Little Brother is a short psychological drama about Ray, an isolated, lonely and hypochondriac middleaged hospital worker who is obsessed with his own body and suffers from the fixed idea that he has a parasitic twin living inside him.
When his co-worker and only source of human interaction Rachel invites him to come to her baby-shower, Ray sees a way out of his lonely way of living for the first time. His hope is shattered when an incident related to his compulsive life-style causes him to lose his job and Rachel’s trust. Faced with losing his last connections to human society and indeed with losing what remains of his sanity, Ray has to confront his own obsessions. He has to go face to face with his Little Brother.
Official selection at Edinburgh International Film Festival (June, 2013)
Nominated for Best Fiction at BAFTA New Talent Awards 2013
Screening at Inverness Film Festival (November, 2013)
Official selection at Celtic Media Festival, Cornwall (April, 2014)
Nominated for Best Fiction at BAFTA New Talent Awards 2013
Screening at Inverness Film Festival (November, 2013)
Official selection at Celtic Media Festival, Cornwall (April, 2014)
Cast
Mark Holloway - lead role
Danielle Farrow - supporting role
John Henderson
Norma Henderson
Nick Cheales
Christopher Krzywinski
Danielle Farrow - supporting role
John Henderson
Norma Henderson
Nick Cheales
Christopher Krzywinski
Credits
Andrei Staruiala - director, editor, colourist
Martin Kreuch - writer
Raluca Oros - producer
Carlo D'Alessandro - director of photography
Christopher Krzywinski - make-up artist
Andrei Dascalescu - assembly editor
Colin Chipchase - sound designer
Rob Walker - dubbing mixer
Silent Strike - original music
Tim Courtney - additional music
Production: Screen Academy Scotland, A Skillset Film & Media Academy
Martin Kreuch - writer
Raluca Oros - producer
Carlo D'Alessandro - director of photography
Christopher Krzywinski - make-up artist
Andrei Dascalescu - assembly editor
Colin Chipchase - sound designer
Rob Walker - dubbing mixer
Silent Strike - original music
Tim Courtney - additional music
Production: Screen Academy Scotland, A Skillset Film & Media Academy
The initial plan was to shoot the entire project in four days. In reality it took us seven. We had a script breakdown and there was a reasonable coverage distributed for each day, no more than 2+3/8pages / day but the main reason for needing three extra days was the lack of an art department and of an AD.
This project involved a lot of locations for a short film: a private clinic, Ray’s (main character) apartment, an undertaker office, a neighbourhood exterior and Rachel’s (the co-worker) apartment. Napier’s University new campus at Sighthill has a nurse course for which they have a mock up hospital. It was the perfect place to shoot in since we were able to get away with minimal set dressing. For Ray’s apartment we found an unconventional storage space that also had a small kitchen attached to a square fairly large room and a separate dark grey bathroom. It was a space that required a lot of dressing but it had a very good base to start building on. As for the undertaker and Rachel’s apartment we planned using our apartment right from the start, but dress them very differently. For the neighbourhood exteriors we chose the most practical way, an area close to Sighthill Campus.
This project involved a lot of locations for a short film: a private clinic, Ray’s (main character) apartment, an undertaker office, a neighbourhood exterior and Rachel’s (the co-worker) apartment. Napier’s University new campus at Sighthill has a nurse course for which they have a mock up hospital. It was the perfect place to shoot in since we were able to get away with minimal set dressing. For Ray’s apartment we found an unconventional storage space that also had a small kitchen attached to a square fairly large room and a separate dark grey bathroom. It was a space that required a lot of dressing but it had a very good base to start building on. As for the undertaker and Rachel’s apartment we planned using our apartment right from the start, but dress them very differently. For the neighbourhood exteriors we chose the most practical way, an area close to Sighthill Campus.
We went into production with a new shooting script that only had a few lines changed from the previous draft so all the crew and cast knew what was happening already from the forth draft. I was able to storyboard more than two thirds of the script.
The storyboard was left for the last week before the shoot. Because our DOP was based in Lenark I wasn’t able to work close with him on it in pre production. Also because I didn’t have access to the locations as much as I wanted to I wasn’t able to adapt the storyboard to the real life sizes and circumstances. I was just guessing the room dimensions and hoping once we get inside they will fit with what’s on paper. It was a slow start. I was thinking about a shot several times before starting to draw on paper. I wanted to be very precise about it and pre-edit the film from it already. My approach was very counter productive so I ended up by putting as many ideas as possible on the paper. Of course the downside of this was that I didn’t had an coherent visual style and I didn’t even used half of the storyboarded shots but at least I had material on which I could talk with the DOP.
Crowd funding teaser