GTO 3987 on Mulholland

GTO 3987 on Mulholland

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Dead Right: Ending



The pay-off scene in my film Dead Right was filmed on another day in someone’s home. On the screen, we see Greg Brown's character giving his acceptance speech having won the election for Attorney General with the obligatory American flags and camera flashbulbs creating the appropriate atmosphere of celebration. The news anchor voice-over was performed by Remi Martel.

As Greg continues his speech, the camera pans one hundred twenty degrees to see Matthew in a tight medium shot watching the speech intently as he smokes his ubiquitous Cohiba cigar. His reaction is hard to read. A beat later, Greg (who had been hidden from our view) leans forward to reveal that he had been sitting next to Matthew all along. For the first time we see Greg smoking a cigar to underscore the complicity between the two men. It becomes clear in this moment that all of the havoc and mayhem we have witnessed in the film had been planned by Matthew’s character for the sole purpose of getting Greg’s character elected on an anti-crime platform.

From the pay-off scene we cut to the last shot of the film, the pull-away from the two dead undercover cops in the desert holding on the shot until they are but a speck on the horizon and of no consequence.

In my film school,I taught writers that the function of an ending is to give the audience a sense of what the future would be for the characters after the film ended...

http://www.amazon.com/Shoot-Feature-Film-Survive-Profits/dp/1505402379/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

No comments: