B R O K E N / The Digital Filmmaker /

B R O K E N

A gun blast, a flash of light, and a young woman awakens to the comfort of her own bed. Bonnie Clayton has it all, a great relationship, a challenging career, and the burden of a dream that grows more vivid and disturbing with each passing night. But when Bonnie is abducted by a sadistic stranger and his colorful entourage, she discovers that the key to her survival lies within the familiar realms of her recurring dream.

About the production

In their desire to create an intelligent action packed thriller, Writer/Director Alex Ferrari and Writer/Producer Jorge Flores Rodriguez combined their technical and creative skills to develop their breakthrough project B R O K E N.

Eager to prove that independent no-budget film-making could reap more than the standard ‘talking head’ short film, the team set out to create a movie that not only had depth of story, but would satisfy the senses with its action and visual effects.

The goal of creating a 15-minute short possessing enough production value that it could seamlessly replace 15-minutes within a studio film, seemed insurmountable. Yet, the result is a tale wrapped in over 100 visual effects and told in such bold, fresh form, that its ability to capture the audience has propelled the project into feature film development.

Interview:
Alex Ferrari - Director/Writer/Producer/Editor
Jorge F. Rodriguez - Writer/Producer
Sean Falcon - VFX Supervisor

Could you tell us how the idea of making "Broken" came? (talk about the writing of it, and why an action short film, etc...)

Alex:
I came up with the idea in college and years later resurrect it for BROKEN. I wrote the original script for the short and then brought it to Jorge to see if he wanted to work on it with me. Together we developed the final script for the short and are currently working on the full screenplay.

Jorge:
Alex and I had talked about working together for over a year. We were just looking for the right project. Then he approached me with a story he conceived of in his college days. He wanted my take on it and the collaboration went from there.

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Could you tell us about the process of making "Broken"? (talk about the process of the script, storyboard, animatic, shooting board, filming days, the post production, etc)

Alex:
I was storyboarding the shots in my head as we were writing the script. With the help of Dan Cregan (Storyboard/Concept Artist) we storyboarded almost every single shot in BROKEN. He finished having a 55 page book of storyboards. I think you need storyboards at a low-budget level indy because we were attempting to do some complicated camera moves. set ups and action. The crew needed to have a clear idea of what I wanted and I believe that that prep work really paid off.

Shooting was a crazy time, the location was hot as hell. About 95 degrees in that basement. I lost 10 pounds that week. All in all it was a great shoot.

I edited the first cut in 2 weeks. then started sending out VFX plates to the guys so they could start working. After the Final Cut was agreed by Jorge and myself I began color timing the short to get the look I was going for. As for the color correction, the filter packages I used were Magic Bullet, G Film, Stib's Simple Levels and a FCP's color corrector. I found that Simple Levels helped me crush the black in a way that the entire image wasn't affected. I also used garbage matte to cut out sections of the frame and color correct them individually. The key is good lighting and having a design in mind before going into post. I did a lot of experimenting and layering techinques in FCP to get the look. Sometimes I look back and forget how I got there. Just play around ALOT with the tools.

Sean:
The post process for me was just a few weeks of none stop work. More time would always be great but you play the hand you're dealt. It was good though, because it was like creating a new demo reel in a few weeks. I knew after the deadline I could still go back and tweak some things that I wasn't satisfied with.

Jorge:
We developed the script over a period of 6 months, always keeping the fact that we had to be able to do it all in this one location. Dan Cregan was brought in to do Story Boards and Concept Art. It took us 5 days to shoot the entire movie and an additional week before the shoot to do the production design.

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How long did it take each of the process? (The time in the preproduction, production and postproduction)

Sean:
My fx shots had to be completed within a 2-3 week period.

Jorge:
Pre-pro was 3 months. Production was 1 week. And post took about 3 months.

Alex:
I was prepping the film, on my off time for 10 weeks, with Jorge and our team. Couple hours here and there. Storyboards, concept art, location scouts, rehearsals, VFX tests, make and wardrobe tests, etc. I need to plan out every step of the process. I like to have a battle plan before I go into war.

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Which format did you use for the short film? (HD, Film, MiniDV, etc...?)

Jorge:
We shot with the Panasonic's AG-DVX100A in 24p advanced mode, a MiniDV format. After we did tests with the camera and saw what we could do in post we knew we found our choice.

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I can see that the color palette of the short film was very important, could you tell us about it. (I see that at the beginning it was blue, and at the hospital green)

Jorge:
Take it away Alex.

Alex:
I wanted to get three very distinct looks for the short. (Bonnie's Apartment, Basement, Hospital) I made her apartment more bluish for the lighting storm vibe. The basement I wanted dark, crushed blacks, high contrast and overall a very unsettling feeling. The hospital I want a puke green. Very unhealthy vibe.

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Any advice for someone that wants to do a short film?

Jorge:
Don't hesitate. Plan well, understand where your limitations will be (money, time, experience etc...) and prepare yourself. Most importantly, take the proper time to develop a good story.

Alex:
Exactly. Do as NIKE say: just do it! If it sucks, fine. You learned and you move on to the next one with the knowledge. Just make your movie no matter what it takes!

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Any thing that you would like to add?

Alex:
I wish you all the best luck in your future project. Before you make your first project, learn as much as you can about the craft of storytelling. The more you know, the more dangerous you become...be dangerous.

Jorge:
If you want to tell stories on film because it is a living breathing feeling that wont stop nagging at you then don't wait for the perfect time. The perfect time is now. How many people do you know that talk a really good game? But how many actually do it? Because once you do it you will set yourself apart from the pack.