The criminal act is often just the beginning of the story. Like Lady Macbeth, the perpetrator in “Plant Lady” is punished by her own guilt.  Directed by Rob Leach, this short journey into murder and madness was an official selection in the New York Flash Film Festival and the Dublin Smartphone Film Festival.  Following the movie, the director talks about the production.

Rob Leach on the Making of “Plant Lady”

Plant Lady was really born out of what do I have access to that I can shape into a great short. I looked around my flat and saw that it has a lot a plants that my girlfriend and I have accumulated over the last couple of years. I knew that a plant enthusiast had to play a big part in the film. Luckily my girlfriend—Rachel Salisbury— is a brilliant actress.  I could have asked other actor friends but she was such a natural fit I knew she had to play the lead.

The production was tricky. We had to film it over a few weekend evenings and days due our work commitments. Also the bedroom phone call scene’s audio had an almost ticking sound from my dodgy mic so we had to reshoot that whole phone call. At the time I just had one cheap LED light,  an old fish tank light, and a desk lamp. Lighting each scene was a  real puzzle to solve. The fish tank light was actually used to mimic the TV at night. That came out surprisingly well. Also the black and white CCTV footage was really fun to shoot! I used my Osmo Mobile 3’s joy stick to create the robotic motion of a real security camera and FilmicPro’s cinematographer kit to film in black and white at 540p.

There was a lot of problem solving before, during the shoot, and in post production. I guess it wouldn’t be a low budget short otherwise!

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Other examples of Rob Leach’s work include “Lucky the Dog,” “Caterpillar,”and “Whistleblower.”

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The editors of MobileMovieMaking have chosen “Plant Lady” as the “Mobile Movie of the Week.”