SCHISM - Short Film - (USC & NYU Graduate School Application - ACCEPTED)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ต.ค. 2020
- When ordering food, we often put on a happy face. But, when do we take that mask off, if ever? Tripp (James Counihan) faces this internal struggle while his partner, Jay (Brian Westerley) confronts this dual personality.
Watch the Behind the Scene video here:
• SCHISM - Short Film - ...
I made this short film for my application for graduate school. The only requirement was to be 5 minutes, and that to be about a confrontation.
*EDIT* I would like to update everyone and say that I have been accepted to the 2022 spring semester at USC!
In case you’re a Letterboxd addict like I am, don’t forget to log Schism into your diary: boxd.it/woYs
I decided to write about something I know all too well about, and that's being overly polite. I blame it on my midwestern upbringing, but I can't help but smile and say "thank you so much" when in reality I might be having a bad day.
So this film is about that confrontation within yourself and deciding who you want to be: Mr. Nice Guy or yourself (even if that self might be a hitman).
Music by Tyler Hawes, check out more of his work:
www.thetylerhawes.com
Design work by Jake Spinner, check out more of his work:
www.jakespinner.com
Special thanks to Steve Laughhorn, Dilly's Drive-in, & Sterling Shriber
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you can contact me at andrew@kovacindustries.com - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Thanks for watching!
Just wanted to update y’all and let you know that I got accepted into USC for the MFA Film and TV Production program! I’m super excited and can’t wait to show all of you what I’ve been up to so make sure you subscribe so ya don’t miss a thing.
Thanks again for all the kind words and compliments!
AMAZING!!
I cannot help but ask, are you getting scholarships for the MFA program? Or are you taking out school loans? I got accepted to USC back in 1992 and it was 20,000 a year back then!
I'm trying my best to get scholarships because, tuition has definitely gone up... But I'm happy to hear from a fellow Trojan! Hope you're doing well!
This is arguably one of the best short films I’ve ever seen on TH-cam
Pretty good, nice dialogue and cinematography, plus the music choice gives it life, keep it up.
you’re going places for sure
Thanks Sydney!
This was good. DAMN! Short sweet and to the point with great angkes and good story that can actually resonate with an audience. Jealous of how good it was ha! Nice man
this was truly amazing man. i hope you have a great future.
That’s really too kind, thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I would love to have seen more of this as I was on the edge of my seat! Part 2
Thank you! Yeah maybe next time I'll finally do something longer than 5 minutes haha
Happy to be the thousandth like! Great short film with great plottwists and use of repetition. Great main character too!
I have huge respect for film makers who make a black & white film.
he simply changed the color in post. Nothing was shot nor prepped for B&W
Brilliant! Very well written and directed. 👌💯
I could tell you are inspired by Tarantino, Scorsese and French cinema.😁 Great job Andrew! 👏👏👏✌️
Also the cinematography is top notch! 👏👏👏
That is a great short!
I was just WOW. Loved this!
Thanks!!
oh my god this is amazing
Love the vibe
Really good film 👌
Very well done! Congrats on your acceptance. I'm applying for the USC grad school this summer. Any advice, or even help, would be greatly appreciated. One question: I did not see on the website that the short film had to be about something in particular. I know about the five minutes or less time limit, but did you reach out to professors for a premise? Thanks!
Hey Alex,
I'm glad you enjoyed it and thank you! So, I applied to a handful of schools. USC didn't require a specific theme when I applied, but other schools did. Most of the other schools also had their own unique requirements, like how many characters or the 5-minute-max that you mentioned. So I just took all the requirements and made a film that could cover all the bases at all the universities! I didn't reach out to any USC professors while applying. I did shoot a few emails to some of the admissions advisors, but other than that I just talked my undergrad professors ears off and asked friends for critiques!
Hopefully that helps clear some things up. I wish you the best of luck and I hope to see you in the halls of USC!
@@KovacIndustries Awesome! Thanks for the response.
Love it bro this is awesome
Thank you man!
I am all about this
that was a really good film!
Thank you!!!
i enjoyed this not going to lie
This is AMAZING!
Haha thank you so much!
@@KovacIndustries Your welcome lol
Hi,
Andrew it was amazing I’m also applying for film schools and brainstorming a lot of ideas for short film applications. Would you recommend me to go with the dark Genres I’m very confused with which genres to selected although i have some good stories in my mind.
Thanks a ton & many congratulations on your selection
Hey Amogh! Thanks for the very kind words. Funny enough, the dark genre is probably my least favorite aspect of the film haha. I realized after making it that I was taking myself way too seriously and wanted to be more lighthearted and fun with future projects.
