Special recognition for New City College Media students’ haunting film Blue

Two New City College Media students have received special recognition for a short film they created that explores coping with grief and the loss of a parent.

Their movie Blue was chosen for the exceptional mention by the judging panel in the Film of the Month competition run by Into Film.

Filmmakers Melany and Hanna, who are studying Creative Media Skills at Hackney Campus, were highlighted on the Into Film website for producing ‘a haunting and beautiful exploration of grief with stunning visuals’. The film can be watched here.

Blue’s overriding theme is that if you love someone, they’ve never really gone and the two girls have used the sounds of whale song mixed with clever visuals to explore topics such as loss, love and hope.

Into Film caught up with Melany and Hana and asked them about their filmmaking experience – how they made the film, what inspired them to create it and what they hoped the viewer would feel when watching it.

Melany said: “I came up with the story for the film based on the idea that you can hear a whale’s heart from two miles away. This made me think of a story about a girl that could hear the heartbeat, but no one else could.

“Hana offered to play the character of the girl who had lost her mum. This created lots of emotion and we hoped to make people think about others who don’t have their loved ones with them anymore.

“I want people to feel that the whale represents the heartbeat of the mum and that if you love someone, they’ve never really gone.

Hana said: “Melany approached me with the concept for a movie named BLUE. The role I portrayed was intended to express the emotions of people who have experienced loss. To convey the mood, we experimented with a range of camera angles, and we used close-ups to connect the viewer with the emotions of the character.

“A blue wall inside Hackney Campus was used to create the whale effect using chroma keys in Premiere Pro. The whale symbolises the mother’s love, and the sound of her song leads the character to her.

“We changed the heartbeat to whale song as it suited the atmosphere much better. This suggests that the mother will always be there to support and guide her child.”

The film was screened at Hoxton Hall, near the Hackney Campus, as part of NCC’s Summer Creative Arts Show and was very well received by visitors.