OFFICIAL PRESS PACK TITLE: THE GIRL IN THE DRESS TAGLINE: A comedy about cold feet GENRE: Comedy / Romance PRODUCTION COMPANY: Capture DIRECTOR: Natalie Malla PRODUCERS: Matthew Jones, M J McMahon & Natalie Malla LENGTH: 14 minutes 59 seconds SHOT ON: RED Dragon OTHER TECH INFO: Colour. English Language. Completed September 2015 SCREENING FORMATS: Digital Cinema Print (DCP) including 5.1 Surround Sound Mix, QuickTime with Stereo Mix WEBSITE: thegirlinthedress.co.uk LINKS: Facebook.com/thegirlinthedressfilm wearecapture.com Twitter.com/Capture_tweets Youtube.com/wearecapture “Natalie Malla’s comedy The Girl In The Dress featured great performances by stand-up comic Nick Helm, Olivia Poulet and Claire Keelan and instilled in us a renewed faith in love, even in the most awkward circumstances.” - LONDONIST OFFICIAL FESTIVAL SELECTIONS: Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2015 Official Selection London Short Film Festival 2016 SHORT SYNOPSIS: (42 WORDS) In this comedy about cold feet, Emily, ready for the wedding of her dreams, meets Rob, a Henry VIII street entertainer, and takes it as a bad sign. Beheadings, divorces and annulments race through her mind, but marriage will make everything better...right? POINTS OF INTEREST: Included in the Official Selection at the BFI London Film Festival 2015 out of 250,000 submitted entries. The script was selected by Film London for its London Calling scheme, one of only 21 films selected from over 640 entries. All the heads of department were female. It was the second of Natalie's short film scripts to be selected by Capture and released in the same year, the other being 'Killing Thyme' starring Brian Cox and Charlotte Riley. This was Natalie Malla's directorial debut. Lead actor Olivia Poulet gained recognition for her role in 'The Thick of It' which she also played in the Academy Award nominated film spin-off 'In the Loop'. Nick Helm is both an actor and comedian and has recently had his TV comedy series, 'Nick Helm's Heavy Entertainment' commissioned by BBC Three. Claire Keelan, who stars as 'Emily', is most well-known for her role in the internationally successful 'The Trip' starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER BIOGRAPHY – NATALIE MALLA: Natalie Malla started her writing career when her first project: 20 Anything, co-written with Xara Higgs, was optioned by The Comedy Unit in 2010. The following year Malla and Higgs took part in the Channel 4, Drama Scriptwriting Course and in 2013 her original Comedy Drama: Crow’s Feet, won the Bafta Rocliffe New Drama Writing Forum. In 2014, her Comedy Drama Treatment; Vixen Violets, co-written with Melissa Bubnic, was optioned by Clerkenwell Films and Malla and Higg’s new sitcom How To Be Normal has just been shortlisted for the 2015 Funny Women Comedy Writing Award. At the beginning of 2015, Malla finished writing and producing her first short film: The Morning After, starring Ted Riley and Lindsey Campbell, Executive Produced by Thirty40Films. Her second short film Killing Thyme, which she wrote and produced alongside CAPTURE | 020 7686 7193 | [email protected] | wearecapture.com 36c Junction Road, London, N19 5RD Company No# 05412832 | VAT Reg No# 932367715 Capture has just been completed and will be screening as part of Aesthetica short film festival in November. It stars Joe Reynolds, Brian Cox and Charlotte Riley.The Girl In The Dress marks her directorial debut. imdb.me/nataliemalla | uk.linkedin.com/pub/natalie-malla PRODUCER BIOGRAPHY – M J MCMAHON M J McMahon is a multi award winning director/producer. He studied Film & Television at Glyndwr University in North Wales from 1996-98 and graduated with distinction. He has been a professional in the Film and TV industry for over 14 years, originally starting as a runner for post production company M2 Television working his way up to Post Production Consultant for London based Molinare, then moving on to directing and producing commercials, corporate projects, promos and short films. McMahon has extensive knowledge and experience working in digital post production and has worked on over 200 productions including TV shows Who Do You Think You Are?, Wife Swap and Brian Hill's experimental documentary-drama Consent, to feature films including John Akomfrah's The Nine Muses, associate producing Paul Andrew Williams's Cherry Tree Lane and working as a Film Executive on the four time Oscar winner The King's Speech. In 2009 he co-founded the production company Capture, which produces commercials, online content, VFX and promos for clients including Nike, ITV, Ogilvy, AKQA, BBC and Sky TV. They also have a slate of TV and theatrical projects presently in development and production. McMahon is also producing The Man from UNKLE - the official documentary about the music band UNKLE, and also produced the award winning