The Story

Young Harriet delves into the world of magic to escape the reality of a violent home life, ultimately making the abuse disappear. 

While she sits on the living room rug watching TV with her two younger sisters, Harriet watches mesmerised, as a magician gracefully winds a coin through her fingers until it disappears. Forcing them to gasp in wonderment. This moment of joy is broken by her mother’s partner, who looses her temper and assaults their mother fiercely. The girls hide in a worn cardboard box, their safe space. Harriet distracts them by trying to perform the magic trick for them. As their pale faces light up, she discovers the power of this escape. 

The arguments continue to escalate, forcing the police and social workers to intervene. And while they think they have gotten rid of their abuser for good, their moment of respite is short lived. Soon Harriet finds herself delving deeper into the world of magic, to escape the realities of the abuse around her, and to shelter her sisters from the threat that lurks at every moment. She finds a magic book, and escapes into its world, the cardboard box unfolding around her, and a warm flicker of light falling onto her pale face.

One day she finds herself using her new skills to fend off their abuser’s attacks, and for a moment, just a split second, she thinks she has made the abuser disappear for good.

Director's statement

Inspired by the social realism of Andrea Arnold’s work in ‘Wasp’, and Innaritu’s Magical realism work in ‘Birdman’, ‘Magic’ is meant to be a film of contrasts - the threadbare existence of a family coping with the constant weight of an abusive figure, managing to escape into another magical world. We plan to film in black and white to add texture and truth to their existence; painting a stark, disconcerting existence. But in those moments of escape, our girls will be transported to another world filled with colour, where anything is possible.

I want to evoke memories of childhood. When we believed in magical possibilities. Light and animation will play a major role in capturing this sense of escape. Introducing flickers of hope and colour when Harriet begins her journey into magic, using the safety of her cardboard box to hone her skills and break from her reality.  We want to make sure the focus remains on the children, therefore any adults that appear are seen through their POV, distorted, looming over them, their shadows creating angular shapes on the walls behind them. This will force us to see things from their perspective. Championing the power of children's imagination, and their ability to adapt to whatever is thrown at them.

LOUISE C. GALIZIA, Writer / Director

Visual World

The Team

LOUISE C. GALIZIA, Writer / Director

Louise is a filmmaker and fine artist based in London, UK, where she is currently in development on various short, feature and TV scripts. She grew up in Malta, fifirst working as a designer and then working as an Assistant Director on TV and Featurefilms. When she moved to the UK she continued her work as an AD, before deciding to dedicate her time in developing her skills as a director.

In these past three years, she has began the process of writing her own scripts. This is due to her desire to focus on stories and aesthetics that she feels are truly representative of who she is as a director, and the kind of work that she wants to be creating in the future. Since making that step she has written “Magic’ which won best screenplay under 10 mins at the UK film Festival, and ‘South Wind’ feature script that is being produced and is currently in development with Falkun films. She has also just written and directed two short promo films; ’Broken Pieces’ for charity One in four, and 'First Five years' for the charity NDNA, in collaboration with Mediatrust, which has been nominated for a smiley. 

As a key member of Cinesisters, and a member of Directors UK, she has been chosen as a mentee for the Directors UK inspire 2021 scheme, being mentored by TV Director Iain B. Mcdonald (Shameles, Shantaram, Wayne), been selected for the prestigious Berlinale Talents Lab 2023, become a member of the EFA & BAFTA Connect and continues to explore every avenue to further her career and achieve her final goal - Directing for feature film and high end TV.

CANDID BROADS PRODUCTIONS, THE PRODUCERS

Candid Broads is a BAFTA-nominated production company, founded by French-British Producer Oriane Pick in 2020 with the goal of starting an industry revolution. Shortly after its creation, Pick was joined by Development Producer Anais Ferrato. By bringing fierce and bold female characters to life, Candid Broads ensures diverse female representation both in front and behind the camera.

