This film began as a challenge to film dialogue in various ways, such as by disrupting the 180 axis, making use of reflections, whip pans, and filming movements through space. I was inspired by how films by Rohmer, Fassbinder, Mizoguchi, Godard and Costa avoided shooting dialogue in conventional ways to focus on more expressive means of capturing conversations. While my short film itself doesn’t appear particularly unconventional, it was a real challenge to film dialogue in more creative ways while ensuring I was able to direct animated performances.

The basic premise of my piece is that Jina has arrived at Oscar’s pres far too early. The character’s unfamiliarity leads at first to awkwardness but ultimately builds towards antagonism and contempt. Jina Zhang and Oscar Beech’s performances were excellent, threading the line between realism and absurdity. That they’re never relieved by anyone else entering the apartment lends the film a purgatorial feeling- will the horror ever end?