Private Project

Cold Line

A tale of Harvey, a successful businessman, who one night in a bout of loneliness decides to call a phone sex hotline only to receive an entirely different connection instead.

  • Paul Dean
    Director
    http://www.pauldeanfilm.com
  • Stuart Mentha
    Writer
  • Pavlina Zipkova
    Producer
  • Paul Dean
    Producer
  • Jim High
    Key Cast
  • Stepanka Fingerhutova
    Key Cast
  • Hailee Murphy
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Horror, Thriller, Fiction
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 1, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    300 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Czech Republic
  • Country of Filming:
    Czech Republic
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Red
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Paul Dean

Writer, Director, Cinematographer - Filmmaker, Paul Dean was born in Rochdale, England. After graduating with an MA in Law from Oxford University in 1997, Paul spent five years in the US, obtaining his Juris Doctorate from Notre Dame and working as a lawyer. Upon returning to the UK in 2003, law degrees in hand - he formed a band, started a successful music magazine and learned to evoke emotions in an audience through a job in marketing.

A born storyteller, Paul was selected for a script writing course with North West Vision (UK Film Council), ‘First Take: Distinct Voices, Diverse Lives’, where he reignited his passion for film. Paul set about writing and directing his first 15 minute short “The Lovers” - working with friends and professional actors - and eventually earning praise for the quality and scope of the zero-budget film. He was then shortlisted for the ‘NW Vision Digishorts’ scheme where he developed his craft under mentor Paul Fraser, writer on the Shane Meadow’s film, “Dead Man’s Shoes”.

Paul honed his craft working on dozens of music videos and shorts before leaving England and spending five years traveling and performing in theater around Europe. In 2011, he came to Prague, CZ, where he started work on his first feature film, "Red Green Blue", with Czech legends of cinema Josef Somr, Ondrej Vetchy and Jan Kacer. This later became the half hour short film “Cerven”.

Paul has spent the past five years based in Prague and working throughout Europe, shooting in Czechia, Turkey, Greece, Germany, Poland, the Ukraine and elsewhere, working on hundreds of student films, music videos, tv shows, commercials, features and shorts and learning his craft on set with some of the world’s best directors and cinematographers. He continues to act on stage, TV and commercials, and recently directed his first play at the Divaldo Kolowrat in Prague.

After more than a decade in the film industry, Paul has worked in just about every department on set - on both sides of the camera - and he continues to work as a freelance director, cinematographer, editor, gaffer and grip. He is currently editing his first feature length documentary, The Road Less Run.

http://www.pauldeanfilm.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6039807

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Director Statement

Cold Line was a microbudget short film intentially kept in one location to allow me to concentrate on really refining the production levels, lighting, props, and performances of the cast. I really wanted to work on creating a sense of unease and the feeling that something is not quite right. To this end, subtle changes are made to props, costume, make up and lighting throughout the film - with deliberate changes in continuity. The purpose of the one shot at the start is to make a lot of these changes in a single take, to show that these continuity changes were planned and deliberate (and often involved a lot of running around behind the camera to make the changes). This was a deliberate exercise in seeing how much we could change without the audience noticing, or noticing only subliminally and, to this end, I think it works very well - and adds to the sense of creepiness. With the addition of a completely originally score - that incorporates many of the sound cues - I believe we accomplished a very creepy film with very little budget.