Open CallOpen Call: Rough Cuts
Taxi (Rough Cut) (03:24)
Javan Cornelius | Huntsville, AL
In every major city around America there is a cab driver who is not afraid to initiate the abnormal conversation. His or her passion to entertain customers verbally and repeated requests for the driver’s service, the result is a personal relationship with the customers. In this planned mini-documentary, we intend to select the most popular cab driver in Huntsville, Alabama, assign the driver, leveraging already-developed relationship, the duty of asking hand picked customers how Americans should deal with the effects of past racism, expulsion, and reparation issues presently? The cab driver will ask every customer, should African Americans dig up the past like the descendants of Forsyth County? Does digging up the past help the American Culture’s future? What is the best way to resolve issues around matters of race? In this three-minute short, we will hear numerous opinions from the American public on how to deal with these issues. This film plans to expose the different ideologies on race issues that exist between young and older Americans with differing cultural backgrounds.
The film will be shot in black and white, using a two-camera set up. The film will be accompanied by a score to match the mood of these interviews.
Javan J. Cornelius, director of Taxi, studied documentary filmmaking under Director T.N. Mohan at Oakwood University. Cornelius’ aspirations to be a filmmaker started in high school. Then in 2005, Cornelius traveled to England and had his first real-world filmmaking experience on the film, A Heart Set Free. After returning from England, he was determined to write and direct his own films. Subsequently, Cornelius produced an educational film for the National Black Programming Consortium entitled, The Birth of an Institution. Cornelius is currently finishing a film he started in 2006 entitled, Chocolate City: The Documentary, which examines the significance of an historically Black college education through stories from students. Cornelius is also finishing a book entitled, Beating the Odds, which documents his dream to pursue a college education with limited finances while chasing the dream of producing an independent film. One of Cornelius’ goals in film is to eventually crossover to feature filmmaking and feature stories that evoke exploration beyond the stereotypical minority experience.
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Cut 2 this sunday! Response to Chastings
Yes, it was only one cab driver on the first cut. At the last minute he decided that he did not want to be on camera. I will definetely work on the text. I will try to bring a new introduction with better lines.
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love the concept,but when viewed first 30 seconds of rough cut..there was nothing to keep me...and if u thinking of shooting in black and white..cool,nice..just remember it could make the character even more unpersonalized..maybe go see 'weekend' , 'eternal sunshine of spotless mind','taxi driver' just for reference on interesting shots and medium.good luck.
Taxi
- I really like the production values; have you changed your mind about posting it in b/w? I think leaving it in color enhances the contemporary nature of the conversation.
- I miss hearing the prompting question from the driver, especially since he's the catalyst for the conversation.
- I agree with chastings on the "American public..." point. Also in the intro, is there anyway to address your motivation for doing this in a cab as opposed to man-on-the-street?
- I look forward to the larger text.
- I think you have a nice cross-section of people; I'm wondering if anyone got really emotional or heated (pro or con)...
- You've got the makings of a very sharp piece.
Taxi!
I think you really have something here.
Some of the framing issues bothered me. Too much head room on some people, the with the 2 girls there is this large foreground shadow (seat?) in the way of the speaker. Sometimes you can resize/crop an image in the editing, it might degrade it a little. Keep your framing in mind, focus the viewer.
I can wait to see more!!
There are no mistakes in art, only variations.
Keep it Tender~Alecia
Good selections
Hi Javan,
I loved your selections. I would imagine you have a lot on the cutting room floor? Did you ride with one cab driver or few different ones?
I think you cut them down with a lot of care and that can be a challenge. Especially with the subject matter.
One thing that isn't sitting right with me is your text setup where you say, "We ask the American public questions that surround these issues..."
I'm sure others will disagree with me, but I think I need something different or more.
As just a suggestion, what do you think about localizing line to address all you interviews are happening in AL? --
CH
More on the way! Text will
More on the way! Text will be bigger. Need comments and input!