OTHER INC. - Honorable Mention | AGBO’s Global Short Film Festival | No Sleep ‘til Film Fest 2023

💥Directed by Ross McClure, “Other Inc.” is an Honorable Mention in AGBO’s 2023 No Sleep ‘til Film Fest global short film filmmaking competition.
🎬DIRECTOR: Ross McClure
🎬LOCATION: Belfast, Northern Ireland
🎬LOGLINE: A woman attending a seemingly normal job interview finds herself stuck in a recurring waking nightmare.
⭐️DIRECTOR’S BIO⭐️
Ross McClure is a Northern Irish writer and director, who tells engaging stories with comedy, drama and a liberal dose of self-awareness. His films have played at festivals around the world, winning awards for their writing, directing and acting. Currently, he is working on a number of short film projects and developing his debut feature film. In addition, he has a wealth of experience creating branded and social content for commercial clients like Amazon, Heineken and Sony as well as for broadcasters like the BBC and CNN.
⭐️DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT⭐️
Believe it or not, my fellow writer (and producer) Ross Morrison and I originally planned to write a comedy! But when the prompt came in, we realised that we needed to take a different approach. Our key visual reference was the Apple TV+ series Severance as we were shooting in the newly built wing of Ulster University in central Belfast. Taking influence from the 90s thriller Run Lola Run, we decided to mix the idea of a time-loop with the Irish myth of the ‘changeling’. Traditionally a changeling is a fairy that has taken the place of a real human after they have been stolen by fairies. Transposing this concept to the corporate world fit perfectly, with each iteration of the main character, who is actually the changeling, learning how to be the new version of the stolen human.
⭐️BEHIND THE SCENES INFORMATION⭐️
This was a really fun shoot but, boy, was it stressful! First of all, as we’re based in Northern Ireland, the timings for the competition were ever so slightly different. We received the official prompt in the early hours of Saturday morning, compared to the Friday evening for teams based in California. Therefore we met up at 7am and spent three hours brainstorming and writing the script before heading off to the location to start shooting! With no schedule in place and no shot list to speak of, we briefed the team on the plan as best we could. Another reason for going with the time-loop concept was that it allowed us to shoot multiple scenes in the same location with similar camera moves. However, it was a nightmare trying to stay on top of the different timelines! The poor actors were constantly asking “Which version of my character am I right now?” We had to keep checking our script as we often had no idea either. One of our favourite elements of the film is when the camera dollies back from the lead character every time she wakes up. Luckily our DOP Raditya Santosa had brought a small slider that was the perfect length for the camera move and this small movement made the film feel dynamic, stopping the audience from getting too comfortable. Thankfully, time was on our side for post-production as we had the full Sunday to edit the film as the submission deadline for us was early Monday morning. This allowed for a couple of different edits and gave us space to get the pacing and tone of the film just right. Luckily it all fit into the runtime without having to cut anything major or lose any of our favourite shots!
►► Subscribe for more: kzbin.info...
FOLLOW ON SOCIAL:
Instagram: @AGBOfilms
TikTok: @AGBOfilms
#NoSleepTilFilmFest
💥🎬💤
►► ABOUT NO SLEEP ‘TIL FILM FEST
AGBO’s “No Sleep ‘til Film Fest” is a 48 hour short filmmaking competition, which invites emerging creators to make a bite-sized film, three minutes or less, based off of the provided creative prompt. The judges for the festival included AGBO Co-Founders and Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, Chief Creative Officer Angela Russo-Otstot, Chief Innovation Officer Jake Aust, Chief Marketing Officer Marian Koltai-Levine, President of Film Michael Disco and President of TV Scott Nemes.
The top three winners will receive varying prizes from RED Digital, GoPro, Microsoft, Blackmagic Design, Final Draft, Red Bull, and AGBO. All three winners will join the AGBO Storytellers Collective, an alumni network of participants from other AGBO fellowship programs.
►► ABOUT AGBO:
AGBO is an Academy Award-Winning independent studio focused on developing and producing intellectual property universes spanning film, TV, gaming, and publishing. Founded in 2017 by award-winning and record-breaking directors Anthony and Joe Russo, AGBO’s mission is to innovate and advance the next generation of storytelling to entertain and inspire worldwide audiences. AGBOs recent productions include the Academy Award-Winning Best Picture film “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” Netflix’s “The Gray Man,” Amazon thriller series “Citadel,” and Netflix sequel, “Extraction 2,” starring Chris Hemsworth. www.agbo.com/