It's always the quiet ones

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WRITER / DIRECTOR / PRODUCER: Amanda Kaye

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Damian Hussey

SOUND DESIGNER Brent Henshaw

COMPOSERS: Tim Pitchford & Brent Henshaw

THE STORY

Dark Comedy / Crime Thriller

In the small town of Erryville, Norm, a meek 60-year-old, is driving home one night when his overbearing wife continuously calls him to run errands. Near the end of his tether, Norm, fantasies in killing his wife and questions whether tonight he’ll have the courage to do it for real. However, his journey home is interrupted when a young bull-headed woman wakes up in the boot of his car and causes Norm’s night to escalate out of control and into the real world of murder.

Run Time: 24min

AMANDA KAYE DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

What we as humans can imagine doing to others can sometimes scare us. These thoughts feed off our hidden emotions and conflicts, but due to their extreme nature, most of us would never think about acting on these thoughts. In my short film, Norm, I wanted to delve into a character discovering first hand the difference between the enjoyment of fantasizing in the act of murder to the shocking and brutal act to murdering someone in reality. Norm is a film exploring self discovery of how dark someone’s mind can be and what can make someone willingly cross over to act on these thoughts.

With the subject matter being that of a serious nature I felt a need to communicate the film’s story in the form of a dark comedy to reach a broader audience. A favourite form of storytelling, dark comedy allows the humorous idiosyncrasies of characters to transpire into the serious situations that evolves throughout the film, thus creating serious thought and self reflection as well as amusement for the audience. This is where I believe true comedy lies and were the world of ‘Norm’ should reside.

The film is seen through the perspective of Norm, therefore to subtly enhance the method of storytelling I decided to change the aspect ratio throughout the course of the film. Starting at 2.35:1, the readily used aspect ratio that is seen in most films, I decided to gradually reduce the aspect ratio down to 4:3 in order to pull the audience away from the usual iconic filmic look and bring them into the personal space of the protagonist as he confronts his true nature, thus trying to make the audience do the same.

MEET THE CAST

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ROB HORTON as Norm

Originally from the UK Rob was the Artistic Director of his own professional community company ‘Raa Theatre’ and of Spilsby Theatre in Lincolnshire,UK. Worked with the international director Mikhail Mokeev (Moscow Art Theatre) performing the title roles in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Macbeth’ and a wide variety of repertory roles in the UK. Having moved to Australia, Rob has appearing in PJ Hogan’s ‘Mental’ with Toni Collette, the children’s TV series ‘K9’, and Michael O’Halloran’s ‘Breaking The Rock’ and ‘The Dossier Case’, among many other projects. Rob currently teaches acting(Meisner Technique) at the New York Film Academy, Gold Coast, at ‘The Factory’ in Brisbane and for Mark Piper at The Byron Bay Film and TV School in Byron Bay.

SASHA ANDERSEN as Sherry

Sasha Andersen is definitely a Country girl, she was born in Moree NSW, but spent a lot of her adult life in Mount Isa, North West QLD. Sasha Moved to the Gold Coast in 2017 to study acting at New York Film Academy and went on to do her advanced Diploma in Screen and Media. Sasha is a new actress known for her comedic spice and strong ocka (Australian) accent and is in line to act in further short films by Amanda Kaye. Sasha is currently represented by Howell Management.

EMILY ROWBOTTOM as Kerry

Emily is an actress, musician, and writer. After graduating from the New York Film Academy and studying in LA in 2017, she focused on working in short films, features, and TV. She is also a seasoned theatre actress having performed in many musicals and plays. Her most recent work includes ‘Dark Rising’ - a worldwide Star Wars film festival finalist, and TV series ‘We Were Tomorrow’.

CHRIS CATHERWOOD as Jerry

Chris has been acting for over 20 years and have won awards for his performances in theatre. As a seasoned theatre actor Chris has performed in musicals such as ‘Rock of Ages’, ‘The Pajama Game’ and ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and performed as the title role in stage productions of ‘The Shining’, ‘Love Puke’ and ‘The Last Train from Paris’. Chris has also worked many short films and TV commercials during his career.