Red Envelope Production - A FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
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We are a group of BA film students who are in our final semester, doing our major project short film ‘Red Envelope’ which is a Surrealist Drama film which is looking to discuss denial.
Logline
Upon receiving an ominous envelope in the post, a conflicted married man is forced to confront what he has repressed.
Synopsis
Adam, a man harbouring resentment towards his wife, Mia, is struggling to write a pivotal report as a nauseating smell distracts him. When Mia leaves him alone in the house, Adam sinks back into old habits. He invites his mistress over, and has to deal with an eccentric exterminator, all while the contents of an ominous red envelope looms over him.
Director’s Statement
As a filmmaker, I’ve always been interested in exploring the complexities of stories that operate from a first person perspective. I enjoy crafting films where we live inside a character’s world and mind: where their subjective reality is just as, if not more, important than the objective.
Arthouse and experimental filmmaking has always been my wheelhouse, as I enjoy playing with surrealist metaphors and allegorical framing. My goal is to shed new light on archetypal and fundamental human stories, drawing on symbolic concepts such as human talismans, spiritual beings and doppelgangers in order to do so.
In my prior work, Itch, Touch of Your Skin, Taste of Your Lips & Psychic Tumour, I have been refining my talent as a writer and director within this surrealist methodology and language. I am confident in saying that Red Envelope, my newest short film, is a perfect synthesis of my previous surrealist work.
The most important influence on Red Envelope is Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which follows a man, Josef, who is put on trial for a crime. However, Josef cannot remember committing any crime, and he is not told what he is being tried for. It is a convoluted and absurd novel, which is a discussion of anxiety and powerlessness at its core. The aspect of Kafka’s work which spoke to me personally is the idea that a lack of knowledge or control could be used in a problematic, blame-shifting manner. Josef is not truly guilty of anything, but what if he was? What if his inability to remember a heinous act was a perfect alibi?
People like to deny. When faced with consequences for a regrettable act, it is the easiest option. It requires no accountability, it elicits no reflection and it can result in no punishment. Even in the face of concrete proof to the contrary, people still deny; they still lie. This is the central thesis of my film. How can one commit an abhorrent act, and even in the face of fact still refuse to acknowledge their wrong? And as an extension of that, how does this affect the victim? How does being denied justice, being denied a voice and being denied a confession impact someone who is already hurting?
One must self-victimise to avoid facing one's righteous suffering, and as a result of this, their victims must suffer doubly in ambiguity and evidence.
~ James Dalton
(Producer/ Writer/ Director)
Crew and Filming dates
We will be filming from the 3rd to the 8th of June. In a location in London.
James Dalton: Producer/ Writer/ Director
Denver Dsouza: Director of Photography
Jennifer Bacalhau: 1st AC
Aditya: 2nd AC
Cian Huntell: DIT/ On set editor
Eithne O'Sullivan: Gaffer/Writer
Mitra Bessick: 1st AD/Social media
Justice Laurel: Head Art Department
Sophie Kyotk:
Art Department/Script Supervisor
Jayda Caloo: Art Department/Social Media
Matthew Poole: Sound/Boom Operator
Your donations will go be going towards:
- Props and art department: to help add a higher production value to the overall piece.
We would like to use practical effects on set although this is a very time costly and expensive process.
- Location: although the project is being self funded in this element. The extra budget towards location will help us to have a wider array of choices to choose from and get a location the production would find more desirable to work in.
- Post-production costs: we would like to hire an experienced colour grader and to get an original score produced for the project.
- Extra crew: although we have all our essential crew, we would like to hire additional crew who are more experienced for scenes which will require specialist direction or setting up time.
- Catering and transport: allowing us to cover catering and transport for the crew.
All donors will get receive credit in the special thanks section of the credits, any donors over £100 will get an associate producers credit for the film.
If you cannot donate please share this gofundme page and our instagram: @redenvelope_production
Logline
Upon receiving an ominous envelope in the post, a conflicted married man is forced to confront what he has repressed.
Synopsis
Adam, a man harbouring resentment towards his wife, Mia, is struggling to write a pivotal report as a nauseating smell distracts him. When Mia leaves him alone in the house, Adam sinks back into old habits. He invites his mistress over, and has to deal with an eccentric exterminator, all while the contents of an ominous red envelope looms over him.
Director’s Statement
As a filmmaker, I’ve always been interested in exploring the complexities of stories that operate from a first person perspective. I enjoy crafting films where we live inside a character’s world and mind: where their subjective reality is just as, if not more, important than the objective.
Arthouse and experimental filmmaking has always been my wheelhouse, as I enjoy playing with surrealist metaphors and allegorical framing. My goal is to shed new light on archetypal and fundamental human stories, drawing on symbolic concepts such as human talismans, spiritual beings and doppelgangers in order to do so.
In my prior work, Itch, Touch of Your Skin, Taste of Your Lips & Psychic Tumour, I have been refining my talent as a writer and director within this surrealist methodology and language. I am confident in saying that Red Envelope, my newest short film, is a perfect synthesis of my previous surrealist work.
The most important influence on Red Envelope is Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which follows a man, Josef, who is put on trial for a crime. However, Josef cannot remember committing any crime, and he is not told what he is being tried for. It is a convoluted and absurd novel, which is a discussion of anxiety and powerlessness at its core. The aspect of Kafka’s work which spoke to me personally is the idea that a lack of knowledge or control could be used in a problematic, blame-shifting manner. Josef is not truly guilty of anything, but what if he was? What if his inability to remember a heinous act was a perfect alibi?
People like to deny. When faced with consequences for a regrettable act, it is the easiest option. It requires no accountability, it elicits no reflection and it can result in no punishment. Even in the face of concrete proof to the contrary, people still deny; they still lie. This is the central thesis of my film. How can one commit an abhorrent act, and even in the face of fact still refuse to acknowledge their wrong? And as an extension of that, how does this affect the victim? How does being denied justice, being denied a voice and being denied a confession impact someone who is already hurting?
One must self-victimise to avoid facing one's righteous suffering, and as a result of this, their victims must suffer doubly in ambiguity and evidence.
~ James Dalton
(Producer/ Writer/ Director)
Crew and Filming dates
We will be filming from the 3rd to the 8th of June. In a location in London.
James Dalton: Producer/ Writer/ Director
Denver Dsouza: Director of Photography
Jennifer Bacalhau: 1st AC
Aditya: 2nd AC
Cian Huntell: DIT/ On set editor
Eithne O'Sullivan: Gaffer/Writer
Mitra Bessick: 1st AD/Social media
Justice Laurel: Head Art Department
Sophie Kyotk:
Art Department/Script Supervisor
Jayda Caloo: Art Department/Social Media
Matthew Poole: Sound/Boom Operator
Your donations will go be going towards:
- Props and art department: to help add a higher production value to the overall piece.
We would like to use practical effects on set although this is a very time costly and expensive process.
- Location: although the project is being self funded in this element. The extra budget towards location will help us to have a wider array of choices to choose from and get a location the production would find more desirable to work in.
- Post-production costs: we would like to hire an experienced colour grader and to get an original score produced for the project.
- Extra crew: although we have all our essential crew, we would like to hire additional crew who are more experienced for scenes which will require specialist direction or setting up time.
- Catering and transport: allowing us to cover catering and transport for the crew.
All donors will get receive credit in the special thanks section of the credits, any donors over £100 will get an associate producers credit for the film.
If you cannot donate please share this gofundme page and our instagram: @redenvelope_production
Organizer
James Dalton
Organizer
England