Synopsis

Set in a pseudo-historic world, Broken Bonds tells the story of two friends who are on the run from the military. An escalating civil war provides the backdrop to this story as the two begin their last ditch effort to stop the fighting. However, trouble rears its ugly head and with it returns an old childhood friend. Loyalty and friendship clash in this short drama.

Director's Notes

On a train trip from Oxford back in the summer of 2004, KC Thiruchelvam decided that he would persuade his good friend Damian Sepulveda to write a script, for him to direct. The result of the following argument was a resounding "NO".

Two months later, and hundreds of miles further north, KC received a call from Damian; Mr. Sepulveda had begun formulating ideas for a short. Over a period of a year a script came into being, which was then continually re-drafted until both writer and director were happy. So, with no one willing to help out, KC began producing the film.

At this point Claire Ellis, unwittingly, found her way into the picture and was named casting director. Through her hard work and contacts at the University of Cambridge, Broken Bonds began its auditioning sessions.

Around about this point KC, who had been a member of OTTfilms for a couple of months, actually began being an active member within the group. This turned out to be an excellent decision. The immediate benefit (apart from some good friends) was that Broken Bonds gained a project-saving co-producer, named Mr. Dominic Bond, a director of photography, in the shape of Chris Patterson, and a 1st assistant director calling himself Charlie Pite.

With Dominic lending an incredibly helpful hand the film started to crew up. This led to the excellent costume designer, Katy Howkins, knowledgeable sound recordist, Gillian Speed, and eager camera assistant, Adekunle Salami, coming on board.

Then Chris, who either thought it funny to give his director more headaches or who foresaw an even better future, dropped the mantle of DOP (due to clashing of work schedules) and picked up the title of gaffer. This paved the way for a frantic search by the two producers to find a replacement. The end result was Dusan Krnac, who helped to ramp the project up quite a few notches. An excellent DOP and great support on set, Dusan's keen eye and technical skill helped ease the actual shooting process and achieved great looking footage.

Back in Cambridge casting turned out to be a mainly female affair, resulting in the gorgeous Amy Barnes joining the film as the Lady Evelyn, but leaving the project with two missing male leads. Luckily, thanks to an OTTfilms monthly meeting, KC decided to audition two OTT actors. Lo and behold they fit their parts like a proverbial glove; that they could act well too was a welcome bonus. The production looked to be running along smoothly at this point with the awesome Colin Black, playing Allan and the most excellent Edward Courtenay playing Nathan. Then the third make-up artist Broken Bonds had lined-up during pre-production dropped out.

With two days to go it was decided that Colin would have to do the make-up for the three-strong cast but fortunately Anna Sternik made a vital return call in the eleventh hour and became the actual make-up artist (because she was so talented she even attempted teaching the crew the numbers in Polish). As the first day of shooting arrived, Chris made up for his previous, headache-inducing, act by bringing Lutfi Hady on board. This fellow Aussie worked tirelessly as a second gaffer and camera assistant.

The production started filming in March 2006 and carried on for one week. Shooting ended up being relatively smooth with any problems that arose being squashed by the enthusiasm and hard work of the cast and crew. In the final few days, Elena Koudreiko jumped aboard ship as a runner to help take charge of set dressing.

After filming wrapped, the footage was sent to Mark Grant (also a member of OTT), a cheerful New Zealander, who edited the raw material and helped KC pace the film to keep it engaging.

Currently Broken Bonds is in post-production. Gus Martinez (OTT) is grading and carrying out some SFX work. Irvin Duguid (OTT) is now composing the score, after David Beard (OTT) unfortunately had to drop out (because of being too sought after). Michael Stanmore will be sound mixing the film.

That is all at the moment, since the director/producer is tired of writing in third person. However, watch this space for more information soon.