Tawny Foskett

Dear Emma,

Director:  Tawny Foskett

Screenwriter:  Tawny Foskett

Genre:  Narrative, Experiemental​

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Completed: August, 2016

Length: 7-min, 30 sec

Format: Super 8 & DSLR

 

Synopsis:

Dear Emma, is about a young woman who receives notes from her elderly neighbor Al, who lives across the hall. As he begins to leave Brooklyn more often for upstate New York, Emma witnesses how his life changes dramatically when he meets a marvelous woman named Marie.

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THE AUTEUR TRIBE Presents

A Film By TAWNY FOSKETT

“DEAR EMMA,”

COURTNEY O’REILLY, FREDERICK CORKE, MARY FOSKETT and LAUREN LOGIUDICE

Composer PATRICK PENTA, Sound Edit and Mix PAULO COSTA,

Camera TEMA STAUFFER, Producer LAURIE RUD

Written, Directed and Edited by TAWNY FOSKETT

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Director Statement

About This Story 
 

Dear Emma is a valentine; to my aunt, a mentor, a nurturer, a woman of talent, close friendships and great aesthetics.

 

I made this film to remember her, the wonderful home she has created, and her friends.  Friends like Fred, who plays AL, and whom I had to convince to act again, as I don’t believe he had in the past 60 or so years!  In real life they both lost their romantic partners many years ago, and so they look after each other.

 

It is also a valentine to the kindness of strangers, and to those seemingly small acts of kindness that can occur, by say your neighbor, but mean so much.   Al, as I’ve been told and from what I can see with the perfectly written notes (my partner) Tema still has, was this type of person.  His thank you notes went far above the simple acts he wrote them for, such as Tema bringing up his mail when he went away.  Through these notes she came to know him and a friendship was formed.

 

I created Dear Emma, as I said, to put my aunt on film, but equally to be creative and to keep myself editing.  It was going to by my Chungking Express (the film Wan Kar Wai made when he needed distance and a break from his epic feature he was bogged down with).

 

Formal and structural inspirations for the rules and look of the film come from: The Kuleshov Effect (an early cinema editing theory), as well as Chris Marker’s La Jetee, in that I would only have voiceover, music and sound effects- so no live dialogue.  The last two primary influences were Loin du 16e by Walter Salles for it’s short length and simple, but effective story arc, and a happy film called Validation, by Kurt Kuenne.

Dear Emma, was chosen as a project by sound design students at Bath Spa University in the UK and had six students who worked on the sound design, edit and mix. The film was also chosen by Creative Studio, which is a marriage of Rocket Hub and Ovation TV, to be part of their first, curated, group crowdfunding effort, where money was raised for post-production and festival submissions.