ELLIOTT HASLER

WRITER|DIRECTOR

Elliott Hasler is a British film director and screenwriter, best known for his upcoming professional feature debut, ‘Vindication Swim’. The film has undergone three years of production with filming taking place in the English Channel itself, followed by a year of post-production at Warner Bros. De Lane Lea Studios. The biopic’s development has been featured in the likes of Variety, Deadline, The Times and the Daily Mail, as well as being documented by BBC and ITV news.

Hasler’s passion for filmmaking began at a young age, with the production of ‘WWII: The Long Road Home’. Made whilst at school and completed in 2017 when Hasler was just 16 years old, the film garnered praise from New York critic Graham Fuller who described the film as "a miracle achievement for a schoolboy director”. That same year Hasler founded the UK based independent film company, Relsah Films.

Before pursuing ‘Vindication Swim’, Hasler developed his directing and writing style further by making a series of short films, including ‘To Hunt a Tiger’, a film about tiger preservation, which was shot in Sri Lanka at the same locations as David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kawi’. ‘To Hunt a Tiger’ premiered in July 2019 at Soneva Jani's over-water cinema in the Maldives.

WARNER BROS.

DE LANE LEA STUDIOS

Post-production on ‘Vindication Swim’ was completed at the world-class Warner Bros. De Lane Lea Studios in the heart of London’s Soho district.

The team worked closely with colourist Asa Shoul to create two distinct worlds within the film; land and sea. For the sea sequences, a Technicolor two-strip look was replicated to pay homage to the era in which the film is set. Likewise, the intense turquoise colours that burst onto the screen help to create a sharp contrast with the land-based scenes, which are all black and white. This sharp visual distinction was used to evoke a similar feeling to ‘The Wizard of Oz’; a dull monotone existence contrasted with glorious technicolour as the world comes alive when Mercedes steps into the water.

Sound designer, Markus Moll, has carefully crafted an intricate and complex soundscape that effortlessly morphs from a suffocating, thunderous London to the vast and ever-changing expanse of the English Channel. Due to the difficulties of filming out at sea, much of the sound design on the film had to be recreated from the bottom up in the studio, with extensive use of foley and ADR. With a level of detail unheard of in most independent films, ‘Vindication Swim’ promises to provide an audio/visual experience that throws you into the tempestuous waves of the English Channel.

SOUNDTRACK

Composer Daniel Clive McCallum was flown over to the UK in October 2021 around the same time in which Mercedes Gleitze conquered the English Channel so that he could properly immerse himself into the world of the film, spending time in the water to get a greater sense of what Mercedes experienced.

For the score, a sweeping classical string-based arrangement was decided on to pay homage to the British seafaring musical tradition. Daniel focuses in particular on the cello, to express the turbulent waters and independent spirit of Mercedes that we witness in the film.

To complete the grandiose sound that was required to complement the expansive widescreen cinematography, a 60-piece orchestra in Eastern Europe was hired to perform the soundtrack.

FOLEY FARMERS

FOLEY ARTISTS: FRANZI TREUTLER AND PETE BURGIS

Set in the heart of the German countryside, Franzi Treutler, founder of Foley Farmers and Pete Burgis, a double Emmy winner who prior to 2020 was Pinewood’s lead foley artist, have created a world-class foley studio, providing exceptional levels of care and detail that brought the world of ‘Vindication Swim’ alive. Previous credits include ‘The King’s Speech’, the Harry Potter films and ‘Casino Royale’.

Having one of the only water stages outside of Los Angeles, the team flew out to Goldberg, Germany to the Foley Famers facilities for an utterly unique ADR experience.