COVID comedy netting awards for local filmmaker, company

October 21, 2021 · 0 Comments

Many of us long for the day when we can put our social bubbles firmly behind us, but a comedic look at some of our pandemic realities has been garnering accolades for a local filmmaker and her production company.

The Bubble, a short film directed by Aurora resident Beth Evans and produced by her company Windrun Media was recently awarded Best Foreign Comedy at the San Francisco Short Film Festival and is set to continue its run through the film festival circuit this fall, including the Hamilton Film Festival on November 9.

The short is a change of pace for the Windrun Team, which primarily produces corporate and promotional videos, and one that is allowing them to flex some additional creative muscles in the filmmaking world.

“Everything we do has to do with high-quality visuals, looking cinematic, but also having an inspired story,” says Ms. Evans. “We want everything to have a story arc and that’s what we do for every client who comes to us. We want to tell their story and we want to make people feel something. When the pandemic hit, we thought, let’s do a film. Let’s step out of our comfort zones and tell a larger narrative to wet our feet and just be creative.

“I think we were really longing for that sense of community and to be around people to create something together because our business just dried up, as did many.”

To achieve their goal, the team put a script-writing competition out to their colleagues in the TV and film industry and The Bubble ultimately rose to the top.

It was funny, not too heavy – “we were all going through a lot of heavy things at this point” – but also packed an emotional punch.

“It took something we were all going through, putting a different spin on it and having fun with it,” she says, before adding it was a bit “frightening” to get out of that comfort zone. “I am more comfortable with the administrative work. I love the creative work, but giving myself this kind of challenge, I was just nervous. But once I started it was a complete pleasure. Because it was a passion project for us, I didn’t feel the pressure to deliver for a client, this was just for us to see how we could do it in a bit of a longer format. I think it turned out so well because there was no pressure and we’re thrilled with how it turned out.”

So, too, are audiences.

In addition to the gong it picked up in San Francisco, it is set to play the Orlando Film Festival on October 31 and the Yonkers Film Festival on November 5, before arriving in Hamilton at the Starlight Drive-In just a few days later.

This will be the first time Beth and the team will be able to share the viewing experience with an audience and that is only adding to the excitement.

“I have never been to a drive-in before, neither have my husband and kids, so we’re all going to go together,” she says. “I am interested to see what kind of event there is around the night, I don’t know if there will be some kind of place where we can socialize or not, but that will be our first time seeing it on the big screen, which will be a thrill in and of itself.”

Ms. Evans comes into the filmmaking world with an acting background.

Performing was actually her first love, counting the first production in Les Miserables in London’s West End as the first time she recognized “having my socks blown off” by a production. Yet, she thrives on comedy and story, fuelled by the principle “there is nothing that binds you together than working on a project, a film, together.”

But the accolades she and her team have received for The Bubble so far are, in many ways, just the cherry on top.

She counts her “courage” to start a new business after taking herself out of the game for eight years to be at home and raise her family her most meaningful career achievement.

“There is a hurdle you have to get over when you step away from the community, a confidence hurdle, to just insert yourself and put yourself back in it and declare you have a space and something to say in that community,” she says. “I think that is something a lot of women probably face when they decide to stay home with their kids, that re-entry challenge and the negative self-talk about the gap in my resume or ‘I can’t do it, nobody knows me anymore’, can stop a lot of people in their tracks. I am here, I am capable, I can create. I have the skills to do this regardless of how much time I have spent away from it.”

Next up for the team is shooting a pilot for a web series this December and shopping it around for potential partners to bring their vision to life.

“Before we shot the film, I think I only thought I could do one type of story telling but now that I know I can do another kind of storytelling, I am just interested in more,” she says.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter