Brothers' Days in LA film festival in 2 weeks time!

We are delighted to announce that Brothers' Day has also been selected for the Los Angeles Urban Film Festival 2015!

The film will screen as part of the festival's official competition.

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USA Film festival announcement!

We are delighted to announce that Brothers Day has been selected to screen at the Orlando Urban Film and Music festival 2015!

The film will screen in Orlando, Florida, USA in November this year as part of the festival's competition.

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Another great premiere!

We want to thank everyone who attended and helped out with our Irish premiere last week. Thanks for coming along and sticking around to chat about the film afterwards!

We had lots of great press coverage throughout the week including several radio interviews on Q102, Drive 105 and the  BBC arts show, presented by one of Derrys 'Undertones' Mickey Bradley. If you didn't catch any of them last week you can listen to the BBC show on iplayer here. Our interview starts at 20 mins 30 secs into the program.

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Crew Interview - ANGEL DELGADO

What was your role in Brothers Day?
I directed the thing as well as I could manage. Helped writing it too, plan it and produce it. Plus I edit too and do visual effects. And make coffees.

What made you interested in the role?
The challenge, I had worked in other feature-length projects in a production capacity, but I hadn't directed one yet, had only directed shorts before. Plus, I really liked the potential of the story of the brothers at the heart of the screenplay.

What was your favourite moment during production?
All those moments in which we all pulled together to get it done in time. As master Sidney Lumet put it, when we were all "doing the same movie". Production is a messy process that you can only hope to control up to a point, so it's great to be there when the right combination of planning and luck happens.

What was the biggest challenge you had on Brothers Day?
The scale of it. For a tiny-to-no-budget production, we had lots of actors and extras, and of course a small army of crew members too.

Can you tell us about something unexpected, or maybe funny, happening on set?
Lots. One day, most of our actors didn't show up in time. It happens, people are just volunteering and have their life, you have to understand and deal with it. We had to re-arrange transport and schedule, start the day shooting cutaways of just crew members' feet posing for actors... And doing shots of the car from the outside, even though only Lewis (Ryan) was inside. Ended up being one of the toughest but also one of the most fun days. The show must go on, they say. 

Another good one was the day before shooting the foot chase. Luca (DOP), Gemma (PM), Brant (AD) and me went to the location to scout the most interesting places and actually shot it without the actors, just us standing in for them. It was a fun and it helped a lot in making that especially complicated day efficient the day after. And it was funny to see the footage of the characters temporarily being played by the core team.

Oh, and there was also this day the police showed up, not appreciating some fake-but-real-looking guns we had. We all nearly got arrested, but in the end we were really nice to them and didn't.

Who are your favourite filmmakers or influences?
Roger Corman is to me the most incredible person ever to be linked to cinema. He is a constant inspiration on the just-go-and-do-it way of filming. On the directing side of things, Steven Spielberg is the example of the main qualities I most value in the craft: prolific, essentially a clear, entertaining storyteller and as versatile as to be able to do any genre well. The man is annoyingly good.

Do you have any interesting tips for filmmakers out there making their first film?
Just do it. Don't wait for the right moment. Don't wait to have the money. Don't wait to know more than you do now, or to have a better camera. Write it, shoot it, just do it. And finish it, of course. Takes the big guys in Hollywood years to finish their movies, and it may take you even longer. That's the way it works, no one said it was easy or quick. Finish it though, a movie is not a movie unless someone can watch it.

BROTHERS' DAY premieres in Manchester in February. 

You can buy a ticket for the event here.

Next time we catch up with Brothers Day star Leonora Moore aka Vicky

You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

So what now? Distribution

As you may have gathered if you follow our news, the film is.. finished! Yes!! Ehm... now what?

Well, we are currently working on distribution options. Now, if you don't know how film distribution works -and no reason why you'd want to- you may be surprised to learn it is incredibly difficult to get a film out there for people to see.

This is why being realistic -and regardless of what happens later on-, the plan is to start releasing it ourselves, starting with an online streaming platform. That online streaming platform is Distrify. You can find the player either up here on our new shiny Website BrothersDayFilm.com or in our old Facebook page . You'll be able to see the film right there when it's available, after we give it a proper premiere (read on..). And by the way you can't see the film yet but you can re-watch the trailer in preparation, now updated to better match the look of the final film!

Yes, there may be a DVD to follow too, depends, we really want to do it, but there are always costs involved, so it depends, at this stage.

In regards to screening it, so far we've only held private screenings for youth workers. The social component of the film is something we are very proud of, and it's exciting to see organisations such as The Factory Youth Zone or Fathers Against Violence backing us up and agreeing they can use the film as a tool in their daily work.

BUT we'll be finally organising a local premiere early next year. If you are around Manchester then, it'd be great to see you there. Dates to come, as we are looking at options at the moment.

More to follow. In the mean time, the best way of stay in the loop and not miss updates in the ever-changing Facebook feed is to subscribe via the Distrify player ("Coming soon" arrow). Here's the link again.

  

  

Private youth workers screening

We held a great private screening yesterday attended by youth workers. It's great to have some interest from the organisations who work with the reality of some of the issues that are the backdrop of Brothers' day. Thanks very much to everyone who came along, we are very pleased with the positive response and feedback. Thanks to Andy Low and SSR too, for hosting the evening.

More detailed information on what's happening with the film coming up very soon. Watch this space, Facebook or Twitter!

Second ADR Session

We had another great day of ADR at SSR Manchester  this week. Thanks to our sound effects supervisor Andy Low  for working his magic again, our all of our returning actors Clayton Gordon, Stephen Mitchell aka Stainless, Jake Francis and Lewis Fletcher for giving up their day to help us get the film yet another small step closer to completion.Thanks to Graeme for helping the day come together and taking the photos.

