Directed by Cameron Lee HoracE & SOPHIE COLQUHOUN
Written BY Cameron Lee HoracE & Miles Gibson
Produced by Lorna Lizzie & Lee Andrew Neil
While isolated in a residential care home during the pandemic, an elderly woman ruminates about the pleasures of youth when her deceased sisters arrive from past memories to confront a life of lust and heartache.
ABOUT THE FILM
THE OTHER WOMAN played at the BIFA Qualifying North East International Film Festival and Brighton Rocks Film Festival where it was awarded Runner Up in their Best Student Film category. Other noteable festival selections include Fastnet Film Festival, the Soho London Independent Film Festival and Fish Eye Film Festival.
ABOUT THE FILMmakerS
CAMERON LEE HORACE is an autistic filmmaker from the UK currently based in Cornwall. His documentary short 'Aspectrum - What is Autism to Me?' broadcast on Together TV, the channel for social change in December 2019 and was official selection at Barnes Film Festival and screened at Perth Festival Australia in 2021. Cameron later graduated with a First Class Honours degree from Coventry University in 2021.
SOPHIE COLQUHOUN is an English actor known for Plebs and the Royals. Alongside her central performance in the short film, Sophie worked extensively in the creative development and was co-directing during the post-production offline editing process.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH CAMERON
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your filmmaking background?
Thank you for featuring us, very much appreciated. I am Cameron Lee Horace, the writer and director of ‘The Other Woman’ and have been involved in small scale independent productions for the last five or so years. I started out interested in filming short video clips for reportage events and documentaries.
I was always interested in shooting little films and editing them and so my school got me to film a short video for the elderly citizens table tennis competition when I was 12 or 13 and I really enjoyed it. The teacher behind that, I will give a shout out to was Mrs Aguilar, an excellent English teacher that inspired me to develop my filmmaking skills and analytical watching with the film club. Later after GCSE’s I went into storytelling and short filmmaking from there with a college course in creative filmmaking.
During my college course I made a short documentary that screened at various festivals and got a small slot on Together TV in an advert break. I then went on to adapt The Other Woman. I self-funded this production and dived my heart and soul into making it. Instead of buying a new car or maybe something worthwhile I made a film. Not the best advice. But an artist’s desire will never die.
Tell us about the genesis of The Other Woman. What was the inspiration behind the film?
I am inspired by the stories of the many women across the world. I want to tell stories and bring visions to the screen. I wanted to make a film with a strong narrative and I also wished to adapt from a pre-existing material in which I hadn’t done before or had the opportunity to do. I had the privilege of knowing Miles Gibson through my extended family and so I contacted him for the off chance he had a short story suitable to make into a short film and wouldn’t mind giving me the shot at making it, and potentially ruining it. Luckily Miles was extremely supportive from the outset and here I read ‘The Other Woman’. I loved it immediately and wanted to make this into a short film for my University project. Then of course, Covid hit. But I wasn’t going to let that stop us.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making The Other Woman and how did you overcome them?
Covid was the main obstacle we had to overcome. I was producing and directing as a one-man band. So, I had to be my own casting director, producer and everything in between and in the middle of a global pandemic wasn’t the easiest to conduct planning for a period drama short film. The only budget I had was the money I had saved and the contributions from friends and family. We luckily were able to film it in between the two lockdowns.
We booked an apartment to film, an Air B&B in Looe in Cornwall thanks to Karen and Mark that gave us permission to film in their lodge for 3 days and take over most of the outdoor space with clothes rails, equipment and crew. But unfortunately, I booked a day too short amongst all the juggling tasks I had to do. Luckily on hand was my Nan who lives in the lovely town of Fowey (I had the privilege of living for a year). We were able to film the rest of the scenes in the house she lived at the time. And so, it was a happy accident, as the new locations actually made the film better. Like I have explained at various Q/A’s at festivals for our film blocks. I had to write in a new line to adapt the new location with continuity. I think it was Joe Snape that plays James that came up with the bridge line we used, something like ‘what about a change of scenery?’. That wasn’t in my original script and wasn’t intended. We made that up on the spot to make the new scenes work in a new location and I think it works perfectly.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights.
