In C.S. Young Jr.’s short film, Exit Strategies, we meet Rob (Lucas Jake), a confident financial strategist, as he finishes a long workday and heads to his favorite restaurant. There, he spots Shana (Caitlin Adamcik), who sits alone at a booth, sipping a glass of wine and running some cryptic code on her phone.
Rob, always looking for an opportunity, invites himself to join Shana at her booth and quickly begins bragging about his career, particularly his expertise in “exit strategies,” where he advises clients on when to exit a trade before things go bad. What he doesn’t realize is that Shana might be employing her own strategy on him.
As the evening progresses, their conversation turns into a bit of a chess match as they both try to size each other up. Shana quietly gathers intel about Rob, texting with a friend who helps her uncover more about his background. When Rob thinks he’s charmed his way into a promising connection, Shana warns him that something is about to happen and that he—and everyone else in the restaurant—has only seven minutes to leave if they want to end the evening…breathing.
“Shana might be employing her own strategy on him.”
Director C.S. Young, Jr. describes Exit Strategies as a passion project made on a shoestring budget with a local cast and crew, many of whom were working on a film set for the first time. He and co-writer John Adamcik aimed to craft a subtle psychological thriller that centered on character and dialogue rather than spectacle. Influenced by the suspenseful storytelling of filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Young hopes this short will be the first chapter in a larger world centered on its anti-hero characters.
Young plays around with storytelling. Like early Hitchcock, the story is told in black and white, or more accurately, a sepia tone. When you have no budget, you want to heighten the things you can control, in this case, color. It did draw me in instantly as a thriller, but when playing with color, you want to really push the contrasting darks and lights much further; otherwise, the visuals risk looking muted and flat.
Lucas Jake and Caitlin Adamcik do fine work building the tension as Rob and Shana. Rob is the over-confident lothario, and Shana is the femme fatale ready to spring the trap. The story itself slowly reveals each character’s motivations until we reach the heart of the matter, a very complex situation that’s about to be unleashed.
In the end, the low-budget, DIY nature of Exit Strategies is hard to miss. Director C.S. Young, Jr., overcomes many of the issues stemming from the production’s limited resources. Now that this short film is complete, the next step is to determine how to utilize composition, lighting, and sound to make the next one feel more cinematic.
"…it did draw me in instantly as a thriller..."
