She drops by to visit him at work. He's a soldier in the middle of a battle.

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Reviews

Cast

Crew

Production Notes

Pre-Production and The Shoot

Coffee Break was shot on Saturday May 22nd, 2004 at Taylor Creek Park in Toronto. I was afraid that it wasn't going to happen again!, because of the weather this time.

Once again I'm getting ahead of myself. It took me a while to find the right location to shoot this short. I did a lot of location scouting. This is one thing that I'll be happy about when I have money to shoot. I'll be able to farm out all of the things that I don't want to do anymore and this is going to be one of them.

One of the great things that happened was that Dylan had done an army stint so he had a background already and he even had a friend who had the clothes for the part, so that was great.

The call time was a little more reasonable. 7:30am. We all met on location and Jeanette did the make-up on location. It was threatening to rain but for the most part it held out.

Corinne was suppose to be helping us out but she was never able to find us. I made a note to myself that next time, if I was going to shoot in a location that doesn't really have an address, I would either have to make sure I had a cell phone or that I would have everyone meet at my place first.

But the universe sent me an angel in the form of Jeanette. Every time I worked with her she went way above the call of duty to help out.

Aside from the threat of rain, the shoot went without a hitch, except when I got home and finally sat down to look at the dailies.

To my horror, I had forgotten to shoot one scene. I quickly got on the phone and luckily Karyn and Jeanette were available to shoot the scene the next day.

Editing

The thing that stood out the most about editing this film was that I had a lot of choices. Other than the one scene I missed I had a lot of coverage and Dylan gave me lots of extra choices once we were on location. It's great to be able to work with an actor that's always working.

Reviews

Short and sweet, and very funny

Hell, you summed it up so well in the synopsis, what's left to write? This was an exceptionally short, er, short, and with it some beautifully observed comedy on ones partner nipping by the "office" to say hi. I laughed out loud when the girlfriend called out "Hi Honey" while the boyfriend has his gun drawn in battle. Well observed gossip followed by back to work action. Superb. Camera work was great, and, considering the short running time, really made you believe you were in battle. Edit was nice, with quick cutting employed to great effect to show the urgency of the moment. Sound, sound design and music worked well to make you think we were "there". Overall, a good and amusing film that is over all too quickly. Well done to all, and good luck for the future.
-- November 7, 2004 - Justin Bellinger, Chairman & CEO Artistry Media Limited, UK co-production specialists

That was nice of her

This had a nice short idea behind it. Was that a jungle blend she brought him? The camera work was good, and the lighting also. The acting was nice, alot of repeative words by him, and the audio work was well done. Would of been nice to see the coffee burst out after hitting the ground. Overall this is a quick short that has its moments. Id give it a 6 out of 10.
-- November 26, 2004 - IMAGINATIONMACHINE

Excellent Short

This was really well edited, I love the quick cuts near the start especially. Great acting on both actor's parts too. Very nice colour, and a good clean picture, which is rare on Trigger Street. Excellent cinematography, some very interesting, exciting angles used. I love the premise behind the piece too, I was laughing as I read the synopsis, and I didn't feel cheated by the piece, despite the fact I pretty much guessed how it was gonna go, even before it started. Very nice work, keep it up!
-- November 29, 2004 - Matt Burn