Even though the titles are subtle they can have a huge effect and how the opening in perceived to the audience. Since our genre is horror we want our titles to be striking and an eerie feel to anticipate the viewers for what's about to come. This is very common especially in older horror films like ones in the image above. If we did a more simple or formal font on our titles it might seem like its for a different genre. Coloring of the fonts also plays a role. Last year for our horror two minute opener we used red a red and black font which we are considering using a again. There re so many different variations to choose from. However its important to think about where thee fonts that we want to use are going to be actually available for us to use. We might have to end up using two different software's to use our preferred title. My group and I have been discussing titles and which would best suit the type of short we are trying to make. We came to the conclusion that we would like to use a font similar to Jacmax Horror font or Sorrow Horror Font.

Short: First Day of Filming!

 

Hello! I am so excited to announce that we have officially started our filming process for our short movie Possessed. On December 5th my group members and I all gathered at Jake's house around 5 pm so we still had some daylight time to get in our first couple scenes that needed to be shot outside. Our two good friends Katelyn and Savanna also tagged along to help us out with whatever we needed. We forgot the original mirror prop we were going to used that fit our aesthetic so we needed to improvise. Jake had a pink circular mirror with a pink handle so we fixed it up. We took one of Jake's black socks and wrapped it around the handle but then we thought about how in our script we have markings on the mirror. So I took a scrap crumbled piece of white printer paper and wrote down symbols we thought to look like mystical markings that needed to be decoded. Then after that was situated we headed outside of Jake's house to film the opening scene. To help out with lightening we used the flash on the iPhone camera and we had Katelyn shine an additional flashlight on us. My group and I ran through our lines a bit and did our shots of us walking up to the "abandoned" house, discussing it, and walking through the door. We did the takes about 3 times each to ensure we got it just the way we wanted like the angle and to make sure there was nothing in the background that would throw off the mood like the neighbors xmas lights. Since all four group members was on camera we were all helping guide Savanna where to stand and shoot from, when to start and stop recording, etc. so that our vision was really brought to life. The next thing we did was rearrange and take out items in Jake's house to make it look more abandoned and also threw some white bed sheets over the furniture to add to the effect abandoned effect. Next I shot and directed the scene where Avalon finds the mirror with the spirit inside. We tried out multiple shots and angles that way when we film we can pick the one we like the best. Then since we had this area set up we decided to film all of the scenes that took place there. We ran through ad shot those multiple times as well. 

Running our social medias!

 

Hello! One new found part of our marketing campaign that my group and I have started is our social media accounts! Each of one of us took it upon ourselves to set up a different social media platform account and be in charge of it. These accounts would have some information about our upcoming movie in the bio, the creators of it, and also a profile picture to represent the film. I made a Twitter account. Avalon made the Instagram account. Jake made the YouTube channel. And Morgan made the FaceBook account. Utilizing these apps to get the word out about our film is such a smart and effective strategy that hundreds of thousands of real life producers do for free advertisement. It reaches so many different people of so many different backgrounds and age groups. It’s easy access and is a great chance to be interactive with those interested in the film. There, just like my blog, updates on the film can be posted. Not only did we set up our accounts to be successful but we also went and followed all of our fellow AICE Media Studies classmates short film social media accounts. I think it will be great to see through these accounts how our movie making process grows and get to also see the same from our classmates. And who knows running the social media campaigns now could be good practice if something were to happen in the future where we needed to do it for the real deal. We don’t have much of anything as of right now posted on these accounts. But it will not stay that way. We will be sure to post on those as much as we can and make it as legit as we can. I’m so excited to see how these accounts turn out and how much exposure they get! Woo hoooo!

Short: Why we haven’t started filming

 Hello! So, so far my media group and I have done tons and tons of planning for our upcoming short film Possessed. We’ve spent several weeks picking out and planning how we want to make this short, and now the next step would to be to execute those plans and actually film. Over the last 9 days we had off from school for Thanksgiving break. This would’ve been a great opportunity to get in some filming days but unfortunately we were unable to do so. This was because I went out of town to go see my family for Thanksgiving. In order to film this piece like we want all 4 group members need to be present so we did not film during this time. However we did not let this free time go to waste. Over video calls and text message we continued to discuss ideas for filming. We will be filming everything on our IPhone X’s since we do not have access to other cameras. Although I do think using our phones to film would be our best option so that we can easily alwuas have it with us to look back at. Also good for fast importation for editing later on. I definitely wish we could have started filming over break as do my other group mates. But we still have plenty of time to do so. We will be filming on 2 or 3 separate days to get in all of our shots and do each of them multiple times to ensure we get it just as we’d like. I’m super excited to begin this part of our journey. Filming days in our past projects have always been my favorite part. Getting into character and directing becomes so fun it doesn’t even feel like work. My group and I will be filming in the near future at our designated picked out locations and are very very excited! I just know it’s going to turn out amazing! 

