A Self-Made Film

In our last class we watched a film made by Corey Womack. It was called “The Last Summer” and was a completely UCA produced film. The story revolved around a small town boy who is deciding what he is going to do with his life. He doesn’t know whether to stay in town with his girlfriend or try to go to college and get out of town.

I was very impressed with the fact that Corey created this film. From the little experience that I’ve obtained from this class, I know how big a task making a movie can become. As far as the storyline, I felt it was a generic teen film storyline; however, it was also very real. According to Corey, this story came directly from his own life. I believe that this is something that many people go through after high school, and that last summer is always bittersweet. This maybe why so many teen movies use this storyline; it is relatable.

Also, I felt that the acting could have been better, though I can’t say that I could have done better myself (I guess we’ll see since I’m starring in my group’s short film).  It felt scripted. I know that movies have scripts, but I like them to sound like they don’t. It makes them more real. Corey mentioned that he actually let the actors adlib, which was interesting considering I thought it was scripted.  Overall, the movie was good though not my favorite. I am still impressed that he produced this himself. It is something that I would never pursue on my own.

After watching his film, we looked at so spoof trailers.  For example, we watched the a trailer for the happy version of “The Shining.” This is one of my favorite thriller/horror movies, so it was interesting to see it portrayed as a wholesome family movie.  This just goes to show you that with the right music, the right film clips, and the right narrator for a trailer you can make the film into anything you would like. This same thing that was done for “The Shining” was done for the “Mary Poppins.” The new version was called “Scary Mary” and it seriously looked like a scare your pants off horror movie.  Once again, this is due to the type of clips, music, and narration they used.

In my own experience, a “comedy” movie may not be that funny at all when you go to see it in theaters. It is not unusual for there to be numerous funny clips shown in the trailer, which raises your expectations for the movie as a whole, but when you go see it in theaters you realized that those were literally the only funny parts and the film can hardly be considered a comedy. So, what does this say about movie trailers? It says that the can make the film into something it’s not.