OUR STORY WAS MEANT BE LONGER THAN A YEAR. IT WAS MEANT TO BE A LIFETIME
DIARY OF A GHOST
Caroline Hajny is the director of the superb short film: Diary of a Ghost, written by Maren Koenigs, and starring Genevieve Chenneour as Sage Evans, Alfie Noble as Riley Leeks and Mia Rodgers as Hailey Blandon.
Her latest work is an emotional drama exploring the devastation of grief and the impact that the loss of a loved one can have on us.
“Grief is something everyone has gone or will go through at some point in their lives,” explains Caroline, “Yet it’s something incredibly difficult to speak about.”
Diary of a Ghost comes 5 years after Caroline’s debut short film ‘Last Dance’ which premiered at the 2019 BAFTA qualifying Underwire Film Festival in London where it was nominated for best U25 production.
Originally from Germany, Caroline relocated to the UK to pursue a career in film, where she has been working across fashion, music and commercials collaborating with brands and artists such as Puma, Vinted, Dua Lipa, Red Bull Racing, Barbour and Amazon.
It is film though which has captured Caroline’s imagination since a young age. Diary of a Ghost is a project which has allowed Caroline to examine and portray issues that she has a deep appreciation for, such as mental health, and understanding the importance of human connection.
Now, It could be argued that one of the most challenging art forms within cinema is the short film. As a director, how do you tell your story to an audience in such an unforgiving period of time?
It’s a balancing act that Caroline navigates beautifully in Diary of a Ghost as she takes us into the world of Sage Evans who after the loss of her first love Riley, begins to keep a diary to process her grief, often blurring the line between reality and imagination.
The opening scene of the film sees us confronted with lead actress Genevieve Chenneour, who plays the role of Sage and from the very moment we are introduced to her you sense and feel her anxiety. It puts you on edge and keeps you on tenterhooks as you’re instantly aware that something isn’t quite right. Her eyes are painted with sadness and she looks lost in thought, leaving us to question what might be wrong.
Sage meets with her friend Hailey played by Mia Rodgers, in a bar and as Hailey talks, Sage finds herself drifting off into her past, where memories, thoughts, visions, and gunshots torture her mind, as the words of her friend float aimlessly into the air.
Hailey reminds Sage that it’s been a year since Riley died, that she never sees or hears from her anymore and that she’s worried about her. But deep in the arms of grief Sage turns and walks away, and soon finds herself back at home surrounded by the ghost of her past.
The cinematography and delicate music hold you close and draw you in, almost inviting you into the room with Sage. You imagine times you have felt this overwhelming sensation of grief and you want to hold her close and tell her that everything will be okay. Watching her becomes an intimate dance with emotion and you feel helpless to wake her from thoughts.
Wearing a top that had once belonged to her partner Riley, Sage sees an image of him standing in the living room, a smile etched across his face, with a bullet wound and crimson red blood stain across his white t-shirt.
Sage rests her head on Riley’s shoulder as they sit together on the couch. She looks mournfully at the pages of a diary, as Riley tells Sage it’s time for her to let him go. She turns to him, and her voice crackling with pain, says, “Our story was meant to be longer than a year. It was meant to be a lifetime.”
It’s a poignant scene that reminds us of the fragility of life and the importance of holding onto everything we value dear whilst we can. Because all too often it can be gone within a heartbeat.
Diary of a Ghost is a beautifully shot, heartfelt film, with an incredibly talented cast and story hat will resonate with its audience. In the closing scenes, Sage utters, “Somethings can’t be fixed, they can only be carried” and I think that is a true reflection and experience of grief.
It is a haunting portrayal of somebody in the grip of sadness and it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to sit down with Caroline as we discussed her latest project and her journey to becoming a director.
IT ABSOLUTELY BLEW MY MIND
I’m originally from Southern Germany and nobody in my family works in anything remotely creative.
I was a huge Harry Potter fan as a kid and saw this 30min making of video on one of the DVDs – it was some BTS of the shoots, interviews with cast and crew and I remember being in awe of the idea that people were creating these worlds we get to watch.
Later on, I went to high school in Australia for a year and I had this incredible film and television teacher.
I remember we had to write an essay analysing Hitchcock’s Psycho and the idea that you can tell stories through lighting and set design absolutely blew my mind. After that, I always wanted to be a director.
