Blocked
Short film, 2024
When bubbly artist Linda finds her true source for inspiration is suddenly 'blocked' a week before her biggest exhibition ever, she must resort to extreme measures to get it back.
Blocked is a Super8 film I wrote, directed and produced as part of the prestigious straight8 film competition, in which filmmakers are required to shoot a film on a single roll of super8 with no re-takes, no editing, no grade, no post-production at all. The soundtrack is made ‘blind’ and the competition line it up to the first frame of picture.
After years of dithering, I decided to finally commit to this challenge. Blocked is about a sweet and bubbly successful artist, Linda, who gets her inspiration from her poops. But one day, a week before the grand opening of her biggest exhibition ever, she realises she is constipated. What follows are Linda’s increasingly strange attempts to rediscover her ‘inspiration’, only to realise that true inspiration comes from your heart, not your bowels.
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Because of the short runtime, reliance on voiceover and the general super8 aesthetic, I realised that the format lends itself well to comedy, and so chose to create an unconventional and outrageous comedy, with a bubbly character at the centre.
Blocked might seem like a silly little film (and it is), but to me it represents so much more. Although this is one of my smaller scale short films, this is by far the toughest short filmmaking experience I've had. What was initially meant to be a quick simple project ended up taking months of my life, many £££'s and a lot more blood, sweat, and tears than I expected.
We faced a panoply of issues from beginning to end which culminated at the end of the incredibly stressful shoot day in the discovery that the camera had jammed and we hadn't recorded anything all day (safe to say I now have trust issues with super8 film).
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While we sadly didn't make the final selection, I'm still very proud of what we achieved considering all our setbacks. Super8 cameras still haunt me in my nightmares, but this experience has also invigorated me to try again, hopefully learn from past mistakes, and possibly have more success.
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Crew
Linda Jill Stanford
Director Nuri Moseinco
Writers Nuri Moseinco, Giulia Carbonaro, Chris Mitchell, Tom Woffenden
Producers Nuri Moseinco, Giulia Carbonaro, Chris Mitchell
1st AD Lukas Pace
2nd AD Benjamin Shallcross
DoP Marti Guiver, Teddy Freeman
1st AC Ivana Ivee
DIT Peter Davies, Roman Lurie
Gaffer Omar Danial Biuiiuktosun
Sound Recordist John Green
Production Designer Didi Valer, Alice Halstead
Graphic Designer Chris Mitchell
Sound Design John Green
Composer Rebekah Fitch
Poster Design Chris Mitchell
Location Chance Projects
Special thanks Joseph Lewiston, Alex Jones Nash, Hansel Rodrigues
Film Kodak from Gauge, developed by Cinelab