River McKenna and their award winning film Fire exit
Photos: Sylvia Draper
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By Tabitha Osman
River McKenna is an 18 year old film maker from Reading. They recently won the Yugo BAFTA student film award for their film Fire exit. Fire exit follows a student named Syd, navigating life after moving and starting at a new school where they knew no one. It’s a coming of age story that’s been beautifully filmed and is relatable for a lot of people. It’s for “the people who don’t automatically fit in”. Part of the reason why I love Fire exit is the way it’s completely student made. River filmed this with their friends who had a similar interest in film making and got to work writing scripts and planning scenes by themselves. They had no special effects and had to film scenes, like the dream sequence (where Syd falls through the floor) in one take! Working only with students has resulted in a more authentic student story. Something else special about Fire exit is the range of different cameras that were used. The decision to use a phone camera, camcorder, super 8 camera and canon camera created an extremely interesting collage, which represents Syd's journey of feeling confused and trying to find their true self.
"For the people who don't automatically fit in"
River has been creating films since they were very young, making them with their little brother and to them it seemed like the obvious choice. They took A levels in film, drama and photography and this helped River to meet like minded people and the majority of the cast are from their classes at college. They took inspiration from iconic films such as The perks of being a wallflower (2012), Submarine (2010) and The edge of seventeen (2016). You can really see the influence these films had on fire exit, with similar themes and atmospheres. They also said that Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. fox (2009) was something that inspired them to get into film making in the first place, a film they completely loved as a child.
I asked River what they're hopes for the future are and where they see their self in 5 years time. They said they hoped to still be making films and hopefully be working at Pinewood Studios. I also asked about some of their upcoming projects, although they could not reveal much, we can be expecting a short film coming out in the next year. It seems we'll be seeing a lot more of River in the next few years! After watching Fire exit I was also interested in the future of Syd, River said that they had thought about it a lot and about whether to make a sequel, but they hadn't really worked out what had happened to Syd yet! |
Rivers main advice to aspiring film makers is “to just go out there and make films”. They say you don’t need fancy equipment or software, you just need to have a group of people as passionate as you are to create something amazing. River is an inspiration to us all and proves that you don’t need to come from a film background to be successful. You can find the full video interview below
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