Draft:Pigeon-Livered (short film)

Pigeon-livered is a 2024 short film directed by Samuel Q. Jackson, written by Sophiya Sian, and produced by Dominic Lewisohn and Barbara Kononova in affiliation with the UCL Film and TV Society. .

Shot on 16mm ArriFlex 16BL, the film is a surrealist satire that follows the Intern whose unfortunate and absurd fate lies in questioning a system too strange to be good

Plot
Human Resources is officially located in a field in the Middle of Nowhere, and run by the Lady who types all day in the shade of its only tree. With their Communications Department on strike, the new Intern tries to solve as many problems as he finds - which is in itself a problem for HR, as they are under strict order to be of no help. Dwelling upstairs in the tree, the Intern learns more from the pigeons than the Head Office wishes him to know. After a hopeful effort to rescue the department from its restraints, the Intern is demoted to his dwelling in the tree permanently. Awaiting the arrival of the next Intern, we wonder whether the Lady will ever give her conscience a raise.

Cast

 * Benson Jackson as The Intern
 * Audrey Lindsay as The Lady
 * Summer-Joules Saunders as The Child

Development
Production began in May of 2023, when co-producers Barbara Kononova and Dominic Lewisohn, alongside the help of Dylan Elliott, selected Sophiya Sian’s submitted script, originally titled ‘Human Resources’.

The producers assembled the crew, including director Samuel Q. Jackson, over the summer and pre-production ensued with division of the project in two parallel parts – live action and stop-animation.

By early September 2023 actors Benson Jackson and Audrey Lindsay were confirmed as the main cast for the film, alongside Summer-Joules Saunders .

Filming
Pigeon-livered was shot on the 1965 Arri 16BL film camera, the same camera Christopher Nolan used for his now cult film Following. Filming took place in the hills of Surrey near the village of Peaslake over three days. Props and set decoration were used from the National Theatre. Live-action filming was confirmed to be wrapped in September. The animated sequences were shot in University College London’s Film & TV Society studio, wrapping in February.

Post-production
By January post-production, including stop animation, led by Cat Sinclair and Sara Abbod, was confirmed to nearly be finished.

Music
Oscar Lewisohn was confirmed to score the film in December.

Release
A trailer was released in December 2023. Pigeon-livered will be premiered in May at UCL’s Festival of the Moving Image (FOMI).