Private Project

My Conversation With Elle

Kay, a disenchanted zilennial seeks the meaning of a recurring dream through it’s retelling to best friend Elle.

MY CONVERSATION WITH ELLE is a film about choosing change over comfort.

Not quite a silent film, MY CONVERSATION WITH ELLE is concerned with the ideas and symbolism we explore in our subconscious via dreams and how they manifest themselves in reality.

  • Nicholas Patrick Afchain
    Director
    Asynchronous
  • Nicholas Patrick Afchain
    Writer
    Asynchronous
  • Carys Evans
    Producer
    A90, You Land,
  • Amy Murray
    Key Cast
    "Kay"
    The Witcher: Blood Origin
  • Yuki Neoh
    Key Cast
    "Elle"
  • Gavin White
    Director of Photography
    Not Required Back, Asynchronous, The Space Between Us
  • Jordan Tekenos-Levy
    Executive Producer
  • Ross Gavin McNae
    Composer
    See Twin Atlantic
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Romance
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 5, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    British Sign Language, English
  • Shooting Format:
    16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.66:1
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Nicholas Patrick Afchain

Nicholas is a Scottish/Canadian screenwriter and director, born and based in Glasgow.

Nicholas has been crafting films, both commercially and personally for nearly ten years, with recent successes coming with his award winning debut short film ASYNCHRONOUS (2020) and admission to multiple festivals, including Leeds International Film Festival.

An MA in Philosophy to boot, Nicholas is a filmmaker who is interested in exploring the intimate nature of human behaviour and how this impacts our society at large.

He believes in telling stories that reflect reality and offer a cinematic window into the complexities of our everyday lives.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

For my next short, I was keen to explore some ideas I had about dreams and how we carry them into our daily lives.

Dreams of course are universal; what I was hoping to achieve with this film was to inspire some deeper thought and understanding about how our unconscious can manipulate our conscious thoughts and feelings.

I wanted to shoot on 16mm again and this story really benefited from the simplicity of a monochromatic look. I also like the notion that we dream in colour.

The idea of working with deaf actors came around through some problem solving of sync sound with the film camera. I thought I could make a silent film with dialogue if we found actors who spoke in sign.

Once we went down this route and I found my amazing collaborators, Amy and Yuki, we worked on how to record and sync their voices, so that we could fully showcase their ability as actors and do right by the deaf community by ensuring their voices be heard.

I am very proud of the film we made as a group, I hope you find something in it you can carry with you after watching.