THE GAME

A FILM BY HUGO MELO

Joseph and Ana are an immigrant couple living in the UK. They seek for a more private life on an apartment for themselves and the upcoming child.They both work, as a gardener and maid, for Tony, a powerful English Banker.In the need of a reference letter from his boss, Joseph is forced to play by the rules of Tony’s game. A symbolic yet effective tennis match happens between Tony and his friends, which will dictate the already decided fate from the lower class couple.Director Hugo Melo’s graduation film from Arts University Bournemouth Film School underlines the constant invisible power from above social classes that brings big repercussions on others lives. The joy that both director and co-writer found was the applicability of this power game in any other matter.

SYNOPSIS

HUGO CARVALHO DE MELO is a young Portuguese national born in Switzerland, on the 8th of August 1991. He currently lives and works in England. The story of this enthusiastic film maker started in 2011, when Hugo joined “Escola Superior de Musica, Artes e Espetaculo” in Oporto, Portugal. He graduated in Audiovisual Technology and Communication in 2014.On the same year, he was accepted on the masters degree in Film Production - Editing, at Arts University Bournemouth.Here emerged the opportunity to direct his first short film, The Game, and more recently, to take it to Short Film Corner, at Cannes Film Festival.Since March this year, Hugo has been working as a paint & roto artist at Framestore, on “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, written by J.K. Rowling.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY

ESZTER TOTH was born in Budapest, Hungary on the 25th of August in 1995. She was always really interested in culture, literature, films and different art forms. Eszter was studying in one of the most noble high schools of the country where she managed to get an excellent degree from every subject in 2014. In the same year she got accepted to the BA Film Production course at Arts University Bournemouth where she chose to specialise in Producing. Since then she produced and contributed in more than 30 short films. Eszter has one more year of studying at AUB where she will most likely to produce her own graduation film and short commercials for NAHEMI Student Commercial Awards the same way she did this year.

PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY

LORENZO BRAMATI was born in 1994 in Milan, and grew up in a very creative environment which led him to experiment with filmmaking since a very young age. In 2013 he started his BA in Film Production at Bournemouth Film School, specializing in sound design but always ready to jump into different departments.After producing a short film for University and experiencing the on-set life of high productions for BMW, Adidas and Philip Morris, he gets involved on the pre-production of The Game, promptly becoming line producer.

PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY

PIETRO PACE is an Italian actor, whose feature film work includes Marco Risi’s “Cha cha cha”, Francesca Garcea’s “Il Volo Di Dio” and TV-Series “Squadra Antimafia”. On stage he worked on “The Dubliners” with Giancarlo Sepe, on “Miss Julie” with Marsel Lesko and many others.PIETRO won the BEST ACTOR award at “Nove giorni di grandi interpretazioni” in 2011.

CAST – PIETRO PACE

Cast – Pietro Pace

CAST – SILVANA MONTOYA

Cast – Pietro Pace

Silvana Montoya is a Colombian-born actress. Screen work includes Richard Elson’s TV pilot, ‘Scrutiny’. Her stage work includes ‘Twelfth Night’ directed by David Tucker, ‘My Sister in this house’, directed by Illona Lynthwaite and CASA Theatre Festival’s ‘Mother by Trade’ directed by Juanita Mora. More recently, Silvana performed in BBC Radio 4’s afternoon play, ‘Hair of the Dog’ and co-wrote ‘El Hound de los Baskervilles’, an adaptation by Bafta award-winning writer and director, Alan Hescott, which premiered at this year’s Brighton Fringe Festival to sell-out audiences and raving reviews. Silvana is co-founder of Pimpinella Productions, which produces stage and film productions.

CAST – TIM HEATH

Cast – Pietro Pace

TIM HEATH is an English stage and TV actor, best known to American TV audiences for his performances as Jimmy Swaggart in ‘Sinister Ministers’ (2014), as Heath the butler in ‘My big Redneck Vacation’ (2012) and as the Prime Minister’s secretary in the original BBC version of ‘House of Cards’. His latest feature film is the zombie epic ‘Apocalypse’, to be released imminently. Tim is currently directing the world premiere of David Cantor’s play ‘I play for me’ for the London stage.

