Unseen Bits

Aim

The aim of our project is to create a short film that brings awareness to the reality of reality shows.

We are delighted to share our journey with you towards the making of our graduation film. 

The Story 

Unseen Bits is a satirical drama that follows the story of Charlie who has been forced by his father to enter a Love Island/The Bachelor style reality TV show called ‘Love Shack’. Charlie isn’t your typical, gym fanatic contestant and struggles with his journey on this show. He has some hidden secrets that slowly begin to reveal themselves as Charlie is shown to cross dress on the show and his partner, Ellie, finds out. However, the producers of the show have a different idea about what they want the public to see of him. How far will they go to manipulate the contestants and their audience into believing and seeing only what they want them to. Will Charlie reveal his truth and put the show to shame?

The meaning behind ‘Unseen Bits’

This film deals with a lot of themes throughout and ends with some key messages. We want these reality shows to consider showing more diversity within their content and actually representing our society the way it is today, not just having the unrealistic expectations on the show of how you should look or act. We’re aiming to show how reality TV like this one can be dishonest and damaging to their contestants. There have been a number of unfortunate outcomes from shows like this, the most heart-breaking being that some contestants have resulted in taking their own lives.  We want these shows to recognise there needs to be more help available to make sure their mental health is being looked after. The main message of the film is that you should always have the confidence to be yourself. Even if the situation you are in doesn’t allow you to, you should fight and stand up for who you are and what makes you happy.

Our Team

As a group, we are very excited about this project and can’t wait to share this story with you and to go into production. 

Connor – Director

Connor is a writer/director that’s been obsessed with films from a young age. He hopes to use his films to tackle and shed light on societal topics that aren’t discussed enough within the medium in a unique way. He has high hopes that “Unseen Bits” will continue that theme and bring on a conversation about the main issues it deals with. He’s previously directed 2 shorts with the film school and wishes for this to be his biggest and most ambitious yet before graduating. With the hard working and passionate crew that's been assembled for the film, he can’t wait to see the script to be brought to life and shown to audiences.

Leanor – Producer

Leanor has always had a passion for visual storytelling and loves seeing a project through from the very beginning of pre-production to the very end when the film is finished and being distributed. Leanor has previous work in the UK film festival circuit and has worked on professional sets. She is very excited to bring this project to the screen and highlight the key messages and themes of this film to hopefully promote change. 

Darleen – Cinematographer

After being born in Germany but growing up in Portugal when her parents decided to move, she felt drawn to do the same when she turned 18. Since then she has lived in the UK for nearly 5 years, in 5 different cities. Darleen’s interest in cinematography first developed from taking notice of framing and colour within children’s animation at a young age. At age 16 she received her first camera, taking photos and developing a new love for photography. She has been a cinematographer, 2ndAC and runner on several short and feature films. Darleen loves working with new teams and the learning that comes with every new project. She’s grateful to be cinematographer on this film and to work with this fantastic crew. She looks forward to seeing the film come together.

Keiran – Sound Designer

Keiran is our Sound Recordist and Sound Designer, having developed a passion for things related to sound during his time at the Northern Film School. During his time at the school, Keiran has worked on a range of drama, experimental and documentary films during his time at the Northern Film School, such as Lisbon (2018) and RUNTIME (2019) and is eager to bring his expertise to the world of Unseen Bits, and bring it to life through his sound design.

Olivia – Production Designer

Olivia has been studying production design for three years at the Northern Film School. She is most looking forward to working on the TV studio set because of the creative freedom it gives her to make a show and to work alongside our talented crew.

Dominic – 1st Assistant Director

Dominic is a young filmmaker with experience in writing, directing and now assistant directing. Unseen bits attracted Dominic firstly because of its Director, with whom Dominic has worked closely with for the past few years, sharing ideas and experiences. Secondly, the script is very strong, inspirational and unlike anything he had read before. Challenging expectations and stereotypes of today’s society is a topic Dominic is very interested in. Dominic hopes to bring an organised mind, determined to ensure the shoot goes as smoothly as possible and that all cast and crew are well looked after.

Your Help

Our project is partly funded by the Northern Film School, however there are some costs that won’t be covered so we need your help. 

The main bulk of our budget will be going on production design. We are creating a whole new TV show and we want to get creative with it and make it our own. Our production designer, Liv, is amazing and has already created set designs which have started being built already. However, as you can imagine, decorating this set is going to take some work and some money to make it look believable and like a high-end TV show. 

Another big section of our budget will go on finding the perfect locations for this film. The main one being the actual ‘mansion/villa’ for the ‘Love Shack’ location where the show takes place. For this we need somewhere luxurious and spacious to hire out such as a whole property or a hotel which suits the aesthetic we are going for to make the film believable, and as you can imagine, that is going to be quite expensive.  

The rest of your money will be spent on:

Naturally, the primary reason for this campaign’s existence is to try and find funds. 

However, here are the other ways you can help this project:

• Share the Indiegogo page on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
• Follow ‘Unseen Bits’ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

The entire team thanks you for considering our campaign and we hope that you are just as excited about this project as we are.

This project successfully funded on 31st January 2020