As applications go, genre doesn’t matter. I have friends that applied to USC with comedy’s, dramas, even surrealist pieces. I wouldn’t put too much time into genre because at the end of the day, your film will inevitably fall into a genre all by itself.
My best tip: be true to yourself, tell a story that only you can tell, and have fun while you’re doing it. If you end up getting into grad school, awesome!! If not, at least you made a piece of art that you can be genuinely proud of.
I wish you the best of luck! If you have anymore questions, feel free to email me (check the description). Take it easy!
@@KovacIndustries Thank you, Andrew, I now have a very clear mindset I was very confused but now after reading this, I feel good thankyou so much. I will definitely reach out if I have more questions. Cheers!
anyone else wishing there was an "Explained" video on this
I assume he killed the “fake” part of him. The part that’s nice and being polite in order to embrace the real him
Is this chiaroscuro lighting? I want to know how to achive it.
This is very good
Thank you!
Tarantino Fan, are you?
How could you tell? ;)
@@KovacIndustries the iconic trunk opening shot, plus the vibe was all trantino, i liked it.
Good eye on the trunk shot!
Also a little David Fincher vibes
@@KovacIndustries the trunk shot was so good.. dare I say even cooler than any of Tarantino's. The black and white and the glare and the smokey whatever I loved it
Wow this was fk great....!
Very nice 👌
The actor is amazing! I have a question, is the guy in the trunk the same guy as the protagonist?
Both James and Brian did a fantastic job and were a pleasure to work with.
To answer your question, they're the same actor... but are they the same character? That's up to you.
Which camera did u shoot with, if anyone knows please tell me😊
We used a Sony a6300 for the shoot with a Samyang 35 mm cine-lens. It’s an older Sony camera, so it’s much cheaper now than what I paid for it back when it was new!
👍
Just to be sure, the guy in the trunk was himself right?
You bet! … or was it all in his head?
Remember what camera did you use?
We used a Sony A6300 with a 35mm Cine Samyang Lens.
What mic are you using on this?
We used a RODE NTG2 microphone with a ZOOM H5.
How do I get in touch with you man?
Feel free to email me or you can visit my website and contact me through there.
Napínavý príbeh ale veľká a
Weird they didn’t show the waitress’s face for a long while.
The reason for why I did that, was because in this world (hitmen/gangsters), she’s not really important to them. She’s just another person, another body. But once she hears the trunk and notices it, she becomes a threat to them. THAT is when she becomes important to their story.
Has the hostage died?
I'm honestly not trying to be a jerk here but how did you guys mess up the audio? Sometimes it doesn't sink exactly and everything sounds too close. Did you only use lav mics or was the mic to close?
We only used one boom on set, no lavs. But with each project, comes new lessons to learn. That’s how I view all of my shorts, as exercises. Trying something new and if we fail at it, we learn from it! But I guess it was good enough for USC haha
@@KovacIndustries I completely agree with that mentality. I only bring it up because the film I’m working on now also only used a boom and is experiencing the same problem. Have you figured a solution yet by any chance?
So the synching issue is actually a TH-cam thing. I have no idea how because our final render is in synch. But I agree with you, it's about one to two frames off (so good eye/ear).
But the boom... I don't know how well I can speak on that. I wrote, directed, edited the piece. Audio is the last thing I worry about while on set. I trust my boom operator/mixer to get what we need. If I had to guess though, I think you have an issue with the post-production mix rather than the actual recording. I agree, the dialogue sounds a little louder than natural, but it never bothered me, especially with how fast we needed to get this short film turn-around in time for multiple graduate school applications.
My biggest tip: spend all the time you can with the audio as possible. I'm in post-production with another short film (Tour to McWay) and we've been mixing and tweaking the dialogue/foly/score/background music/atmosphere for over 3 months now. Every pass/render we get from our sound designers, the better.
I wish I could give you more tips but my knowledge on audio is limited. But just remember 50% of a movie is sound, so you wanna make sure it's just as good as the visuals... but it seems like you already know to look out for that ;)
Shoot me an email if you have anymore questions (check the description of this vid)!
@@KovacIndustries thanks I appreciate the response
After they park, after the back of the trunk is opened up. When the bald guy says “are you kissing his ass too?” we need to see him. We need to see where he’s sitting or standing because the audience is not sure where his voice is coming from.
This was something I thought about exploring, but I wanted this moment to be intimate with the protagonist and I wanted it to feel a little surreal due to the "who's in the trunk, really?". I felt that cutting away from the lead, to the supporting character would take the audience out of that emotion that I was trying to convey, but I absolutely hear/understand your critique... I just don't agree ;)
faltu
Would’ve looked better if shot in color with a gloomy filter