A few months back I decided to make a short film called ‘Brother Sister’ that was loosely based around two characters that I wrote into a feature film of the same name. While there were many differences in story and style between the feature script and the short film that I eventually made, the short wasn’t ever intended to serve as a prequel or teaser for the feature, but rather an experimental platform to test a number of creative, technical, and stylistic elements. For example, I wanted to get our core cast on set together right away to develop chemistry between them, and to help me learn their language and habits. I also wanted to experiment with simultaneously directing and DP’ing (using the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, which I hadn’t used much before this shoot), and developing a RAW workflow for FCP X/DaVinci Resolve which I eventually used to edit and color the film. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and a great way to end off the year.

Since the film was completed in December, it has been submitted to a number of festivals and already screened here in Los Angeles. Although I am still waiting to hear back from the majority of the festivals that we submitted to, I’ve had a lot of readers of this site ask me to share the film after watching the teaser that I posted a couple of months ago, so I decided to go ahead and release the full cut online, as of today.

Why would I release my film online when I am trying to do a festival run, you ask? There are a number of reasons. First off, having a premiere status for a short film is not nearly as important as it is for a feature film, so there is little or no risk of closing any festival doors by showcasing the film at this stage. And secondly, this isn’t my first short – I’ve completed a few others and have found that the response and results that I’ve had from sharing them online has largely trumped any festival experience that I’ve had. The shorts that I make are often more experimental and the audience that wants to see that type of content is more easily able to find my work on sites like vimeo than at a local film festival. I still plan to screen it at festivals throughout the year, and am very much looking forward to doing so, but truthfully I am more excited to get to share it now with a larger, more engaged audience as well as the regular readers of this site.

Without further ado, here is the film:

Be sure to check back soon as I’ll have some updates on my next feature length narrative very soon.