Short: Picking our music

 Hello! As my media group and I progress through our short making journey there are some other elements we need to begin thinking about. One of these being, the music. The music included in a piece of film can drastically change up the feeling or mood that comes across to the viewer. The music can create a build up of suspense or lighten the mood or even create a sense of uneasiness. It can help formulate anything you want when used correctly. Since the short movie that we are making falls under the genre of horror we wanted to make sure when selecting the music we were to put in that it matched with the mood we wanted to make. My group and I via video call began to brainstorm some ideas. We collectively came to the decision to incorporate the song Rob Zombie in the beginning of our short in our intro. We feel as though this has the right vibe we are going for and would really set the tone for the next several minutes. The next thing that came to our minds was that we needed to ensure it was okay that we use this song for copyright reasons. The most simplest way to do so would to contact the artists/their people via email. We haven’t done so yet but we will be in the near future. It is important that we get the okay first that way we aren’t illegally using material that doesn’t belong to us. We haven’t selected all other background music that will be used, but we have some pretty good ideas of options. I think we will be looking for noncopyrighted creepy or spooky music found on YouTube that we can use. These can be used to build up to an important or striking scene in our short or create emphasis on an event. I believe that with the addition of this music is really going to make our movie great. When our editing days come along, having the perfect music is going to make it go from good to great. I cant wait to see how it all comes to together and my whole group and I are very excited to continue on this film making journey.

Short: Marketing Campagin

 

Hello! My group and I were very excited to begin the next part of our short making journey. This step would be learning about and building our marketing campaign to advertise our movie. During class we were walked through the key points of marketing that creators use and what we were going to for our own film. We were to build our very own website via the website builder Wix. We were all very excited for this template where we got to be creative in a whole new way and to make something that really made us feel like professional film makers. We were told in class the different elements we needed which included linking in our social media accounts that represented our movie. So afterwards I hopped on a video chat call with my fellow group mates to discuss creating these accounts. I made our movies email to then make our Twitter and YouTube Channel and the girls and Jake made the Facebook and Instagram account. We put in matching profile pictures that represented our movie, we also added in a short brief bio in each of the accounts. Then it was time to actually make the website. I made an account with the website Wix to begin. Then via over the phone as a group we collectively picked out the templates, colors, designs, and inputs we wanted for our website. We answered some specific questions into a system that helped to generate a set up website for us to edit in what we wanted. We added information about our movie as much as we could for the moment. We added in pictures we felt fit the vibe as well. Then at the bottom we attached social media icons connected to the link of our Possessed the Movie accounts. After looking over, we published it and went back to check that everything was looking and working correctly. I think our website is looking very nice and is only going to get better. As we further learn to navigate it and added in more interesting pieces it’s going to be a great marketing campaign! 

Storyboards Short Film

 

Hello! Today my group and I wrote up and put together our storyboards for our short film. The first three pages are the beginning segments of our short. There’s our four main characters Alex, Jake, Morgan, and Ava walking down the street on Halloween looking for something when they find this creepy cool looking Haunted House that they want to check out. They go in, Ava very hesitantly, and look around. Ava walks off a bit from the group into another room where she finds this funky mirror and when she picks it up something scary appears and she screams. The next few pages are of when her friends hear her scream so they rush into the room to find Ava acting very weird and suspicious towards them. Theyre very confused and wondering what is going on with her. Ava walks out and her friends

 within the next few pages take steps in trying to figure out what’s been going on and what the mirror she had in her hand had to do with it. One by one Ava’s new found secret is discovered but is never told because Ava kills them and then in the last few pages, Morgan uncovers whats been happening and is the hero when she finally defeats the evil spirit in Ava’s body and Ava’s body collapses and is left unaware of the horrific ness that has just happened. 

Planning blog

Schedule:

09/18 - Picking our group

09/24 - Creating the pitch

10/05 + 10/06 - Researching genres

10/19 - Researching short films

10/30 - Writing the screenplay for our film

11/27 - Filming day 1

11/28 - Filming day 2

12/03 - Editing day 1

12/04 - Editing day 2

12/12 - Figuring out what we need to re-shoot or re-edit

12/20 - re-shoots

12/20 - re-edit

Participants:

Alexandra Medrano

Jake Lyons

Avalon Clem

Morgan Clem

Others outside of group to help film: Savana Nemmers and Katelyn Pustam

Health and Safety:

During this difficult time, the group has put in extra precautions to ensure the safety of all who are going to be involved. When traveling from locations, the cast and crew of the movie will always be safely in seatbelts. We will also be sure to not use actual weapons and replace then with  fake knifes from Party City. Not to mention, in light of this global pandemic, each cast member and crew mate will have masks on and will be quarantined in advanced, to ensure that no one has the deadly virus. Lastly, the we will always have a first aid kit and a phone ready in case of any emergencies.

