About | Midnight City is an award winning 2012 short film written by Ludwik Benning and directed by Luis Ventura. The film stars Lucinda Farrelle, Alex Rendall and Alan Thorpe with a soundtrack by Benjamin Gibert. The film was nominated at the ECU Film Festival in Paris, the Seattle intl. Festival and won Best Director at the YF Film Festival in Oftringen.

Synopsis | Set in the 1950s, Midnight City chronicles the disappearance of Maxine 'Bunny' Vance, a young prostitute who uses her sexuality to entrap men into a web of deceit and seduction. The only thing that stands between her and happiness is her mentally unstable pimp and his Winchester rifle.

Development

Between wrapping up post production and the the theatrical release of A Confident Man Luis and his team started developing ideas for a follow up feature. In an effort to challenge themselves creatively the filmmakers settled on the film-noir genre and began work on a suspenseful whodunnit set in a brothel in the 1950s.

With the success of the Confident Man test shoots Ludwik Benning wrote a 12-page proof-of-concept that was simple enough to shoot with a minimal budget, allowing the team to focus on aesthetics and production design.

Preproduction

The preparations for Midnight City took place both in Switzerland, where camera-tests, production design and scheduling happened, and in London, where casting, wardrobe and rehearsal were carried out.

The film makers also spent a lot of time in a photo studio where various looks and post production processes were tested out to find a unique and distinct visual style for the film.

Production

The 12-page script was shot at an abandoned Hotel and a colonial-style cigar bar in Switzerland across three days. The crew purposefully decided on large, heavy equipment spending the majority of each day on lighting and set decoration.

Two additional days rounded out the five-day production with one serving as a screen-test on location and another to add an exterior scene at the end of the film where a vintage car collector provided a number of vehicles for the shoot.

Postproduction & Release

The film was edited and finished at Redstone Studios in Switzerland where Benjamin Gibert, who was already on site for soundtracking A Confident Man, joined the Midnight City team, composing an original motion picture soundtrack.

The film went on to enjoy a successful festival run, garnering nominations for Best European Short at ECU in Paris, Best International Short at Bumbershoot SIFF in Seattle and winning Best Director at YF Film Festival in Ofrtingen.