Optics
Two estranged young sisters are suffering emotional turmoil when they make a startling discovery, their cherished camera is somehow alive. A sense of wonder emerges that captures their imagination, and the camera takes them on an adventure that leads to a glint of hope amid a backdrop of a world falling apart. However, as time runs out to find the answers they crave, will the journey finally bring them back to each other or shatter any hopes of a reconciliation?
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Mark McDermottDirectorThe Jigsaw of Life, Harmony's Requiem
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Mark McDermottWriterThe Jigsaw of Life, Harmony's Requiem
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Mark McDermottProducerThe Jigsaw of Life, Harmony's Requiem
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Isabelle McDermottKey Cast"Carly"Chopanoc Investigators and the Crystal of Life, The Chrysalis Children
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Olivia McDermottKey Cast"Chloe"Chopanoc Investigators and the Crystal of Life, The Chrysalis Children
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Mark McDermottKey Cast"Cole"Harmony's Requiem
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Joshua JarvisKey Cast"Geek Boy"
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Shaw McCrawKey Cast"Gregory"
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Cillian McCormack BirdKey Cast"Joel"
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Paul SmithKey Cast"Target Man"Perception, Harmony's Requiem
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Elwood Hyatt-SmithKey Cast"Ashley"
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Ashley HarveyKey Cast"Uncle Mechanical"Harmony's Requiem
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Ollie JonesComposer
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Project Type:Feature
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Genres:Drama
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Runtime:1 hour 35 minutes 24 seconds
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Completion Date:October 9, 2021
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Production Budget:1,000 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Mark took his first steps into filmmaking when he was at Lancaster University between 1997 and 2000, studying Politics! Mark had been writing stories since a young age, but realised all his ideas were based on visual images, and so turned his attention to movie making and shot a film with his friends, No Fear (2000). After leaving University, Mark continued his writing, and made a series of short projects, including Mr Headman, Stand Up, music videos and an experimental micro-budget feature film, Screaming Out Silently (2001). These all provided valuable learning and developed his skills and knowledge. Mark followed this up with his second feature project, The Jigsaw of Life (2005), with a budget of £10k and a much bigger cast and crew. Mark drew an immense amount of knowledge from the experience, but then took some time to undertake training courses in writing, producing and other aspects of filmmaking. Mark put theory into practice in 2009 with a short film, Perception (2009), which premiered at the London Independent Film Festival in May 2010. This coincided with the shoot of Mark’s third feature, Harmony’s Requiem (2010). Mark had a hiatus from filmmaking following this project to focus on other activities in his life and in 2016 returned to filmmaking with a couple of short films, Spooky Staples (2016) and Electrifying (2017). Another break from filmmaking ensued as Mark completed an MBA at Warwick University. The UK lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic then provided Mark with an opportunity to try some green screen shooting and he made two short films, Chopanoc Investigators and the Crystal of Life (2020) and The Chrysalis Children (2020), both of which premiered at the Quarantine International Film Festival. Mark them shot a speculative pilot episode for a TV show, Pincer: A Demon in the Red Mist (2020). At the beginning of 2021, Mark decided the time was right to make his fourth feature film, into which he could embed all his learning and experience to date. Writing started in January 2021, production ran for three months from March to May, the edit took place over the summer and the film was completed in October 2021. Mark now plans to submit Optics (2021) into film festivals in the UK and Internationally, and has started writing his next project.
When I made Harmony’s Requiem in 2010, I had been able to take all the learnings and self-reflections from my first 10 years experimenting with film and build a strong and unique narrative. However, while I was pleased with the end result, due to the ‘found footage’ style, I felt it didn’t effectively show what I could do as a Director. Remarkably, 10 years then past before I was ready to tackle another feature, and Optics was supposed to be the last stepping stone to that goal. In January 2021, frustrated by yet another lockdown, I decided to get out there and make a high impact short film with whatever and whoever I could in the circumstances. I had the seed of the story (a camera comes to life and takes it owner on a journey), but needed to significantly develop the story. Focussing on the two budding young actresses at home with me (my daughters), I evolved the story, building a structure that allowed us to start shooting immediately and add in other actors in time when lockdown was lifted. While I constructed a narrative for the whole film, the detail came on-the-fly, and I often wrote scenes the night before we shot! It broadly went to plan, except for a moment of realisation near the end of the shoot that the third act wasn’t strong enough, which led to some rapid brainstorming. Once I thought about bringing back some characters from earlier on in the film, everything came together perfectly and I had a final act that had pace and power, and brought through and tied together all of the preceding threads. The musical score was key for the film, and after some research, I discovered a future star, Ollie Jones. I was delighted when he agreed to score his first film and we worked together closely for over a month on development of the score. I am thrilled with what has been achieved by a small cast, and even smaller crew, with a budget of less than £1k, and feel I finally have something that audiences will thoroughly enjoy and shows what I can offer as a Writer/Director. I still have a long way to go before I reach the heights I want to achieve, but this film is the biggest step forward I have taken to date.