Balloon City (dir. Oscar Li) is a sci-fi drama short-film set in the year 2505, following a small colony of humans living in a city built on giant floating balloons. As the final spaceship is set to depart Earth and never return, citizens of Balloon City, including Natalie (Agnès Irène Mohan) and Seth (William Cotter), must decide whether to stay on their home planet, or join their fellow humans amongst the stars.

The process of creating this short included all aspects of production. Pre-production involved writing a script, auditioning and casting actors, and rehearsal. I filmed the scene with a small crew over the course of 1 day, followed by 2 weeks of editing.

What I got out of this project was the opportunity to work with professional actors, and learn how pre-production runs in the film industry. During class, we were able to hear about Sebastian’s experiences with directing, acting and editing, which helped my create my own process and way of working with actors. I now feel more equipped with directing both actors and crew on future film projects, due to the techniques and conventions I have learnt through class exercises and researching established directors.