For my final project I decided to make a video. It takes inspiration from the movie Le Samourai by Jean-Pierre Melville. We had talked about this film in Concepts of Visual Literacy and we even watched a scene from it.This film is about a French hitman named Jeff Costello who is seen by witnesses during a “hit” job. I later decided to watch the whole thing on my own time and I just loved the way the director framed movement coming in and out of the frame. I was kept engaged watching this man move from location to location it all seemed slick and seamless. The attire from the 60’s was something I also really liked I feel like it added to the coolness of it all. There’s a sequence of about 5 minutes where Jef Costello is released from being held under police custody after being a suspect of the murder, he leaves the station gets in a cab and takes it downtown where he is on his way to meet his employer. He suspects he’s being followed by a police officer therefore walks for a long time to lose him. This is when the director thrives in his composition and really makes you feel like you’re walking with him trying to lose whoever is following you. 

My interpretation has a simple plot. I had my talent wake up from a nap to a phone call that doesn’t clearly tell you what’s going on but you can see it sets him off in his journey out the door. This is followed by a long walking sequence where he walks through several sceneries until he gets to his location right before dark giving the effect that he walked for a long time. At the end you can see a car pull up in front of him and an exchange being done with the talent and the driver. What would look like some kind of drug deals ends up actually being a deal or transaction for a cloth face mask.

Im very happy to have had the chance to finally do a short video. I also feel fortunate to have good friends that understood my vision and helped me make this. I learned that it takes multiple shots and camera angles to get a well rounded sequence. I constantly kept continuity in mind as we had to do retakes when moving the camera to a different angles of the same shot. I thought it would be funny to use the face mask at the end as it’s relevant to right now. I also used some fun pieces of my wardrobe to replicate the same “cool” feeling I got from Les Samourai. The music used is actually an original piece from my friend Sebastian Hernandez and his dads album called Fade Away. I challenged myself in this project, did my own interpretation of something I liked and i’m proud of the outcome. 

By Carlos Padilla