Love and Other Fictions

Aim: A short drama film about a stage actor who confuses his personal life with his characters life.

The Story

Philip is an ambitious actor who struggles to deliver a role the way the director of the play wants it. The emotional director, Antonio, provokes Philip to approach his role in a different way. He makes the mistake to transfer the feelings his stage character has into the real world and seduces his stage partner, the actress Lora. Afterwards, Philip merges more and more with his character, mixing up reality with the world of the play. Philip’s character in the play believes that his spouse has cheated on him and thus is the reason why she’s stopped loving him. Philip transfers this to his everyday life by thinking that Lora is sexually involved with the director of the play. The jealousy drives Philip mad and as we near the premiere of the show, he becomes fully merged into this character. On the night we see Philip reach his boiling point and his actions become unpredictable throughout the tense climactic finale.

What's It Really About?

The film explores the connotations of love and shows it in a less conventional way. The film asks the question; What is love? And is love real? This story is a psychological drama about love, jealously, desire and passion. 

Why Make This Film?

This film is important to make as it highlights how love isn't just black and white and it shows how love can be perceived in many different forms.

The film shows a distorted reality and explores how love isn't a fairy-tale and isn't like how it is in the films or theatres. This is why we chose the theatre as our backdrop for the film to show how our main character has a romanticised view of love but this is far from the truth in reality. 

People perceive love to be romantic and like a movie, however, this isn't a realistic image of love. Love can be jealously, secretive and dishonest.  

The film also highlights the pressures that actors are put under in order to play a character. This is a key message that we wish to convey, as many actors/actresses have reported having experienced "vicarious trauma through their acting experiences". 

Visuals and Concept

We’re setting the film in two different worlds- the world of the play (set in a small town in Italy, during the 60’s), which depicts a couple in their late 20s, living through the brutality of financial struggles, constantly trying to escape this way of life and ultimately failing. These constant failures reflect negatively on the husband who starts drinking and becomes lost in his rage.

The world of the backstage is set in two dressing rooms, connected by a red corridor. This is where the journey of the main character in the film, Philip begins a relationship with the actress Lora. The red corridor resembles love and passion at the beginning of their romance. However, as Phillip merges with his violent character, the red resembles anger and danger.

Our costume designer has drawn up interpretations of what our lead roles will be wearing for the film. These incredible drawings are just the beginning of our journey. 

Director's Statement

“Love and Other Fictions” is about the different ways in which we perceive love. It aims to distort the poetical view to the very animalistic and selfish version of what could still be claimed as love. The main character Philip carries the theme of an artist ready to lose himself for the purpose of his art, which allows another notion that the story carries- the notion of creating a monster through personal beliefs, which then destroys its creator and itself.

As the writer and director of the project I chose to incorporate and explore these topics through the film, as I am particularly interested in the Romance genre. In many of my previous projects I have explored the theme of love, but this time I wanted to write a story in which to portray the destructive even ugly, illusory prism of love. 

Phillip gets involved with Lora, the actress playing his wife. In order to fulfil the wants of the play’s director, Phillip decides to actually try and fall in love with her by seducing Lora. Afterwards we follow the fanatical and illusory collision of the beliefs and visions of his stage character, which he completely adopts and transfers into both worlds of the film. His behaviour pushes Lora away, which in turn only fuels his paranoia more and more until the tragic ending of the film at the premiere of the show.

“Love and Other Fictions” follows the line of a complete destruction of love and romance. Beginning with the romanticised prism of the main character and then dissolving it in hinged, broken juxtaposition of what love is. 

What the Money will be used for:

Your donations will be used efficiently and practically between the different departments that will make up this film. You can visually see how our funds will be used on the pie chart above. 

We will make sure that every penny counts and that your donations will be used to help each of these departments.

Who are we?

We are professional Bournemouth filmmakers, creating our final graduation films at The Arts University Bournemouth. We have been trained and taught to the highest possible standard of professionalism, which will be shown through this film. 

Writer and Director - Anthoniy Hristov 

My name is Anthoniy Hristov and I am the writer/director of Love and Other Fictions. Previously I have written and directed a few short films in various different genres that include, comedy, psychological thriller, magical realism and romance. This project allows me to research and work with tragedy as a sub-genre.  My experience so far shows that most of my films orbit and study similar subjects through different prisms. It is always incredibly interesting for me to widen my perspective and be able to portray similar subjects trough completely different points of view. The way I am going to approach and portray the theme of Love in this project, I relate to my divorced parents and multiple other cases of unshared or broken understandings of what love is I have experienced myself, seen and heard of .

Producers - 

Tiffany Carrington                    Alice Henderson

Tiffany Carrington - "My name is Tiffany Carrington and I’m the producer for Love and Other Fictions. I am a third year BA Film Production student at The Arts University Bournemouth, and I have had lots of experience producing and working in the production specialism for many short films. In the future, I plan to continue further in the producing specialism, however, I also have a keen interest in script writing. 

"I was drawn to working on ‘Love and Other Fictions’ because it is an interesting and original idea. The film explores themes of love, drama and passion through a distorted narrative, which is why this film is so unique and will keep audiences on the edge of their seats!" 

Alice Henderson - "I’m Alice Henderson and I am the producer for ‘Love and Other Fictions’. This film excites me as the story is filled with love, passion, lust, anger, pain, and jealousy and these all climax into jaw dropping ending. This production also explores the mental strains method actors go through as a lead stage actor begins to merge with his stage character. I believe this film touches on the unseen pressures that actors endure and just how difficult their jobs actually are. 

