This document contains an interview with the filmmakers discussing their coming of age short film. Some key points discussed include: - The film contains common coming of age themes like a teenage protagonist experiencing loss of innocence and experimentation through parties and alcohol. - The filmmakers wanted to avoid toning down these themes to appeal to a more reserved audience and felt it was important to portray these experiences. - They disagree that the male character takes dominance, pointing out he has no face and the female protagonist is the clear focus as they wanted to represent her story. - The protagonist has no name to emphasize that she represents all teenagers going through this experience rather than a single character. - Music videos

1. First I’d like to say thank you very
much for having me on the show, but
in answer to your question of course it
has elements of a generic coming of
age film

2. for example out main character is a
teenager, we do have themes of loss of
innocence, parties, alcohol and the
general experimentation you would
expect

3. We were keen not to tone it down to
specifically tailor to a more reserved
audience, it’s important that these
themes are talked about and
recognised through our main character

5. I think its important to give women
opportunities in filmmaking as well as
acting, as naturally Beth and I were
female filmmakers in a predominantly
male industry,

6. however I think its unfair to suggest
our recognition was for out gender
and not by merit.

8. I do understand the points you’ve
raised Betty, but with regard to the
male as the dominant role I’d disagree

9. you clearly see that the male is more
insignificant than the female as the male
specifically does not get a face, and lacks
representation, as we wanted our main
character to be the main focus

10. which had the side effect of
disallowing any other character, even a
male character, from taking
dominance

11. With regards to the shot of the man
leading the women up the stairs, we
thought it would be too overwhelming
for the woman to do it,

12. as it would have echoes of a more
femme fatal character, which we
wanted to avoid.

14. It’s good you picked up on that
actually. After long thought, we
deliberately chose not to name our
main character, it’s not about her or a
specific girl’s story

15. which is something that challenges
usual coming of age stories, which are
very much people orientated, building
up backgrounds and an intimate
relationship with the characters

16. As you said our film a representation
of all teenagers, her having no name
emphasises more that she could be
anyone.

17. I think this allowed us to be more
liberal about how we presented the
story, it could be more metaphorical

18. something which is not always seen in
the coming of age genre and that’s
probably something we’ve developed.

20. With regards to comments on risk,
there have been many box office
successful films that used blatant
metaphors.

21. A good example of this is American
Beauty, which uses the symbolism of a
rose throughout the film, so we are
developing ideas that already work

22. Yes it is more unusual to see an
experimental style film, but when you
look at the film in the context that it is
a short film

23. it makes more sense as short films
tend to be more experimental pieces
than feature films.

25. I think a huge source of inspiration for
me was music videos, there are such a
variety out there and they’ve really
developed into a separate media
category.

26. For example, after we decided to
include a beach scene, I looked at the
ways many different directors
presented this setting

27. I really liked William Williamson’s use
of the beach a Keaton Henson music
video, our beach is almost a homage
to this,

28. using similar lovely pastel colours and
a more humble representation of the
beauty of the seaside.

30. Yeah, you are completely correct, I
think Beth and I have almost created a
special style, which we used in our last
film Dated, and developed in
Adolescence as well.

31. Our use of extremely fast paced
editing, which in this film was in the
party sequence is quite unique to us,
going between two different things at
the same time

32. Another thing that isn’t unusually seen
is specifically trying to disconnect our
audience from the scene they’re
watching,

33. seeking to make it almost more
metaphorical than realistic, reminding
them it’s a representation not just
about the one girl.

34. In the party scene we cut to images of the
girl looking at the camera on her own, but
still acting as if she is at the party, , which
gives the impression we are inside her head
and just seeing her feelings on her own

35. Also the majority of coming of age
films focus on the technology that is so
key in a teenagers lives today,

36. we still have an ode to it in the fact all
the writing and titles in the film are
typed out on the screen, as if on a
computer.