At this point filmmaker David Branin is still searching for his voice. “There are a lot of filmmakers out there who have a camera at age five or six, and they are filmmakers right from a very young age. For me it wasn’t like that at all,” he says. In college, however, Branin stumbled into his fascination with filmmaking and began, with the help of friends, to write his first feature.

“We moved out to Los Angeles in hopes of selling the feature script,” he recounts. “There wasn’t a Hollywood ending to it. But, that was the starting point, and from there I’ve backtracked. I’ve gone from writing my feature script, working my way down to low-budget short films and now working my way back to make my first feature film hopefully this year.”

In preparation for that feature, Branin has in the interim released the sports-action short Shoot-Out and twisted dramedy Honey, I’m Home, both film festival screened and awarded works. “The common thread thus far is just trying to tell a great story with a minimal budget. Also, both films have surprise endings,” he says. “Those are some of my traits as an independent filmmaker—to tell a story on a very small budget, to tell a story that’s entertaining, one that grabs you and leaves you with a nice, little surprise when it’s all said and done.”

In Honey, I’m Home this surprise comes in the form of a well-articulated punch line, and much of the joke owes credit to cinematographer Vincent Martinez’s careful, close-up framing. “We actually set up a lot of the shots with the camera, and then I had some rehearsal time with (Jacob Magnuson), the lead actor,” Branin explains. “So, it wasn’t necessarily that much preparation. Honey I’m Home was very quick and easy to shot—one day of storyboarding, and we shot in about five or six hours.”

“I thought it was a cute idea that we could have some fun with,” he continues. “We made it for under a hundred dollars. I didn’t expect all that much to come from it. All I wanted to do was—I just wanted it as another credit on IMDb. So, I was just going to send it to a few festivals, to a few people to review the film and qualify it. I was just going to let that be all that really happened with it, but surprisingly people are reacting positively to the film thus far, and that’s making me re-assess and change my goals around a little bit, push a little further and gain as much exposure as possible.”

Foremost in this list of positive reaction has been the film’s take home of the Audience Choice Award at this year’s HollyShorts Short Film Festival. “We had a hundred plus people there for the world premiere, which was just a very positive experience. It seemed like Honey, I’m Home got the right kind of reactions from the crowd, and we were just overwhelmed to receive recognition as the Audience Choice. There were so many great films that it was very, very surprising to walk away with that award,” Branin says.

In making Shoot-Out, Branin had a larger budget than he did for the second short, but the circumstances of producing the film were a bit more complicated. “We shot that in the summertime here in Southern California. So, it’s a basketball movie set during the hottest part of the year,” he explains. “(Actors Tyshawn Bryant and Daniel Sol) were just great sports. They literally had to play one-on-one basketball and get physical, just be out in the sun, sweating, on some of the hottest days of the year.”

Fortunately, the next short project Refragmented should prove much more internally charged. A psychological thriller in the vein of Momento, Refragmented genre hops again in the scope of Branin’s filmography. “I just want to stretch my portfolio of film in preparation for the feature film,” he says.

Branin’s willingness to try anything and everything in order to find his voice is admirable. It’s trial by success and error, and for a filmmaker working as precisely as Branin does, it’s the best way to truly figure out what his art’s all about.

For more information on the filmmaker visit http://www.dreamregimeproductions.com/.

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