OTTfilms | Bringing Filmmakers Together

Written for the 2006 Nokia Shorts competition, this film was conceived with the intention of using it to help promote the group, once the Nokia competition had ended. John Condon wrote Tarot, along with several other scripts, specifically for the competition but the group, as a whole, conceived at least a dozen more. Tarot would ultimately become one of five films entered in to the competition; three of which were scribed by John. Tarot was, however, the only film that John would direct.

A small and tight crew was always in his plans and he was delighted by the enthusiasm of those who quickly rose to the challenge. Peter Wallington and Leilani Holmes, who themselves were directing Nokia short films, came on as DoP and Producer, respectively. The remaining cast and crew would all prove to be very talented in their own fields and John was confident that the cards were stacked in his favour long before the camera began to roll on this, his second short.

When Leilani (who was also cast in the role of the Gypsy Tarot reader) stepped on to the set for the first time, everybody smiled. From then on, the cast and crew rarely stopped smiling.

Hugh Macdonald would be both Editor and FX magician on the film and once he had finished, it would take a keen eye to spot the joins, in every sense. He added the grade and Tarot had it's 'look'

At quite an early stage in the project's development, Irvin Duguid was asked to consider the score. John had very keen ideas as to where the main beats would sit, where to emphasize the music and when to hold back. Irvin had very similar ideas and armed with the director's notes and influences, he went swiftly to work.

A rough cut of the score was available for the second cut of the film.
It didn't take long to tighten it further, so that it would marry perfectly with the final cut of the film, once it was sent over to him.

With the images perfected, Fabrice Pougnard was asked to design the rest of the sound. He layered the most minute sounds on top of each other and he also re-recorded the actors' dialogue. Leilani recorded up to 40 gasps before John felt they had the perfect version.

With the sound design done and Irvin's final score in place, Tarot was
finished. John gave a few private screenings to various people, to gauge public response and (thankfully) without exception everyone found it to be a funny and wonderful little film. It was packed up and shipped out to the Nokia Shorts competition, for which it was created, as well as many other festivals and competitions across the world.

laurel faux