Harmony Wagner's $1K film set to debut at Atlantic Film Fest

Harmony Wagner of Periscope Pictures will debut her second feature film, Singing to Myself at the  Atlantic Film Fest in Halifax in September.

The Island filmmaker told Island Morning she made the film as part of the Women in Film and Television's 1KWave Atlantic challenge.

• P.E.I.'s Harmony Wagner chosen for $1K film-making challenge

Wagner had to make the film on a budget of $1,000 in five months.

'I'm really proud of what we've done with so little'

"It's the story of Iris who is a young deaf woman and she's sort of hit a crossroads in her life of sorting looking at what her options are and she's deciding to opt out of striving to succeed in the hearing world," said Wagner.

The film's main character decides not to go into debt by attending university and chooses to stay in her run of the mill job at a greenhouse

"She's also letting go of relationships as well. So she's trying to cultivate self-satisfaction on an island of silence."

Wagner said Iris's plan doesn't go the way she wants it after she meets a musician named Celeste.

She added she was very pleased with the work in the film by the two actors, Sophie MccLean who plays Iris and Byrde MacLean who plays Celeste.

"I'm really proud of what we've done with so little."

Unrealistic budget

Wagner said working with a budget of $1,000 was nearly impossible because people's work is valuable and if a monetary value was placed on what everyone contributed then the budget would be much more than that.  

To make it happen, people offered their time and businesses offered meals.  

"We wrote for a month, we shot for a month, we did our editing for a month and now it's getting its final, kind of post production, the bells and whistles, put on by some volunteers."

Wagner said when she was looking at whether she should take the challenge, she had just finished making her first feature, Kooperman for $120,000, which was not a big budget and questioned if she could do it.

But she said the mentorship from the 1KWave was extra special with the opportunity to make national connections in film.

"That's why I accepted the craziness of the project."

Wagner said it also helps to keep filmmaking going in P.E.I. and keep filmmakers working so they don't leave.

"I really love this movie, it's so beautiful."

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