New Media Department Film, Miren

Dealing with issues surrounding body image is a challenge. Directing a film about such issues is personal for alumni, Kylie Ward.

 

Upcoming department film, Miren, is now in post-production, having just wrapped production on April 23. The upcoming short film, written and directed by Ward, is a psychological thriller about a girl who develops an unhealthy obsession with a sentient mirror.

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Dr. Kristine Luce is a psychologist and clinical associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Luce defines body image as how a person thinks of, feels about, and perceives their own body, and how a person imagines others perceiving their body.

 

“Body image is an aspect of identity. Most people tend to self-identify by segmenting their lives into different roles. For example, a person may self-identify according to their profession, relationships, hobbies, etc. Body image is one aspect of a person’s complete identity, and within it a person can hold many perceptions, even contradicting perceptions.”

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Ward is a filmmaker and actress, and she graduated last year as a part of the 2021 class. She's been featured in Asbury's Highbridge Film Festival several times in the past.

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"I got the idea as I realized my insecurities growing up that I can't ever be everything at once because everyone is beautiful in their own way and you'll never be everything people want" Ward said. "Combined with that, I did a photography essay in high school where people wore mirrors on their faces and I realized that could be a character, so merging that into a story where this girl is obsessed with a mirror and she doesn't want that mirror to see anyone else." 

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Miren stars Lucy Bryson, who plays Jordan. Bryson is also a part of Asbury's Newswatch 3, as chief weather forecaster.

"Jordan is the type of person that always has this default that pretends to be perfect, but on the inside things seem to be going really wrong." Bryson said. "Jordan's character is something I have struggled with for so long, everything she is dealing with is something girls deal with a lot." 

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Bryson goes on to talk about how growing up in Eastern Kentucky, she was raised to treat people with kindness and have "southern hospitality." She said.

"I would've ended up like Jordan does in the film if I hadn't realized that I didn't need to put up that default face." 

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One of Asbury's film professors, David Whitaker, is the director of photography for the film.

"The script Kylie wrote for this film was very fascinating. I think what compelled me most was the way in which this film discussed the social media comparison game without ever bringing up social media,"Whitaker stated.

 

Students in Professor Whitaker's Intro to Film Production class make up the majority of the crew. The class is still relatively new to Asbury's Media Communications department. In the class, students learn what it is like to be working on a set through being assigned low level positions.

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"The production process of Miren was quite interesting. We had less time than we normally would due to the Olympics, and this created a lot of fast-paced work down near the end," Whitaker said. "We were able to navigate a lot of weather issues and knock out the all the scenes in the end. The flexibility of the crew was essential to getting this done."

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Bryson also highlighted the efficiency of the production process.

"The production with Whitaker at the head of it was super professional," she said. "Everyone was really devoted to making this as quick and speedy as possible, overall it was a great experience." 

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After five days of shooting and months of pre-production, Ward hopes to have a rough cut of the film by June 2022. 

 

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