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Thread: "Brother of Mine" - my new short film...

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    Team Rick MinionZombie's Avatar
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    "Brother of Mine" - my new short film...

    I just finished up a new short film - check it out.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwUfnEFVB-0

    Short dramatic film in which Sean Connell plays Thomas, a man seeking revenge in the long-running wake of a family tragedy.

    Info on the back story to the characters in the film:
     
    The back story, suggested in the film, is that Thomas and Peter are brothers (played by real-life brothers Sean and Ben Connell), and that the latter killed their sister Annabelle (accidentally/deliberately?) many years ago. Thomas helped cover up the part of the truth pertaining to Peter, but after years of knowing the horrible reality, and with Peter unrepentant (possibly having killed again), Thomas decides to put an end to this tragedy.


    Enjoy.

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    Finally got around to watching this...

    Nicely done! What was good to see was:-
    1) The editing/camera work didn't look amateurish, so wasn't jarring and didn't take you out of the material.
    2) Likewise, the acting/performances were pretty convincing too. My only issue was the strangling didn't seem 'physical enough'. I'd like to have seen Peter fighting/suffering a bit more in what is a fight for his life.

    But nicely done
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    Thanks for watching, Neil. Glad you enjoyed it!

    1) Thanks - I was quite chuffed with how it turned out. I look back on short films I made several years ago and it's a combination of nostalgia and cringing, heh. This one though I'm very pleased with, it's as long as it needs to be (I do hate it when short films are longer than they need to be - I've been guilty of it in the past, so it's always best to trim right to the bone and get to the point), and I'm also very pleased with my compositions - particularly not bad considering I'd never been to the location before, but then after years of doing this sort of thing you develop a quick-hand sense of which shots you can get within a given location.

    2) Aye, Sean (the lead) is trying to break into acting, and he's done lots of short films, stage plays, and so on. He's been in a few of my shorts and I've seen a lot of change from one to the next, but I noticed the biggest leap forward with this one, not just in how he performs the piece, but also in his physicality in-between takes - thinking through his actions and so on. It was a really good experience for me, too, working more closely with an actor - rather than just a friend who's very kindly helping me out for a laugh - so it was a good learning experience, seeing what he needs from me, and for him to know what I need from him.

    Likewise Ben (his real-life brother) has done a fair bit of stage acting stuff (albeit more as a hobby from time-to-time). So it was good to work with them together.

    Yeah, it was a tricky one doing the strangulation scene. It was very brief in the individual takes, so doing it multiple times allowed me to really extend it much further than it was in any single take. It was tricky to try and get across that sense of asphyxiation - I didn't want Ben (Peter) to black himself out (I asked him to try and rush the blood to his face, holding his breath), and it reads slightly weaker on-camera than it did in-person - but I should note that his hands are tightly bound, so he can't really fight back to effectively ... I could have covered that slightly better, thinking about it, but at the same time we were also fighting the weather (a couple of takes I had to disgard due to wind noise - even with a wind sock over the microphone - as well as rain spray hitting the lens at an inopportune moment/position).

    But all-round I'm very pleased with it. There's wasn't much rehearsal or prep time on it either, so it was a very reactive experience - just dive-in and go ... although, of course, Sean did practice his monologue beforehand like any good actor does. Personally, I do tend to side towards a documentary style - in terms of reacting to the moments as they happen. I get the shot I want, the composition, but I'm quite free in letting the scene happen how they feel comfortable with it. A different story might require a different approach to the look (e.g. something very controlled, almost Kubrickian), but I usually gravitate towards these kind of scenarios.

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    Walking Dead Moon Knight's Avatar
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    MZ, you haven't been making any new films?
    "That's the deal, right? The people who are living have it harder, right? … the whole world is haunted now and there's no getting out of that, not until we're dead."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moon Knight View Post
    MZ, you haven't been making any new films?
    Not like this, but I'm still making films. I've been involved in making educational films for many years now, and right now a short film which I wrote called "For Want Of A Nail" (a comedy/drama which is inspired by my experiences with OCD) is on the festival circuit where it has been doing very well for itself. FWOAN was a full blown production with proper money behind it, a full cast and crew, and I was heavily involved from helping pick a director, being there for the workshop, the casting, I was on set as the script supervisor, and I helped a bit with the edit (suggestions for tweaks etc). We've had a bunch of nominations and a nice selection of wins, as well, and now the producer and I are pitching a version of the film as a six-part half-hour series for TV, and we've already had some interest from some major production companies (but the gears of showbiz grind exceedingly slowly, of course). The aim of the film was the entertain while educating the audience about OCD, and the vast majority of viewers have come away knowing more about OCD than when they came in, so we're very pleased with the film and the audience reaction.

    Otherwise I've also been pursuing writing more and more. Right now I'm on the hunt for a literary agent to represent my novel "Murder at the Grindhouse" and I'm putting together pitch documents for other TV serial ideas I've got.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MinionZombie View Post
    Not like this, but I'm still making films. I've been involved in making educational films for many years now, and right now a short film which I wrote called "For Want Of A Nail" (a comedy/drama which is inspired by my experiences with OCD) is on the festival circuit where it has been doing very well for itself. FWOAN was a full blown production with proper money behind it, a full cast and crew, and I was heavily involved from helping pick a director, being there for the workshop, the casting, I was on set as the script supervisor, and I helped a bit with the edit (suggestions for tweaks etc). We've had a bunch of nominations and a nice selection of wins, as well, and now the producer and I are pitching a version of the film as a six-part half-hour series for TV, and we've already had some interest from some major production companies (but the gears of showbiz grind exceedingly slowly, of course). The aim of the film was the entertain while educating the audience about OCD, and the vast majority of viewers have come away knowing more about OCD than when they came in, so we're very pleased with the film and the audience reaction.

    Otherwise I've also been pursuing writing more and more. Right now I'm on the hunt for a literary agent to represent my novel "Murder at the Grindhouse" and I'm putting together pitch documents for other TV serial ideas I've got.
    Nice! Where can I check out these projects? That OCD one is interesting as I suffer from a bit of OCD.
    "That's the deal, right? The people who are living have it harder, right? … the whole world is haunted now and there's no getting out of that, not until we're dead."

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moon Knight View Post
    Nice! Where can I check out these projects? That OCD one is interesting as I suffer from a bit of OCD.
    Here's the "For Want Of A Nail" trailer:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n76LkE9vFM

    You can follow the film on social media as well: www.facebook.com/FWOAN

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    Awesome, thanks!
    "That's the deal, right? The people who are living have it harder, right? … the whole world is haunted now and there's no getting out of that, not until we're dead."

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