A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: A Glimpse
Genre: Romance/Drama
Date: September 7th 2019
Director: Tom Turner
Producer: Rebecca Harris
Writer: Sam Berrill & Tom Turner (story by Tom Turner)
Cinematographer: Ali Farahani
Production Company: TurnStyle Productions/Slick Films
Budget: £4,000
Financing: Self-Funded
Shooting Format: 4K 25 FPS (Sony A7S Mii)
Screening Format: DCP (a single 35mm print has been made)
World Premiere: Raindance UK Film Festival
Awards: 11 Awards and 13 Nominations
– Winner | Best Actor/Actress – Bristol Independent Film Festival 2020
– Winner | Best Short Film – Florence Film Awards 2020
– Winner | Honorable Mention Best Cinematography – Florence Film Awards 2020
– Winner | Gold Award Best Drama – Hollywood Gold Awards 2020
– Winner | Silver Award Best Cinematography – Hollywood Gold Awards 2020
– Winner | Silver Award Best Cinematography – Independent Shorts Awards 2020
– Winner | Silver Award Narrative Short – Latitude Film Awards 2019
– Winner | Festival Award Best Actress – New Renaissance Film Festival 2020
– Winner | Festival Award Best Editing – The People’s Film Festival 2020
– Winner | Best Drama – Venice Film Awards 2020
– Winner | Best Cinematography – Venice Film Awards 2020
– Nominee | Best Short film Cinematography + Best Short Film – Canadian Cinematography Awards 2019
– Nominee | Best Short + Best Director + Tom Turner – Gold Movie Awards 2019
– Nominee | Festival Award Best Narrative Short – Ridgefield Independent Film Festival 2020
– Nominee | Best Short – Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards 2019
– Nominee | Best Narrative Short Professional Competition – Savannah Film Festival 2020
– Nominee | Peer Raben Music Award Best Original Music for a Short Film – Soundtrack Cologne 2020
– Nominee | Short Film Award Best Cinematography – South Film and Arts Academy Festival 2020
– Nominee | Festival Award Best Director + Best Ensemble Cast (Drama) + Best Drama Short – The People’s Film Festival 2020
Website: https://slickfilms.co.uk/
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Tom Turner (TT): ‘A Glimpse’ is about two strangers who end up sitting at the same table in a London café and over the course of ten minutes of small talk they eventually agree to go out on a date with each other. However whilst they start up their conversation we as an audience begin seeing a vast amount of flash forwards, from their first date onwards up until the end of their near two year relationship, all whilst still hearing the audio of their first conversation. The audio lets us listen in on who these strangers are presenting themselves to be when speaking to someone for the first time, in direct contrast with their behaviour we watch play out in front of us over a long and intimate period of time, allowing us to see the difference in all of us between who we present ourselves to be and who we really are.
The idea and the story came to me fairly quickly when I was thinking about people I met who turned out to be significant in my personal life many years later, but when I thought back to how we met, how we got on etc there was no way to know how vital these people would be. Whether it was long lasting friendships or meeting my partner, I kept on thinking about how oddly coincidental these meetings were despite having such an important future impact on me.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Tom Turner (TT): We haven’t actually used much in the way of marketing, it seems to be more of a case that once we had managed to get into certain reputable festivals others miraculously lined up and wanted to have our short play there. I’m sure the personalized cover letters didn’t hurt but I think the short did the majority of the speaking for us. Since our premiere we have won over 20 awards, got nearly 20 nominations, played at over 50 different festivals worldwide including BAFTA/Oscar qualifying festivals such as Raindance, Norwich, FlickerFest, Santa Barbara and of course Hollyshorts. Given it was made on only £4,000 and was a purely driven passion project I’m pretty happy with how wide it’s distributed so far.
The Official Trailer for “A Glimpse” (2019) short film written by Sam Berrill and Tom Turner, directed by Tom Turner and starring Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Tom Turner (TT): Two strangers, Jess and Alex, end up at the same table owing to the café being too busy for her to sit anywhere else and needing to charge her phone for an important phone call. She asks politely if she can sit down at Alex’s table as there’s a free seat.
