HERE LIES MY BROTHER- TOUCHING SHORT DOCUMENTARY (Palestinian Opression)

After many months of posts on this blog I have looked back at all the posts, by reading all posts before planning this one I realised there was something missing. I have not discussed about a short documentary that tackles a tragic topic that a lot of people may not know about and talk about it in this blog, my aim for this blog is to promote this video on the place where news travels fastest…. Social media. Sometimes when looking for a short film to review I am easily misguided towards fancy looking short films that I forget about the hard hitting, low budget documentaries and short films that may not have the most fancy cinematography or camera angles but ones that will certainly keep you constantly thinking about and realising how grateful you should be for the hidden luxuries of life. i now present to you ‘Here Lies My Brother’ a short documentary ‘ Support The Movement ‘

        Details about the short film

If you have just watched this short film and want to know a little bit more about the specific details of the family affected by the death of their son and how to support families going through this and ver importantly how to stop this from happening to other innocent families keep reading the next paragraph

On Nakba Day in 2014, residents of the West Bank town of Beitunia gathered near Ofer prison, where Palestinian detainees being held without charge or trial were on a hunger strike. Among those to join the protest were 17-year-old Nadeem Siam Nawara and 16-year-old Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh Salameh Abu Daher. Every year on May 15, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip commemorate the Nakba or “catastrophe,” which marks the forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians from their homeland in 1948.Later, protesters threw stones toward Israeli forces from an approximate distance of 90 meters (98 yards). When soldiers fired tear gas canisters at the crowd, protesters retreated toward a nearby driveway.After some time, the clashes subsided. When a group of boys returned to the area, witnesses heard the sound of gunfire.Mohammad Abu Daher sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the back.

To see detailed explanations and video footage and proof of how Mohammed was killed for no reason and the amount (stats) of innocent Palestinian children and adults killed by Israeli forces click this link Read More Here In Detail

‘Screenshots from website’

Thank You for reading and I hope this has educated or refreshed your memory on this topic that needs to end and that can with the help of you reading this now

Thank You

BREVISFILMREVIEW

THE FUTURE OF VIDEO SHARING

In this day and age more and more video sharing apps are being created but all with a unique twist, by using/testing these apps I have gathered that these can actually be beneficial to a lot of people including filmmakers

The two apps I am going to be discussing are Storie & Beme, these two apps are both video sharing apps however they are totally different in many ways including the way you share your videos…….. sounds odd right? well your about to find out how these apps differ from each other and their unique features that set them apart from other video sharing applications.

                                                 STORIE

Storie is a brand new video sharing app/ platform that was launched in early January 2015, (I could go on for hours about Stoire but I am going to keep it short and sweet) Storie allows you to record clips straight from the app on your phone whenever you want you can then save those clips to your Storie, when you have added all the individual clips you have taken you can review and publish this short movie that you made using small clips to tell a ‘story’. Essentially what you end up with in the end of the recording process is a full video which is the beauty of the app , anyone can create a video without having to know how to edit or use a camera. Storie recently  had an update, in this update it now allows users to share videos from their camera roll which means that filmmakers like myself can now spend time filming and editing their Stories to make them look more visually pleasing to their audiences. ‘If YouTube and Instagram combined the outcome would be Storie’, the basic layout of Storie is very similar to Instagram as you can scroll down your feed and like and comment on a Storie instead of an Instagram picture. To conclude if you are looking to share your content on a platform other than YouTube/Vimeo/Instagram then download Storie on the apple app-store :Storie (Android coming soon)

