Anthology of Reveries

Holly Jean Hadfield
May 7, 2025
2 min read

Updated: May 8, 2025

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT: Student Film

Juniper escapes into her fantasy books to avoid the real world - until one day, she falls into one. Suddenly, she's with sword-fighting pirates, learning aerial tricks with circus performers, fleeing guards in a faerie forest, and joining a masquerade heist. but as fiction becomes reality, Juniper must ask: how far is too far to lose yourself in the world you love?

PRE-PRODUCTION

Throughout pre-production, I location scouted across our local area and the North-east region for places that would fit with the aesthetics of the film. Securing places like the HMS Trincomalee, The Grand Hotel, Hardwick Park and Off The Floor Aerial Hoop Facility. All of which meant I was able to liaise with venue managers and county council members. This was one of the biggest parts of my role that I undertook, as the locations meant the film was able to feel and look more magical and storybook-like!

Another big part of our film is the stunts that are involved in the Pirate Ship and Circus scene. To ensure actor and on-set safety, I worked with SSSwordsmanship, a Penshaw based training group who teach traditional European Swordsmanship, to teach the actors basic steps that they would be able to use for the film. This was such an amazing process and gave me the opportunity to practice health and safety measures to an industry standard on set! Additionally, working with trainers, Mark and Martin, was a wonderful experience and both offered the actors incredible advice and skills.

Scheduling for a student film of this caliper was integral to the success of the final product. Using master production schedules for the entire process meant all crew knew what was happening each week and kept us on track for filming in February.