A Case Study
Narrative | Dramatic Features
Film Name: Ornamentation is a Gift
Genre: Coming of age, Drama,
Date: 6/1/2019
Director: Ray Smiling
Producer: Carole McCarty
Writer: Ray Smiling
Cinematographer: Massimo Legittimo
Production Company: N/A
Budget: A 30,000 (production budget)
Financing: Self-financed
Shooting Format: Red 6K
Screening Format: N/A
World Premiere: N/A
Awards: N/A
Website: www..instagram.com/ornamentation.film
indieactivity: What is your film about?
Ray Smiling (RS): Ornamentation is a drama about a woman’s multiple points of “coming-of-age”, once in her teens and once in her late twenties. The film is about realizing your place in the world, through your relationship with your parents. Be it reflecting or rejecting them. All filtered through a running theme of beauty and perception.
Tell us about the festival run, marketing, and sales?
Ray Smiling (RS): The film has been on the festival scene for the last year or so, screening ten times. It has been featured in the Best of Cinematography block during the HollyShorts film festival.
The Official Trailer for Ornamentation is a Gift written and directed by Ray Smiling
Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Ray Smiling (RS): Celeste turns to her mother for support and comfort after she is bullied at school. Instead of the warmth, she’s expecting, she receives a lesson in aggression, manipulation, and hard power—in the form of a makeup tutorial. Years later, we find her all grown up. Her beauty and armor against the world. Her mother’s daughter. Yet still without comfort.
Development & Financing?
Ray Smiling (RS): Ornamentation began as a story about someone who was fighting against all the ways she was like her mother. A mother who was unconventional and imperfect. That was the building block, but building blocks alone, does not a story make. So after about a year of rewriting and thought, I finally was able to coalesce the story into something concrete when I started playing with the idea of the coming-of-age story as the track work to put the building blocks on. With a script in place, I got partial funding from some friends and began working with my producer Carole McCarty to make the thing real. We had worked together previously on ad projects and I knew she would be able to get amazing quality for a small budget.
Production?
Ray Smiling (RS): The process of production was pretty smooth, we shot over two days in Brooklyn during the Summer of ’18. Our production was scrappy, using all the tricks Carole, my DP Massimo, and I could muster to maximize our time and money. We took several months to edit the piece, as the unexpected death of my mother almost immediately after filming caused a bit of a pause. But ultimately, her death caused reflection, and led to a deeper connection to the film and developing it in new ways that would not have been possible beforehand.
Festival Preparation & Strategy?
RS: This is my first go-round in the festival scene. I have admittedly, no clue what the hell is going on. We’ve been trying and learning along the way, finding success and failures. Very excited by each and every screening.
The Release?
RS: The film has been released exclusively to film festivals right now. We’re planning an internet release once we finish the festival circuit.
Advice from the Filmmaker?
RS: Make the things you want. Tell the story only you can tell. Make it with an iPhone, a RED, or whatever you have. Use the tools you have available, and cater your story to it. Limitations will only make your work more interesting and creative.
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