dreams of a life – the movie

‘dreams of a life’ is a fact based feature  about the life of joyce vincent, who was found dead in her bedsit in central london, aged 38. with christmas presents waiting to be wrapped, and the television still on, her body was only discovered some 2 years after her death by bailiff’s attempting to repossess the property. Award winning director – Carol morley’s film is a quest to discover who joyce was and why she became so forgotten. with the aid of those who remember her, carol pieces back together the puzzle that was joyce’s existence to what becomes not only a life tribute and celebration, but also a comment on how such an occurrence could happen in today’s society.  the character, joyce,  is played by upcoming british actress zawe ashton, one of screen international’s recently voted ‘stars of tomorrow’.

production designer – chris richmond

after their successful partnership on the feature film, ‘edge’, chris richmond was asked again to team up with award winning director carol morley and cinematographer, mary farbrother to production design film4′s feature ‘dreams of a life’. The film spans the almost four decades of joyce’s life, from the 60′s thorugh to early 2000′s, and the london part of the film shoot was focused on location dressing. The 2nd half of the shoot saw the crew move to a studio build in dublin, ireland. it was here the art department created the interior of joyce’s wood green  flat,  which had become a character in the story itself. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter, the production designer could not gain entry to joyce’s real flat in london, which gave the him carte blanche for the set design of the interior. a muted grey colour pallett was chosen to act as a backdrop for the last remaining days of joyce’s life, the point at which we pick up the story in her bedsit. The flat undergoes an normous period of change, during the time at which  joyce’s body lay undiscovered. carol chose to show the decompostion (that would have naturally occured in joyce’s body), in the fabric of the building itself, and the minimal amount of possessions that lay about the bedsit. This involved a great deal of research into the various stages of decomposition a body would go through, given the environment, and then reasonable application to the set fabric. i am sure you will agree that the aesthetic serves as an appropriate backdrop to base the film. ‘dreams of a life’ is currently in the latter stages of post-production, and will be due for release in the near future….watch this space!