In Depth with the Director and Lead Actress -
Asha Osborne-Grinter and Oli Fyne

Tell us a little about yourselves and your background in filmmaking. How did Losing It first come together as a project?

We first came together after the success of our first collaboration in 2019, for the 5-star sell-out show ‘Elise’, performed at Pleasance Courtyard the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Our combined skills in producing, directing, creating, designing, acting and editing led to further collaborations. After graduating from the University of Bristol we set up HERD Productions to facilitate us in making larger scale, more ambitious projects centering strong female characters and storylines that we felt reflected our nature as strong and ambitious young women and filmmakers.

Around this time we noticed a sudden surge in the use of dating apps amongst our contemporaries, and increased pressures around dating and sex. We wanted to explore this pressure using our own insight to create a youthful and punchy dystopia; a world which feels strange and obscure but also not so far off from our own (Black Mirror meets Sex Education). We worked with a story from the writer of ‘Elise’ (the talented Brenda Callis) and from there we then wrote the screenplay of Losing It.

Sexuality in early adulthood is something that is often glamourised in media, but you've taken a different lens to it. What about the topic drew you to it?

Growing up in a culture that valorises teenage sexuality was a profoundly confusing experience for us both. Sexuality in early adulthood is certainly glamorised; but we found that this glamour obscures the awkward and anxiety-inducing nature of the lived teenage experience. We wanted Losing It to capture both the awkwardness of teenage sexual awakening, but also to reflect the insidious degree to which pressure and scrutiny, from peers and from adults, is levelled at emergent sexualities. The V Card app has an intentionally sterile aesthetic and design, satirising and subverting the hypersexual images we are so used to seeing as young people today by presenting a clinical and unfeeling approach to losing one’s virginity. Liberty Lawson’s fierce and forboding performance compounds this effect, creating a world in which teenagers’ burgeoning sexuality is monetised and traded in the pursuit of a hot new dating app trend, rather than protected as a formative stage of life and the development of a young person’s psyche.

There's a dystopian air looming over the film, from the apps to the at-times clinical world outside of Amy's room. What thought went into building the world of your film?

Asha: It was really important for me to create two different ‘worlds’ in the film. Firstly, that of Amy’s bedroom, which is her sanctuary where she is most herself - surrounded by her own possessions, childhood memories, and the comfort of her family. We chose to focus on small details in Amy’s room to give a snapshot insight into her true, unmediated self; and deployed a more intimate documentary-style handheld camera technique to create an organic ‘real-time’ feel to these sequences. Outside of Amy’s room, the world is more controlled, restrictive, dangerous; we see Amy struggle to assert herself in these realms, mis-step in front of her peers and humiliate herself through her evident naivety, which jars against the unforgiving, un-empathic natures of those characters around her. The world outside Amy’s bedroom is visually more grandiose, sleeker, more symmetrical; creating a realm in which Amy’s teenage gawkiness and social anxiety jars against the polished veneer of her peers and the environment around her. The outside world around Amy appears glamorous and unattainable; the pseudo-aspirational world around her creates a dystopian atmosphere as the characters appear to be reaching beyond, rather than inhibiting their own humanity. They push against their personal limits, rather than choosing to exist within them; creating the cool, unforgiving and clinical world that Amy exists within.

Much of the film really hinges on Oli Fyne's tremendous performance. How did you build out the character of Amy during the writing and shooting process?

Oli: Building complex and detailed characters is, for me, one of the most thrilling parts of the performance process. It’s a real creative opportunity for any actor. A joyous moment of delving into the human psyche, sculpting entirely new worlds and beings, and embodying your creation.

Building the character of Amy was particularly enjoyable for me because she is so different from myself. Her goofy and flamboyant nature a stark contrast to my calm demeanour. To tap into her fabulous frenetic and chaotic energy I had to really work on Amy’s inner life. We worked a lot in rehearsal with the techniques of psychological activity and gesture, articulating and embodying her buzzing thoughts. This really helped me create the stark contrast between Amy’s inner and outer; her public and private self. This was not only necessary to further the stark contrast between scenes in Amy’s room (private) and memories (public), but was imperative for me as it accurately reflected what I felt when I was Amy’s age; a feeling you needed to bottle up how you feel in order to ‘fit in’.

Beyond this there were practical things I found incredibly useful in my character development. Firstly, I found myself digging out diary’s from secondary school, even stumbling across the entries I made about losing my own virginity. This was certainly a useful (if not equally mortifying) read! Secondly, Asha created the V-CARD app, so I was able to build Amy’s profile and interact with it. And finally, I like to work with personal objects for characters - to have a collection things which I keep with me for the duration of prep and shooting. I pack their bag (in Amy’s case a tattered denim school rucksack) and go exploring in character. One of these trips actually resulted in me discovering and buying the rainbow stripy t-shirt that ended up becoming Amy’s costume for the film.

What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

The biggest challenge in making the film was certainly finding the funds and means to make it. It is so difficult to break into the industry as a young filmmaker and we relied completely on the support of our backers to get this film of the ground, and we are so incredibly grateful to each and every one of them for this. Particularly to the Hesmondalgh family, who were patient, generous, and kind to us throughout our whole shoot. We truly feel Losing It is a testament to young filmmakers today, all of our team were emerging filmmakers and each of them so incredibly talented. We can’t wait to work together again in the future.

What projects are coming for you in the future?

We both have a lot in the pipeline. Collectively we have four other films coming out in the upcoming season, and we are cooking up other projects and reaching out to other female artists is search of future collaborators for new projects.

Asha: I am currently finishing up work on Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget (Aardman Animations), which will be screened on Netflix in the holiday season of 2023. I am looking forward to having more time to devote to my writing and filmmaking practice once the job ends, and to workshop some ideas for new projects and short films in the future.

Oli: After Losing It I was accepted into The Oxford School of Drama (Claire Foy, Lizzie Annis/ Leading British Drama School). I am currently embarking on their rigorous one year course and will be graduating with a season on London’s West end this summer. I also had the fantastic opportunity of playing the title role in Jessica Fox’s feature ‘Stella’ (going on to win Best Drama and Best First Filmmaker awards at Montreal and Tel-Aviv Independent Film festival this year), as well as worked as producers assistant for Adam Deacon’s Sumotherhood (starring Jennifer Saunders, Ed Sheeran, London Hughes), third assistant director on BBC Short The Pink Pill, and development assistant for Popcorn Films.

We also have ideas bubbling for our own new content, so watch this space!

Do you have any message for our Melbourne audience?

We just want to say thank you so much for selecting us to be part of your festival, it means the world to us! We hope you enjoy the film!