Summary

Entailment is a short, psychological drama, co-produced by Director Cam Smeal and Writer Kate Walter. The intention is to screen Entailment in film festivals in Australia and the rest of the world throughout 2015 and 2016. Shot in 5K, it is available to screen on DCP, BLURAY, DVD, QUICKTIME, MP4 and other formats on request.

Synopsis

A married man cheats with a woman desperate to have a child. He wants to forget it ever happened, but she has plans of her own. When he learns his wife is pregnant, he goes to great lengths to hide his betrayal. Yet when the truth is revealed, it's what he least expects.

Production company

D4DIGITAL

Director’s statement

 I have always been intrigued by the hum of society. The background noise that saturates our lives. Be it distant traffic, the electric buzz of a fridge or the drone of a computer, the hum is ever present and often imperceptible. It is background interference that never quite leaves us, reporting in on the world around us. With Entailment, I wanted to explore this idea by creating a world that played this out in a visceral way, unifying collective themes of betrayal and regret that resonate with all of us.

I wanted the film to reflect the restrained intensity of the characters and loss of detail in the world that the writer Kate Walter has created for them. Their backdrop is inaccessible, full of saturated colour, tantalising symmetry and inconclusive repetition both realistic and absurd. Yet for our characters the world is closing in around them. They are isolated individuals who seem lost in social wastelands, lonely urban vistas and systematic streetscapes. Enclosed by an eerie feeling of harmony and equilibrium, people they encounter are not simply impassive observers, but for the most part reconciled away, disengaged, missing or absent.

Shooting 5K in the cinemascope aspect permitted compositional choices for our DP Ella Gibbins, which complimented these ideas when visually rendering the environment of Entailment. The use of the tunnel motif is evident throughout, giving the sense that the world is disappearing around our characters. A subdued wall of background sound and a rich soundscape help to sustain the themes of the story with equal room given to silence and stillness. Together, an ambience that is unsettling and threatening is created in the world of Entailment, augmenting the intensity of our characters internal struggles, highlighting their temporal and spatial relationship to the world in which they live and to each other.

I am delighted to have directed Entailment and to be part of an incredible team of creative people. I am confident that this film will showcase the skill and talent of some of Australia’s brightest rising stars.

-- Cam Smeal, December 10, 2014

Title

Entailment

Genre

Drama

Logline

At a low point in his marriage, Josh cheats with Nina, a woman desperate to have a child. As he struggles to keep his betrayal a secret, he finds that his is not the only one.

Directed By

Cam Smeal

Co-Producers

Cam Smeal and Kate Walter

Screen Time

19 minutes and 12 seconds (including credits)

Language

English (no subtitles)

Shoot Gauge

5K RED RAW

Finish Gauges

DCP, BLURAY, DVD, QUICKTIME, MP4.

Ratio

1 : 2.35 (scope)

Lead Cast

Josh         Julian Garner
Nina         Jane Phegan
Beck        Jennifer Corren

Copyright Owners

Cam Smeal and Kate Walter

Completion Date

November 2014

Country Of Production

Australia

Online

www.d4digital.com.au/entailmentfilm or www.facebook.com/entailmentfilm

Contact

Cam Smeal cam@d4digital.com.au +61412001500

Kate Walter kwalter.screenwriter@gmail.com +61408548691