short film Gin & Dry. He directed Hawk, a fantasy short film based on ancient Welsh myths, which won multiple awards including ones at the Accolade Competition, ToHorror Film Festival, ShockerFest and Idyllwild Cinemafest, making a tally of over 30 wins/nominations/official selections for Hawk and Gin & Dry. He recently directed his third short film, Killing Thyme, starring Brian Cox and Charlotte Riley. This has already been nominated for Best Comedy at the 2015 Aesthetica Short Film Festival in November where it will receive it's world premiere. McMahon has also recently produced his fourth short film, The Girl In The Dress for Film London's London Calling short film scheme. The film stars Olivia Poulet and Nick Helm and has been included in the official selection for the 2015 BFI London Film Festival. McMahon has been a BAFTA member since 2003 and Playing Mercy will be his feature directorial début. imdb.me/mjmcmahon | uk.linkedin.com/in/mjmcmahon77 PRODUCER BIOGRAPHY – MATTHEW JONES Matthew Jones is a multi-award winning creative producer from London. In 2009 he co-founded the film & animation production company Capture, where he has produced commercials for television and cinema as well as online brand content, promos, and cutting edge digital interactive content for companies like Sky, Nike, Pottermore and Picturehouse. The first short film he produced was the award winning fantasy epic ‘Hawk’ which was theatrically released in selected cinemas in front of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2. His second short film, the multi award winning ‘Gin & Dry’ has been nominated /officially selected at over 18 International Film Festivals. In addition ‘Gin & Dry’ gained a nationwide UK theatrical release with Picturehouse Cinemas across 10 sites, appearing in front of features such as Gods & Men, The American and It’s a Wonderful Life. He is currently in post-production on Capture’s fourth short film, ‘Killing Thyme, as well as his first feature film, ‘The Man From UNKLE’, a revealing documentary exploring the music industry through the eyes of the band UNKLE. imdb.me/matthewjones | uk.linkedin.com/in/mrmatthewjone s DIRECTOR'S VISION: The Girl In The Dress, is a story which immediately provides us with a visually stimulating backdrop which is exploited fully in terms of the cinematography, a beautiful exterior location, two main characters in striking costumes, and a church wedding. The overall look of the film is warm and saturated using a kitsch colour palette, including orange, red, and pink as the base. The quirky wedding dress Emily wears and her accessories give you an idea of her even before she says a word. The depth of field is kept shallow to focus our attention on the characters and their situation and reduce the attention given to the foreground and background, because our characters don’t care that they’re in the middle of a park creating an embarrassing scene, and I want the audience to ignore it too, until it is mentioned for comedic purposes. Although the look of the film is quite stylised, the acting and the overall tone of the film is very naturalistic. The humour comes from the characters’ conflicts, both internal and external, so everything is played straight, so that we believe all the characters intentions, and we understand them, even though at times we have to laugh at them. As much as there is a lot of dialogue in the script, there is a lot that is unsaid and, by using close ups, and locked off two shots, staying intimate with the action, we get inside the characters heads. The film will be quite pacey at the beginning, as there is an urgency in the character’s motivation, which we will need to feel and a back-story that will need to come across. I think an original score will help to complement the pacing and the emotions, and heighten the tension in the film. Although the second scene in the script goes on for about ten pages, there are a lot of pace and emotional changes during that scene, and also the introduction and departure of Mary, so music will be a valuable tool in complimenting Emily’s emotional journey as we stay in the same location. CAPTURE | 020 7686 7193 | [email protected] | wearecapture.com 36c Junction Road, London, N19 5RD Company No# 05412832 | VAT Reg No# 932367715 I hope people find the film to be charming and witty, but with real heart, exploring universal themes that we can all relate to and are relevant today. People can get pretty crazy and irrational after break ups, especially if we have had our hearts broken, and The Girl In The Dress, is quite simply, the story of a girl who is too scared of being on her own, to move on. It is a film about how easy it is to settle for someone who doesn’t really make you happy, because the possibility that you might not find anyone else is just too scary to contemplate.