Private Project

The Unrequited Life of Farrah Bruce

Farrah Bruce loves Love. She lives in a psychedelic fantasy world of colour, beauty, and new-age cliche. Her time is spent dreaming of love letters, grand gestures, meet-cutes in supermarkets, and perfect people who love her perfectly. However, her fantasy world often conflicts with the real one, the one of mismatches and miscommunications, leaving her bereft and broken-hearted. A brief, but grand, romance with Luca, a boy who enjoys art, film and music as much as he enjoys educating Farrah on these topics, ends in catastrophe. The aftermath lands Farrah at "Humble Springs Realignment Centre", an excessively new age therapeutic facility, where she is forced to remove her rose-tinted love-heart sunglasses and reflect critically on her love life.

  • Daisy Anderson
    Director
  • Daisy Anderson
    Writer
  • Claire Hannon
    Writer
  • Sarah Wormald
    Producer
    Are You Really the Universe?; Everything All At Once; Glasshouse
  • Alexander Lloyd
    Producer
    Glasshouse; Perfection is Terrible
  • Daisy Anderson
    Key Cast
    "Farrah Bruce"
    Going for Gold; In The Wake; Glasshouse
  • William Mckenna
    Key Cast
    "Luca"
    The Messenger; Nowhere Boys; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
  • Alexander Lloyd
    Key Cast
    "Dr Shannon Grace"
    Five Bedrooms; Gymnastics Academy: A Second Chance!; Why Are You Like This; Awoken
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy, romance
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 5, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    21,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Daisy Anderson

Daisy Anderson is an Australian writer, actor and filmmaker whose professional credits include Australian films GOING FOR GOLD (Glenpictures), IN THE WAKE (Dir. Stephanie Jaclyn) and Adelaide Film Festival Official Selection GLASSHOUSE (Dir. Nick Muecke), which she also co-produced. Daisy’s love of writing was honed through her Bachelor of Arts (The University of Adelaide) where she became familiar with some of her favorite authors and developed her interest in exploring the experiences of women through storytelling. Daisy directed her first short film The Unrequited Life of Farrah Bruce in 2022, it is currently in post-production. She is thrilled to be moving from Melbourne to LA to join the screenwriting cohort at The American Film Institute.

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Director Statement

Please note this version is still a working version of the film. The graphics, VFX and grade are all temp.

The Unrequited Life of Farrah Bruce explores the complex chaos of being in your early twenties, focusing on two prominent struggles: romance and mental health. Youth is often accompanied by dreamy optimism, and the fallout from unmet expectations can feel truly tragic. Farrah explores this through a comedic lens, forcing its titular character to remove her rose-tinted glasses and confront the reality of her emotional attachments.

My main goal with this film is to create a visual "fever dream" of female consciousness and desire. One of the most important aspects is the use of 60s and 70s influenced aesthetics. This will include vaguely era inspired costume and set design whilst still ensuring that the film is still modern and rooted in current day discourse. The reason for this retro visual style is to explore Farrah's excessive obsession with love through the period's "free love" ideology, pinned against the "reality" of the contemporary relationship experience. The costume design will see Farrah's flamboyant 60s style contrasted with Luca's 90s to present day aesthetic; band tees and sneakers he is the visual antithesis to Farrah's nostalgic opulence.

Farrah is a romantic, and her memory is a reflection of this eternally altered state. To communicate this visually there will be a stylistic differentiation between the "real" world of the facility whilst respecting the overarching surreal tone of the film. Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland incorporates a level of absurdity even when she is in the "real" world whilst using contrasting visual styles. By maintaining his surreal style, Burton critiques Victorian society through this absurd lens, illuminating their flaws even more distinctly. This is a visual technique that I want to incorporate into Farrah through opposing colour schemes. The "reality" of the Humble Springs will incorporate a pastel palette, muted tones and washed out visual effects, juxtaposed with Farrah's dreamscape, focusing on a slightly oversaturated and visually striking style. These choices communicate Farrah's memories as her "ideal world"; she mentally lives in a place where the pinks are a bit brighter, her hair is a bit fuller, and there is no one ( ahem, Luca) to refute her retelling of events.