Props:

-Mirror

-Haunted House sign

-Halloween decorations

-Fake blood

- Costume Accessories

Costumes: 

Jake Lyons - Pirate Costume 

Alex Medrano- Tin Man costume 

Avalon Clem- Harry Potter  costume

Morgan Clem- Cat costume

Locations: 

Avalon and Morgan's house

Jake's house

Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

    

      Hello! I’ve now watched both the short film and full length feature film of 9 by Shane Acker and am thoroughly impressed by both of them. I believe that the idea that Acker had was brilliantly executed in such a short amount of time from the animation to the plot and the character’s development. It was the perfect outline for what became the full feature film. Due to the feature film obviously being much longer in duration it allowed for many more characters to be introduced and allowed the audience to see their different personalities. Also allowing for viewers to find characters to connect with and want to support. While watching the full length film more background info as to what has happened to their world is told so that it is less confusing. In the short the audience gets the basis of the main character having to take on and slay this evil creature but in the full length film we see him along with his team take on The Beast together and follow along with them in their journey. Through this film lessons are learned and realizations are made about community that wasn’t incorporated into the short which was nice. The animation in the feature film was fantastic and with the cgi effects and all made for an extremely exciting experience. Although I love both the short and full feature film, I think I favor the full length more. I say this because with all the extra time provided in the full length movie, I as a viewer, get so much more detail and story line to follow along. I loved seeing all of the characters and their relationships. Not just that, but also the journey they take together. I also really enjoyed the message in the movie about the significance of sticking together in a community and how one person can really make a difference in a big way when taking leadership. I think it was quite inspirational. The film 9 by Shane Acker turned out amazing ad it's crazy to think it started off by just a short film like my group and I will do. 

Research 9, the feature film

     

   

Hello ! After taking a look at the brilliant short film 9 by Shane Acker I decided to go and watch the full film that was made from the short. I thoroughly impressed by the 7 minute short film so I expected nothing from this movie. After watching this action packed adventure not one bit of me was disappointed. The movie is set post apocalypse, as the world had fallen to pieces from a war between man and machine. Afterwards there was a mission made with hopes of restoring the legacy of civilization. There was a small group of gadgets and inventions that gave a small spark of life and they continued to live. A hand stitched doll with the number 9 on its back comes to life in this scary world. But he soon finds out he isn’t alone and there are others close by just like him. They all look quite similar but are still easy to tell apart. The main character #9 shows his leadership qualities that help him and his own to survive and possibly maybe thrive in their world. This story follows him, a war veteran that had been the group’s leader for quite some time, an inventor, a pair of twins, an engineer, an erratic artists, a warrior, and a not so smart enforcer for the war veteran. Together they must out wit and fight against these strong evil machines, specifically The Beast. To do so they all must use their individual strengths way beyond their boundaries. #9 takes leadership role and gathers them all up together and through out the film realizes the power of community. He comes to learn how one person can be the change in the world. I feel as though this movie was targeted at around my age group and above. I got a very wholesome and exciting impression from this film. The visuals in this film were fantastically detailed and made for a very intriguing film that really entrances the audience. Its exciting to think that something that started off as a small idea and a short film could turn into something this big. 

Research 9, the short

   

Hello! Today I took a look at the short film entitled 9 by Shane Acker. What it is that became a full length animation movie started off by a simple 7 minute short film. This short starts off with the main character, 9, fixing up some swinging contraption that later ends up being the one thing that saves him in the end. Then it transitions to show the antagonist evil creature enters in the junkyard where 9 and the other main character 5 are in. The two of them are passing by various old objects inspecting them and seeing how they can fix them which is what they did with a light bulb. This is where the Evil creature first spots them and 5 and 9 catch onto to the fact they have some eyes on them. 5 gestures for 9 to go hide as he is very frightened and as he runs away 5 picks up a weapon gearing up to go against this evil creature. Unfortunately he wasn’t prepared enough and the creature takes him from the back. The evil creature takes some sort of gadget from 5 that I believe has something to do with his life source, 9 has one just like it as well. The evil creature then kills 5 while 9 watches. The rest of the short film is 5 running from the evil creature as it is now after him. He seems to be very smart as he props up a fake of him to distract the creature. The film follows them in their through the junk yard and towards the end 5 decides to lead him on this very thin wobbly ledge when he gets the idea to go on the swinging contraption from earlier and use it to get  the evil creature to fall over the edge finally be ridding himself of him. I was very proud of 5 for this. His friend 9 sacrificed himself for him and while I was deeply sadden by his death in the beginning I believe that  5 made it worth while in the end by defeating the evil creature. I also felt a sense of peace at the very end when the gadget illuminates and it shows the ghosts of 5 and you could see him and 9 have more final moment and a goodbye. 9 definitely had some great character development, he went from the one who hides and watches the fight to being the fighter. The special effects incorporated were quite incredible as well. The robot like creatures and gadgets give it a sort of fun futuristic feel that was very enjoyable. I think the director did an excellent job executing this short film.