‘Russian Dolls’, Neon Eye’s First Short Film

Hi from Neon Eye. If you have watched (or are still watching – let’s face it, we like to multi-task on these sparky LED screens of ours) the “pitch” video above, you’ll know that the basic premise of our drama short, 'Russian Dolls,' is the film-making process itself, and where art and reality blur:

Set in an American diner – or is it? – and shot solely on a Steadicam we are building with our own fair hands, it soon transpires within the narrative of 'Russian Dolls' that the film we see is not the film being filmed. To add to this meta monstrosity, the cast is in actual fact a crew being played by a cast, although they are by no means the actual crew, and even the names of this crew that is the cast are the names of the actors of the crew. We mean cast.

What?

By this logic, we would like to invite you, our friends and family/altruistic audience, into the fray. We’re breaking the fourth wall and asking you to be a part of our project; for this film about art and reality, our reality is that we are a start-up, student-run production company with limited funds. Our art is a highly ambitious short film project that we are shooting over two days in Edinburgh’s beautiful, historicBedlam Theatre in January. Pertaining to the fluid and cyclical nature of the infinity mirror, turtles all the way down, Russian dolls (we could go on …) the entire film will be completed in one, long shot. It’s a long shot, we know.

And we are confident we can do it. However, we would appreciate your involvement to no end (these puns are getting old now so here comes the point ...) because we still need to raise the budget for fundamental aspects of production: the components of our art department such as the neon lights of the American diner (SO meta, right?); the materials of the Steadicam we are building; and also our costume and make-up departments. We would be eternally grateful for a contribution, however large or small, in this regard.

Our crew is manned, our cast is cast, our location is locked, and with the team on board we can promise that the perks to our indirect team members - that's you - will not disappoint. Watch this space for the drunk directors' commentary in particular ...

P.S. Fans of Birdman should 100% jump on this project.

P.P.S. Non-fans of Birdman should still 100% jump on this project.

CREW
Neon Eye:
Calum Mowatt (Director)
Hannah Oliver (Producer)
Andrew Maguire (Production Manager)

Alexander T. Damle (Writer and Cinematographer)

Caitlin Deery (Producer)

Miyuki Tatsuma (Production Assistant)

Joey Stevenson (Sound Design)

Niall Walsh (Set Design)

Miké Havelin (Graphic Design)

Jerome Oliver (Graphic Design)

Liberty Bramall (Costume)

In collaboration with Bedlam Theatre.

CAST

Adam George Butler.

Heather Daniel.

Jonathan Ip.

Bryan Valery.