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October 18
2024

Alumni Blog: Justin Ho

This is a black and white portrait photograph of Directot Justin Ho, with short dark hair. He's wearing glasses with dark frames and is looking slightly to the side with a subtle smile. He's wearing a patterned collared shirt.

SVA Alumnus Justin Ho shot his independent feature set in New York City, Broken Pieces, entirely on an iPhone. The film is now playing in festivals, and winning awards. Read Justin’s alumni blog to see how his feature film came about.

 

This image shows a woman with blonde hair tied up in a messy bun looking at herself in a bathroom mirror. The mirror is divided into three panels, creating multiple reflections of her face. She's wearing a light-colored cardigan sweater and appears to be applying makeup with a brush. The overall tone of the image has a yellowish tint, giving it a somewhat somber or introspective mood.

Broken Pieces came about after months of working on a different feature script.

As with any low budget indie film, the money gathering process is incredibly difficult. I was experiencing emotional pain, desperate to work on something of my own, thinking of ways to shoot a feature as cheaply as possible. One of the ideas was to shoot it all on an iPhone. I started writing a new short multi-narrative film with different stories all interconnecting. The idea was to have all the narratives combine to express a singular message of sorts. My thesis film at SVA was also an ensemble feature film following different characters around in NYC.

This image depicts a scene inside a subway car. The lighting has a greenish tint, giving the image a moody atmosphere. In the foreground, a person wearing a black hat and jacket is sitting next to a person with blonde hair who appears to be leaning on his shoulder, possibly asleep. Two other passengers are visible in the background.

I wrote each character’s story out, and then split them apart and rearranged them.

Once I was satisfied with that, I started the actual screenplay. It wasn’t until I reached page 30 that I realized this short film was going to end up being a feature. I just continued writing until I finished the script. Surprisingly it took just under a month. I took a step back and thought to myself, “Well I’d like to make this, but it’s going to be another no-budget film…” I called my producers up, they were out in Washington at the time working on another feature and told them about this new script I had written. I asked if they’d be interested at all in working on it, I am so grateful they were.

This image shows a wooden floor covered with many strips of paper, each containing printed text. The papers are arranged in columns and rows, covering a large area of the floor. At the bottom of the image, you can see part of someone's legs and feet, suggesting they are standing among or working with these papers. It gives the impression of organizing or sorting through a lot of written information.

Casting took some time to put together because of how large the ensamble was.

Eventually we locked down the cast, and within 5 months after writing the script we started production. It all came together relatively fast. After some of my friends found out I was shooting it all on an iPhone they started offering me their cameras to use, but at that point I had already purchased a lot of gear for the iPhone. Sticking with the iPhone ended up being incredibly beneficial with production because of all the exterior locations we shot in. We didn’t pay for any permits and running around with a small phone helped us shoot anywhere. We filmed a chase scene that happens in the subway, which would have been very difficult to film with a regular camera.

Shooting with an iPhone allowed for a small crew and not a ton of heavy camera equipment. The iPhone was also so freeing because of its size, able to move it around with ease allowing for longer tracking shots and dynamic camera movements. I was also able to shove the phone in tight spaces where you wouldn’t be able to fit a regular camera. It kept things simple for me and the actors. No big bulky camera in front of you, just a smaller iPhone instead. With how tight the schedule was and how many location changes there were a day, most of the shots had to be improvised. This photo shows a woman with long red hair viewed through a rack of clothes hangers. She appears to be in a closet or clothing store. The woman's face is visible between the hangers, and she has a serious or pensive expression. The image has a cinematic quality, with warm tones and dramatic lighting.

I shot my film on the iPhone 14 Pro.

The downside of shooting on the iPhone was its sensor limitations and getting the footage off of the phone. It was difficult to deal with the slow port on the iPhone 14 Pro and moving 4k ProRes 422 files from the phone to a hard drive would take 3-4 hours. The Filmic Pro app helped with manual control. Or at least as much as the iPhone allowed since there still were things happening automatically I had no control over such as dynamic tone mapping which was also another issue with trying to maintain the same exposure. I am so grateful to the cast and crew for all working on this little film shot on an iPhone. And a big thanks to my producers James and Teddy  Orfanos for helping put it all together, I’m so grateful to have met them and for all their hard work on this film.

I edited the film on Adobe Premier Pro. I gave myself a choice; either spend money on having the film professionally colored, or spend the money on an original score and professional sound mix. The choice was a no brainer. Lee Armbrust and Andrija Lazarevic did such an amazing job scoring and sound mixing my film! It was so exciting getting sketches and samples from them and working on finding what works.

This photo is taken in what appears to be Washington Square Park in New York City. In the foreground, two people are looking at a camera or filming device. One is Director Justin Ho, wearing glasses and a gray jacket, while the other is a woman with long red hair. Behind them, the iconic Washington Square Arch is visible, along with several tall buildings typical of New York City architecture.

Broken Pieces has been winning awards at festivals.

As all indie filmmakers know, getting into the first festival is a struggle. I submitted to the majors, such as Sundance, but also a wide variety of large and smaller. It can get expensive submitting to festivals, and with a limited budget it’s important to be tactical with submissions. There are also scam festivals to be wary of. Do your research about the festival before submitting online.

As of writing this blog, the film has won Best Romantic Feature at the Manhattan Film Festival, Best Feature at the Cinephone Smartphone Film festival, Best Narrative feature at indigo moon film fest, Best script at the Be Epic London International Film Festival, Best Feature at the International Film Festival Manhattan, and Best Director Narrative Feature at the Mystic Film Festival. There are several more festivals it will be screening at soon, including one in London which I’ll be traveling to. There are also rejections, despite the wins, and it always hurts.

I hope people have the chance to watch Broken Pieces on a big screen and hear it with its 5.1 mix. Watching my film at a film festival reminds me of being at SVA. It’s exciting being around other filmmakers, in an environment filled with enthusiasm. There is a community feeling when you’re watching each other’s films, learning about everyone else’s hardships and journeys to make their films. Once the fest run is over, the next step is distribution. If you want to stay up to date with the film and know the festivals it’s screening at you can follow the film on Instagram at @brokenpiecesmovie and Justin at @jjho8

A movie poster titled "Broken Pieces". The image is composed of fragments, like broken mirror shards, each containing a different character's face or scene. The characters' expressions are serious or concerned. The fragmented style suggests a story dealing with multiple perspectives or broken relationships. The overall color scheme is dark, creating a moody atmosphere.

Filed Under: Alumni Blog