Written & Directed by Yury Vorobev
It is often very challenging for teenagers to talk about their experiences and seek support. Asking for help or simply opening up and talking about what you're going through is a sign of weakness. This stigma has to go.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH YURY
Welcome back to our Short of the Week series. What have you been working on since we last featured your film The Extinct?
I'm trying to get another short into pre-production at the moment. It touches on the migration crisis in Russia.
What was your inspiration behind Claire?
Last year, one of my best mates suddenly started to share his inner struggles. Actually, very, very few could do that. I just suddenly realised that mental health problems are quite a spectrum and the dark side of it is very scary.
Tell us a bit about the production. Any bumps along the way?
There were loads this time. The most annoying one though was that due to some technical issues, my playback stopped working, and the team could not revive it. So when it came down to filming a performance bit which was supposed to be happening in the car, on the road, I was a bit unsettled. Basically, the process slowed down massively as I only had a chance to see takes when they had been already taken. But table reads and rehearsals which we had had plenty made everything go very smoothly, and we managed to finish right on time.
What is your process working with actors and helping them with emotional performances?
Great emotional performance comes from a great cast. So that's why for me, it starts from writing a thoughtful self-tape brief that ideally should be exciting and challenging at the same time for a talent.
Plenty of table reads will not hurt either. That's also a great opportunity to properly walk the parties through a whole script, which I always prefer to make more like a chat. For me, it is the place where I decode scenes more thoroughly highlighting all the critical points in dialogues and performance in general. I prefer to keep this stage as open as possible, listening very carefully to what actors say, how they see their characters. I'm also always quite excited to see them bringing new ideas to the table. At rehearsals, I normally choose not to demand the best performance. From my perspective, it needs to be brewed until we get on the set. Then BOOM! Let's release all the beasts out in the best possible way. Hope that makes sense, haha.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences. Any milestones?
For me, it is extremely important to make sure the film is getting watched. This is a delicate topic, still with loads of tabu and 'no goes' though.
I believe that if people could start sharing their inner battles with zero fear of being judged, the world could be a better place.
The film has managed to be featured at 'Beyond the Short' and 'Retrospective of Jupiter'. Fingers crossed for more to come.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
There's so much to recommend. But here are the ones that you should definitely give a watch.
Annette by Leos Carax
Caótica Ana by Julio Medem