  

For those who don't know, we publish behind-the-scenes pictures in Facebook and Twitter twice a month, plus an occasional update like this. Like/follow if you want to stay in the loop!

ADR

We had a great evening of both ADR and Voice over recordings at SSR Manchester  this week. Thanks to our sound effects supervisor Andy Low and James Boothman for their technical wizardry, our two new cast members Nikki Dean and Dave Egerton and to all of our returning actors Andre Burton March, Sakinah May, Michael Maughan and Lewis Fletcher for giving up their evening to help us get the film one small step closer to completion. Also thanks to everyone's favourite Brant Adam for taking the photos.

      

For those who don't know, we publish behind-the-scenes pictures in Facebook and Twitter twice a month, plus an occasional update like this. Like/follow if you want to stay in the loop!

Brothers Day - Prop making

One of the most curious props we have in the film is a coffee mug that gets smashed over Loki's head by Ryan during the very heated fight sequence, prop master Javier Gimenez reminds us how he approached this task below.

"I was asked to create a breakable cup for the fight scene, which was supposed to be "soft" enough to be used on the actor's face. I made a clay mould and then cast the cup out of melted wax, using a rice cooker to melt the wax. Using a two part (modelling clay) mould, with my own soapy PVA mix as splitting agent, cast the fake cup out of one of the original prop cups of the scene, shaved misshapes and fill on bubbles, carved a few crack pattern lines on the wax copy then painted over to resemble the original. I made three in total, one for testing (off camera on volunteers face...) and then another one for retake. Cleaned up the mess and Voilà! "

The stills below show a sneak peak of the cup in action!

For those who don't know, we publish behind-the-scenes pictures in Facebook and Twitter twice a month, plus an occasional update like this. Like/follow if you want to stay in the loop!

Brothers day - Post production update

An update from Angel, the director:


"So as those that follow us in Twitter probably know already, Brothers day is nearly finished now. As ever, we depend on the time people can dedicate us in between paid projects, so we cannot give a date yet, but we hope we'll be able to show the film in some way this year.

Making a film is a lot of work on a lot of different fronts, here's a brief summary of the progress at the moment:

Done since the last update:
- Edit: we locked the edit soon after that. Done and dusted, yes!
- Digital corrections: reframing some shots, stabilizing others, duplicating extras (what!? :), making day into night and a bit of everything else. The magic and time-consuming joys of digital post-production. It took a lot of work, but sure makes the film a lot better.
- Music tracks: such as this recently released track. Remi has now finished the last one of his many contributions to the film. Well done, Remi!
- Titles: we have a fantastic design, can't wait for you guys to see them. We also have a cool poster matching the titles that we'll be sharing publicly shortly.

Working on now:
- Grading: I've been working hard with Luca, the DOP on making the film look as cool as possible. Here's the proof:

- Sound post: Foley, atmospheres and the rest of sound design (those sounds that have to be created or improved) are well under way thanks to the wonderful guys at SSR. So is dialogue editing (making them sound as good as possible!).

- Additional score: all the incidental music for all the other parts of the film that need it.

Left to do:
- ADR: we have some ADR to schedule. This is those bits of sounds that have to be re-recorded because -for whatever reason- they weren't clear enough.
- Final mix (putting all the sounds, music and dialogues together!)

So that's it for now, you know exactly where we are now. You can follow the more frequent updates in Twitter and Facebook, if you so wish!"

Brothers day - long edit

We had an update today from Director Angel Delgado's blog:

"Where are you with the editing for Brothers day?" -some people keep asking me. Not surprisingly, since it's been about a year since we released the trailer for (if you haven’t seen it, you can do here). So I thought I'd give a quick update on what’s happening.

So why so slow!?

The reason things take so long, as some of you know already, is still the same as explained then. Everyone working in this film is taking time out of their daily busy lives and not getting paid for it, and there's a limit to the speed we can pick up with this system. That means we still need some more patience from all of you lovely people who are waiting to see it.

So where are we specifically?

Although we've had a number of other assistant editors helping along the way, so far the bulk of the cutting has been done by editor Terence Johnson and yours truly. That is, 1) an assembly edit we have already left way behind, and -what we're currently working on and hope to have finished by the end of this month- 2) the rough cut. A big and important step for the film, but one that, sadly, we'll not be able to share with the world.

The rough what?

For those who don't know what all these terms mean, (while the assembly is more of a working guide of what happens and when), the rough cut is cut of the film that already contains all the scenes that will be in the film, plus a choice of shots, plus temporary sound and music tracks. It still requires a lot of trimming and polishing, and it’s usually longer than the finished film will be, but it is at this point a lot closer and, if the job is done right, it should “feel” like it. Digital effects and fixes need to be added still, and audio treated so that it sounds great, and of course actual sound design and music done too. We do have some music tracks actually, like the one of Remi’s we used for the trailer, but still need a lot more done. I can’t wait to fully get into all this but hey, step by step.

So there you go, things are happening at a slow, yet steady pace, and we are hoping for a 2014 release. Thanks so much everyone who is waiting for this, you're all so incredibly nice people :)

Oh, for those who don't know, we publish behind-the-scenes pictures in Facebook every week, plus an occasional update like this. Head over there and like it/subscribe if you want to stay in the loop!

You can follow us in Facebook and Twitter!

The Professionals: Working in the film industry

Here you can see Angel and Gemma as guest lecturers at CSV Media. The session involved explaining the reality of working in the film industry and went into detail about the making of Brothers Day. The lecture was part of The Professionals.