The Mirage – Short film by Fuwad Abrar

The Mirage is a new short film written, directed, shot and edited by Fuwad Abrar. This was his second short film this year, after the highly praised THE QUIETUDE. 

The plot of the film revolves around a man named Nelson (Robert Schonau) who suffers from horrible anxiety and goes to a psychiatrist (Nicci Jae Chirnside) to figure out the cause of it all. 

This has been an idea that Fuwad had for over three years now. He had the origin of the idea back when he finished his feature film ISOLATED back in 2016. His initial idea was to turn The Mirage into a feature. It still is his intention hopefully in the near future, but he had to tell the story in short film format to get it out of his system. 

The film was shot in and around Stoke On Trent in less than 2 days.

Locations included: Lightwood Bowling Club, Hanley Library, Hanley Park, Stoke Cemetery and Edensor High School.

The writing of the script took about 2 weeks to complete. The gist of the idea and incorporated it into a narrative structure was simplistic enough to make a feature film, but he thought exploring it in a short film would be more than ideal as well. As this to help bring the sweet message along and it has paid off.

This was filmed on the iPhone 6s using the iPhone camera app, ProCam 4, Vintage 8mm and Filmic Pro. It was shot on 4k, but converted to 1080p for editing, as it made things easier to edit. Last time, Fuwad filmed in 4K was THE QUIETUDE and it was nightmarish, as the exporting to YOUTUBE to 2 days. This one only took 1 and half hours.

The music was done by local musician Jay Johnson. He had contacted Fuwad as they are good friends and he was considering doing music for films. When the opportunity came, Fuwad instantly contacted Jay to help with the music and he composed it in less than 2 weeks. 

The responses have been massively positive. Some have stated that the film made them cry, especially the scene with the father towards the end. 

The message of the film is to be happy in your present and not let the bad memories get in the way of the good ones. The character of Nelson suffers from anxiety because he is very pessimistic and has been since his father died. His expectations in life has been very minimal and leads to him being negative and lead to him being anxious. Fuwad has got many more projects on the way and his goal to build a filmmaking community in Stoke On Trent.

You can watch the film via the YouTube link below :-