CAST – JAMIE LEE-HILL

Cast – Pietro Pace

JAMIE LEE-HILL trained at Dorset School of Acting. He is a versatile actor who started out in theatre and has more recently worked predominantly in film and television. Known for committing roles with emotional intensity, stage work includes a nomination for Best Actor at the New Forest Drama Festival for playing Horst in Martin Sherman’s Bent, and Jamie also performed at Poole Lighthouse in A Streetcar Named Desire. Jamie was handpicked by Oscar nominated director Thomas Vinterberg to play the part of Laban Tall in Far From the Madding Crowd alongside Carey Mulligan, and has more recently worked with Benedict Cumberbatch on the BBC production of The Hollow Crown. He recently attended the world premiere of the children’s film “Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?” in which he plays the imposter Nelson Nutmeg. The movie made the official selection of the BFI at the London Film Festival.

CAST – JAMIE LEE-HILL

Cast – Pietro Pace

BEN CRAZE is a British actor who is known for Arthur & Merlin (2015), Jonathan Creek (1997), My Hero (2000) and TV-Show Wild West. On stage among others he worked with Lucy Bailey on Royal National Theatre production ‘Baby Doll’ of Tennessee Williams.

CAST – MAX GOLD

MAX GOLD is a British actor who is known for EastEnders and recently for Sky Atlantic TV-Show The Tunnel. His work includes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), Twice Upon a Yesterday (1998) and The Commissioner (1998). On stage he worked on multiple Royal Shakespeare Company productions throughout the years.

HUGO MELO07707022482KHUGOMELO@GMAIL.COM

CONTACTTHE GAME

2016 | UNITED KINGDOM | 14 MIN | 2K DCP | COLOUR | 1:85 | 5.1 SURROUND | ENGLISHHTTP://THEGAMESHORTFILM.WEEBLY.COM/

THE ARTS UNIVERSITY BOURNEMOUTH PRESENTS ‘THE GAME’SILVANA MONTOYA • PIETRO PACE • TIM HEATH

COSTUME DESIGNER VICKY TURNERPRODUCTION DESIGNER SOFIE FIEGE

SOUND DESIGNER PEDRO ANACLETOEDITORS: MARINA IVANYCHEVA & HUGO MELO

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY CAMILO MEJÍAWRITTEN BY HUGO MELO & MARCO PANICHELLA

PRODUCED BY LORENZO BRAMATI & ESZTER TÓTHDIRECTED BY HUGO MELO

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

A FILM IS ONLY ACCOMPLISHED WHEN IT IS RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. AFTER THE

SCREENING, IT BELONGS TO THE VIEWER, WHO IS GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT AND

RECONSTRUCT IT UNDER HIS POINT OF VIEW, ACCORDING TO HIS SENSIBILITY, TASTE AND

REFERENCES. CINEMA HAS THIS UNIQUE POWER TO MAKE THE SPECTATOR BELIEVE

IN SOMETHING THAT DISTINGUISHES FROM FICTION CREATED BY OTHER ARTISTIC

LANGUAGES.

THE IDEA

It all began where everything always starts. From the beginning. I mean, the draft. I wanted to do ‘The Game’ because I thought there was an idea that could be worth it, I felt it was something it deserved to be told; this invisible superior power that affects us all at some point. There was a seed to grow. But that was the seed that took long and developed until the 23rd draft.

THE IDEA

THE STORY

The prime idea would be to not be able to play tennis because the ball wasn’t there. It didn’t exist. But it wouldn’t be that path the story took. A revolution of new ideas gave origin to a new related story. Everything would turn around an emigrant couple that sees itself forced to live in a shared house, for monetary reasons. Ana is a maid and Joseph a gardener. They both work for a banker’s house, Tony. Because Joseph doesn’t work full time he needs to find a second job. For that he needs a recommendation letter from his current boss. As Tony knows he depends on the letter to obtain the new job, he spends the time giving him impossible tasks to realise on time. His goal is playing with Joseph, controlling his outcome life. Although Ana defies her boss against this injustice, Tony strengthens the fact he controls their fate. Invisible power, social injustice, are the keywords from this film that is, in the end, a metaphor of real life.

