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From Test Shoot to Short Film “The Courier”

By June 17, 2013August 29th, 20162 Comments2 min read

I started out just testing the 35mm f/2.0 Nikon lens I just bought with two up and coming actors….but as I looked at them I realized they both had two completely different types of  looks, so I came up with an idea just before meeting with them to just give them a situation and let them improv. This way I would be able to test my lens in night time conditions using whatever available light was around, while allowing these actors to gain some useful footage they can use in their demo reels if they want. So I grabbed a few props from previous projects and kinda made up a scenario in my head on the way to meet these guys in midtown.

I spent about 4 hours shooting this throughout midtown/downtown and maybe a coupla days editing the footage at home in my spare time. The end result is the video below. I call it “The Courier”. It’s simply about a street courier who is stood up on his first drop and discovers he’s being followed by a stranger in the night.

I realized I had gotten some good feedback on this experiment and the actors had gotten good responses as well so I decided to top off this project with a movie poster. A coupla weeks later I did a quick photoshoot with them downtown (took about 2 hours) then came home and designed the poster in Photoshop (3 hours or so).

The Courier

 

Watch It

Jay Carver

Jay Carver is a screenwriter, director and producer. Through his production company J-Style Films, he has done work for companies such as Turner Broadcasting. In the past, he has worked with Hollywood actor Omari Hardwick and won several film festivals including "Best Director".

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