TWO (2008) My First Experimental Short Film At NYU (New York University) - Visual Storytelling

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 08:39:00 +0000

TWO (2008)

Written, Produced, Edited and Directed by ROD PATRICK RISBROOK
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Starring STEPHEN CONRAD MOORE as "Pocket Knife"

Running Time: 12 minutes
Genre: Drama

SYNOPSIS:

"TWO", a short story film told through a series of still photography, is about an African-American soldier (code named "Pocket Knife") where the odds are heavenly against him. Set in 1970 Vietnam during the war, Pocket Knife's platoon of men under his command are killed in a surprise ambush by enemy Viet Cong forces. Armed with just his training, his wits, his weapon and a mysterious photograph, Pocket Knife is determined to complete the vital mission alone. Or can he? This mission which has great strategic ramifications on the American vs. Viet Cong war depends on him.

VIEWING NOTES:
As of 12/29/2011, this version of TWO has been newly REMASTERED in a LETTER-BOXED HI-DEFINITION 720P transfer presentation with TWO (no pun intended) newly added stereo sound EFX track layers, new flash/explosion EFX and new titles!!!

BACKGROUND PRODUCTION NOTES:

TWO's photographic technique is based upon an NYU (New York University) course called "Visual Storytelling" with the goal of telling narrative stories thru still photography (proper framing/composition, recognizing the uses of different shot types such as full shots, medium shots, close-ups, etc.) and later mixing in dialog, a music score and sound effects. But the images alone should be able to carry and tell a narrative story with little or no prompting from the other aforementioned film dynamics.

The class' structure or blueprint is based upon a 1962 film (which we screened) called "La Jetee" (English translation: The Jetty and The Pier), a 28-minute black and white film by Chris Marker which was constructed almost entirely from still photos (16mm frames). La Jette would later influence director Terry Gilliam's story adaptation and partial cinematic style in the 1995 film "12 Monkeys" starring Bruce Willis.

A Nikon D200 Digital-SLR camera body in conjunction with a Nikon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 zoom lens, Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 telephoto zoom lens, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 macro (close-up) lens and a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 wide angle zoom lens were used in TWO's film production. Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere and Audacity sound recording/editing software applications were used in the film's post- production process.

Black Soul Rebels Productions

TWO (2008) My First Experimental Short Film At NYU (New York University) - Visual Storytelling