The Rest of Both Worlds Online

BRAVE – A FILM BY BRANDON O’CONNELL

Released by Incommunicado Films, whose logo features Lulu from the front of the last album, it’s immediately obviously where this is coming from. It’s a fan labour of love.

Or is it? the fact that Brandon entered this for the Fresh Film Festival awards in Limerick in his native Ireland and was astonished to discover that he had come third. So that would tend to indicate we have a serious film maker on our hands who just so happens to be a Marillion fan. A potentially exciting development, I’m sure you’ll agree.

So does the work itself shed any light on this?

Well, the potential view should not approach this expecting Jurassic Park or The Phantom Menace, that’s for sure. Which is a roundabout way of saying that this film was made cheaply and it shows. Still accusing a teenager of not having the money to make a big budget film is like accusing Mr T of wearing too much gold jewellery – bloody obvious and not particularly helpful.

The best thing to do is to concentrate fully on the work that has gone into this project. O’Connell’s Brave project was filmed on a single camera and edited with 2 VCRs, rather than professional standard equipment. In amongst O’Connell’s original footage are glimpses of Richard Stanley’s original white elephant film, all soundtracked to well-edited excerpts from the album itself.

Strangely, here the lack of professional equipment proves advantageous as the snippets of the original Brave movie are of a different technical quality and with the slight degradation caused by copying, they have become grainy and dream-like, making their presence a deliberate irritant and mood-breaker. This is quite a clever narrative device, keeping the story moving whilst allowing the director the opportunity to change the location of his main strand at will. On the negative side, it lends the whole production the feel of pop promo, although that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re trying to get into film-making.

The music used is a fairly full representation of the album packed into the 8 minute running time with some clever editing, and a good deal of hard decisions about what to leave out and leave in. In the end, the choice of tracks and sections is governed primarily by the visuals and what part of the story is in progress on screen.

The original footage has little or no dialogue and only a rudimentary story, which echoes the story of the album and film to the general premise but no further. These sections have only two cast members, the girl whose story the album tells and another, unnamed individual whose fate I won’t give away. There are some nice shots in these sections - filmed in Brandon’s local area – although when the story comes to it’s end, on a bridge as you might expect, it’s painfully obvious that this is a tourist bridge about 10 feet above the water, rather than the uniquely foreboding structure of the Severn Bridge.

Ultimately, it’s difficult to lean heavily in either direction with this film. There’s simply not enough of it for it to be either terrific or awful. All I can do is label it a good effort from someone new to the game with no resources to speak of, and the film’s success at the festival would tend to suggest that there’s more where that came from. This should be thought of less as a debut and more as a calling card, an attempt to get a foot in the door.

Did you know Steven Speilberg’s first films were of his model train sets?

Brandon is, as you may know, currently working on the follow up to ‘Brave’ which will focus instead on the ‘Afraid of Sunlight’ album instead. The film is scheduled to be shot at various locations within England this summer, and Steve Hogarth is reputedly putting in some writing contributions. If you think you can help Brandon with anything at all you should feel free to e-mail him at [email protected]. If you want to act, you should be able to send him a picture.

Paul Hughes

Brandon O'Connell - the ROBW Interview

by Paul Hughes

P: You must have been delighted to win an award for your film. Was it your first film, or just the first you'd entered in competition? Do you have a 'back catalogue' in other words?

B: No Brave was my first film and more to the point my first attempt at a film.

P: What sort of competition were you up against?

B:Most of the films that made to the festival itself had a lot of financial backing using digital effects and were edited professionally. I think Brave was possibly the only film at the festival that had no financial back and was basically made in my bedroom. Filmed on a C-Vhs camera and edited
on my two VCRS.

P: Have you always wanted to be a filmmaker?

B: No, I've always been interested in film, but I am not the stereotypical film student who worships Tarintino and I think I am more of a writer who knows what he want and therefore I think I need to be behind the camera for that!

P: Who are your filmmaking heroes?

B: I don't have any; I think to be a great filmmaker one needs to stay as far away from the movie industry as possible. Speaking from experience, filmmakers who worship filmmakers, tend to make movies based on other movies and nothing original ever happens, where as I've been trying to take my inspiration from anywhere except films!

P: How long have you been a fan of Marillion? How did you discover them?

B: Well I started as a Genesis in the early 90's, and slowly discovered other (so Called) Prog rock bands, I tried listening Bands like Yes, Dream Theater, Rush, Pink Floyd, and then I finally discovered around 1996/97 That amazing band known as MARILLION!

P:  So, what attracted you to making a film based around the 'Brave' album?

B: Basically when I heard of the festival I thought I would love to do something based on Marillion's music. My first thought was to use AOS, because it was favourite album at the time & that nothing film wise had ever been done about AOS unlike Brave. But the more I thought about it if I wanted something based on the Album of AOS it would have to be longer than 10mins. And I would require actors that could act! So hence I thought Brave, The music can tell the story all I need is to shot some visuals for the film!

P: What do you think of Richard Stanley's film?

B: To be honest I don't like it very much. I don't like saying that because my film is no better in fact it is nothing in comparison to Stanley's film!

P: What can you tell us about your follow-up based on Afraid of Sunlight? Will this be a more lavish affair? When is it likely to see the light of day?

B: A far more lavish Affair! A film for the fans by the fans! I know I originally set the filming date for August but at the beginning of the summer, I had a small health scare with a member of my family and I got a fantastic Job offer, which kept me away from the project and from my computer for the majority of the summer. I would like to apologise to anyone who e-mailed me and I never got back to! To update everyone the film will be shot in Oxford, The dates have yet to be finalised, but it will be somewhere between the beginning of December and the end of February. I do still need support from the fans, especially in terms of acting. So if anyone would like to take part in any way shape or form! Please e-mail me at: [email protected]

P: Do you see this as being your career? What sort of films would you like to make?

B: Yes I do! To be honest I don't know what type of films I would make. I would be most interested in making music videos, but I never want to be stuck to one genre. I think I will make what I feel like, when I fell like it!

P: Finally, what's next for Brandon O'Connell?