A BERMUDIAN film company is hoping residents will come out to support its endeavour tomorrow. The group is holding auditions for a short film it hopes to be screened at next year's Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF).

As an incentive to those who are interested but feel a bit daunted by the task, the key members behind the company - Moving Target Productions - say that previous experience is unnecessary.

"We're all learning," explained the film's screenwriter, Julia Pitt. "I went to film school but really I preferred writing and acting in the films we made. Now, I really wish I'd paid more attention to the technical side of things.

"But the great thing with film acting is you can do it again if you mess up. It's not like theatre acting. You're not projecting to a whole audience. It's quite contained and very much in the expression 'in the face'.

"I think it'll be a great learning experience for everybody. I think this will be the first thing that Robbie Godfrey who's on board as our (director of photography or cameraman) has shot on his own and it's the first time I've written a script."

Added the film's director, Tom Coash: "And it's certainly the first time I've directed a film. In fact, we sat down at our first meeting and we said, 'OK, what do we want to get out of this?' and we all agreed we wanted to learn and have fun and not have it be a big headache."

The storyline behind the as-yet-untitled film, said Ms Pitt, revolved around a possible pregnancy.

"How do I sum it up without giving it away? Well, I guess the premise is the four minutes it takes for a girl to take a pregnancy test and just how long that four minutes can feel, and all the different things that run through your head when you're in a situation like that.

"The thing is, she's alone in the bathroom but she's alone with her thoughts. And it's her thoughts, and all the people who come into her head to influence her (that comprise the tale)."

Added Mr. Coash: "I think what's nice about our story is that it's contained inside one set and yet explores this whole world. It's not just one conflict but a bunch of conflicts that are all rolled into one - whether to have children, whether not to have children, whether now's the right time, right to life issues - there's a million things that run through your mind in a situation like this."

There were some 15 roles involved, he said, requiring actors of both sexes, of all ages - from six to 60 - and all ethnicities.

"The idea to make the film sort of came out of two things," he explained, "one being the Famous for 15 Minutes contest (held earlier this year by) the Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society. It got a lot of people writing short scripts including Julia.

"And I think we were both very influenced by the Bermudian films that were in BIFF this last time. Julia's worked on films before, and I've done a lot of theatre and we both really wanted to make a film. We were inspired by the ones we saw (at BIFF) last year and the script Julia wrote had real film possibility, so we decided to go ahead and do it it.

"The great thing, I think about the Bermuda International Film Festival, is that they've made a big point of putting some Bermuda films in (BIFF) and people responded. They thought, 'Wow, maybe I can do that.' And that's what we've said.

"And now that we're doing it we're going, 'Wow, this is complicated'. But hopefully it will meet the BIFF standard and we can then submit it to a number of other festivals as well."

Although novices, perhaps, in the art of shooting a film, the two aren't strangers to the film and theatre industries. Ms Pitt is a film school graduate, while Mr. Coash writes plays and directs theatre for a living.

"After I graduated from film school," said Ms Pitt, "I went to Hollywood and lived in Los Angeles for two years and eventually got to work on a big budget film - Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton - in a very sort of outside peripheral role.

"I was Edward Norton's assistant which was a great opportunity because he's a super nice guy, very laid-back and didn't really require much. So I just sat around and watched. It gave me the opportunity to see how it was all done and that's something that really doesn't happen when you're in school. They never tell you the reality of it."

Although his experience mainly lies with the theatre, film-making, Mr. Coash said, had always held his interest.

"My background has always been in theatre, on stage. That's what I do for a living; I write and direct plays but I've always really enjoyed film and been interested. I lived overseas for a number of years, particularly in Cairo, and worked on several films

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