By Andy Furman
NKyTribune staff writer
It premiers this weekend. That’s the good news.
Perhaps this is the first you’ve heard about it. Umm, maybe that’s not so good.
Split Objectives, a 19-minute action spy-film based on Mission Impossible makes its debut — on You Tube.
“It’s basically a fan film, but we didn’t want it to be like every fan film where they copy a lot of aspects,” producer and cinematographer Kaleb Dean told the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “This has a completely original story with completely original characters. We take inspiration from the suspense and action from Mission Impossible films, while having our film stand on its own two feet.”
It’s a start for Dean – and his brother Jakob, who directed and wrote the script with Micah Dukes.
Yet, the trio has time – more time than their 19-minute short – for a long and successful filmmaking career.
Kaleb is just 18 and big brother Jakob is 20.
“I moved here 10 years ago from California,” the younger Dean said, “attended and graduated Beechgrove Academy.”
Now, it’s all about film-making.
“I started with Stop Motion,” he said.
That is simply an animation technique where physical objects are moved in tiny steps and photographed one frame at-a-time.
When the pictures are played fast in-a-row, the objects look like they move all by themselves.
Yes, it’s a start. Just like Split Objectives.
“I kept doing Stop Motion, and moved to live action. It’s a bit easier,” he says, “with more emotion.”
The young producer says he gets his creative juices from his dad. “He does graphic design,” Kaleb says, “and I got that creative gene passed down. “My brother and I are very close, and are able to collaborate closely on film projects.”
And for a cast, well, they double with that as well.
“Micah (Dukes) stars as the main actor, portraying the character of Ross,” says Kaleb. “Also starring Isabelle Hedrick, James Houston, Rico Reid, Isaac Disterhaft and Brian Nevins.”
In short – and it is — Ross, a special agent, needs to save his kidnapped girlfriend before he has to choose between saving her life or Europe’s – from a man who has stolen the continent’s largest stockpile of weapons.
“We’ve made other films, and they’re on You Tube,” says Kaleb, “and have filmed all over Northern Kentucky, working with local businesses for locations.”
He says they’ve worked with Brass Key Coffee to film the finale inside their shop; and Serendipity for the Home and Bathalter, and Wilson P.S.C. to film a scene behind their businesses.
But what about the actors?
“We have wonderful friends who volunteer their time to act and be part of the crew,” Kaleb said. “And we rehearse on the day of the shooting.
“Sure, there’s pressure when you do that, because you have to get it right that day. For our first film day we didn’t get it right when we filmed it., So, we took it, watched it back, and instead of releasing it as it were, we decided no, we’re gonna make this better.”
They re-edited the scene, went back and re-shot footage for that scene to turn it into the epic scene that’s in their final film.
“We want to put out our best effort to make sure the end product is quality,” he said.
And the costumes? “We got them from Amazon,” Kaleb said.
Oops, almost forgot. No money to be made – just yet.
“No, the films are actually costing us money,” he says. “It becomes a fun creative challenge to make the best possible work with the resources we’ve been blessed with.”
Kaleb says he and brother Jakob are Christ followers, and they want to make sure everything they do honors and glorifies God.
“Because of that,” he said, “in our films there is no cussing, sex or nudity. We want it to be clean for people to watch, including Split Objectives.”
Their video production company is called Bro Motion Pictures.
“The goal,” he says, “is to provide businesses in the tri-state area with effective video marketing.
“One business that Bro Notion Pictures filmed was Brass Key Coffee, and we were able to collaborate with them to used their shop as a location for location Objectives.
Next stop – Hollywood.