Film + Screen Arts

In Limbo

Tanvi Kapoor

Process

The film, In Limbo, is a narrative short film revolving around the friendship between Aurora, the ghost of a young girl, stuck in the attic of her childhood home; and Maggie, a stranger who moves into her home. With some misunderstandings along the way, they eventually learn to grow comfortable with each other and Maggie helps her out of purgatory, once and for all by connecting Aurora with her childhood best friend, Bonnie, who happens to be Maggie’s grandmother.


This film is shot in a wide-screen aspect ratio and visually sports earthy, warm and saturated tones in order to portray comfort, friendship and trust. In terms of the production design, the attic contains mostly vintage furniture and props from the late 1940s to the 50s to lend authenticity to the character of Aurora. Maggie’s spaces have a similar charm, as it is all part of the same vintage home, with old, floral wallpaper and a vintage lamp.


The inspiration for the story came from the music video of Graveyard by Halsey in which we see Halsey dancing around an abandoned amusement park with what seems to be the ghost of her lover. A lot of the soft, warm and saturated tones were inspired by this very music video, along with the closeness in relationship between the two characters.

Project Information

Cast:

  • Aurora: Lauren Olson
  • Maggie: Roxanne Dagenais
  • Bonnie: Denise Brookson

Crew:

  • Director: Tanvi Kapoor
  • Writer: Tanvi Kapoor
  • 1st AD: Hanna Lee
  • Director of Photography: Tamas McGillivray
  • Key Grip and Transport: Maxime Labreque
  • Camera Assistant: Hugo Lim
  • Production Assistant: Ashley Song
  • Production Designer: Tanvi Kapoor
  • Hair and Makeup Artist: Daniela Rojas
  • Costume Styling: Tanvi Kapoor
  • Set Decorator: Mia Xu
  • Locations: Teresa Heitzmann
  • COVID Safety Officer: Chris Tubbs
  • Clapper: Lauren Olson
  • Composer: Lucas Raimbault
  • Editor: Tanvi Kapoor
  • Colourist: Tamas McGillivray
  • Sound Mixers: Doug Patterson at Big World Sound ; Graham Connell

Artist Statement

My short narrative film is a story about friendship, love and kindness. It reflects on how important it is to be there for people, and if need be, let them go if you truly love them and want what’s best for them. Revolving around the ghost of a girl, stuck in the attic of her childhood home and her unlikely friendship with the new occupant, this film addresses pure, simple relationships and the complexities of communication within them. As a production designer, I have focused a lot on the visual impact of the film with warm, saturated and soft tones to bring out the themes of friendship, love and comfort. 

Through this film, I wanted the storyline and visuals to complement each other harmoniously, hence creating the warm visuals with the heartwarming script. As a writer, my interest is in stories that reach people at a core level and examine the intersection between comfort and conflict. As a queer woman myself, I have always felt the need to bring forward LGBTQ+ issues and struggles in my scripts in some way or another. Moreover, as a woman, I often centralize my scripts around other women because I feel I can be more genuine with the stories I write and show loving and healthy relationships between us. Society often tries to pit women against each other because of the patriarchy and I want to be able to show women being loving and caring towards each other, with extremely strong bonds. 

The film happened to be shot in an old home from the 1920s, with actual paraphernalia from the era I wanted to depict in my production design, almost as though I had entered a time capsule. In fact, most of the books seen in the attic are from the late 40s, some of which even contain handwritten notes from 1948. There was a personal connection I had while making this film, and it was mainly because I felt a connection with the location and the set. As though, these actual objects from history were meant to play a significant role in my film, and help me achieve these somewhat historically accurate visuals. After finding these miscellaneous treasures in this house, I instantly knew that I was meant to make this film in this specific location. In fact, the current owners of the house told me that I would be making the original owners proud and be honouring their spirits in a way, which was extremely heartwarming to me. As a filmmaker with a strong focus on production design, I aim to create authentic, inviting environments to draw the audience into the story. Collaborating with cinematographers, the goal is to create a visually strong and impactful film that is true to its time and age. 

Project Stills

Film Stills from In Limbo (2021)

Tanvi Kapoor

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Tanvi Kapoor, a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, is a filmmaker residing in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Originally from Delhi NCR, India, Tanvi remains to be connected to her roots in India and is active in the rich creative film community in Vancouver. Mainly specializing in production design and art direction, Tanvi enjoys mapping out the visual aspect of her films, with the collaborative help of the cinematographer. Her passion for history leads her to try and achieve historical and cultural accuracy in her set design, costumes, makeup and hair. Tanvi is also an avid researcher on specific historical topics growing her practice as a historically-focused production designer. Tanvi is an enthusiast of vintage and antique items, and feels a strong connection with them, as she senses stories and adventures contained within them. She often uses these objects as props for her films to not only create a connection between the story and the set design, but also to attain as much historical accuracy as possible. As a writer, Tanvi focuses on writing dramas and coming-of-age scripts that focus on human relationships, rather than fictional world-building; human relationships, according to Tanvi, are raw, universal and are the essence of creating true connection in a film. Residing in the hustling and dynamic downtown Vancouver, Tanvi is always researching and observing human behaviour, and is often inspired by people engaging in all kinds of activities in her neighbourhood. As a director, Tanvi tends to focus on realistic, unexaggerated performances and line deliveries from her talent as she wants to bring out the beauty of human behaviour off-screen, in front of the camera; unless the character demands for something different. Tanvi is an extremely visual person and is grateful to have found her love and passion in the art department. She hopes to work on historical TV shows and re-enactments for documentaries in the future as a production designer, combining her love for art, design, history and filmmaking, to create beautiful yet historically accurate works of media.
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