The Ghost of Dead Malls Past is a thriller about the ominous malaise you feel inside an empty shopping mall during the holidays. As a part of a collection of small-production short films, I decided that, without a fancy budget, the film would produce an eerie tension throughout by prioritizing the basics of shot design and camera movement. For example, we used the Hitchcockian P.O.V. to keep the camera in the protagonist's spooked perspective, sweeping zoom-outs from the lonely wide to the unnerving even wider, and cell phone shots with tight frames and deep-focus to emphasize reveals that make you lean into the screen. 

Shooting at the mall was its own set of challenges; I rigorously negotiated filming permissions before and during production but was forced to advocate for our film on set, pushing the limitations of the story we could tell with our budget.