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Bick Break by Dicle Ozcer

From its opening scene, the combination of camera movement, music and acting gives “Big Break” an early thumbs up and creates a hook for the audience to delve into (as the director says); this hyper realistic comedy that deals with the satyr of the film industry, this is not something new to Dicle Ozcer who herself comes from both worlds (acting/directing) the thing that allowed her to excel in her work.

Acting wise, Brianna Ripkowski playing the role of (Deena); a young actress struggling to have her break in the film industry showed great skills in conveying the stress and anxiety of being in such a realm, add to that her ability to separate and show us a totally different character between her acting in the short film as Deena, and in the movie where she plays the role of the nurse is something very tricky and even the best of actors cannot accomplish at times.

As for the genre and the script, going for a comedy is always a challenge because it is well known that it’s easier to make people cry than to make them laugh, again Ozcer skillfully planted a smile on our faces without being cheesy or vulgar with her well-crafted dialogues that was full with unexpected surprises.

Technically, the high key lighting of the film was very natural and clear, which served perfectly its purpose in not distracting the viewer from the acting and dialogues that made up the excellence of the film. The same applies to the style of editing, which also was very basic and straightforward. Again “Big Break” is the kind of films that rely mainly on the quality of its script and acting, thus both lighting and editing become a support and not the main focus. As for the music, Ozcer’s choices could have been a bit different in a sense that she could have relied more on diegetic sounds in certain instances, very simple tracks are used which could be her choice again in order to just keep the main focus on the events happening inside the frame. The directing style reflects clearly the influence that the theater world has on Ozcer, be it how the actors interact or how the scenes relate to one another, it reminds us George Melies and the early days of cinema were the frame was like a stage and actors would come on stage and act.

Finally it is a film worth watching and deserves all the awards and nominations it has received, we will be waiting eagerly to see what Ozcer will give us next.

N.Khouri Ph.D

Monthly Indie Shorts

About Dicle

Dicle Ozcer is an award winning director / writer based in Los Angeles, California. Her latest comedy short Big Break (2020) has been awarded Best in several International Film Festivals .

Dicle Ozcer was born and raised in Ankara, Turkey. Throughout her childhood, Dicle had a passion for performing and took part in many school plays, performances and writing competitions. She moved to Los Angeles to follow her dreams of becoming an actress and got her BFA in Acting from AMDA College and Conservatory of Performing Arts in 2016.
After graduating, Dicle performed in numerous plays, short films and music videos. She then submitted an original play to The Santa Monica Theatre and made her debut as a director when her play was picked to be performed at the theatre. Dicle’s first play The Jump, a dark comedy about mental health, turned out to be a success and got renewed for a second run. Later on, Dicle got the opportunity to direct more performances at the theatre, Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo & Juliet was one of them.

Upon discovering her passion for directing, Dicle attended New York Film Academy to learn everything from A-Z about making a movie and got her MFA in Filmmaking in 2019. She has directed four other short films; Cracked (2017), Heart and Soul (2018), Broken Circle (2018) and Happy Faces (2019).

​Dicle’s latest comedy is still running the festival circuit and getting more recognition by day.

Dicle was invited to Newport Harbor High School as a guest speaker for TV & Film Production students to have a screening of Big Break and she recently did an interview with Film Festival Report about her experience with film festivals.

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Rating

4/5
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