Memories of a Hitman - Short Film

[Seba Vuye]

Hi!

Last year I've shot a short film called Memories of a Hitman. Shot on a tight budget of 8000 euro's with a skeleton crew over here in Belgium, very fun experience!

Would like anyone thoughts on it!

Thanks in advance

[Tyler Purcell]

Yea twas good. I think it was a little bit slow, especially at the beginning. I'm personally not a fan of continuous voice over, I think it's a cop-out for delivering dialog on set. The moment I heard the VO, I kinda turned off as a viewer. However, I stuck with it and around half way in, I was engrossed enough to finish. The big problem for me was too much explanation. I always let the audience explore the world and give them just enough information to put the pieces together. I think handing everything to them on a silver platter, especially with a short film, can get a bit over the top. The repetitive "lost my family" bit, was over the top. All you need is a look from the actor and a quick flashback with the actor putting the picture down to realize the family is gone.

 

I would have started the film with a conflict, maybe an out of control victim that he needed to put down before shooting. Something that would keep the audiences attention right away. I always tell filmmakers the same thing I was taught... hit the audience in the face for the first few minutes, get their attention and they will be come invested much quicker. Once invested, it's hard to get people to shut it off, especially online when it's a click of the button.

 

Over-all however, it was well made, which is in a lot of cases, the hardest part of making a little short film. The filmmaking itself needs to be really good these days for people to care enough.

[Seba Vuye]

Yea twas good. I think it was a little bit slow, especially at the beginning. I'm personally not a fan of continuous voice over, I think it's a cop-out for delivering dialog on set. The moment I heard the VO, I kinda turned off as a viewer. However, I stuck with it and around half way in, I was engrossed enough to finish. The big problem for me was too much explanation. I always let the audience explore the world and give them just enough information to put the pieces together. I think handing everything to them on a silver platter, especially with a short film, can get a bit over the top. The repetitive "lost my family" bit, was over the top. All you need is a look from the actor and a quick flashback with the actor putting the picture down to realize the family is gone.

 

I would have started the film with a conflict, maybe an out of control victim that he needed to put down before shooting. Something that would keep the audiences attention right away. I always tell filmmakers the same thing I was taught... hit the audience in the face for the first few minutes, get their attention and they will be come invested much quicker. Once invested, it's hard to get people to shut it off, especially online when it's a click of the button.

 

Over-all however, it was well made, which is in a lot of cases, the hardest part of making a little short film. The filmmaking itself needs to be really good these days for people to care enough.

I actually agree with everything you touched upon If I could reedit the short I would probably get rid of the first 8 minutes or so, remove most of the voice over etc. They say you learn from your mistakes, who knows :) Thanks for the constructive feedback!