Creative Vision

Marcos Avlonitis, Director

The child’s perspective is absolutely key to the telling of this story. It is true that we all can internalise the pressures of the world and blame ourselves for things outside our control, but it’s especially so in children. To reflect this, I will represent that internalisation and self-doubt through an evolving visual style.

During the happy opening scenes, we will frame both Millie and her dad together in the shot – seeing them as a unit; two pieces of a complete whole. After his suicide, the compositions will become tighter as Millie’s grief narrows her worldview.

Everything will be shot from Millie’s height– keeping her neatly in frame, but leaving the adults on the periphery, often only half in shot. As Millie’s sense of guilt increases, the compositions will become even tighter with adults and locations barely featuring in frame at all, showing how her grief is isolating her.

It’s only when Milly starts to process her experiences and develop coping mechanisms, that the compositions will open out again until, by the end, we frame Millie and her mother together in shot in the same way as with her father, showing the fulfilment of her journey.

While this is a stylised technique, it will be implemented slowly and subtly to draw the audience into her mind without realising. A naturalistic approach to the acting, production design and lighting will compliment this and act as a reminder that this could happen anywhere to anyone.

As a team, we hope this film will highlight the often overlooked tragedies that can affect us without warning.

The script, backed by Addy’s meticulous research and charity consultations, has gifted us a valuable opportunity to do this and to help families in similar situations explore their own grief.
What drew me to this film wasn’t just that the script tackled these issues, but that it shows them through the eyes of those left behind. Already, this felt like a fresh angle on the subject matter but by narrowing the focus even further to the eyes of a child, Addy’s script presents a unique creative perspective.

This story will always be relevant. Struggles with mental health are a constant feature in the human experience and the more we discuss and explore these issues, the better equipped we will be to deal with them on a societal and personal level. More specifically, the steady increase in male suicide shows that this film is timely, as well as relevant.