C2. Best Cinematography (Nominee)
DARLENE
From Heidi Wilson
We’ve all imagined punching our boss before, but what would happen if someone took this to the next level? Darlene is just your ordinary, frustrated office worker trying to take things one day at a time. When she gets nominated for a prestigious work award, Darlene finally has something to look forward to - if only she can keep her anger in check.
Hi I'm Heidi, a recent graduate from Bond University and an aspiring film-maker. I am primarily a video editor - a role I fell in love with throughout film-school, but I also adore screen writing and directing. My dark comedy-thriller short film 'DARLENE' was shortlisted for the Australia Youth Film Festival as a cinematography nominee. I am very excited to see all of the other nominees this year, and celebrate film making for the achievement it is.
What inspired you and your work?
‘DARLENE' was a film I wanted to create for a multitude of reasons, one of which being I felt as though not enough media represents the smaller problems in life - as silly as that sounds. A lot of the time, and this is something I myself have struggled with, I find what eats away at people or even depresses people isn't always huge life events like loss or grief, but rather a culmination of many smaller, frustrating aspects of life building up to create something a lot bigger.
I hope that DARLENE is a film that people will find not just funny for its relatability, but also frightening.
My biggest inspiration for this film was actually 'Fight Club', I love the way that the 'rough', cold-toned colour grade of that film alluded to the exhaustion of the protagonist. I also took a lot of inspiration from the music, I believe the direction I gave to our composer Damon Shearer was something like ""electronic elevator music mixed with jazz"" - definitely not an easy track to create but he nailed it!