Length: approx 28 mins
Logline: A depressed teen tries to run away from her depression but suicidal thoughts soon follow.
This decent attempt at tragedy is well written and features a compelling story. It comes in three parts unfortunately so structure analysis might be a little off I'm afraid.
This is very much a character piece. Nicola Rainey plays suicidal Kayla and does a fair job of maintaining a look of dour dissidence throughout with Leanne White as the eternally optimistic girlfriend Leanna. Both feel natural and are very much your typical teens. There's some nice glances full of subtext between these two as Kayla clearly can't be bothered with Leanna who slowly begins to realise Kayla simply doesn't care about her or anything else. This interpersonal conflict creates an interesting plot but it's slightly unclear on whether we should be rooting for protagonist Kayla or her doormat partner Leanna. Does Kayla allow Leanna to fall down that embankment? It certainly looks that way. Turning your main character into an antagonist is risky. That single head shot of Kayla could be enough to turn the audience against her.
This doesn't feel as long as it is due to the fascinating voice over (and the three part thing) which is played over what could sometimes be described as walking about and doing nothing shots. Saying that, the narration does turn a bit heavy poetic and audiences may tune out during those obscure word combinations. The death scene is fairly repetitious and could do with being shorter. Saying the same things over and over again diminished the tension and drama which is key in that climactic scene.
What this film kind of keeps ramming down your throat is the fact it was filmed in a single day. Whether this is a selling point for the filmmakers or a reason to excuse the quality, I'm not sure. This is a shoestring production with no thrills whatsoever. The handheld camerawork does work in it's favour though and aids that grungy feel. Sound recording suffers at some points but the quality soundtrack, tailoring to several different moods, is good at compensating for it, although this did feel like it was slipping into music video territory on a couple of occasions.
Overall, although this looks a bit shoddy, has some technical flaws and isn't terribly visually interesting, it's the story, which pulls this along nicely. Performances by both actresses aren't perfect but they feel real and have depth. The good writing is delivered well by these two, who work well together on screen. Some end credits might be a good idea mind.
Best Bit: The writing.
Worst Bit: Camera quality and sound recording.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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