'Touch of Magic' Short Film

Touch of Magic is a short film set in the industrialization of Britain where a woman stumbles upon an old theater after losing everything she owns.
It stars Neel Ronholt as Emma and Kistian Dinesen as the magician Roberto. This film was directed by Tobias Gundorff Boesen and written by Tobias Gundorff Boesen and Tommy Oksen.

Review:

Because at first this short film appeared to be set very firmly in reality with the grimy old streets of London, I found that the magic of the theater made it more enjoyable as it was surprising. This also added to the contrast of the two main characters, Emma and Roberto, as Emma came into the theater for the first time from outside and was timid, whereas Roberto lived in the theater and was very confident as a magician. My favourite part of this short film was that there was very little dialogue but only mainly a few voice-overs at the beginning and end as this helped add to the intrigue of the magic, and also acted to show, not tell the audience about aspects of the character's lives, such as the eviction notice that is seen in the theater when Roberto is first introduced. I also enjoyed the part where Emma first entered the theater as a tracking shot was used to follow her around and see her reactions to the strange magical items she finds there as the location of the theater's interior was established. 

Influence on my work:

A main theme of this short film is that because of the industrialization of London, it has become a reckless world of 'eat or be eaten'. This is shown by the fact that the theater is being shut down as no one comes to see Roberto's magic show but are implied to instead be focused on business. 

In my own screenplay, this made me think about how modernization would affect the park that Ida and Diana meet in as there has been a lot of news over the past few years about building on green sites because there is no room elsewhere. Therefore, I decided to change Ida's job from being a lawyer to a contractor and add that the company she works for are planning to build on the park which is why they need to get rid of Diana and get hold of her drawings. 

This meant there was more conflict between Diana and Ida, and also more reason for Diana to not want to see her Father as it meant they have conflicting morals. It also gave more reason for both Diana and Ida to get fired, and therefore made Diana's drawings do more work within the narrative.
Thinking about 'eat or be eaten', I raised the stakes so that Diana decides to use her drawings to protest against the park being built on.

This gave Ida's boss a reason to want to get rid of Diana and by giving Ida a time limit, put more pressure on her to get hold of the drawings, helping the action to build until Ida steals a drawing at the climax.

  

Watch 'Touch of Magic' on Vimeo