BRINGING THE STORY FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN WAS SUCH A PLEASURE
My friend Maren Koenigs wanted to chat to me about a script she’d written and the conversation of “let’s just make this together” naturally evolved from that.
My day-to-day directing work is in commercials and while you learn a lot, it’s rare that a project feels like it’s truly yours. I hadn’t made a short film in 5 years so I was keen to dive into a more long-term narrative project.
We assembled an incredible team around us, so the process of bringing the story from script to screen was such a pleasure. When working in commercials or music, I’m so used to seeing a project come to life within weeks, so it’s been a real exercise in patience for me.
IT REALLY SHINES THROUGH IN HER PERFORMANCE
I look for actors who have a deep understanding of the material, someone who can really grasp the characters and bring their own ideas and experiences to the performance.
Simultaneously, I am looking for people I can trust – your cast carries a huge responsibility within your film – you want to know that your story is in safe hands.
Genevieve came on board really early on in the process – she joined the project before we even had a producer.
I had met her on a commercial a couple of years ago and she came to mind when we started dotting some names down. We had a few Zoom calls with her and it was clear from the beginning that she resonated deeply with the script.
Experiencing grief around that time meant she was in such a vulnerable and honest place she could draw from and it really shines through in her performance.
Once we knew Genevieve was going to play Sage we moulded the rest of the cast around her: we wanted Hailey’s character to be a stark contrast to Sage, bubbly, outgoing, energetic.
I had met Mia at an event years ago but had never actually seen her act before, so we asked her for a self-tape and knew immediately that she was perfect for the role.
Riley’s role was the only one we saw lots of self-tapes for – we had done a call-out on social media. Both Maren and I loved Alfie’s self-tape, but aside from him being a phenomenal actor, he also came across as incredibly reliable and communicative in the casting process – when casting a basically complete stranger, having that kind of reassurance makes a huge difference!
IT’S SOMETHING INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO SPEAK ABOUT
The story is incredibly personal to our writer Maren, who witnessed the first signs of prolonged grief disorder in a family member.
The preparation of this shoot opened so many conversations around the topic and I was surprised by how many of our cast and crew members could relate to Sage’s story in one way or another – if it hadn’t been for the film, I would have probably never known, because it’s just not something people open up about a lot.
When researching grief and suicide, I often read that relatives and friends didn’t realise how serious someone’s condition was until it was too late and that they only managed to connect the dots in retrospect.
I had a similar experience when reading the script for the first time. The ending took me by surprise, but when re-reading I picked up on the signs.
YOU FEEL THIS SENSE OF HAUNTING DREAD
The film All Quiet on the Western Front has this incredible repetitive theme that consists of only a few notes and whenever you hear it you feel this sense of haunting dread about what’s going to happen next.
I wanted to achieve something similar with our music – we introduce this unsettling rumble in the middle of the film when Sage learns of Riley’s death and by the time we hear it again in the very last scene it has a foreboding quality to it.
Those two scenes mirror each other also in terms of cinematography: both scenes are basically a single shot, starting with the characters’ reactions and then slowly zooming or travelling out to reveal the context of the scene.
DON’T TAKE REJECTION TOO PERSONALLY
The film is currently doing the rounds at film festivals – we’d love for it to be seen by as many people as possible, so aside from festivals, we’re speaking to a lot of independent cinemas and film clubs about screenings.
I guess a short film always just lays a foundation for the next, hopefully, bigger step. As someone who wants to go more into narrative, this film is already opening some doors and starting some interesting conversations about future projects.
Money is definitely a challenge, especially right now where the industry is in a bit of a crisis and everyone is dealing with the rising cost of living.
Our industry is so competitive. Don’t take rejection too personally. It’s easy to get into your own head and compare your own project and career with others – it’s also easy to not see how much you’re actually achieving yourself!
All our thanks to the wonderful Caroline Hajny
For more information or updates on Diary of Ghost please click here
Production Company Harp On Productions.
Written by Maren Koenigs
Producers. Sophia Ogilvie, Caroline Hajny
Executive producer. Hayley Reeve
Director of photography. Lorène Desportes
Production designer. Karin Grönkvist
Editor. Serena Rossi
Composer. Oscar Moos
Sound design. Michele Covio
Colourist. Alex O’Brien