Our Best Short Film winner will receive our custom Global Shorts statuette which we ship anywhere in the world, free of charge. The award is manufactured by Society Awards, the same awards company that manufactures the Golden Globe and the Emmy. All winners will receive our Global Shorts Winner laurels in black, white, and gold.
Title: Thin Lines
Runtime: 38 min
Country: USA
Director: Shaan Couture
Placement: Special Mention
Competition: September 30, 2016
Synopsis: Leah’s life doesn’t seem to have a meaning. As she gets desperate in her search of fulfillment, her life takes a surprising turn. One night, under unexpected and fragile circumstances, Leah’s path crosses Noah’s, a deaf young man. Noah is a cheerful creator. His imagination and confidence engage Leah’s curiosity. Through their respective passions, Noah’s drawing and Leah’s music, they go beyond their differences and learn about each others’ worlds.
To talk, they use all methods. From body language to sign language, from lip-reading to eye contact, their urge to communicate brings them closer. As they grow inseparable, they gain consciousness of their connection.
OR: What was the inspiration for your film?
SC: Thin Lines is about two people that decide to open their minds to someone else’s world, which in return fulfills their own. This film aims at showing that when we are curious and open-minded towards others, we not only connect as social beings but we also make our own world richer. No matter what our own challenges are, we can always find ways to relate to the person in front of us. There are many ways one can exchange and communicate, and like Leah and Noah, humans must create bridges to each other’s perceptions. In Thin Lines, Noah forces Leah to venture in new forms of communication, which opens her mind to a completely different side of her life and emotions.
I’m a French-American director whose life experience and curiosity towards the deaf community led me to write Thin Lines (2016). Thin Lines is a story about our differences and why they should be a source of dialogue – even when we don’t speak the same language, or in this case when we don’t hear each other. With an academic background in sociology and communication, my first film naturally combined these two sources of interest.
OR: When did you conceive the idea for your film and how long did it take before it was realized?
SC: I started writing the script of “Thin Lines” during the fall 2015, and I finalized it in February 2016. The more I started to hang out with Jon, my Deaf producer, the more we refined the story so it would be authentic and real. The idea was to make a film that Deaf and hearing people could enjoy the same way, so Jon and I worked on some small details that both communities can catch up.
In March 2016 we started an online casting call for the Deaf talent who was going to play Noah. Jon and I released a casting call video on Youtube and we received submissions from deaf actors from all over the US (and even one from Denmark). Eventually, we flew Chris DeSouza from San Francisco to meet him in person, and make sure he was the right actor and person for the project.
In April/May 2016, I started talking to crew members, and we locked down the shooting schedule to be from July 11th to July 17th. After that, it was the pre-prod war: contact and book locations, extras and crew, organize shooting
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of working in a short film format?
SC: In my opinion, one of the big challenge is to have a clear idea of your story, and how to portray it in under 40 min. No matter the length of your film you need a beginning, a middle and an end, and this is not easy with a longer short format. Story is what will motivate crew members and inspire your talents, so it’s important to think about the length of the scenes and why you’re taking the time shoot each of them. Understanding the purpose of each scene is key, especially in a short format where you have a time limit.
OR: What was the most challenging aspect of your production?
SC: Definitely the fact of having a tight budget is a challenge. Not only you have to pull favors, but also you have to be flexible. You can’t have everything and everybody exactly the way you want, you have to accommodate and find alternative solutions. You can’t compromise everything so you have to be smart in your financial choices. You also have to be realistic, and in my case from the beginning I didn’t include in my story some costly explosions or locations.
OR: Do you have any advice for first-time filmmakers?
SC: Once Fernando Meirelles (director of “City of God”) gave this advice to my team on our long feature documentary project “All Eyes on Brazil”, he said “Only what you do will exist”. This sentence stayed in my mind, and I would like to use it as my advice: go for it, do it! Only by taking risks and doing your passion projects you will know if you 1) like it, 2) are good at it, 3) want to do more.
Now, if you’re doing it, pre-prod is key! Don’t be hasty, because the shooting will always run through unexpected challenge, so the more you can plan, the better. I always have back up plans, and different solutions for problems I tried to foresee. Don’t rush into shooting if you’re not completely satisfy with your story, and didn’t organize everything you’ll need to accomplish something the way you imagined it.