WITHOUT, a recent submission to ECU’s European Dramatic Short category, is directed by Natalia Andreadis. The three minute short focuses on the desparation of a woman caught in an unusual circumstance…

By Lindsay Mayer

So many films have had a big impact on me but I suppose I can narrow it down to two in particular. Firstly comes “Jurassic Park” because it is the film that made me want to direct. I was ten years old and it was the most exciting thing that I had ever seen. But equally important to me would be Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled”, which was the first film that made me realize how a film can stay with you and keep you debating long after you have left the cinema.

“Without” is definitely a funny title because even Annelie Widholm, who wrote the script, has trouble explaining why she chose it! You can definitely interpret it in different ways. To me, it simply reflects the loneliness of the main character…

 Anxious.

The biggest challenge was definitely the set design. Our production designer quit only three days before the shoot, calling the project “impossible”. As the film is self-funded, we couldn’t afford to build different sets and we only had the camera equipment for two days. Therefore, we had to borrow a friend’s beautiful bedroom and transform it into a dilapidated dump without leaving a single scratch. The story then requires that the same bedroom look like a normal, bright room. We therefore had 48 hours to make it look awful, and 12 hours to get it back to normal again.  It was definitely difficult. The design team, the producer John Brian Smith and I had to work until 4 am to have the set ready on time but we are now remodeling professionals!

As they watch the film, I really hope to make the audience anxious, while also provoking their curiosity. I like to think that the ending then brings a huge sense of relief and satisfaction. I prefer short films that have an ending rather than those that end as if they are just a sequence from a longer film. I also hope to provoke a bit of thought with “Without” as there are a couple of different interpretations you can have of the film.

I have two more short films lined up. The first one, which we are shooting in March, will be twice as long as “Without”, a full seven minutes! It’s called “A Doll’s Life” and is about a young girl and her parents. It is very well written (by Michael Cornetto) because as you watch it, you can’t quite decide whose side you should be on.  The short I am making after that, “Paradise Now” is going to be about 12 minutes, so I guess I am slowly but surely working my way up to a feature!