‘Hot Mess’ Production

For six months, we worked tirelessly on the film ‘Hot Mess’, and it has finally paid off.

In April, a group of us came up with a concept to submit to the first round of the Filmit 22 Festival. After being chosen as part of 20 out of 45 to go to the second round, we started on the script. Once we reached version 11 of the script, Ruby, SeoEun and I decided to meet up one afternoon over zoom to discuss it and get started on the pre-production. However, we ended up writing an entirely new version while creating the shot list. I can safely say we went to bed at 1 am that day.

Filming kicked off at the end of April. We had the great experience of shooting in a public space where we very quickly learnt various life lessons, and I truly understood the importance of taking charge. We spent the next few days at our cinematographer’s house, where the set design team had a blast making an absolute mess, much to Ruby’s dismay. With our talented cast and hard-working crew, we pulled off our shoot and had fun doing it. Although I joke that I should wear a blood pressure monitor on set, I did have a great time with the cast and crew.

After the first edit was sent to be scrutinised by Mr Hillebrand, we had to do reshoots. Obviously. We had some fun experimenting with ways to make Julia cry (for the shoot, of course), and in the end, onions were the winner.

Two editors later, one of them eventually took over the edit of ‘Hot Mess’ and had a lovely time re-editing the entire thing one night in a hotel room in Durban while my family and friends attended karaoke night. Luckily, I’ve gotten fast at this ‘editing’ thing and made it back in time to catch someone obliterating an Ed Sheeran song. By version 19, it was starting to look up, and the light at the end of the tunnel was visible.

Finally, on the weekend of the 48 hours film project, between being the assistant director on Tacet and running around to get the cast and crew to sign last-minute forms from the organisers, I managed to gather everything to hand in for our submission. Hitting that submission button on that Monday was like letting a bunch of balloons drift off into the sky.

On the 4th of November, some members of the Hot Mess cast and crew attended the awards ceremony to represent ISCT. The film received two nominations – Best Graphic Designer, which we won thanks to our poster and Best Original Song, which, as they say, was an honour to even be nominated for.

All in all, the experience that consumed most of my year was a pleasant one. Trust me when I say – we will be doing it all again next year.

Thanks to everyone who voted for us and supported the team throughout this project.

– Retaya

Link to the film: https://youtu.be/LCJ4ycu-umM

And check out their instagram @filmlinkstudios