The Distants is a thriller with elements of science fiction, much like The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978.) Although it may appear to be similar to zombie movies, we’re aiming for our film to be more character/drama-centric; with the focus being on the lead character – Mo, and the relationship he has with his house mate, Chris, which touches upon themes of masculinity and social constructs.
PRODUCER
Krie Ball is an aspiring producer and a keen production designer.
Since her first day at university she has produced every project she has worked on and enjoyed doing so. Coming from a performance background she grew up acting and dancing but soon set her mind and ambitions on Film, she now has a good understanding on working in front of the camera as well as behind the camera.
Krie has worked internships on sets such as Broadchurch and Stan lees Lucky Man,
as well as experience in many different things such as commercial adverts, crime dramas and casting, she looks forward to applying these skills in her most ambitious project yet
DIRECTOR
Sam is the Screenwriter/Director of The Distants. He has a passion for all things film and has been hooked on developing his skillset as writer/director ever since he began studying Film Studies at A-Level.
Although his career is in its infancy, he has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from shooting/editing a promo video for The BritCar championship race weekend at Brands Hatch, working on the set of a Talk Talk TV advert and reading/giving notes on screenplays for Sayle Screen Literacy Agency, where he worked under the supervision of highly regarded agents Matthew Bates and Jane Villiers.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
As someone who has always used images to catalog his understanding of the world, Michael’s interest in international art house cinema, local culture and emerging film technology have helped shape his ambition as a cinematographer.
Taking inspiration from filmmakers of past generations, Michael sees the role of the cinematographer as a conveyer of emotion and mood through the use of light, colour, camera movement and composition.
Michael seeks to find a steady balance between filmmaking as both a technical medium and artistic expression.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
'Heading up the Production Design is Dan!
Working towards a career as an Art Director Dan is keen to bring his creative flair to the project.
My interest in film was sparked from working as an extra on a feature film production. I spent a lot of my time with the Art Department, at times helping put a set together. I’ve always thought it was amazing how much detail goes into building a set, but if it’s done right you don’t even notice it at all!
My favourite Production Design fact - it took 2 people over 3 and a half years to hand assemble and cut approx 12.5 millions rings to create the chainmail garments in Lord of the Rings!'
SOUND DESIGN
Danuta Amato is an American Film maker from New Jersey. She started working for her school's television studio as a camera operator her sophomore year of high school and became the head student director her junior year. She filmed sporting events and directed/vision mixed for live music concerts. During her senior year she worked as a production assistant on a 2 time regional Emmy winning documentary called “The Town that Disappeared Overnight.” She graduated College with an associates Degree in Digital Film. She is making her debut as the sound designer in the short film “The Distants”.
EDITOR
Esme is the editor for The Distants. She is a highly enthusiastic editor whom enjoys all aspects of post-production. She specialises in Adobe Premiere pro software with over 6 years experience. Gaining her main experience through education she has also had experience working within the industry. Working for True North, on ‘Dick and Dom go wild’ and more recently she has interned with Working Title Films working on ‘The Darkest Hour’.
After graduating Esme inspires to continue her path to become an editor, working her way up the ladder of the film industry.
Of course we are cutting the budget where we can on things like crew and equipment however there is still costs that need covering.
Food - Well of course we need to eat. Happy cast and crew make a good film.
Talent - We would like to pay our actors a small wage. No one likes working for free.
Extras - Without extras to make a large crowd of people our project just would not work.
Locations - Good Locations make for a good film.
Van Hire - Have you ever tried to lug around cameras, lights and sound equipment on a train? well we have and its a disaster waiting to happen.
Travel - Travel doesn't come free and we would like to cover the costs for our talent and crew.
Costumes - Although we are doing the costumes on a budget we don't want our actors in bin bags.
Props - Our films key elements is the props so it would seem silly to not put money aside for them.
Printing - The cost of printing is under estimated. We are going to have a paperless production however some things will need printing to make the production run smoother.
Miscellaneous - For all them extras we forget to work into the budget.
Another thing our film touches upon in a sub-textual manner is race relations in modern Britain, with Mo being of Pakistani origin and the mysterious behaviour of The Distants emanating from pork they’ve consumed. Whilst not explicit, we ultimately want people to watch our film and begin to consider if the way they think about/behave around ethnic and religious minorities is similar in anyway to that of The Distants. Much like Get Out (2017), our lead character will be a sympathetic and textured representation of an ethnic minority.
When creating a short film there are many risks and challenges we have to over come. Of course our first risk would be fundraising our budget. This being our most ambitions project we are going to try and fundraise a huge £3000 and I truly believe with the help of others we can do that. We are going to target companies as well as individuals to try and gain as much support and help with this project. Another challenge we face is the time scale. We will be filming early February and will need to make sure we are all prepped and ready for these dates. Another challenge we will face is working with a budget as low as £3000. As most people will know when it comes to making a film £3000 is not a lot of money. However we think that with such a strong idea and a good team we can make the film with this budget and make it look like a big budget hollywood film.
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