As she waits for it to charge up enough they begin making awkward conversation, which turns into playful banter and leads to them arranging their first date with each other – meanwhile as they begin talking to each other a series of fragmented flash forwards show their relationship play out visually from their first date up until the moment they decide to split apart, time eventually dulling their passion as they realise this isn’t working for either of them.
Development & Financing?
TT: After the initial premise came to me I knew quite quickly how it needed to be structurally, but the format was quite time consuming as even the smallest flash forward which lasts say two seconds in the film, had to be accurately described with context for anyone reading the script which added greatly to the page count.
But once finished I quite quickly realized the script felt like two exact copies of myself having a conversation, so I invited my friend and writing partner for a strong dialogue polish. After that I knew the script was ready and I knew I wanted to direct it…but I didn’t really know how. I couldn’t actually visualize how I wanted it to be and I pretty much put it on the back burner until one day after being on a really great short film shoot as an assistant director, it suddenly all popped into my head exactly how it needed to be done.
Whilst I did submit it to a few funding and grant institutes for potential funding I always figured it would probably have to come out of my own pocket. No matter how good you are at pitching, it was an over 20 page script that I knew would translate as ten minutes of footage, but it’s difficult to persuade anyone that not only was that the case, but also this story would work with just a voice over from a past event and with brief flickering imagery. Whilst I think the overall execution is broad and appeals to a large audience, when you strip back the script to exactly what it was, it felt very experimental and nearly abstract even.
I also knew at this point that as well as wanting to make something I also really wanted to prove myself. I had made two shorts before hand and they hadn’t turned out exactly how I wanted (both of which were down to my in-experience as a director) and I treated this as if it might be the last thing I make. So coupled with the script, this mindset and the fact that I was very eager to get straight into it, I knew the best way forward with this project was to be entirely self-funded and to have complete control of the final product.
Production?
TT: We shot in total across ten days, but these ten days were filmed on and off over a period of a year and a half. Being self financed we had no specific date we had to aim for and we figured it would make a nearly two year relationship play out more convincingly on screen with weather/seasonal changes etc. In addition to this the flash-forwards in the film didn’t need sound or a large crew, so for about 70% of the footage it was just a crew of five, (myself, the producer, our two leads and D.O.P).
But as there was no immediate rush to finish it and we all worked full time jobs a shooting day would only occur when all five of us had a free day for filming which is why it spanned over a much longer period of time than we originally intended. This meant we had a fairly low amount of pressure in terms of scheduling and organizing locations, as we had long periods of time and didn’t have to plan everything to occur in just one block of filming.
This also meant that very unusually, quite a lot of post production would be done alongside the filming. So editing would take place after each shooting day once we had new footage in and our composer was building up themes and ideas as more footage came in and scenes started coming together. All of this meant that the first cut of A Glimpse took a long time to be fully formed but that by the time it had been completed it had been refined in chunks and little, if anything, changed between the first edit and the final cut once all footage was in.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
TT: Before our distributor (Network Ireland) came into the fold our main strategy was to get premiere’s (world, country etc) at significant and well established film festivals, and then enter into as many as possible after that. For example our UK premiere was at the Raindance Film Festival, then after that we applied to any and every UK film festival we were interested in. This was also the case with Flickerfest International Film Festival in Australia, the Santa Barbara Film Festival in the US (easily my favorite film festival experience!) where our main aim after a ‘significant’ premiere was to get as much exposure and eyes on our short as possible, leading all the way up to HollyShorts which is obviously very well regarded and established. Feels like we’ve come around full circle.
The Release?
TT: For our eventual release we trust in our distributor completely. For me personally I just want it to be seen by as many people as possible. How that is exactly we’re still working out, but that’s my only real concern. It was very low budget so there isn’t a profit margin needing to be hit, and I just want as many people as possible to see all the large amount of time and effort everyone involved with this short put into it after being written in 2015, filmed in 2017 and 2018, finally being completed in 2019 and now being shown anywhere and everywhere in 2020.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
TT: It sounds way too obvious and simple but if there’s a part of you that wants to make something you just have to go out there and get it done. At the end of the day without sounding too negative, you are the only one who really desperately wants to see your film. Once you realise only you can make it happen, it’ll feel both daunting and liberating knowing its now up to you and completely in your hands as to whether this is a real film seen by an audience, or a script document that sits on a memory stick and goes completely unseen.
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