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Test Drive
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
A career criminal uses a car dealership test drive as cover for a daring robbery.
SYNOPSIS
Jack Romeo, a used car dealership owner, takes a smooth-talking con man on a test drive, unexpectedly becoming an accessory to armed robbery. But with secrets of his own, and a dark past, burning Jack may just be the biggest mistake this criminal has ever made.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Mitchell Lazar and Sam Downey are committed to telling fresh stories from unique perspectives, usually taking place in odd nooks and crannies of the world. This script was written as a proof of concept, designed to lay the foundation for a much larger one-hour episodic drama series. The short is designed to introduce our main characters, Jack and Montana, on a seemingly normal but secretly fateful day in their lives. We quickly understand the world they inhabit, but will eventually come to learn that nothing is what it seems. The purpose of our story is to entice the reader with some complex characters, then instantly and substantially subvert their expectations. Surprise, after all, is going to be the dominant flavor of the show we plan to pitch.
KEY CREW
Mitchell Lazar - Director
Mitchell is a Canadian commercial and narrative director, writer, and producer based out of New York City. He started Mottongaba Films that has created commercial content for brands such as Verizon, Sephora, Colgate, and Johnson & Johnson. In addition, Mitchell has directed award winning short films that have aired on TV and screened at various film festivals around the world
Sam Downey - Writer
Sam is a writer based out of Brooklyn, New York. He wrote and directed a short film called The Bull Cage, which debuted at Santa Fe International Film Festival in 2022, and is currently developing a series about street racing with Ramfis Myrthil productions. His play Law of The Jungle was produced Off-Broadway at Theatre Row, and he has developed commercial campaigns for companies like Coca-Cola, Casper, Afiniti Artificial Intelligence, and Rugs USA.
Dawn Green - Producer
Dawn is a New York based filmmaker and documentarian. Her work as a producer in television has included shows for the SyFy Channel and the Oxygen Network. Previously, she served as a Lecturer of Italian Literature and Film for over a decade at Stanford University and U.C. Santa Cruz. She was a Fellow at the American Film Institute where she received an MFA in Producing. Her AFI thesis film, LE JEU DES SOLDATS (THE SOLDIER'S GAME), won first place in the 2011 BAFTA/LA Student Film Festival and was a national finalist for the 38th Annual Student Academy Awards competition.
Petr Cikhart - Cinematographer
Petr Cikhart is an EMMY winning Czech cinematographer living in Los Angeles. He received MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute. His thesis film FIRST IN FLIGHT competed at Camerimage cinematography festival in Poland and was nominated for the ASC Harris Savides Heritage Award. While at AFI Petr won the College Camera Operator of the Year award from the SOC. Subsequently Petr worked as a cinematographer on several feature films and TV series that have screen at festivals such as Sundance, AFI Film Festival, and Berlin Film Festival.
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