Graduating actors from DSL’s MFA in Professional Acting with Independent Production, Emelia Berkley, Natalia Nyberg and Vkin Vats discuss their award winning short film ‘Did You Forget Something’.
Tell me a bit about the process of creating ‘Did You Forget Something’
EB: The story came about from a doll that I found in my grandma’s attic. We knew from the beginning that we wanted it to be a horror film, so we decided to make a story about a doll which possesses everyone it meets.
NN: We wanted it to be a horror film because it is easy to do as a short film. You can leave a lot to the imagination of the viewer, and they don’t require a lot of lighting. You can also incorporate a lot of other genres in to make it comedic, romantic and a bit of everything.
It took us 5 1/2 months to write and edit the script and we were all involved in creating the ideas.
VV: We did a lot of research into the history of horror films, including dolls and possession to find out about the cultural significance of these stories and the relationship between dolls and humans.
NN: Because we had a small budget, we wanted to keep it minimal and not use too many locations which would mean moving the set and incurring additional costs. We were able to use DSL for parts of it and for others we decided to turn my living room into a set.
The film has been nominated for several awards, tell me a bit about that.
NN: We have been selected for six film festivals: Maykop International Film Festival, based in Russia; Festigious Los Angeles Monthly Online Film Festival; Lit Scares International Horror Film Festival; Bloody Hats Film Festival, in Germany; Top Shorts International Online Film Festival and Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions which is hosted at Pinewood Studios.
We won Student Film of the Month at Festigious Film Festival and Student Honorary Mention Award at Top Shorts Festival.
What is next for ‘Did You Forget Something’
EB: We are planning on continuing working together afterwards to create more films. We want to create our own work and not just wait for work to be given to us.
NN: We learned a lot. What to plan, what to do and what not to do and we are very pleased with the outcome.
VV: I think the best part of this entire project was the team. We were all flexible and respected each other’s creative ideas and that’s why I think our project ran so smoothly.