"As specialist in directing and producing with a keen interesting in writing, I find this story fascinating and I thoroughly enjoy the romance genre of film especially when it involves real passion and drama."

Cinematographer - Andrey Kudryashov

Andrey Kudryashov is a hard-working team member of “Love and Other Fictions” short film. His passion for magnificence of images encouraged him to be a Director of Photography. In his 3-year university path he worked in several different short movies as part of his university course in the role of DoP which helped him develop his skills. As we trust his success and experience, Andrey will be working as the DoP of “Love and Other Fictions”. 

Andrey has always been passionate about cinematography since he started exploring the world of filmmaking. His excitement and effort to create visual elements that tell a story and letting the script to come to life are some of his interests which lead him to be more into his job as well as immersing himself into research of paintings, photography, film and other visual mediums. His passion and creative vision encouraged him to learn and discover more about the new aspects of this specialism and sharpened his skills on working in industry productions. Having had previous experience on commercials, short films and music videos would help him guide in his approach of visual storytelling for “Love and other fictions”.  

Production Designers - 

Tim Cheung                              Lewis Nicholls

Tim Cheung - "Since moving from Hong Kong to Bournemouth to study film production, I have worked on the art department of a variety of different short films. Specialising in production design, I am especially excited to have the opportunity to bring Love and Other Fictions to life. This will take the form of a studio set build and a theatre location. 

"The production design of this film is crucial in conveying the deterioration of the main character Phillip’s mental state, and also to serve as metaphors for each character’s personality. Vivid, high contrast warm colours in interior spaces connected to grey, unusually shaped rooms make for a surrealist architecture style that would be impossible to achieve without a studio set build. My co-production designer Lewis Nicholls and I have a wealth of experience designing and building film sets, and I am excited to show what we have in store for this film."

Lewis Nicholls - "I’ve always been focused on the visual identity of films and what can be seen through the frame, which in my opinion always outweighs the actual story, thus shaping my path to studying both production design and cinematography. With both specialisms in mind and neither preference over the other, it wasn’t until I was presented with the oppurtunity to work on ‘Love and Other Fictions’ as a production designer that my decision became easy.

"Personally, one of the biggest draws for myself was the freedom within the script to design the world of the two characters as an extension of their own mind which also affords me the luxury as a designer to take liberties with the design, thus making room for our my own creative vision."

Head of Sound - Alex Turner 

"I’m Alex Turner, the head of the sound department for Love and Other Fictions. I have spent a lot of time working in the sound department - both on and off set - and I’m really excited to help bring this project to life audibly.

"Sound is crucial to this film, we need to be inside Philip’s head and what we hear is a really good way of showing that his mental state is deteriorating and the character is taking over. I will create soundscapes for locations and scenes, as well as using sound design motifs that will be linked to the different characters. I want to create interesting, memorable sound design for the film that helps tell the story in a unique way."

Editor - Emma Rhodes 

"Editing is a crucial part of the film making process; it’s where a films narrative is ultimately assembled but can also be reformed. That is the magic of editing; no two edits will ever be identical; each shows an Editor’s own take and creative influence over the final delivery of the film. This is why I love being an Editor, as it is a role which exhibits my creativity as well as technical skill.

"I am excited about being a part of “Love and Other Fictions” and working alongside the rest of the team to creatively ensemble the distorted narrative of reality between actuality and the overpowering visions of jealousy from our protagonist Philip. The style of edit I am going to use will be a mixture of dreamlike theatrical scenes and quick distorted cuts which’s jarring juxtaposition will enhance our “man on the brink” idea. Upon previously working on several films alongside our Director Anthoniy, I am confident that our similar work ethic and preferred cutting styles will produce a slick and effective edit. Evoking the viewers to connect with Philips delusions of fantasy being reality."

Camera Operator - Henry Hooper 

"I’m Henry Hooper, the camera operator for Love and Other Fictions. I’m looking forward to being a crucial part of the camera team for this film and I’m intrigued to see this story to be shown from words to visuals. I’ve spent a lot of time working around cameras and I’m excited to be given this opportunity to give my artistic input and visually create a story which will no doubt captivate the audience.

Being a camera operator is a crucial part of the camera department on a film, you need to be able to suggest styles of shooting, determine technical details, movements, lenses and know where to set up shots. I will be working closely with the DOP, Director and Gaffer on this film as I give my input on how visually we can create this narrative and which artistic areas can we add certain styles of camerawork to the themes of love, passion, anger and jealousy through this film."

Gaffer - Mansur Mas

Costume Designer - Marcia Gomes

"I’ve always been passionate about film and drawn by the art of costume design and exploring characters through details of what they wear. Since I moved from Portugal to Bournemouth I’ve been designing and helping on different short films and live productions. 

"As a costume designer it’s important to analyse in great depth the characters in the story and consider who they really are and their backstory in order to be authentic, this is something that really fascinates me. ‘Love and Other Fictions’ has drawn me by its concept of the perception of love and the construction of such interesting characters. I’m very keen on portraying the deterioration of reality and mental state of the main character, Phillip, through his costume journey. Showcasing this devoted actor slowly merging and integrating with his stage character: the angry and violent husband Gregorio. The setting of the play in 1960’s Italy allows me to explore the political context of the time and make a clear costume distinction between the stage characters personalities and the performers, this will completely differ and detach Phillip from reality. 

"I’m very excited to incorporate hidden details into costume from the director’s vision through semiotics, patterns and colours, as well as working with such a dedicated and passionate crew on bringing this film to life."

Music Composer - Taran Mitchell 

Your Support

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We need your help with sharing, donating and supporting this film so that we can make an astonishing film for you all to enjoy.

Thank you so much for your support!