A DOLL DISTORTED
Jane suffers from haphephobia (the pathological fear of touch), tormented by years of loneliness and isolation she orders a synthetic love doll online to nightmarish consequences.
Writer, Director, Editor, Producer, Set Designer, Sound Designer, VFX, Music and Cinematography by:
Niall Shukla
Lighting & Camera Assistant:
James Averiss
Cast:
Jane: Nicci Brighten
Michael: Cory Stuckey
Read our interview with Niall Shukla
Tell us a bit about yourself and your filmmaking background.
I did not train as a filmmaker. I did a degree in “Economics & philosophy”….(as every filmmaker does :). I did have ambitions to become a filmmaker and I knew that, after graduating, I would have to do something about it. After leaving university, I decided to make a film to get myself in the industry. I didn’t know any filmmakers at the time or how to go about getting help. So I just started experimenting on my own and made my first short film “Guilt” entirely as a 1-person crew. The film was made with no budget and with a very creative use of a hardware store light. It got accepted into some festivals and art galleries in London and won awards. After this I started getting work with companies and clients as a professional videographer, which became my full time job. Meanwhile, I wanted my next short film to be a big step up from my first, and to showcase more of what I felt I was capable of…this led to A Doll Distorted.
What was your inspiration behind A Doll Distorted?
There is something terrifying about loneliness and isolation. One of the scariest feelings for people who are isolated and lonely, is that in the future nothing will change. That they will be alone forever. That they’ll wake up and be at the end of their life and it never happened for them. But what is just as heart-breaking, is when they feel there is someone out there that they were meant to be with — but they are not with them. Perhaps, they had a brief relationship with the person, or met them just once – but they felt so blindly that they were “the one”.
Perhaps I wanted to make A Doll Distorted as a way to relate to these ideas. The pain of isolation and the bitter sweet memory of the one who got away, I felt were such haunting experiences that they lived in the world of horror.
Sadly, this year, with so many people experiencing lockdown and social distancing, more people can relate to themes of loneliness, isolation and “the fear of touch” than ever before.
Any micro-budget hacks or tips for making a short horror film?
A Doll Distorted was made as a 2-person crew and on a micro, self-funded budget. I ended up fulfilling many different jobs besides directing, from: writing, producing, editing, set design, sound design, cinematography, VFX, composing and others. In the end, I had only one crew member on the film (James Averiss), who was my lighting and camera assistant – to whom I’m very grateful.
I came up with a bunch of hacks on the film, many of which I talk about in my behind the scene video here:
When it comes to making things look cinematic, I’d say to find ways to hide your mistakes – in Blade Runner they used a lot of fog and rain to hide how small and flawed their set was. But it gave the impression that things were larger beyond what you could see. In A Doll Distorted, much of the film is quite dark, with the use of a single light to light subjects. The darkness also helped to disguise flaws in the set, which meant spending less time making things perfect as it wouldn’t be too noticeable.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
Submitting the film to festivals, I have found, to be the best way to get the initial buzz. In the horror world, we are very fortunate to have so many great horror festivals that will champion your work. I’m very grateful for being selected for these festivals. I’m in the very early stages of releasing A Doll Distorted online, so I wish I could give more insights here. It was great to be selected for Short Of The Week which helped give us some buzz. It’s also a good idea to contact review websites to help get the word out. I'm thrilled with the response the film has gotten. We have also been selected for some horror channels that I plan to release with next year.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watch list?
My list of favourite films always changes. So instead, here are some recent random films I have watched in the last few months and enjoyed:
Perfect blue, The Wailing, The Handmaiden, The Lighthouse, Revanche, Deliverance, Night Of The Living Dead (1968).
Interested in getting your work selected as Short of the Week?