Binge Shortfilm

Inspiration

Metamorphosis by Kafka The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Sofia Coppola films Kate bush music style Theatre of Cruelty by Antonin Artaud

What it does

Ruminates on the cycle of life and rebirth and transformation. It delivers the vital message of the bodily pressures and horrors women face and how they grow in a world that treats them to grow smaller in their bodies. This film shows the disastrous effects this causes in a woman's life cycle and how we force ourselves to become smaller, wrapped up in the cocoons of our minds and physically adapt to living primarily in the negative thoughts we drown in. Using a variety of multimedia including stop motion animation, paper dioramas, silhouette photography, and live action film.

How we built it

We began by brainstorming ideas about the transformation of life. Inspired by Kafka, we immediately jumped to the conclusion of exploring birth in drastic way that shows how body dysmorphia and body horror. We began by creating a step by step shot list to organise our scenes. We scripted out our narrative and got to creating the first part of the film using paper to create a children's book inspired layered-paper diorama that we manually filmed. We then shot individual scenes by using natural sets like the forest near our house and our own house. We used and manipulated lights using colored lighting manually and created fake blood using food coloring and rags. We created everything from scratch and used sustainable household goods like rice for the fonts. Every single thing was intentional and original. We then voice acted ourselves, follied, and created original compositions and choreography. We used original photos we took capturing nature and household items to add to the novelty.

We used an Iphone and mobile lenses to scavenge for different and unique shots and angles.

Challenges we ran into

Of course, time management in a crunch. However as three girls in Media Studies, we have never worked on a film with such small team and little planning or budget. This is our first time acting, directing, prop building, choreographing, and composing but we took the risk for this project. The theme itself tackles with mature themes which was challenging to convey, embody, and explore with sensitivity.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

On this film, we managed to operate on zero budget, with an entirely original soundtrack and images. Shot on iphone.

What we learned

As young women, our bodies are constantly under scrutiny by society and our communities. The pressures and expectations of childbirth, motherhood, and the nuclear family often drive us to self-destruct and minimize ourselves physically and mentally.

What's next for Binge Shortfilm

We plan on refining and entering it for film festivals and sharing it on different platforms like social media to spark discourse around this topic and themes to destigmatise the female body.