                                                  BEME

Beme is a breath of fresh air to video sharing applications as it is totally different to all its competitors, Beme was launched around the 16-17 of July 2015 and has had a crazy amount of people sign up and use it. The only similarity that Beme has to its competitor Snapchat is the concept of sharing video NOW! so no fancy recording it is just simply getting your phone out and recording something in portrait mode. How ever the thing that makes Beme so different is you can’t see what your recording and you never will…….. You must be so confused right now, well I  don’t blame you this is how you record video on Beme. To record a clip on Beme you have to use the proximity sensor on the front of your iPhone so this means you must cover the senator to record a clip whether you put it up to your chest or just hover your finger over it will work either way. The whole point of Beme is to ‘Share Video Honestly’ which means the next time you are at a concert and want to share what is happening you can carry on watching the concert with your own eyes without looking through your phone, Another reason why you can’t review your Beme’s is because the team at Beme want to bridge the gap between social media and reality so there are no filters and you can’t keep deleting the videos that you have recorded because ‘You think you didn’t look good in that shot’. Furthermore another feature that is unique about Beme is that user interaction there are no hearts, no likes and no comments if you want to tell someone how you feel you can send the a real-time selfie (Reaction) while watching Your Beme.

I would say that store is more for filmmakers and people interested in creating content and Beme is for everyone as it is just quick and super fun to use. THANKS FOR READING !!!!

BREVISFILMREVIEW

BEST CAMERA LENSES FOR YOUR PHONE

In our previous post we talked about the best short films made with just an iPhone, well this post will be a follow-up to our previous post talking about how you can improve the video/photograph quality by using attachments for your phone. Lenses are a big part of filmmaking they can determine whether your film looks near professional standard or average beginner quality. When you hear the word lens you automatically think of a DSLR well what you might not have known is you can get small lenses to attach to your phone that provide immaculate quality to your videos and photographs. The leading provider and most high quality product when it comes to the iPhone lens market is a company called ‘OlloClip’, Olloclip provide a wide range of lenses which can cater to your needs whether it is filmmaking or photography. OlloClip were kind enough to provide us with a sample to review and of what I have seen of the telephoto lens it provides crisp shots even when it is zoomed in which helps a lot when trying to record something from far away but wanting to keep the clarity of the iPhone camera. I love to take landscape shots so the telephoto lens will help me to capture what i want in the frame even if the subject is far away, therefore places that are hard to capture are made easy with the telephoto lens.

Sample lens sent to me by OlloClip

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Here are some example of films/videos made using an OlloClip MADE ON A MACRO LENS OLLOCLIP WITH AN IPHONE 4S

As you can see the shots are nothing like you would expect to see from an iPhone 

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OLLOCLIPS NEW ACTIVE LENS VIDEO CHECK IT OUT!!!

2 AMAZING SHORT FILMS MADE WITH JUST AN IPHONE

When you watch a Short film that looks like something that could be shown on a cinema screen you instantaneously think that the budget for the film would be in the thousands and the cameras used where those that only professionals would be able to afford. Well…. you’re wrong, because here are 2 amazing Short Films that were made with just an iPhone.

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Operation: A Short Film Shot on iPhone 4s!

The iPhone 4s is quite an old phone which surprised me when I first watched this Short Film as the detail i could see in the video was amazing, this video was shot and edited to look like a professional movie, the lighting and colour grading helped to make the Film look as professional as possible. An example of how detailed the shots are is you can see the sweat dripping of the mans head which you would not expect to see from a Video shot on a Mobile Phone. This shows that you do not have to have the most expensive camera to make professional looking Films you can easily create a short film using your smart phone.

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The Game — an iPhone 6 Plus short film

This Short Film really surprised me as there was no professional lighting/camera equipment used to make the Film the film was simply shot using the Stock iPhone camera application. what made this Film really stand out is the shots and the editing, there where a variety of shots used that look like they were Filmed with a Steady Cam however they where handheld shots using the iPhone, another factor that makes this film stand out is the colour grading, this makes the film look much more visually pleasing and helps to tell the story without using any audio.

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ANYONE CAN MAKE A FILM !!!!!!!!!!

To conclude I hope this shows you that you do not have to have all the gear to make a short film, you can go out and film an amazing Film with your phone TODAY!!!!……. Thank you for reading and if you enjoyed please spread the word about the BrevisFamily and join the community by FOLLOWING!!!!!!!

BREVISFILMREVIEW

Best DSLR’s for amateur Filmmakers

If you are someone who wants to start making Films/Short films but don’t have a high budget or you’re a student these cameras are perfect for you, they have amazing specs at prices that you would believe so that you do not have to dig too deep into your pocket to create professional looking films.