Candid Broads’ upcoming features include coming of age documentary BELLE with Edurne Vida Bargueno, the anticipated TO THE GIRL I ONCE KNEW starring Screen Star of Tomorrow Calvin Demba; Kieran Bourne’s debut feature ARTHUR & CLARA; EARL GREY starring Cesar Nominee Kim Higelin and BLACK SAMPHIRE starring Golden Globe nominee Cathy Tyson and multi-BAFTA nominee Stephen Fry. 

Candid Broads continues to be active in the short film space, producing new comedy THE CONTRACEPTION FAIR with Koby Adom’s DBK Studios, starring Screen Star of Tomorrow Ronke Adekoluejo and DERRY GIRLS star Kathy Kiera Clarke. Candid Broads’ most recent
success is short film THE DATE starring Sinead Matthews, a 2024 BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Nominee, which also took home the Best Film Award at last year’s BIFA-qualifying Exit6 Film Festival and later screened at the BFI, Aesthetica and Oscar-qualifying The Palace International Film Festivals. THE DATE is now in early development for a feature length story with Olivier-nominated director Amy Hodge and BFI Flare x BAFTA nominated writer Bethan Marlow.

More information on: www.candidbroadsproductions.com

CHLOE DELEPLACE, THE DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Chloé is a French-American cinematographer based in London, working between France and the UK. Born in Harvey, IL and raised in France and Vietnam, Chloé graduated from Illinois State University with a BA in International Business. In 2014, she moved to London and obtained her MA in Filmmaking from the London Film School with an emphasis on cinematography. Chloé’s work on “Some Girls” (2017) was nominated for Best Cinematography at the BAFTA-qualifying Underwire Film Festival. She received a Best Cinematography nomination at the European Cinematography Awards for her work on her fifirst feature “Tales of the Baron” (2018). Chloé is a member of illuminatrix rising, the ICF+C, Women Behind the Camera, and Femmes à la caméra.

HOLLIE BUHAGIAR, THE COMPOSER

Hollie Buhagiar is a multi-award-winning Gibraltarian composer based in London, who specialises in crafting bespoke scores for fifilm, TV and Theatre. She has worked on a plethora of projects including shorts, feature-length films and series alongside Grammy and Academy Award-winning engineers in the finest studios across London. Graduating from Leeds College of Music with fifirst-class honours in Music production, Hollie continued on to complete a Masters at the National Film and Television School. Hollie’s experience spans worldwide and includes work for the likes of Amazon, Sky, Channel 4, BFI, NOWNESS, Creative England, Tate, The Guardian, Film London, VICE and BBC. Her projects have received critical acclaim, winning various prestigious awards, these include a Porsche Award, a Gold British Arrow, and the McLaren Award for Best British Animation, as well as being a two time Unity Awards nominee. One of her works ‘Poles Apart’ won the 2018 British Short Animation BAFTA. That same year, Hollie was also awarded Best Composer at the Underwire Festival after having received a total of fifive nominations across two years. She was further honoured with Gibraltar’s fifirst ever Extraordinary Achievement Award for her work in the arts.

Budget Breakdown

We currently have £2,500 which will pay for casting and location. The rest of funding will go towards food, crew, art department, the all essential magic choreography AND origami animation. We will then seek funding for post production through finishing funds and potential investors. We have a meaningful and carefully crafted screenplay, Louise has spent the best part of the Autumn storyboarding and planning every single shot, and the main crew are eager to get going and help us make this happen. We are bringing a new film language to this story, one that is ambitious and will be carefully planned and prepared. But we are confident that once audiences see the results, they will be blown away by the texture, vision and powerful story. 

The funding will also cover the costs of:

• Rehearsals for magic scenes
• casting
• Paying our crew 
• buying their lunch
• renting equipment
• Post-Production work with top post house

We will be filming Magic in Autumn 2025

Risks and challenges

Our biggest challenge will be the filming days. Working with children is tricky at the best of time, but due to the small budget we will have to work carefully and plan properly to ensure that we work with the children when their energy is up, without going over their on set times. We will also be working with origami puppetry, filming in camera and at real time. Any issues with the puppetry itself would have to be identified before we film. The lighting will also be very demanding, as we plan to use shadow and light in a very specific way. Again planning and storyboarding and working closely with the 1st AD should help us plan accordingly.