A Breach of Solace was worked on by a crew of 6 and a cast of 3–a relatively small team compared to many other short films but a notably larger one than some of New Measure Media’s prior work.

The film was conceptualized by Director Chris Clark (Intruder). He and Nick Clark (Producer and Director of Photography) worked on the script for several weeks prior to shooting.

Since the film was always intended for entry into the My Rode Reel Filmmaking Challenge, the team knew it would need to be 3 minutes or less (as per the rules of the challenge) so the script was written accordingly. The methodology behind the scriptwriting process, however, was slightly different than normal:

Chris and Nick wrote a concept for a full-length feature film, then flushed out what would be the final 3 minutes of that feature. This was to give them and the actors they would later cast a better idea of what was meant to be happening in the short.

Once the script was written, Nick got to work scheduling while Chris prepared for auditions. Many of the actors wound up auditioning via Skype due to various reasons, which was less than ideal, but it was still clear that there was a lot of good talent available in the area.

Once the auditions were complete, the tough casting choices were made, the location and props were secured, and the crew was assembled, all that was left was to shoot.

One of the two leads in the film had a scheduling change that forced the team to cut down from the original plan of two shooting days to just one–scary. They were up for the challenge, though, and got the job done right on time, working through the night from when they arrived on-location at 8:30 until they left at 3:30.

The film fared well in the competition, ranking at #139 worldwide and #4 in Canada, placing it in the top 10% of films. Unfortunately, the film did not win any of the major prizes but the excellent reception it received was none-the-less thrilling for the cast and crew alike.

You can read Nick’s account of the whole process in greater detail in his blog series about the production here.