Thanks for checking out the fundraiser for "A FIGMENT OF EXISTENCE". Figment is a short film written and directed by Millie Shelton that explores the grief of losing a friend and the particular way that manifests itself for our main character Alex. 

STORY

Alex has had his best friend Roya by his side since they were in primary school. While they are living and studying together at university, disaster strikes and Roya passes away from a long-term heart condition. Overwhelmed by grief, Alex shuts himself away from his remaining friends and family. Six weeks of sleepless nights culminate in a nightmare about Roya's passing, and his denial starts to take the form of a very familiar face. 

Roya is dead; the person he sees now is nothing more than a defence mechanism to prolong Alex from processing his grief. She's merely a figment of his imagination. 

But Alex struggles to accept that. 

Through the course of the film, Alex battles with himself in order to come to terms with Roya's passing and let himself say the goodbye that he never had the chance to.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

I have always been interested in watching and making thrillers, especially those with a visually abstract approach. I am interested in the power of the brain and how our subconscious mind tries to protect us from difficult emotions and situations. Grief is something that we all go through at some point in our lives. I want to create a film that is honest about its darkness, but also shows that there is hope and beauty in acceptance. 

I am currently in my final year at university, but in my first year I made a five-minute short version of this concept. We used a projection to represent Roya as a figment of Alex's imagination. This gave me inspiration to use a halo effect instead to accentuate the ghostlike appearance of her. The experience also made me curious about using film to show the nightmare as the short did not visually show enough separation from reality and a dream. My aim is to recreate the short into a longer 15-minute film building on from the lessons I have learnt throughout my time at film school in order to powerfully portray this story. 

– Millie Shelton

SHOOTING ON FILM

The majority of Figment will be shot using an ARRI Alexa Mini, however the film opens with a dream sequence that will be shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 16mm film using an Aaton LTR. The intention behind this is to use the halation and grain to give the scene an ethereal quality to all the light objects present in the scene. 

But of course this isn't cheap. 

WHY £7,500?

• Shooting on film isn't easy on the budget. Between sourcing the film stock itself, renting the camera to use it with, and getting it developed afterwards... We're looking at £500–700 for that alone. 
• We may only be shooting in one house, but taking over someone's property for a 5-day shoot is worth a reasonable amount of compensation.
• We also need money to be able to send the film to festivals like Raindance so that it can reach a larger audience.
• Music licensing is a tough and time-consuming process, and for Figment we're hoping to get "What Once Was" by Her's. (Have a listen below!)

• Finally, we're tight on time: our shooting window has to be the 1st to the 5th of May, so we have to source all of these things much faster than we'd like to.

And here's a quick pie chart to help visualise it:

THANK YOU

Thank you for considering donating to our crowdfunding campaign for "A Figment of Existence"! Every contribution is appreciated, and we can't wait to share more of this project with you.