I recently met a new Belgian filmmaker who’s bringing a fresh and clever style of short films to Hollywood. The filmmaker in question is Maxime Brulein, head of Two M Films. Maxime’s films have been screened at the Belgian Consulate in Los Angeles and have a following online through YouTube. They are throw-backs to the witty short films of the 60s and 70s, particularly in Europe. I myself am a big fan of Miss Heaven Lee

Check out Maxime’s YouTube site at: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrDirector 

I spoke to Maxime, and he was kind enough to update us on his current projects:

Current projects and biggest influences
I just finished my thesis film for UCLA, called ‘Trouble On a Plane’.  The six minute short film is a homage to my biggest influence and master Alfred Hitchcock.  I shot it the way Hitchcock would have done it, using specific colors, specific camera angles and specific camera movements.  Even the story is very Hitchcock, being a murder mystery … With a twist.
Next to that I’ve been asked to write the pilot script for a possible TV series and I’m going to be working closely with a Mexican director on a concept I came up for, a historical drama set in both Belgium and Mexico.  This project should be shot in the next two years.  Meanwhile, I’m also writing a script about an American art history student who goes to the Belgian medival town of Ghent to write her thesis.  I’m planning to shoot it in Belgium next summer.

Below is a brief bio on Mr. M:

Born and raised in Belgium, Maxime Brulein got bitten by the movie bug at age three while watching his first Disney movie.  At 12, his parents gave him a Single 8mm camera which he used to shoot his very first short films, in which he would cast his younger sister and his cousins.  Considering that most of his cousins were girls, much of his early work resulted in an all female cast.  At 18, he started the NARAFI film school in Brussels, but left after two weeks, feeling that the courses were concentrated too much on the technical aspect of filmmaking and not enough on the creative side of it.  After graduating college with a master’s degree in Tourism Economy and Marketing, he traveled around the world, working as a tour guide in Florida, California, Italy, Tunisia , etc…  After working as an Assistant Production Coordinator on the Warner Brother’s feature A Dog Of Flanders, he ended up in Los Angeles in 1998, where he started UCLA Film school.  He has since then made about 15 short films, a seven webisode long internet series and it currently working on two feature scripts.