My first short film She Moon Experimental was a fantastic roller-coaster of experiences. I gathered the cast and crew. I got up and did. I loved it. I discovered a lot about myself, my power, my strength my determination.
What I learnt years later is that it was a healing journey. From self-loathing to self-love. A calling from my Higher Self. The Higher Self is that part of us that is linked to all power, all knowledge, linked to Reality, to the eternal Source of Creation which is there, constantly calling us higher through our pure desires. The Higher Self refuses to get down to the different levels of fear our egos like to indulge in.
Thus our true will lives on within us for as long as we breathe. It is our call to raise to the Higher Self. Or else we choke in an abysm of want and die a slow miserable death: an unfulfilled life.
The night before the first filming day, I was made homeless. I was bringing the food for catering my filming event home on my way back from picking up my six and seven-year-old children from school; surprise, we couldn’t get in. We’ve been locked out.
It was my M.A. in Filmmaking second module coursework at Kingston University, London. There was no way I wasn’t going to finish it on time. Mainly because one of my University lecturers said that mine was a hugely ambitious project for University and that I wasn’t going to get it done on time or ever! It was a blind pursuit, she said, and I should aim to do something ‘easy’ for me, she added.
I’m certain she heard me scream, “Watch me”, with my silent stare. Even so, she proceeded to give me a long list of reasons why I shouldn’t do this film. I can’t list them here because I didn’t hear any of it, I was politely waiting for her to finish waffling and blabbering.
All I could see was ‘jealousy”. I know, it’s a banal cliche: When someone is against your dreams, they are jealous.
My film covered the complete A-Z guide to “Everything that can go wrong in film production and beyond. Including hiring a DoP who kept 80% of the footage and never gave it back; he asked my cast for money. I had two cameras going that saved 20% of my footage.
My a-z also had the mother of one of the young talents refusing the sign the video release form.
I had the owner of the property where we filmed, who offered it herself without me asking so nicely that her offer made me comfortable enough to give up my already planned locating. She insisted that we shoot on her property as her daughter was one of the Actresses in the short. Then after our two days of filming, the woman claimed that my film now belonged to her because it was filmed on her property… because she didn’t sign a location permit that I could show her.
Is this how my first film goes? I asked myself briefly once.
After all the work and I did a great job! With the fantastic casting call, I gathered great talent. I bought all the props and costumes, and arranged locations; I borrowed the equipment from Uni. I assembled what I thought was a great team. The script, the shooting plan, the rehearsals, the production meetings, the cinematography planned, and the catering. I did brilliantly to a very high standard and loved it.
It took a small fortune and a lot of time and dedication to prepare for production on the weekend before Easter. I loved every second of it.
But when it came to post-production, things were looking kind of harsh.
I remember sitting a the table of my new ‘homeless temporary accommodation house”, A lovely two-bed house in Slough with a beautiful garden where I planted flowers, tomatoes, and strawberries. The flowers popped out fast. We left before we could see the fruits come out. It’s surprising that I did more work in that garden over six months than I did in my current garden over the past ten years until this summer. I went to town in my garden this summer of 2022.
The two-bed house in Slough was where my children and I landed after spending the entire Easter, by a miracle of the Universe, at a 5-star Hotel, in Hampton Court, London. We spent the first two nights in the suit nuptial, there had been a “just married” couple cancellation, and that’s where they put us. We spent the two days of filming returning to a luxurious 5-star hotel suite. But that is another story.
After Easter, I was looking at less than 50% of my footage, thinking about the mess; I could not believe it! This couldn’t be happening; what was the meaning of it? I thought. My first film!
And then I decided: I couldn’t care less about all these people who seemed to be working hard to spoil it for me!
“I am going pull this through. I’m going to make this film and nothing is going to stop me”
I said it, and I meant it. I sat at my editing lab and got on with it in good old fashion British spirit. I loved every second of cutting this film. I enjoy editing so much. My peers at Uni recognised that I am a good editor. While crafting this magical story, I fell in love with editing all over again every day. I self-taught myself the skill over my two years doing my Masters’s degree.
I’m not going to go into details about the person who held my footage hostage and never gave it back. It wasn’t pretty. Nor will I speak about the genius, beautiful shots and frames I filmed which never saw the light of day and never will, as the person said he erased my work.
Little did I know that less than a year after “She Moon, Love Spell” would feature in one of the most Important Short Film Festivals in the world Claremont Ferrant International Short Film Festival, amongst other essential festivals such as A Film for Peace in Italy.
“I had a dream, the melody of life: Love.”
She Moon, Love Spell. Experimental Short Film
Synopsis
A writer recalls an encounter with her love interest. The feelings evoked lead her to remember a chapter in her childhood when she was cast a love spell. Meanwhile, she writes a new story about the magical bond of five chosen girls with a higher purpose. The girls will cast a spell during a full moon night to affect humanity’s heart while we dream.
This Experimental short film uses narrative, poetry, music, lyrics, thought, and passion with the creative freedom to recreate a day in the writer’s life.
The five girls, characters from my novel Mystic Dream share a past, a story with a happy beginning tragic middle and a magical end. The five women carried a burden from their childhood and were crippled emotionally, each in different ways.
