Release date: March 2024
Crew Position: Editor
Baseball Without Borders represents the most ambitious and large-scale documentary I have ever worked on as a solo editor. A film by the renowned director/cinematographer Cullen Blanchfield, the bilingual (English & Spanish) feature film explores and unveils the various dimensions the non-profit organization with the same title expands its mission across the world. Created in 1995 by Juan Bustos, the organization has sent out baseball equipment to more than 52 countries to poor communities of children. The goal is to spiritually empower those less fortunate by making possible their wish of professionally playing this expensive sport. Baseball Without Borders' efforts have been widely recognized and appreciated across the world, and now the organization is seeking more members, support, and attention than before. The documentary is released at an optimum time for informing the public about its message and mission.
Release date: February 2024
Crew Position: Gaffer
I loved having this unique experience of working on a PSA with a distinctive and dedicated cast and crew. I also loved engaging in the work in the electric department, while closely collaborating with the DP for the best strategic lighting and negative fills for the shots. I used ARRI lighting and several other smaller grip elements to enhance the overall look of the piece.
Release date: January 16, 2023
Crew Position: Editor, Producer
This video represents a short and sweet project co-produced and co-directed by the two producers of the film Love in the Evening/Morning, Brianna Flores and myself. We created this prequel for the main film because of the characters' potential and original story that easily leads to an appealing past narrative. The audience's curiosity towards the past story of such strong lovers also represented a reason for us to develop this project.
Release date: May 2022
Crew Position: Editor, Sound Mixer, VFX Artist
This film project is a very professionally developed short movie written
and directed by filmmaker Sydney Sagehorn. I had a wonderful time editing the film, cutting down several
scenes out to make it as conscise and enjoyable as possible. The meaning of art is debated in unexpected
and comedic ways throughout the film, as museum curators are trying their hardest to buy a painting
belonging to the granddaughter of the artist. After several fine cuts and feedback sessions between the
director and I, the movie reached a glorious picture lock that allowed me to continue designing title
sequences and performing sound mixing work. The movie did incredibly well across the world throughout
the festival circuit, for both the film and its trailer.
*If you want to watch the trailer I made for the short film, access this link.
Release date: May 2023
Crew Position: Director of Photography
This short film represents another peak of mine in cinematography, as I have used my cinematographic knowledge and skills in order to emphasis the characters' detrimental decisions and the plot twists through visual storytelling. The project is a well-written story of a mom who decides to give a mortal test to the guy her daughter fell in love with when she invited him for dinner at home. The merging of the low key lighting, high contrast, intense red and blue lighting, and strong shadows during the fight scenes reflect the struggle the characters are facing when figuring out what each of them truly wants from the other one. Betrayal is at the core of the story and the immense emotions provoked by it lead to fatal decisions that are best conveyed through handheld movement, telephoto close-ups, and Dutch angles, all shot on RED.
Release date: July 2022
Crew Position: Sound mixer/designer/recorder/editor
I loved working in post sound for this short film because the dramatic intensity the characters brought with their supernatural aspects gave a lot of opportunity for creative choices regarding sound. It was really exciting working with a very flexible and serious director, Lexie Shamir, for fulfilling the movie's goals.
Release date: May 2022
Crew Position: DIT and Assistant Editor
The winner of the 2021 SMU Summer Feature Film Competition is Kelsey
Hodge, a recent alumna film student, who has written and directed the film Smile, based on the
story of a teenage Black girl who tries to mend her relationships with friends and family after a
suicide attempt. I worked closely on set with the editor for fulfilling my job as a DIT: I did the
necessary backups, created proxies, and synched the footage. I also cut dailies so the production team
could know ahead of time when to do reshoots so that we had all the coverage needed. Currently, the film
is in a big festival circuit, being the recipient for the Austin Film Society 2022 Grant, and the
trailer I have cut for it is also available on demand.
*If you want to watch a short video that gives an insight into the production month of the indie
feature, access this link.
Release date: May 2022
I had the incredible opportunity to work with a professional and talented cast while performing a personal and experimental film direction on the dinner scene from the famous movie American Beauty. It was a learning experience working with actors from different backgrounds and ethnicities whose characters all belong to a family. This kind of direction revealed the importance of the sentimental value and feelings within relationships, beyod actors' actions, words, or visual appearances.