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1. Canon EOS 600D– Price (£300 APPROX)

This camera is not the cheapest but it is one of the best Entry level DSLR’S on the market, This is one of the most popular cameras tat is used by the filmmaking community as it is easy to use, Not over priced and creates stunning video footage that looks near professional standard which allows you to create professional looking films whenever you want. This camera can be bought for a cheap price if you look in the right shops, if you are planning on buying this camera avoid buying it from the Canon shop and look on places like Amazon, John Lewis and if you don’t mind getting a second-hand camera look on places like Ebay and CEX—– Buying it second-hand will save you a lot of money.

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2. Nikon D3100– Price(£250 APPROX)

This camera is the top-selling entry-level (Budget) DSLR, the reason that has sold so much is due to its price, I recommend you buy this second-hand as the price can go as low as £200 pound which is so cheap for a DSLR that will provide professional looking Photos and Videos. I personally have this camera and it has lasted me many years and i bought it second-hand and have experienced no problems with it. You can obviously buy this first hand swell which will cost you little bit more. this camera will not provide you with the best looking videos but it is perfect for students or people who do not want to spend hundreds on a camera.

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3.Canon EOS Rebel T4I–Price (£430 APPROX)

This Camera is for the people who don’t want to spend Thousands of pounds/ dollars on a DSLR but still want something above entry-level, well this camera is perfect as it is used by filmmakers all the time and will give you professional looking videos that you wold expect to see in a high budget production, I believe this camera is used by filmmakers such as Casey Neistat which shows you how good this camera is as professional filmmakers are using this on a daily basis. If you have £400 or $600 to spend on a first camera or if you are upgrading your current camera this is perfect as it is one of the best cameras for filmmaking with not such hefty price tag on it.

Cam Dickie (ABANDONED)- Short Film

Cam Dickie (ABANDONED)- Short Film —–WATCH HERE——-

Please tell me bit about yourself (where your from?, your inspiration for the film?, where you got the idea for this film from?, what kind of filmmakers you grew up watching?, when you started making films?) 

I’m from Melbourne, Australia, I was born in Perth on west coast of Australia but moved to Melbourne when I was very little. In regards to film ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with the production side of it. I used to and still love watching the behind the scenes of films and finding out how it was all brought together.

I guess I stated making films when I was about 12/13 I remember day brought home a big Macintosh computer and I discovered I movie and I just thought it was the best thing ever. I started out just making jackass style films with my mates with stupid pranks and stunts but I never took it seriously. Then in year 8 I had a media class at school and that’s when I really fell in love with film making. I still wasn’t looking at film making seriously though I just saw it as something I enjoyed doing. And it wasn’t until last year when I made Abandoned that I took a serious approach to any film making.

Around 2013 I started making street art with my mate and kind of by accident fell into the street art world and found myself meeting some massive names in street art and I guess that’s where the inspiration for abandoned came from. I thought “hey Melbourne street art is awesome! Why not make a short film about it”

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What was the general budget for the film?

The budget for this film was basically what ever it coast me to get the train to and from the city. I already new who I wanted to interview. School provided me with gear. I already had editing software and all my locations where free to film in.

I reckon I probably spent $80 on his film and most of that went towards food.

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How long did the Film take to shoot and edit?

Over all I think principle photography took me about 3 or 4 Saturday’s where as it took longer to edit mainly because I really wanted to get the edit right and spent lots of time getting the details right.

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What was the message behind the film?

I guess the message behind this film is pretty simple. A lot of people hear street art and think graffiti and I really wanted to show to people that they are two completely different art forms. And I really wanted to show this from Melbourne’s street art scene as it is one of the best in the world!

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What are your future plans?

Yeah I’ve been writing a short film called Chilli which is due to go into production next month. I just finished the first draft of the script so it’s all very exciting. It’s a dark comedy about a medium kind of guy who likes medium kind of things, medium size coffees, medium size clothes his whole life is medium. He never does anything extraordinary…until today.

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How happy are you with the final cut?

