Towards the end of 2020, we were approached by awards nominated writer and director Monique Nagra to bring her exciting new short ‘Unanswered’ to life. Having previously worked with Monique on her short film ‘Chester’, we were thrilled to be able to end the year with such a creative and unique project.
Built around themes of isolation and anxiety, ‘Unanswered’ felt like a fitting piece for 2020. The film followed Sara, an office worker overcome with fear and self-doubt when left to man the office phones for the day. As the pressure grew, Sara’s grip on reality began to slip, culminating in a spiral of surrealism. The nature of the script and Monique’s flexibility gave us a huge amount of room to experiment visually, coming up with different ways to express Sara’s experience without using dialogue or traditional exposition. ‘Unanswered’ was also the first narrative film that we shot entirely on the Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro 12K, which gave us another level of visual control in post.
With the shoot scheduled for December, we had a number of weeks to work with Monique on the pre-production. While the script outlined what was to happen to Sara throughout the course of the film, we immediately felt it was necessary to storyboard the action in order to determine the best way to visualise and convey Sara’s nightmare. The storyboards were produced in-house, then sent to the director as well as the visual effects artist, who was to produce a small number of CGI shots for the film. Throughout the storyboarding process, we had a number of meetings with Monique in which we discussed various aspects of the script and the best way to bring her ideas to the screen. As ideas changed and new ones were formed, the script and the general feel of the film began to evolve. Monique produced a shot-list and a series of notes based on our storyboards, and we eventually finalised a shooting schedule.
The production of ‘Unanswered’ took place over three days in a meeting space in the centre of Hull. We converted the space into an office, lined up and dressed rows of tables, then lit the desk where most of the action would take place. Aside from a small number of cutaway shots and a sequence in a bathroom, the entire film takes place at Sara’s desk; her world comprised of stationery, trinkets and spreadsheets. The shooting schedule split the film up into three acts and a montage sequence, and the film was shot chronologically, apart from the ending, which was filmed on day two. The generous amount of time we had in relation to the length of the script gave us lots of room to improvise and experiment all the way through. The film having a single location ended up being a double-edged sword. It was a challenge to maintain the pacing and keep the audience interested without moving the setting, aside from the aforementioned bathroom scene, but it also had its benefits. Not having to move the set gave us complete visual control, meaning that lighting and camera setups didn’t have to be moved or adjusted at any point during the shoot.
Final thoughts
We couldn’t have had a better project to finish the year on than this great piece of fiction. Shooting ‘Unanswered’ gave us some much-needed space to be creative and experiment with new techniques, as well as give our new 12K camera the chance to shine.