Release date: May 2022
Crew Position: Director of Photography, Colorist
This short film represents my peak in cinematography, as I have intensely prepared for executing all the technical and artisitc tasks in the camera department. The art project is formed from a well-written story of a woman trapped in an unhappy and toxic marriage whose mean of escape is her imagination. Her ideas lead her to unexpected situations, some real, some not. The merging of the black&white cinematography and the colorful, contrasted scenes reflect the interior battle the characters are constantly experiencing within a seemingly calm outside world. I loved shooting this project on the RED Scarlet camera, using 6 types of unifocal lenses that I inter-changed often in order to best convey the mood of the shot. Also, working with the 85-year-old writer and director, Marillyn Seeberger, is an accomplishment I will cheerish for the entirety of my film career.
Release date: May 2022
Crew Position: Director of Photography, Colorist
This short film presents the story of a former military man who returns home after being deployed. As with most wars and griefs in life, people don't escape untouched. He gets back to his wife only to discover his personality will be forever affected by the PTSD symptoms developed during his time in the army. Although a very relatable story, the film does not fail to touch anyone who understands the struggle of overcoming life's challenges. The movie, written and directed by Zach Ruwitch, is a personal project where all the artists involved dedicated their time and energy to making it emphasize the main themes and feelings experienced by the director.
Release date: March 2022
Crew Position: Editor
This short comedy was a real pleasure to edit because of its quick editing
style, detailed director-editor feedback, and stylistic, comedic elements during the montage sequences.
The movie presents the struggles a teenage guy faces when struggling to figure out an ideal date plan
using multiple partners.
*If you want to watch the trailer I made for the short film, access this link.
Release date: February 2022
Crew Position: Director of Photography, Colorist
This short tragedy touches the soul of the audience through its universal story: how do we copy with loss? I worked on this short film as a cinematographer, outlining a very detailed storyboard and shotlist months in advance along with the director, Brianna Flores, because of the vast artistic possibilities the script offered for cinematography. The contrast and saturation that the coloring needed also emphasized its dramatic nature.
Release date: December 2021
Crew Position: Sound mixer/designer/editor & ADR/Foley recorder
One of my favorite collaborative sound projects of all time was to build the post sound of a part of a movie from scratch, with no audio bite from it. I therefore learned the intricate details of sound design, sound mixing and editing, recording foley, doing ADR and better comprehending the technicals and mechanics of audio mixing in Pro Tools and on set.
Release date: December 2021
The short gangster film is entirely created by me, as I loved planning and performing the cinematography and I had an amazing time directing the talented actors. I am grateful for the Buzen Suites Motel in Dallas to have helped me on this project, as this is one of the reference works I've done so far.
Release date: July 2021
Crew Position: Director of Photography
The short film, written and directed by filmmaker Sydney Sagehorn, tells the story of how acts of humanity gain negative connotations once the press gets involved. The cinematographic department I led presented itself with various creative opportunities to enhance the story and outline the internal battles characters were experiencing across the many perspectives people had of their actions.
Release date: June 2021
As the long month of production of the indie feature Smile has wrapped up, I created this video to offer an insight into the intense days of production for this highly engaging feature film, along with the SMU Film Department.
Release date: May 2021
Crew Position: Writer, Director, Producer, Post Production Artist
This short film represents my first editorial and directorial success in the professional filmmaking world, a journey where I learned a lot about working with actors, casting, editing intricate scenes, managing large crews, and analyzing multiple story alternatives. It is a thriller-drama piece about a broke man who is trying to pay the rent by kidnapping a girl and coming out as the one who rescued her to obtain the big reward from her rich parents. However, he encounters multiple obstacles on his way that might not let him achieve his endgoal, although the police does not seem to be on the right side of the law. The film had a wonderful turn-out in the international festival circuit, as the hard work of the artists and the intense editing sessions paid off.
