Ewan McGregor Stars in Rebecca Manley's 'Now You See It'
Now You See It is a short film, about environmental damage, written, directed and produced by Rebecca Manley and featuring the voice of Ewan McGregor.
With this short, Indy8 Director Rebecca Manley has created a moving and poignant environmental film, in her distinctive and unique hand crafted style. With a solid background in design and animation, Manley is renowned for having a tactile, artistic approach to her work.
She was driven to create this piece both by her passion for the natural world and her wish to contribute a creative film to the urgent global conversation about environmental damage.
Manley collaborated with actor Ewan McGregor on the voiceover that punctuates the narrative. McGregor is the perfect match for this story not only in terms of the warmth and tone of his voice but also in light of his humanitarian and philanthropic work.
Production notes
The production was extremely small and a compact but skilled crew worked hard to bring the piece to fruition. Manley hand crafted all the models and sets herself. The film was shot on a 5D Mark II, in her attic studio in Peckham (London), by long term collaborator DP Peter Ellmore. Realised in live action, with a hand-held camera, the film boasts moments of charming puppeteered motion in the opening forest sequence. Each scene was delicately enhanced in post, by compositor Rob Ward, with touches of subtle but compelling effects animation adding extra depth and life to the action. The film’s beautiful, illustrative colour palette was augmented by the work of colourist Brendan Buckingham at The Mill. The score is an original track, composed especially for ‘Now You see It’. Manley was adamant that the music should not be emotionally didactic to the viewer but that there needed to be depth of feeling in the performance. So she worked closely with musician and composer Oliver Davis to craft a powerful, rolling but pared down piano track which compliments both the visual storytelling and McGregor’s voice.
