This is Not a Love Story
Poster advertising the film
Belinda from a scene in a gallery
Image from the film
Loose Unit Productions
Bruce de Grut
Techlink would like to thank Keith Hill and Bruce de Grut for their contributions to this case study.
This is Not a Love Story is a Loose Unit film production by Keith Hill. Since shooting started in 1999, this film has grown through stages of evaluation and refinement to achieve an award for script at the Dances with Films Festival in Los Angeles and commendation by Variety magazine as “more adult than most American indie[films] ”.Awaiting printing on 35mm film for screening in cinemas, the film has had positive responses at its many screenings via video projector, and Keith has shot new material and edited the film a number of times in response to market feedback and professional evaluation.
Loose Unit was set up to produce this film project which began as an idea for a comedy-drama inspired by Keith’s own experience. As a film artist he was only too aware of the tension between the desire to be creative and paying for living expenses. So he imagined a would-be artist, a writer, and a narrative dictated by a tiny budget (Conceptual statement).
The concept was tailored to a 3-week shoot, with a low budget ($50,000), contained locations and only a few characters. Keith, as director, developed the script over 7 months in a unique working process with actors Sarah Smuts-Kennedy and Stephen Lovatt. Other actors assisted by improvising dialogue during the work-shopping of scenes Keith had devised. The work-shopping was video-taped and Keith would write the parts he liked into script which was in turn work-shopped and developed.