Escape with Melanie Light’s Latest Short Film

Steve Barton |

Sep 29, 2012

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UK-based production designer/art director Melanie Light has written and directed Escape, a short film whose Nevada shoot she describes as “grueling”; and since she figures it “may as well go somewhere,” she’s decided to put it up on the Internet, which of course means we have it for you right here!

Synopsis:
A short story of a man (Darri Ingolfsson) and a woman (Julia Sandberg Hansson) meeting in a bar. The woman, recently divorced, has her guard down; and the handsome lonely man makes his move. They hit if off, but the night doesn’t end the way the woman intended, and she becomes his toy a bit more than she imagined. A real play on the dangers of a one-night stand.

Here’s how Light describes the experience: Shot over basically 48 hours in the beautiful ghost town of Gold Point, Nevada, this is [my] third short film, which was solely produced, directed, production managed, AD-ed, costumed, art brought, and put together under some serious stress in a week before the grueling shoot and drive to Nevada from LA. A minimal crew and camera and lighting kit. The sound had to be completely ADR-ed, which was heartbreaking and expensive. Post-production and completion [were] just as much a hair-pulling nightmare as the shoot. This film is a baby I’d rather give up for adoption…this has been a “beautiful failure” to me. A lesson learned and a hell of a lot of my own money blown away in the wind. The next time I make a film, I’m not doing it so much on my own again, in another country, and under the personal stress I had going on at the same time. Julia and Darri where amazing, and they brought a real essence to the screen through a tortuous, hugely ambitious shoot. Everyone else that has particularly helped me in post-production, I am eternally grateful for your time and skilled crafts and polishes.

Check out Escape below, and let us know if you think all Melanie’s hard work paid off.