"This film explores our addiction to our phones and how technology, ironically, isolates us from the people around us. It juxtaposes the artificial nature and connectivity of social media with the often, far more bleak side of life. Although social media and technology allows us to stay connected better than we ever have with each other it brings about plenty of problems. These are explored through our protagonist’s neglect of his roommate.
FILM
DIRECTOR
This story holds significant prominence to myself, our writer and the rest of the crew as we have all grown up in a world influenced by social media. I often find myself using my phone to procrastinate and distract myself which, although harmless at first, leads to me being distracted from whatever task I was initially doing, be it study, work or even sleep. This is a problem that many young people are faced with because for so long we have been exposed to lightning fast media in the forms of TikToks, Vines and other short form media.
This allows the film and its themes to resonate with the young adult demographic it’s aimed at and serve as a cautionary tale for becoming so immersed within our own devices. We decided to use the 4:3 aspect ratio to make the audience feel trapped within the frame and capture the sense of being caged by our devices. The sound design also went a long way to explore how immersed we become in our own devices and how this can distract us from reality. These is a direct contrast between the extremely oversaturated parts of the film with TikToks being overlapped with each other compared to the deafening silence when the protagonist no longer has his phone. This further helps emphasise the film’s themes.
WRITER & DOP
I am James Keddie, aspiring filmmaker responsible for the writing and cinematography of Submerged. I initially wrote this story with emphasis on the visuals, which heavily influenced how I chose to shoot this film. I tried to approach the camera work in a creative manner, playing around with different lenses and camera angles in order to communicate emotions and ideas that I put into the script through cinematography. I also love a good Ham sandwich
THE PROCESS
THE CAST
I enjoy being active and creative so naturally acting is something I gravitate towards. I liked playing the role of Harry because it’s very opposite to my personality so it made me think and really process the thoughts and emotions of the character in the dark situations
I am currently a film student and have studied acting in the past. Playing the part of Dan was a great experience as it was a somewhat darker character than I normally play. I also like the story and resonate with its themes surrounding the technological epidemic that is our social media and smart phone addiction
Jay Jay is an Oscar qualified film producer, narrator, director and actor working in both the animated film narrative live-action film spaces. The animated films he produced have been selected to 25 Academy Award Qualifying Festivals, and he has 11 Best Actor awards for his live action films.Films produced and or directed by Jay Jay have been Official Selections to more than 1,000 films festivals across the world winning more than 400 awards.
CONTACTS
Director - Connor West
Email: connorwest@gmail.com
Producer - Matt Keenan
Email: matt.keenan130203@icloud.com
DOP - James Keddie
Email: james.c.keddie@gmail.com
Production Designer - Georgia Fleay
Email:
Editor - Thomas Wilson
Email:
Sound Designer : Jarred Brough
Email:
BTS & EXTRAS