Synopsis: MISSING CALL trails the events that follow John
Dingman (Thom Short) after He makes a report about his neighbour who goes
missing shortly afterwards. His medications and strange behaviour soon not only
raises doubt but also pins him as a suspect.
This was the third of four ideas I had for a short for my
final project (MSc). The others were true examples of why many short films fail
*lool*. Too many and uncertain locations and a large cast; and also budget wise
(which was about a 100 pounds). Then again I didn’t know much people in London
or even locations so we just went with what we had.
It was one location for a two day shoot, but when scheduling
the shots and scenes, it became clear it could be done in one day (which didn’t
sit too well with my crew hehe)…which it was. We began 7:50am and wrapped up by
4:30pm but it was planned ‘to the teeth’ by me and the Dp. Every shot, every
lighting position including plan Bs, when to change costume…name it, we were
complete filmmakers (hehe) we knew what every department needed to be doing at
every second.
The best part of the shoot for me was the weather. Myself
and Ariel (Dp) had gone to see the location and He couldn’t help but complain
about the windows, which had no curtains which made the living room quite
bright… too bright for the kind of film we were making. And I remember telling
him to have faith. Also the kitchen scene, we needed light coming in from the
windows especially because the space was too small to accommodate both the
camera and a light stand…only problem was the brightest light we had was a
250w, which wouldn’t cut; which ended up as another item on my ‘pray for’ list.
So on Friday (day before the shoot) I went into fasting and
praying (I’m serious!). Was probably the most funny prayer I had ever made
(Lord…bad weather!!!) lol. On the day of the shoot, the actress was running
late which made us shoot the kitchen scene first which was supposed to be last.
And there was the lovely sun perfectly shining through the window and all Ariel
did was hang a diffusion and we were ready to go. (yayy! One down!)
Now some may say its London or British weather, but I
checked the forecast the day before and Brixton was to be blazing sunny until
evening time but when it came time to shoot the living room, perfect overcast
weather, perfect exposure for the camera (…well almost perfect). It actually
rained but amazingly didn’t affect our schedule.
NB: Please don’t see this as me saying “just pray and
everything will work out”. Like I said earlier, we planned this ‘to the teeth’
– was kinda like a Hitchcock set, I didn’t need to be on-set to make the film,
however when you do your part and leave the rest to prayer, you”ll be amazed –
“pray for the best, prepare for the worse”…which just happened to be the
tagline for one of the reference movies and one of my favourites (Prisoners,
2013)
Watch it Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21MIyjTQF28
Find out more:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JonMissingCall
Filmfreeway - https://filmfreeway.com/project/423909
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