We're a group of passionate film students from Faculty of Cinematic Arts from Multimedia University ambitiously working on our final year project, a drama thriller short film entitled Melissa. 

Imagine a 9 years old girl, alone and scared due to getting beaten by her dad, locking herself up alone in her room. She goes out to reach for her mum but she was too busy to be coming home, it was at that payphone that she got kidnapped. When Melissa wakes up she meets Razman, a soft-spoken man of little word giving her food, candies and even presents. They bonded overtime but a looming danger from Razman's world come where they have to decide to escape and do what's right or to escape together. But will they escape in time?

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Though thriller is what I’ve always been fascinated with, it’s a genre to drive the story into that anxiety against the odd of survival for the protagonist because of looming danger. The story though goes layers under as it reaches to expose the need for companionship. The film goes through Melissa’s journey as she reaches for the comfort of a family, and this is where the heart is. In the ideation process, we all shared our personal experiences where we find that we each has felt being scared and alone, wanting that connection with another human being; wanting a family and this is what Melissa is truly about despite the looming danger of being in captivity, a thrill. The recurring character of the abusive father figure is seen in the film as to depict failed family institution where comfort is found not at home but elsewhere. It talks about innocence in a dreaded environment as seen when Razman changes with Melissa’s presence but she stays as the grounded protagonist in the film.

WHAT IS IN OUR STORY? 

( spoilers ahead! )

The story is about a 9 years old girl, Melissa, who is domestically abused and she got kidnapped. She wakes up and met her captor, Razman who saw her bruises and bonds with her throughout as he feeds her and give her candies and present; crayons and she loves drawing. After a while, it is also revealed that Razman also experiences having an abusive father when she heard conversations of two men from her cell and that is when we introduced Apak, Razman’s abusive father who is also the mastermind of the organ harvesting business. It is then revealed that Razman is merely the caretaker. Melissa’s presence changes Razman routine as he spends more time with her and in those time, he addressed Apak as ‘Momok’, as in Malay culture, it is a monster that parents told children that will catch them at night to keep them safe inside at home. Melissa and Razman finds a family in eachother. Melissa was pressed for surgery by Apak threatening her life, forcing Razman to step up and defend her. They both escaped.

WHO ARE WE?

Sahira Jeffry (Director)

(third from right)

A passionate filmmaker who puts her heart into her storytelling, tugging emotions of audiences with visuals of her films. She is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

Amirr Shahlen (Producer)

(second from left)

A charismatic committed producer who is precise on disciplines and is a quick thinker at dealing with obstacles. He works very closely to his idol, Sir Tapai from Playground during his internship where he learns the ropes of producing. He is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

Ahmad Iqbal Jeffry (Assistant Producer)

(first from right)

A passionate assistant producer eager in improving his crafts and skills in filmmaking. He has evident storytelling abilities through scripts he had done and also in co-writing our script for Melissa. He is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

Faiz Izal (Cinematographer/ Editor)

(fourth from right)

A passionate, hardworking cinematographer playing with audiences' hearts and minds through visuals he captured to tell the story when it is on screen. He is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

Aqilah Jamal (Production Designer)

(second from right)

An enthusiastic, imaginative production designer with her keen eyes in working for art production design in her films. She is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

Amzar Hafizi (Sound Designer)

(first from left)

Having a musical background as a solo artist, he hears and listens carefully as he really cares about sound in filmmaking. He always find a way to make the visuals more interesting with sound. He is a final year student of Faculty of Cinematic Arts, Multimedia University, Iskandar Puteri, Johor.

CROWDFUNDING

We need your generous contribution in funding for our films to complete the production of Melissa. We're looking to minimize our budget as much as possible while retaining the quality of a short film that we want and with your contribution, it could really make a difference. What will we be using your contributions for?

Production Design

The production design involves the set designing of an abandoned house into a house condusive for the characters to be in while alligning the feel and ambience of the place in the story.

Cast

Casting helps the character of the person living inside the story and this will be what the audience will hate, love or relate to in the film.

Production

Production is where the execution of the creative mind happens. The fundings will be ensured to also be used in terms of equipments, transportation, lodging, food and drinks and here is where we will be making our production run smoother during the shooting days for the film. We would focus more on our main production value which is production design and also for the cast but at the same time we still maintaining our looks in order to get the feels that we wanted to achieve. Renting the equipments and lightings would help us get the accurate feelings that we wanted to provoke. 

Location

Location of the film is mainly inside a house that is supposed to be conducive for organ harvesting business to take place. Even so, we won't disregard other locations in our films as this helps aid in telling the story, when the place have characters.

BUDGET PLAN

For our short film, the budget will be allocated in the production. As goes the budget overview, 66% of the total budget goes to the production, 24% goes to the cast and 4% goes to post production and 3% goes to the contigency. Filmmaking is not cheap, so that is why we are trying everything to make our film reach its maximum potential while still mantaining the budget. We are using this crowdfunding campaign as to collect a total amount of RM 10,000.00 to cover our production cost not including talents and post production. As for the other half we are approaching companies to fund or invest for our film.

WE NEED YOU. BUT WHY?

To turn our ambitious film into a reality, fulfilling it to its maximum potential, we need your support and contribution. Your fundings will be used in all the aspects of production as mentioned above and it will pave ways for us to get the high and cinematic production value that we are looking to achieve in our film. We want for the story in our film to resonate better with the audience, for it to be outstanding when we screen it out there and we want you to feel that you are part of the team. Please do fund us because even the smallest contribution adds value to the production of our short film. For the amount of funding you give us, we will then award you with perks designed and discussed in collaboration of the director and Stickybox.

For more inquiries, please do reach us at :
[email protected]

Share and please follow us on :
- www.instagram.com/melissashortfilm
- https://www.facebook.com/melissashortfilm
 

We’re an enthusiastic group trying to put forward our best foot in each of our department to make our dream project a success as a team. We wanted a film with a story that resonates with the audience, having the visuals and sounds move their minds and emotions while staying within our budget. It is our final year project as students of Faculty in Cinematic Arts, MMU and we wanted for it to travel even further.

The dream is to achieve a high value film that expresses the story even further and this is in the cast, the production and especially, in production designing where we will be mostly shooting in an abandoned place which will be our main location, there's shortage of electricity and even water supply and it is a heavy set up to turn a huge house into an environment suited for both living and handling organ trafficking business.

We will be very happy if you can be part of us. To know more about Melissa, our short film, please visit our website :-

http://www.melissaismissing.com