Stationery - a short film by Lucy Wigmore from Lucy Wigmore on Vimeo.
PASSWORD: stapler
Penny dreams about the old days when facsimile and white-out ruled the office. Bernard just dreams about Penny. When Penny falls foul of the domineering new boss, it's Bernard's chance to step up and save her. But will his old-school ingenuity and her drawer full of stationery be enough to save the day?
SHORT SYNOPSIS
Penny dreams about the old days when facsimile and white-out ruled the office. Bernard just dreams about Penny. When Penny falls foul of the domineering new boss, it's Bernard's chance to step up and save her. But will his old-school ingenuity and her drawer full of stationery be enough to save the day?
Penny dreams about the old days when facsimile and white-out ruled the office. Bernard just dreams about Penny. When Penny falls foul of the domineering new boss, it's Bernard's chance to step up and save her. But will his old-school ingenuity and her drawer full of stationery be enough to save the day?
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
The idea for Stationery dawned after a funny thing happened in an office block in North Sydney. My colleague got locked in the meeting room and we had to retrieve the key from another locked office using some old-school, stationery based contraptions and some extraordinary fishing skills.
It was such an exciting turn of events in an otherwise dull office that it brought everyone together. So...after telling the story of "what happened at work today" to a few mates and receiving regular laughs, I thought, why not write a film about it? So I did.
But as I began writing Stationery, I realised that this was not just a film about unlocking a door. It was about a great deal more. A recent study in Australia found that “almost 1 in 3 older employees are being let go, denied training and even verbally abused in the workplace”. I also wrote Stationery to explore the difficulties we have in being vulnerable and connecting with each other; ageism and the prejudice our society has for the elderly and the struggles we have dealing with change. I believe that these themes are not only universal but also incredibly important issues to shine a light on.
And as a child who grew up on a steady diet of fairy tales, MacGyver and a fascination with all things French, I couldn't resist setting Stationery in a whimsical, 1960's influenced office that gets taken over by a soulless, technology-infested corporation - forcing the characters to use their old-fashioned ingenuity to survive.
While making Stationery, I was astounded by the commitment, talent, and insight of the cast and crew. Alan Flower and Vanessa Downing took the virtually dialogue free script and ran with it - bringing subtle, nuanced, warm, playful performances to set every day – making them a joy to direct on my first professional short film.
Lucy Wigmore (Writer / Director)
The idea for Stationery dawned after a funny thing happened in an office block in North Sydney. My colleague got locked in the meeting room and we had to retrieve the key from another locked office using some old-school, stationery based contraptions and some extraordinary fishing skills.
It was such an exciting turn of events in an otherwise dull office that it brought everyone together. So...after telling the story of "what happened at work today" to a few mates and receiving regular laughs, I thought, why not write a film about it? So I did.
But as I began writing Stationery, I realised that this was not just a film about unlocking a door. It was about a great deal more. A recent study in Australia found that “almost 1 in 3 older employees are being let go, denied training and even verbally abused in the workplace”. I also wrote Stationery to explore the difficulties we have in being vulnerable and connecting with each other; ageism and the prejudice our society has for the elderly and the struggles we have dealing with change. I believe that these themes are not only universal but also incredibly important issues to shine a light on.
And as a child who grew up on a steady diet of fairy tales, MacGyver and a fascination with all things French, I couldn't resist setting Stationery in a whimsical, 1960's influenced office that gets taken over by a soulless, technology-infested corporation - forcing the characters to use their old-fashioned ingenuity to survive.
While making Stationery, I was astounded by the commitment, talent, and insight of the cast and crew. Alan Flower and Vanessa Downing took the virtually dialogue free script and ran with it - bringing subtle, nuanced, warm, playful performances to set every day – making them a joy to direct on my first professional short film.
Lucy Wigmore (Writer / Director)