New York Film Academy student Gabriele Fabbro has spring boarded his POV project into an award-winning short. He won Best Comedy/ Dramedy Short Student Film at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival, and the Direct Monthly Online Film Festival. He is a finalist for the All-American Drive-In and a semi-finalist for the Los Angeles CineFest.
The original goal of the assignment is to have the same scene and show it from two different points of view. Gabriel credits his teacher, Gareth Dunnet Alcocer, with helping him grow. His previous assignment didn’t live up to his standard. Fabbro’s main objective was to, “…not make the same mistakes this time.” He wrote many, many different versions of the story, but they were all too heavy. “It wasn’t the right story to tell.” A week before he was set to film he wrote “Two Steps Away.” “Everyone was surprised how well we did because it was the most rushed project in the class.”
Fabbro’s background is in photography. He says when he first got here he knew nothing about cinematography. Making the switch from still images to 24 frames per second has pushed him to be a better filmmaker. He said his fellow creatives Director of Photography Mark Cekham, actors Ydalie Turk and Connor Williams, as well as his sound department Luis Alberto Quijano and Karissa Ketelhut were the only reason he was able to survive the shoot.
Fabbro pitched “Two Steps Away” as two students, on break, who are trying desperately to get the others attention without being noticed. He was nervous screening the film for the first time. “I’m always like nervous a lot when the film starts up, before and during. It’s terrifying. When they were screening it, I was afraid because they were laughing at parts I didn’t expect to laugh at; but at the end, they laughed…” right where they were supposed to.
Knowing he had made a good film it was time to begin the submission process. There were numerous sites checked, but Fabbro’s favorite was FilmFreeway. “It’s easier. Faster,” Fabbro said of the service, “The main point is they give you updates. Whether you’re accepted or your not, you get a notification.”
If you would like to see more of Fabbro please check out his work on Facebook, YouTube, and his IMDb Page.