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Chris and Robert Smellin |
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"The Girl in the Red Dress "
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| “The Girl in the Red Dress” is an urban psychological drama revolving around a family torn apart by the unwelcome relationship between father and daughter. Isabella is driven to a dark place, a place where she is alone and confused. Her mother, Ruby, is there, but will never betray her husband. Isabella is a young child whose innocence is stolen by her abusive father. Her love for her father is what Isabella fears the most. | 
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| DIRECTOR STATEMENT: The Girl in the Red Dress is the story of Isabella a 9-year-old girl trapped in an unwanted relationship with her father. Isabella is alone in a dark place; her mother watches the abuse unfold over seven years and remains silent until the reality of Isabella’s pregnancy opens her eyes. The Girl in the Red Dress is a simple dual narrative structure story. We wanted create a believable world visually and auditory without overpowering the performances. It’s important to us that performances are natural not theatrical, we believe actors should make decisions based on the character’s level of difficulty. To create the claustrophobic atmosphere of Isabella’s world we restricted the narrative to one suburban house with one exception the mysterious skipping red dress girl that emphasises Isabella’s stolen innocence. The Girl in the Red Dress was our directorial debut we had numerous challenges creating the film. Take for example casting our story consisted of effetely five characters that are intertwined within a disturbing abusive story. We eventually found dedicated performers that lifted the characters off the page and onto the screen. One of our greatest challenges as writer/directors was the climax of the story we know that we wanted Isabella to be freed by her mother but we didn’t want her father to learn the wrongs of his ways. Therefore we took a risk and cut the film with an anti climatic ending and Isabella’s father remains the same because he is a constant character. With much thanks to an excellent crew and cast The Girl in the Red Dress was a challenging and rewarding directorial debut.
Chris and Robert Smellin |