THE OPPORTUNITY

As a MA film student at Arts University Bournemouth Film School, I saw a unique chance to direct my first short film with a committed, talented crew, low budget cost and great film equipment. My background in editing made this directing experiment quite successful for a debut short film.

REFERENCES

The tremendous reference to Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow Up” came since the very beginning, with the invisible game. It actually started as a football match, but I decided to tribute Antonioni and change it to tennis. The rest of the story adapted to the match. An unsolved film, with big questions in the end was what I always liked about films, and what I pushed for The Game. A great reference on this matter was the palm d’or 2009 winner “Arena” by João Salaviza. A great short film with a clear story but vague subject, where we took a lot from character development, pacing and framing.

PRODUCTION NOTES / FAQ

• What attracted you to make a story about classism and injustice?

I had the a vague idea first, the actual story about the social injustice came later. What attracted me to go forwards with this topic was indeed the presence of it in every corner. More than a story about particularly the poor people being controlled by the upper class, it’s a story about how there’s always someone above you, pre determining what’s happening next in your life. It’s a constant game.

• What or who was the biggest inspiration for you?

The greatest inspiration came from ‘Blow-Up’ by Michelangelo Antonioni and ‘Arena’ a palm d’or short film by João Salaviza. As a short film pace, character journey and ending, ‘Arena’ was the main guide. I always loved open endings, so that was actually very clear from the beginning. Instead, ‘Blow-Up’ had a great deal of surrealism and mystery, as well as some actual camera movements that we copied for the tennis match. The inspiration was so big that we decided to tribute it with a same camera movement at some point.

• You spent 8 months developing the script with Marco. Why did it take so long?

Because the story is the film. You can’t have a good film with a weak script. Once you shoot it you can’t go back so we tried to polish the script as good as we could. We had some production issues that delayed the film, but in the end it gave us some more time to finesse the script.

• What was the biggest challenge for you while making The Game?

The biggest challenge was not to rain. As we shot mainly exteriors during October in the UK, we were almost unfortunate. But very luckily, the weather was our friend and we could shoot what we needed.There were obviously all the natural challenges that student films face, but in the end, with everyone’s effort, we could finish the film.

• How was this first time director experience?

Fantastic. I was scared at the beginning of the journey, when still drafts were being made, but I set myself the goal to make the film happen, so my first step was to gather a great crew and let them be responsible for their department. I loved the experience, it made me think more out of the box, and unpredictably because people behave differently from each other and differently every day, so this actor-director relationship was great and I generally learned a lot more about film.

• The fact you are an editor, did it help?

Absolutely, I think editors see a lot of mistakes from set and can learn from it. There’s many natural mistakes that students do on their first projects, but the fact I could see them from previous years made me be ahead and avoid them. I also think we kept the script quite close to the final cut, which sometimes doesn’t happen.

• What have you learnt during the production of this film?

Mainly, I learnt that the film is a collaboration from everyone. Everyone can come up with ideas and there’s a great deal of listening, understanding and changing. It’s hard to keep the balance and know when to say yes or no to a different idea, but when crew and cast are committed, everyone wants to push the film forwards, and there’s many aspects on The Game that were a result of this collaboration.

• Why is this story important to see?

I think it’s a mirror of what’s happening nowadays, and it will continue to happen. We, like Ana and Joseph, must not give up and not let others control what we can be. But I don’t want to be extremely political with the message of the film. It’s important for the audience to relate in some way, and I hope they do it.

• What are the expectations for this film?

The Game had a private screening in London, and was in the Cannes Short Film Corner Catalogue where the feedback received was great. We hope to spread the film across the globe and open doors to our crew members and cast. After all the hard work, we want to see our baby grow and have fun.

• What’s next?

I am currently living in Bournemouth, where the film was made, working as a Paint & Roto Artist for Framestore, on “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. The Game was a student experience as a director, but I don’t close the door to a new film.