Student filmmakers screen 7-minute noir parody 'The Mole Named Cole' on IB Film Show

DCR Productions screened The Mole Named Cole, a seven-minute student film that mixes film‑noir style with broad comedy, on the IB Film Show.

Mr. Shotwell, host of the IB Film Show, introduced the film and invited director Ryan Siegel, editor and actor Cole Schiefelbeng and cinematographer Dean Scotto DiClemente to discuss the work before the screening.

“ I made the directorial choice to make it a film noir just because black and white, like, kinda resembles, like, a spy,” Ryan Siegel, director for DCR Productions, said, describing the visual choices that led the production toward noir conventions even as the film plays as a parody of the genre.

Cole Schiefelbeng, who served as the film’s editor and also acted in the short, said practical constraints shaped performance and staging. “ So there’s a bunch of shots where Ryan's in the room, and I'm trying to steal stuff, and it's right behind him,” Cole said, explaining how obvious comic business was used intentionally in scenes. The dialogue in the short includes prop details — a fictional bank number and routing number spoken as part of the script — that the filmmakers used for the story.

Dean Scotto DiClemente, credited as the picture cinematographer, said the team considered a more action‑oriented approach but adjusted because of runtime and equipment limits: “ we only had 7 minutes, and it had to be, like, have, like, a well thought out plot. And we didn't really have the equipment to make it, like, that action packed of a film, so we decided to take, more Ryan's idea on a comedic twist to the plot.”

The three described the project as the last film they will produce together before finishing the IB Film course. Mr. Shotwell closed the segment by thanking the guests and the viewing audience and introduced the screening of The Mole Named Cole.