"The Cook, the Criminal & the Killer in John Prescott's Short Film ROMAN"

"The Cook, the Criminal & the Killer in John Prescott's Short Film ROMAN"

If you are not already aware, one of the largest college sponsored film competitions is the CMF or better known as Campus Movie Fest. This event (like the similarly themed 48 Hour Film Festival) is designed to allow college students the opportunity to come up with a short film written, produced, directed & conceived by student filmmakers (although they can enlist the aid of others not in college). Writer & director John Prescott's short "Roman" was one of this year's Georgia originated films.

Roman (Travis Young) is a cook cum professional killer whose assignment is to rescue the kidnapped a mob boss's daughter Celia Deluca (Kayla Jeffries) from a gang of ruthless thugs. Since the film is only five minutes in length (and adheres to the time constrictions of the CMF competition) there is little character development beyond the oblivious which is that Roman (like the character of Leon in the Luc Besson film "Leon, The Professional") is a professional at blending in with his surroundings in order to get close to his prey and killing them before they even know what hit them. This is where the film excels.

Danny Ramos and Matt Gwynne (director of photography and camera operator, respectfully) deliver an amazing student film with no weak shot in sight. It's hard to believe that such a technical achievement was achieved by college students. This is not to say that the film lacked in other areas.

Young is fantastic as the professional killer and he is surrounded by other capable actors including Daniel May and Aaron Simmons as two thugs that come to horrible means at the hands of Young's title character. Despite the very familiar material they bring an energy to the film that is desperately needed in short films in which you have to grab hold of your audience and not let go. Therein lies the biggest challenge of producing a short film, which is how do you craft a satisfying story with characters that you care about in such a short amount of time?

There are a few sound issues where I couldn't understand what the characters were saying but for the most part this is an exceptional short film that demonstrates just what can be accomplished by student filmmakers. Prescott and the rest of his cast & crew are definitely people to look out for as this is a great film to step out of the gates with and be a part of CMF.

You can view the film and find more information about the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCPqDP7pzd8&feature=player_embedded