Yeah from final cut looked good. Looking back now there are a few things I would of done differently but as my first proper film I very happy with it.

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Where there any difficulties when filming and editing?

Yeah loads haha during one of the interviews the batteries in my microphone died and I didn’t realise until just before the interview finished. Which was a real shame as it was my best interview as well!

I got to know Cam Dickie through an app Called Storie which is an app that allows you to create Short ‘Movies/Films’ on the go using your iPhone. By watching Cam’s Stories i was amazed by the way he created these short interesting movies with cool animations by just using his iPhone. After watching his stories for a while I was intrigued to see his movies on a bigger scale which was YouTube, where I found this short film Abandoned I love how authentic the film is, something which gives the film an authentic feel is the use of mine-en-scene each interviewee is positioned next to what they are related to for example the street artist is positioned in front of his Street Art which is more interesting and helps develop the narrative as the Film goes on. To conclude Cam has done a good job of getting the message across about Street Art, this has totally changed my view on the way i look at Street art now and I’m sure this has had the same impact on a lot of people that have viewed the Short Film. I would like to thank Cam for taking part in this Blog and wish him all the best in the Future with his Future projects.

BrevisFilmReview

CAM DICKIE

YouTube- CamDickie

Twitter- @CamDickie1

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CHECK OUT OUR OTHER SHORT FILM REVIEWS

Patrick Lieberkind- PURPOSE (Short Film)=

Jack Martin- Short Film- ‘THE CLIFF’

Jack martin

Please tell me bit about yourself (where your from?, your inspiration for the film?, where you got the idea for this film from?, what kind of filmmakers you grew up watching?, when you started making films?) 

My name is Jack Martin; I’m 20 years old, living in Ireland. I grew up watching a lot of Hollywood films from the late 80’s-90’s as well as a lot of Irish cinema. But I would watch anything really, I loved going to the cinema from a very early age and my parents owned a very large VCR collection so I grew up around film.

I only started to make film in the last few years, I attended a 2 year film course which is were I made “The Cliff”, it was my final project for the course.

My main inspiration for ‘The Cliff’ was the films of David Fincher, Stanley Kubrick, and Terrence Malick. But we tried to use a lot of 1970’s American cinema as visual touch points, making use of very vivid colors within landscapes.

What was the general budget for the film?

We had no budget for the film, the equipment we used was owned by the college and everything else was self funded.

How long did the Film take to shoot and edit?

Filming was wrapped up in one week and then editing and sound took about 5 weeks in total

What was the message behind the film?

I think the main message behind the film is to show how important family is and how selfishness can tear a family apart. Whether that message in the story is clear or not I have no idea!

What are your future plans?

I am currently in pre-production for a music video for an Irish musician called Cian and am trying to get some other projects “off the ground”

How happy are you with the final cut?

I’m happy with the final cut, there are a few tweaks I would still like to make to it, mainly to the sound. But overall, yes I’m happy!

Where there any difficulties when filming and editing?

The main difficulties we faced were the problems with the sound, the day of shooting in the park scene, our sound equipment stopped working. So we had to record with the microphone on the camera, which is far worse quality. We were unable to re-shoot the scene because of actor and equipment availability. We ADR’d most of the dialogue but to me it still seems a bit off!

I believe that telling a story is the most important part of filmmaking, especially in short films when you have such a short period of time to fit in what you want to tell the actual story and let the narrative progress as the Film runs through. Jack’s Film has a very important message about relationships and selfishness which is told in a lot of detail with the way it is scripted and the way the scenes are shot. To conclude Jack has done a very good job in telling the story while accompanying the narrative with visually pleasing cinematography and editing.

BrevisFilmReview 

CHECK OUT ANOTHER SHORT FILM REVIEW

Luisa Dale Silva

Luisa Dale Silva

Luisa Dale Silva

Please tell me bit about yourself (where your from?, your inspiration for the film?, where you got the idea for this film from?, what kind of filmmakers you grew up watching?, when you started making films?) 

