Closer
The debut mystical short film by director Artyom Lobach and cameraman Sasha Aleinikov, which was filmed at the behest of the soul. The idea for the film came while studying at film school, and the script for the film was written in a few days. After discussing and finalizing the script, the team moved on to pre-production, which lasted a week.
Sasha Aleinikov acted as the operator and producer of the project, and the rest of the creative part fell on Artyom. The goal was to end up with a dark film-like picture that would be at least close to the best work of Fincher or Villeneuve, and to experiment with form, ideas, and an unexpected twist at the end that should make one wait for a full-length sequel.
Task
Make a mystical short film on the topic of accepting yourself and your mistakes in the past, and also touch a little on the problem of fathers and children, revealing it through an unusual plot.
⬤ 01. Challenge
Make a festival mystical short film based on a simple plot and an unexpected ending.
A mystical short film is always unpredictable. You don’t know whether it will be successful or whether the critics will like it, how the audience will appreciate it, or whether they will even understand it. But it’s interesting to shoot such works because they allow simple meanings to be immersed in a complex plot. The dark side of production is that the director, who is often the author, can overdo it, and the film will become incomprehensible to anyone. Which means it’s not interesting. Only those who do not care about the viewer can make films for themselves. Therefore, we consider it a bad idea to waste the money of producers and studios on “scratching” their egoism.
When you make a short film with no or almost no budget, you are bound to encounter self-censorship in a good way. However, there is always a possibility that something will be left unfinished at the end. If at this moment a special inspiration turns on, which allows you to preserve the essence without going beyond, this can be considered a great talent.
When filming the current film, we managed to fit into the planned budget, partly thanks to the rental, which provided the camera, optics and light for free. The team used their creativity and produced some good festival work.
⬤ 02. Production and post
A mystical short film loses its chance of success by 5% for each extra month of post-production.
A mystery short must have a powerful cliffhanger. If you think more broadly, then every short film should have a cliffhanger, because this is a test of the pen before a full film. You’re selling yourself, and you want viewers to want to watch more. If you make the plot too complicated, no one will watch the second part. This is often the sin of young directors who try to act in big cinema, thinking that they are Tarkovsky, although they barely reach Tommy Wiseau.
When filming the current film, we managed to fit into the planned budget, partly thanks to the rental, which provided the camera, optics and light for free. The team used their creativity and produced some good festival work.
An unexpected incident occurred while filming a scene with the main character, when a barn caught fire behind him. I had to urgently stop filming and run to extinguish the location.
| Brown #352820 | SCSS brown | ◯ |
| R 53 G 40 B 32 |
Chavez skin
| Beige #756649 | SCSS beige | ◯ |
| R 117 G 102 B 73 |
Dry skin
| Grey #4e514a | SCSS grey | ◯ |
| R 78 G 81 B 74 |
Gray mold
| Green #31382a | SCSS green | ◯ |
| R 49 G 56 B 42 |
Dull green
Our video production company filmed this film in natural light without additional light sources. This made filming a little more difficult and required prelighting, if you can call it that. The operator successfully used reflections in mirrors and on the water surface.
While color correcting the color palette was muted, bright colors were not used, and yellow-green-turquoise was chosen as the main color scheme. A film filter was applied to the post.
⬤ 03. Equipment
The mystical short film was filmed using one of the simplest sets of equipment.
To film a mystical short film, you don’t need expensive equipment. Better concentrate on the script and the team. Connect good lighting specialists, a professional cameraman, an artist who will make the picture excellent. And you can already buy the camera and optics with the remaining money or ask the rental company to give you a bigger discount. Typically, rental companies provide equipment even for free if the project promises to be interesting. Look at the Instagram of our production company YOPRST to see what a mystical short film can be.
Filming
equipment
/ 00 – 1
Cameras.
RED Scarlett-W Dragon 5K
⟶
/ 00 – 2
Lenses.
ARRI ZEISS Ultra Prime 24mm, 40mm, 180mm F1.9
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/ 00 – 3
Monitors, recorders.
SmallHD AC7
⟶
Lighting
equipment
/ 00 – 4
Halogen fixtures.
–
⟶
/ 00 – 5
LED fixtures.
–
⟶
Sound recording
equipment
/ 00 – 6
Recorders.
Roland R 88
⟶
/ 00 – 7
Microphones.
Sennheiser MKH416, EW112
⟶
Rig, stubs, copters
and action cameras
/ 00 – 8
Stabilizers.
DJI Ronin M
⟶
/ 00 – 9
Copters.
–
⟶
The dream Team
Direction
— Artyom Lobach
director &
producer
— Alex Aleinikov
DOP
Camera dept.
— Natalya Gusak
1AC /
focus-puller
— Tatyana Davydova
1AC /
focus-puller
— Kostya Zamirovsky
2AC /
operator
— Yura Soiko
3AC /
camera mechanic
— Vlad Dubovsky
DIT
Casting
— Alex Nemtsov
acting
assistant
— Anya Devich
acting
assistant
Sound
— Alex Naporko
sound engineer
Actors
— Saga
main character
— Alisa Petrova
main character’s girlfriend
— Stas Vilkin
man
— Alex Girenok
man
— Angela Korableva
woman
Festivals and awards
Notyetreceived
Oct 20, 2020
Butwereallywant
Sep 25, 2020
Atleastone
Sep 23, 2020
Next Project