Director's Statement and Pre-Production

Director's Statement- by Luke:

I have decided to make a western cowboy film set in Texas 1873 because I want to try and capture the history of the Wild West in just 90 seconds and in one location. Westerns were also one of the biggest genres in the 60s and 70s but since then less people are making them, so hopefully this film might bring a bit of nostalgia to the people who grew up on the original western films. Some of the biggest genres in today's industry are horror and action films which everyone seems to make, because they do well, and this generation loves them. But I want to do something different and unique to everyone else and try to make Western films popular again. Making this film will hopefully make it stand out amongst the repetitive and typical horror and action films you see today. The audience we are aiming for aren't the teenagers of today, we are trying to aim for the older generation who maybe grew up on the original western films in the 60s and 70s.​

Pre-Production: Director

As my job as director, I was in charge of the script, storyboard and shot list. I started off with the script which is a page and a half and consists of 9 lines of dialogue. The film is set in Texas 1873, it starts off with Lucas walking through plains and opening a wanted poster. On the poster is Santiago, a Mexican outlaw with a $5000 bounty on his head. Lucas carries on walking and eventually finds Santiago. They have a small conversation and then an intense standoff between the two cowboys begin. We have found copyright music on Uppbeat called Mom's Spaghetti Western which will be played during the standoff. They both then shoot, Lucas gets shot but not as bad as Santiago. Santiago falls to the ground and Lucas walks over to him towering over him. They have a short but sweet conversation and Lucas ends up shooting him in the head. The film ends with Lucas walking in the distance with the credits rolling.

My second job as director was to make the storyboard and I had great feedback about it after our pitch. People said it was distinction level work and it was very clear what each type of shot was, also every shot used was meaningful and wasn't picked at random. We have used a lot of long shots in the film to show the vast and baron landscape of the plains. We have also used a few low angle shots of our main character, Lucas, to show this authority. During the converstation between Lucas and Santiago, I have chosen to use over the shoulder shots. This builds the tension between the two cowboys as the stand off gets closer.

My last job as director was to do the shot list. This is a list of all the shots in the film which is mainly for the Camera Operator. The shot list consists of the scene number, the shot number, the camera size/angle, the camera movement, whether the shot is set inside or outside, the time of day and a short description of the shot.