My name is Luisa, I am a Brazilian filmmaker, 25yo. I have graduated in History, Photography and now I’m in film school in Brasilia – DF, capital of Brazil. It hasn’t been long since I started making short films, a year perhaps? But it’s been 4 years since I’ve been working, as photographer and I believe that gave me a lot of knowledge on storytelling.

‘Outsider’ is a teaser from a music album also called Outsider by a friend of mine, a music producer, Luis – or ˆL, his artistic name. When ˆL asked if I could do it, I said ‘yes’ immediately, even though I knew I wouldn’t have any money to do it. ‘Outsider’ is about everyone. Our questions in life, our mottos, our difficulties…And how we feel so pressured sometimes we think we won’t be able to handle it, and some of us don’t. I don’t know if I am a cinephile, I watch a lot of movies, a lot. But eventually I’ll forget their names and their directors and main actors (so I’m not that person who’s always looking for obvious references to do my films, you know? I really like visual arts and music, so these really inspire me too.

What was the general budget for the film?

Wow, the budget was almost none for this one! All the lighting we could get was borrowed from a friend who owns a rental place; the actor is my brother so of course he would do it for love for his sister. Everyone in the crew is also in film school so no one has  – yet – the financial needs when making a film. I basically had to pay for the gas to go around the city filming and that’s mainly it, I guess. I own a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, we used 24-105mm f/4 lens and a 50mm f/1.8 and a manfrotto tripod – all mine, too.

 How long did the Film take to shoot and edit?

It’s a really short film but it took us quite a while to get it done as I spent almost a month only thinking about the script and the story itself. Almost everyone from the crew works so we had only weekends to film; it took us 3 Sunday nights to wrap it. And about 4 days to edit, as we did some extra shots and I tested some of them in post.

What are your future plans?

I’m starting a short documentary on a famous Brazilian architect – Oscar Niemeyer – and ˆL has also asked me to do a video clip for one of his songs on the Outsider album too.

How happy are you with the final cut?

I am very pleased with the final cut. I think it’s quite hard to decide between so many good shots to fill a 1:40 “song” (which is actually a speech from David Foster Wallace), and in the end, I think I was able to pass the message and tell the story I wanted.

The main difficulties while shooting were lighting, definitely. The shots where the actor is smoking we shot in my house, near the swimming pool. We had a 500W light but no light modifier, which took us a little while to sort out what to do. We finally came up with the idea of using a massive white umbrella I have in the pool area to use it as a light bouncer. I think it was the greatest idea we could’ve had, the shot came out beautiful and we certainly became more creative people.

What ire ally like about this video is that there is no dialogue used from the footage shot, the only sound we here is from the speech playing in the background. This is executed perfectly as every shot relates totally to the speech, which allows the audience to understand the narrative thoroughly and gain a more heartfelt message from the video. I love the way filmmakers in the 21^st century are creating films to put across a powerful message, which is exactly what Luisa has done

I want to thank Luisa for taking part and being one of the first people to be feature on our blog I admire Luisa’s creative mind and I am looking forward to see what the future holds

Thanks

BrevisFilmReview

Patrick Lieberkind- PURPOSE (Short Film)

Interview and review

Please tell me bit about yourself (where your from?, your inspiration for the film?, where you got the idea for this film from?, what kind of filmmakers you grew up watching?, when you started making films?)

My name is Patrick Lieberkind, I’m a 16-year-old filmmaker from Denmark.
My inspiration and the general idea for Purpose actually came from listening to Almaz Sahipov’s music. Almaz Sahipov is the composer of the soundtrack for Purpose. On audiojungle I found one of his tracks which starts off a lot like the beginning of Purpose. A calm, simple piano theme that progressively builds up. I imagined the main character jumping in the ocean to drown himself. The perspective is from the bottom of the sea looking up as he hits the water when we hear the very first note. Then I started asking myself: “How did he end up here?”. From there it became clear that most of the film would consist of flashbacks from his life. I got the idea that a bunch of close-up macro shots should symbolize his past. This is what later became the syringe, the knife, the blood, the fist and the gun.
Though later in the planning and pre-production i realized that it would probably be very practically difficult to film anything underwater which lead me to brainstorm on other ideas of how he could end his life. Eventually he ended up in a car at night with the possibility to crash into another car as this was the easiest way to pull it off.
So generally all of this started with the first three piano notes i heard from Almaz’ track. Very often I get my inspiration from music or even sounds. Like when I’m listening to cinematic music or surfing around on freesound.