Dealing with festival anxiety and depression is a big thing. Dealing with rejection is hard. Especially after putting in so much money, effort and time to make, edit and market your pride and joy to be turned down and said no to is very hard on your wellbeing. I actually suffered a lot. I decided to take a new approach from the past and submit my film to festivals and then not take note of the date so I am not anticipating anything. When the notification comes up that you get rejected or selected it does not have such an impact if you are not anticipating it will happen or know anything about it. Luckily, we have done fairly well on our festival fun. We have had the opportunity to screen at the lovely Fastnet Film Festival in the absolutely wonderful town of Schull. We had the most terrific time there and a massive thank you to Helen and Hilliary that run the festival which I have thanked before in other interviews.
I went to Newcastle to promote our film at the BIFA qualifying North East International Film Festival in September 2023. It was my first time in Newcastle and coming out of the Metro at the Monument was an astounding experience. I loved the city and we stayed on the Quay Side near the Millenium bridge. Not a festival highlight but related, anyone that goes to Newcastle needs to check out The Muddler, the food is amazing, I want to go back just for that! It was also a very big pat on the back achievement to be in the same running as a short film by Ricky Gervais. I made myself feel better by saying to myself if Ricky didn’t win an award, then I shouldn’t feel bad for myself for not winning one. I had just landed back in Bristol from Newcastle when I heard the news of our selection at Soho London Independent Film Festival and they were recording press junket interviews on Dean Street the following week. I was booked to go back to Cornwall, where I was living at the time. So, I had to quickly organise my travel back to the Midlands and then to London. I had a few days in Cornwall walking my Nan’s dog and then shot back on the train. Luckily my dear friend, Andy Anson, the actor not the football manager, let me stay with his wonderful Mother and was a great guide for London for me. We took a taxi to Dean Street and it was like a personal tour past Buckingham Palace with the windows down. I loved it! The film then went on to screen at Northampton Film Festival and Fish Eye Film Festival. It still goes on the circuit and by the time you will be reading this, it will have screened at Brighton Rocks in June 2024. Another BIFA qualifying festival!
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face in the early stages of their career when trying to break into the industry?
Not knowing anyone. Film is a highly collaborative medium and immensely difficult to get anything made to a high standard if you are going at it alone. You start out using your family as actors and just filming one man band on a DSLR. All respect to the family actors but to make something on a higher scale you’ll need to branch out. Basically, find your people, find your actors, find your team and collaborate and work with them every time you make something. I am proud of my close-knit community ethos when I go into production and I bring in a lot of the same faces, I have a team of actors including Joe Snape and Helen Austin that I started working with to make my college and university projects so we work so well together I bring them back every time. When we went onto the set to shoot The Other Woman it was quite daunting for me working with a high calibre cast like Sophie Colquhoun from ITV Plebs and E4 Royals and a few other new faces, and it was for the cast too. It is so lovely to see when you build bonds and friendships where those you have worked with before are happy to see you and put their minds to rest. Actors put a lot of themselves on show, so they are usually insecure individuals that require a lot of emotional support to bring them out of their shell, so building a team has helped me tremendously.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
Don’t go at it alone. Build a team and find those that work well with you and bond well on set. Also get an Editor. I worked with a brilliant editor called Philip Hockley and I also came in at the end and edited a master cut like a crude splice to remove scenes as the production was locked by this time and we needed more changes, but all the cuts in the film are Phil’s. Oh, and also don’t overlook the importance of sound. Get a good sound recordist, not just someone with a microphone, someone that really knows how to capture the best recordings and mix it in post with a professional.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
I am more of a doer than a watcher so my film pool is probably much less than most filmmakers. But ‘Brooklyn (2015)’ is my all-time favourite and one that inspired this film. A must watch. Also, I recommend Wish You Were Here (1987) as Emily Lloyd is so fantastic. Mike Leigh has always been a big influence to me when I take on the long take feel in my productions, so Life is Sweet and Secrets and Lies are good ones. I feel that Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941) is a must see. And I got nostalgic about old school days recently so something that came to mind, unrelated to classics of cinema but, a sound recommendation is ‘Afblijven’ (20016)’ or ‘XTC Just Don’t Do It.’ I remember really liking this film and I think it’s definitely worth watching.
