Bless You! - Graduation Film

We are final year students of Edinburgh Napier in collaboration with Screen Academy Scotland undertaking our graduation project. Bless You! Is a story about women's resilience, in a world that isn't always made for women in mind, and the persistence which comes with carving that place. We intend to bring light to an underrepresented group of women, and we wanted to do so through the use of comedy, to bring the humanity back to these characters. Because after all, they were just women. 

Myrtle is a wayward nun who has been a member of her convent for around 10 years after no successful marriage prospects in her village. She discovers that the leg of the Mother Superior of her convent has grown gravely infected under her watch, much to the horror of both herself and her fellow naïve nun Hildy (who is currently on a vow of silence). After blackmailing the hardened acting Mother Superior, Agnes, into keeping quiet despite their hatred of one another, Myrtle brings the local village doctor into the situation…which results in an extremely botched amputation attempt due to his habit of sampling his ether before use. As the film progresses, Myrtle steps up to finish the amputation, settle her differences with Agnes and in the process learns that maybe she is better suited for a life outside of the convent.

We are a team of people who have been working towards this point throughout university. We are a dedicated crew who have spent the last several years developing, refining and making plenty of mistakes along the way! This learning process has led us to here today, coming together with our broad array of backgrounds and skillsets to create this exhilarating film. Our team is eager to tackle the unique challenges which come with portraying this film as accurately as we can. Although these women find themselves in an outlandishly comedic situation, it has been important to ensure that they are portrayed with respect in order to do them justice.

Hi there! My name is Oliwia Szóstka and I'm the director for Bless You!  I'm originally from Poland, although I had the pleasure of spending my high school years in an Irish, Catholic, all girls, ex-convent. I am now in my last year at ENU and have directed a number of short films now, in Edinburgh and in Germany on my semester abroad. My work mostly revolves around stories about women in a world that doesn’t always feel accommodating to us and our absolute resilience in finding our place in it regardless. This theme in Bless You! is what drew me in, especially in the context of a 1867 Scottish convent, as it gives us the chance to explore an underrepresented but fascinating group of women. Our unique angle of comedy allows us to bring humanity and relatability to these characters too. 

Hello! I’m Mara, I’m a producer and sound recordist from Scotland! I will be co-producing the amazing ‘Bless You!’ – a story I connected with for its female driven narrative, fun humour and heartfelt exploration of resilience. Over the past three years, I've worked on a variety of narrative and documentary projects, producing and recording sound on set both at university in Edinburgh and abroad during a semester in Germany. Each experience has pushed me creatively and technically, bringing fresh insights and skills to help me produce Bless You! With Bless You!’s outstanding script and captivating production design, I’m incredibly excited to work alongside our talented crew to ensure the vision we have for the film can be brought to life. I can’t wait to share the journey of creating this film and seeing where our fabulous film goes.

Hi! My name is Keri Harvey and I'm a writer from Scotland. Since being at university I've developed a real love for screenwriting and have been a writer on several projects over the years. Going into my final year, I really wanted to write a story that was within a genre that really resonated with me while also placing me outside of my comfort zone. From working on this script over the past few months that story has become Bless You! - a historical comedy-drama that follows a group of nuns trying to navigate their conflicting personalities while also trying to navigate a pretty horrific circumstance in their convent. Thank you all so much for the support so far (it means a lot) and I can't wait to work with the rest of this amazing crew. 

Hey, I’m Joseph. Over the last couple years, I have discovered a passion for cinematography. Last year, I worked as a gaffer with Oliwia on her film 'Closing Nights', and we have worked pretty well together since then. I was drawn to this story because I relate to Myrtle’s struggle to find her place in the society. Even though, it’s a period piece, I don’t want things to feel gloomy and slow. We’ll be using techniques that you don’t typically see in a period films: unusual framing, distortion and rapid camera movements. I’m amped about this project! I’m looking forward to working with the other HoDs to create a chaotic environment for the nuns in our film. 

Hello! My name is Cara Fidelo and I am the production designer for the lovely project that is Bless You! In the last three and a half years, I’ve worked on a lot of varying projects as a designer, and yet never had the chance to work on a period piece, which is why I was really interested when I first heard about Bless You! Since then, I’ve really fallen in love with this film as it ultimately comes down to a story about womanhood and connection. I hope that with my production design, I can bring the film to life and immerse everyone into believing the period of this film. I also can’t wait to get some gore involved!!I am beyond excited to be involved with this project and work with such an amazing and talented crew :-)

Hi, I’m Saoirse Gillespie! A sound designer and writer from Edinburgh. As a filmmaker I tend to be drawn to stories about women and their relationships with each other, and how they navigate those relationships. At the heart of this story is three women, each with their own agendas, placed in a grizzly yet comical situation that helps them better understand themselves and each other. This is what I hope to emphasise with sound design. I am looking forward to working closely with Oliwia, Molly, and the rest of this wonderful team to create a world true to the one these characters would have lived in, while also communicating the comedic tone to our audience and making them cringe at the gorier elements this story has to offer!

Hi, I'm Molly McLachlan and I'm the editor for Bless You! I'm from Glasgow but grew up in the West of Ireland. Having attended two Catholic schools, I felt like I could use my personal experience in how I edit this story. I had never intended on being an editor, but feel deeply in love with the role through my experience as an edit assistant, and since then I've been obsessed. I regularly take on free-lance editing work and spend a lot of my spare time researching and working on my editing abilities. I'm really excited to work on this film as I loved the historical approach, as well as the healthy dose of dark comedy. I plan to use a lot of pacing changes to emphasise the comedy elements, and am excited to show off everyone's hard work in the edit.

In order to do this effectively, we need your help! The majority of our budget will go towards securing our location and the art department. Since this project requires a very specific type of location and one that is typically more difficult to secure, there will be a fee to guarantee full access to this space. Having the ability to shoot in a large space, similar to the convent would e the perfect space, allowing for an immersive and realistic canvas for us.

We want to give our art department the biggest access to resources in which we can muster! We intend to create the nun costumes from scratch, renting won’t be possible as Mother Superior’s blood may cause just a slight bit of damage! With the planned heavily stylised look and use of SFX in the project, these elements could be achieved with your support! We would love to give our DOP the opportunity to have access to specialised camera equipment, such as specific lenses. Extra funding will also allow us to pay our actors, have catering on set and overall ensure that our wellbeing can be maintained on our shoot days. 

Every bit of support goes along away, transitioning our ideas and plans we have meticulously been working on into a reality. With your help, we can bring all this work from script, storyboards and paperwork onto screen! It has been an invigorating process so far and we want to keep pushing. 

Donating just a small sum goes a long way in our budget, from purchasing smaller aspects like batteries or being tucked away into our distribution fund to bring this film to wider audiences! Sharing our project with friends, family and colleagues is a huge help to us too. 

We appreciate all your support and we hope you too are excited to see what this project could be. We can’t wait to see what happens next!