I’ve always absolutely loved going to the cinema so I did that a lot growing up. This resulted in me being a fan of all the different directors who made the coolest action movies. I didn’t really know much about the industry or the different people behind the films until I really started diving into filmmaking. I have evolved a lot in my knowledge of the film industry and have become much more aware of the different styles that filmmakers are trying to achieve artistically. For a long time I’ve also been watching Ryan Connoly from Film Riot on YouTube as he is aiming a lot at the indie filmmaking community.

I started making films about 4 years ago. Back then it was mostly small test videos that didn’t really have a story but I really enjoyed making them. Most of them are actually still on my old YouTube channel and they are really fun to look back at. That’s when I realize how much I’ve evolved over the past few years.

What was the general budget for the film?

The budget of Purpose was insanely small. Just about the only thing I paid for was the soundtrack which was only $40. The main actor is a friend of mine who did it for free and we didn’t get any permits for our locations which actually resulted in the police lurking around a few times when we were shooting the car crash shot. Lots of fun!

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 How long did the Film take to shoot and edit?

The shots that involve the main character and the boy where filmed in one day. We started at around 3pm and wrapped up at around 3am. Some of the other shots like the macro shots and the family clips were filmed on other days. As for the editing it was spread over a longer period with a little editing here and there when I had the time for it. I’m currently attending a boarding school so unfortunately there’s not much time for my projects. Still I managed to edit the whole thing from the 9th of may to the 26th.

(Behind The Scenes)

what was the message behind the film?

Generally the message behind Purpose is that there’s always something to live for, always something to fight for. I think it’s easy to focus on everything that’s wrong in our life instead of focusing on all the good things. In the middle of these terrible memories of his past our main character suddenly thinks about this girl that he’s in love with. She becomes the one thing there’s left for him to live for. Hence the title, Purpose.

What are your future plans?

When it comes to future projects I’m very open to working with all different kinds of styles and genres. Currently I’ve got a lot of client work and some projects I’m making with my friends. And I’ll definitely create an entry for My RØDE Reel next year too.

How happy are you with the final cut?

Not a single time have the result of a project been as good as I intended. Not that this is a bad thing. You have this big budget professionally filmed short film in your head and when it’s finally done it’s not really as good as you had hoped for. The same thing goes for Purpose. I’m never 100% happy about the result, and the fact is that it’s impossible. There is always something that could be better. You are never gonna create something perfect. But that’s okay. It gives you the encouragement to always strive to reach the result that is in your head. And eventually you become better and better at reaching that goal you have in mind even though that takes years of practise.

 Where there any difficulties when filming and editing?

Time is almost always the issue. It’s an extremely valuable resource. When filming Purpose we were all very tired at the end of the shoot. And when you’re in the middle of filming a short film at 2:30am you as a director and the one in charge have to be very efficient and wrap it up before it gets so ridiculously late that it affects your actor’s and crew’s performance.

The film was shot beautifully using very clever angles to support the narrative and help tell story, I loved the use of macro shots especially the blood droplet into the water. Overall I believe that each shot was chosen specifically and I don’t think there was even 1 unnecessary shot included every shot helped to tell the story while at the same time being visually pleasing.

 

I would like to thank Patrick for his participation in the blog and i am honoured to dedicate the first post on my Blog to him. I really admire Patrick’s drive and ambition for filmmaking he is showing the world that you do not need a big budget to create a quality short film. You also have to take into account his age to be creating content like this with such a powerful message at such a young age is something to admire and take inspiration from, I am sure Patrick will go onto do great things and we wish him the best

BrevisFilmReview

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CHECK OUT ANOTHER SHORT FILM REVIEW

Jack Martin- Short Film- ‘THE CLIFF’