What if your phone didn't just distract you? What if it posed a supernatural danger to you?The short Don't Ignore Me, a horror project, explores a haunting through social media.The film follows Sofia, whose innocent scrolling takes a sinister turn when an app begins sending her ominous messages.Director Charli Fletcher made it when she was just 14 years old, shooting entirely on an iPhone.Fletcher's film swept the 2024 International SmartFone Flick Fest, taking home five awards, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing. She went on to win Best Short Film at the Inner West Film Fest.Fletcher and her producer, Raymond Mendez, checked in with No Film School to share their secrets behind the film and offer lessons for other filmmakers looking to shoot something on a low budget, no matter the age.Why Horror? Why Social Media?Fletcher didn't stumble into the horror genre. She's been making scary content since childhood, creating short clips with her sister and friends."I've always loved J-horror because it allows you to explore real emotions in extreme ways," Fletcher said. "Fear makes people honest. It strips everything back to who they really are."The decision to set a ghost story within social media came from observing how phones have become a metaphysical space where many people spend most of their days. It can be positive or negative. Fletcher wanted to mine that duality."I wanted to explore how our phones can feel both comforting and haunting," Fletcher said. "Most of us spend so much time online that...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday