Making "The One Handed Killer": Five Fingers of FEAR

Heres the Link to the One Handed Killer!

I think I found a better alternative phrase to "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I move to change this saying to "When life gives you a group project with a football player 24 hours out from a major hand surgery, make him the main character of your short film."

Here is the link to our Shortfilm:)

My group, comprised of me, Gavin, Hayden, Peyton, and Ansley, thought it would be a great way to put a creative spin on the classic "stalker" tropes in horror movies, along with helping us learn how to produce shots/sequences from multiple angles.

Some examples of the classic horror film sequences are:

• The victim (Hayden) walking past a door, seeing the killer (Gavin), doing a double take, and then the killer is gone.

• The victim turning on a screen that illuminates the killer behind them, creating dramtic irony.

• The victim finally letting their gaurd down and thinking they're safe, only to be

  jump-scared seconds later by the killer.

Here was our Roles:

Gavin and Hayden were our actors, and were responsible for wearing the same clothes they wore on the first filming day to the second filming day.

Peyton held the large sign that blocked light from the comm room door and filmed several shots.

Ansley helped me keep track of which shots we'd gotten and payed attention for discrepancies that could crop up during editing and make it harder. She was also a steady hand that got some of our shots.

Ellen collected group members ideas and made a storyboard, outlined which shots we needed on a shot list, edited the project in adobe Premier Pro, and submitted it under our group name.

Peyton, Hayden, Me, and Gavin. Ansley is not pictured:(

While I can't speak for my group members, I can confidently say I learned a lot from this project and type of storytelling. I learned how much fun it is to make horror films, yet how easy it is to ruin an atmosphere of suspense you've created. Too much light, a shift in tone, background noise, visual discrepancies, the wrong choice in music, etc. can ALL cause the audience to pause and ask questions- which KILLS any element of fear you've managed to build up.

I'm not sure what role fictional storytelling could play for me in the future, however, It taught me a lot about the importance elements of storytelling that are often overlooked. I cannot treat audio as an afterthought, because It's a powerful factor in whether or not the audience remains engaged in my story. I cannot have a "good enough" approach to editing, because jumpcuts and visual discrepancies pull my audience out of the story. I cannot have background noise or events occurring in the background without a purpose, so I don't run the risk of blurring my stories lines with the stories happening behind it.

Because this project was my first time using Adobe Premier Pro, I made a lot of these errors. However, seeing the final product and how many mistakes pulled me out of the story, I realized that a lot of errors weren't the result of technical difficulties, but careless mistakes.

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