Release date: February 2021
Crew Position: Sound mixer, 1st Assistant Camera, Assistant Director, Gaffer, Grip
I worked on Cullen Blanchfield’s passion project, an independent film where he documented the emotional hardships of unprivileged people during the global pandemic. I set up the lighting for the interviews, worked on sound recording, and helped with the camera and set design. I also contributed to the post-production phases of his documentary.
Release date: January 2021
Crew Position: Editor
The movie, directed by filmmaker Arnulfo Garza, portrays the struggles human face when having to decide between good and bad, especially when civilians’ lives are involved in military operations. The process of editing in Avid Media Composer the 10-minute short film consisted of creating several rough cuts and fine cuts until achieving the desired picture lock, and extensively collaborating with the director to achieve the desired artistic result through the post-production processes of color correction and sound mixing.
Release date: December 2020
Crew Position: Director of Photography
The movie is about an unexpected outcome that occurs at a family brunch when the daughter brings home her supposed boyfriend who turns out to be closer to her brother, the theme being the fear of owning who you are due to people's lack of acceptance. I worked as the director of photography on a short film that was shot in October 2020. I met with the director to refine the script, work through the lines of dialogue, decide the order and importance of events, and create a very detailed shot list for each scene. I worked with the FS7 and had 3 changeable lenses (25 mm, 50 mm, and 85 mm).
Release date: December 2020
Crew Position: Editor
I edited the video for the advertisement of the new recruitment process of RAs taking place in fall 2020. The materials were shot by SMU alumni who gathered content of all the commons at SMU in order to create a descriptive video of the college atmosphere on campus.
Release date: November 2020
This movie is a personal creation, filmed in Romania's Carpathian mountains during the summer of 2020. The entire footage was shot on the go, while hiking and mountain-climbing, in order to give the film a more authentic and intimate look.
Release date: October 2020
Crew Position: Editor
This short film is a journalistic piece emphasizing the features of Dallas Farmers Market in full season, released in order to document on the events taking place in Downtown Dallas in October.
Release date: October 2020
Crew Position: Editor
As I am always fascinated by the skyline of big American cities, I made a short film of the stunning view from the Trinity Skyline that appears everywhere in postcards from Dallas, Texas.
Release date: July 2020
Crew Position: Editor
Stuck in the uncertainties that the first phase of quarantine brought about, I decided to escape the unprecedented times mood by experimenting and creating a black and white film with the few people who were around. It outlines the uncertainty of life and the lack of closure or understanding of people in different relationships.
Release date: June 2020
Crew Position: Editor
It is hard to describe how it feels to witness such a terrible event that changed the course of many people's lives. I made this short film as I felt the need to emphasize through visual content the emotional struggles a whole nation was going through after the murder of George Floyd. The beautiful city of Minneapolis before and after the tragedy.
Release date: April 2020
For the 48hour film competition, I created a film respecting the following criteria: maximum 5 minutes run time, shot inside, respecting specific lines of dialogue that needed to be included and in the thriller genre.
Release date: March 2020
This represents my first independently directed, written, and produced film in the United States. I have worked with some of my closest friends as actors and had a crew of about 3 people. I wanted to be in charge as much as possible during all stages of production, since the movie touches on a very personal matter and highlights my experiences as a foreigner in a country across the world from home. The movie's professional stage represents the level I was at at the beginning of my career, as a reminder that nobody starts from the top.
Release date: December 2019
I had the amazing opportunity to interview the SMU Mustang Band director, Don Hopkins and the dedicated band member, Natalie Igo, who helped release this band documentary. The insights on the rehearsals, games and SMU spirit developed among band students are all accurate and aim to convey the players' authentic and strong emotions.
Release date: November 2019
As part of the SMU Debate Team, I had the chance to make a documentary which substantially presents the life behind the scenes of these passionate and stubborn debaters, whose goal is not only to win, but also to learn the art of persuasiveness.
Release date: October 2018
This is a documentary of a famous tramway in Bucharest that showcases the authentic, unconventional atmosphere of the Eastern European capital. The documentary aims to visually explain how the tramway represents a special mean of transportation for its travelers, thus emphasizing its aesthetic nature.
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Alexandra Savu, 2025
alexandra.savu.usa@gmail.com