The fragmented narrative style of the short was conceived with the suggestive picture of the process of creation through creative thought. Passion and dreams with Love as the spurring engine of all creative outlets. The writer transforms her feelings of inadequacy into devotion for a higher form of Love. The She Moon Song takes us through the thought pattern of a brand new story she creates from the starting point of five young girls meeting in the forest with a Divine purpose at hand.
The She Moon Song by Tim Bond and Sylvia L. Johnson is Original Music from the Short Film “She Moon, Love Spell” by Sylvia Love Johnson Singers: Rebecca Lacey, Athena LeFay, Masha Warning, Isabella Speight and Sylvia Love Johnson.
The Story Behind the Scenes
Twenty years ago, while jogging by the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, I had a vision. It was the vision of a movement, and through this movement, humanity would change the course of its destiny forever: Planet Earth would become what it once was: Paradise.
This movement, being of a supernatural kind, started with the calling or awakening of millions of chosen souls, women and young girls. The chosen ones would fall sleep to allow their spirits to travel to a magic realm.
From this realm, the souls of millions would be forever touched, with the whispering pure Love into the hearts of all humans, with The Love Spell. The spell would happen during an eternal night followed by a new day where there would only be sheer and authentic Love towards our Planet and each other.
She Moon, Love Spell is a melodic representation of this vision, merely the gist of it. It is the story in my novel Mystic Dream.
The short film attempts to give a glimpse into the story and its message. Upon arrival back home after jogging, I made of the vision a rough draft for a screenplay. The completed screenplay/treatment for a feature film would still take several years to emerge, followed by the novel.
Before that, my vision became a Short Story, “Las Hijas de Isis”, 2005; shortly after I wrote a children’s theatre play, “Mi Amiga Selene”, based on the same vision. In 2011 it became a Novel, “Selene Hekate. A Mystic Dream”, and I started working on a feature film treatment for the story. On 14th February 2013, I completed the post-production period of the Short Film “She Moon, Love Spell,” produced in the U.K.
She Moon, Love Spell, was conceived as an Avant-Garde project due to a course module while completing my M.A. in Filmmaking. I went into production purposefully without a script; the challenge, coursework assignment, was to make an experimental short film; I had an idea, a few frames in mind, the lyrics of the She Moon Song and a message to transmit.
Talented composer Tim Bond became part of the creative team during the She Moon, Love Spell production. The characters in the story, Sirima, Luna, Tamara, Selene and Dama, are portrayed by the young talents Ellie Bindman, Isabella Speight, Masha Warning, Charlotte Toubloulic and Melissa Sanger and the dancer Sammi Foster incarnating a younger Selene while the leading voices in the song are from singers Rebecca Lacey and Athena LeFay and me.
Related Links: She Moon, Love Spell Youtube Trailer: She Moon, Love Spell IMDb
The Measure of Success
What is the measure of success? What would you call a success for a first short film? The answer can differ for each person, yet every answer is as valid as the others. Ultimately success is what you feel. We have more control over our feelings than we care to admit.
I didn’t feel successful about this short film for many many years. Even with the amazing and beautiful reviews I received from real people that felt touched by my work and expressed their delight in ways I’ve never heard before or after, not ever again, about any works. In ways that described me, my hopes, desires, vision and passion. They connect with me in ways I didn’t know existed. Reading their reviews I resonated with them as One.
Yet, I didn’t feel successful. I wanted fame, fortune and a real kickstart to my filmmaking career. So, what is the measure of success?
The Love Spell Poem
“Love from above shine here below. Love of the Soul let Her be whole. Love in spirit be empty of all. Love infinite be He adored. Let Love on Earth be poured. Let fear in Her Soul flee its hold. May the Joy of Love never be here untold.”
The Message in Love Spell Poem
The universal Love of Self. There is no fear in Love. Love is Divine and greater than human flaws, yet it is in every One of us. It is the purest form of Being. When there is Love, there is nothing else needed. Love in itself is everything. Love must always be declared; its power heals.
The Love Spell Poem and the She Moon Song are my yearning for grasping fully encompassing Universal Love the Love that healed me from self-loathing. A Love letter to humanity for myself.
My “We are One” Vision
The intuitive understanding of the Reality that We are One was beating loud within me when I wrote this song. We are One with each other, One with the Planet and the Universe. One collective spirit, Energy, Source. How different life is when you look at it that way. The Real way.
The She Moon Song
Suggestive and Beautiful” Per Bohlin “A lovely moment of Zen to start the day” John G.
My film Production Company, formally named HEKATE Film Works Inner Vision Pictures, released the ‘inspirational’ ‘magical song’ “True Love”, aka “The She Moon Song”, an original music theme from the Short film “She Moon, Love Spell.” Aka, “She Moon Experimental”
“Very Divine and Kudos for creativity, but most daring was the combined thrust for love, power and an in-depth display of spells…” Janet Kelly
“TRUE Love” in “She Moon, Love Spell” has been described as a “very profound chant of spiritual unknown awaken, beautifully made” The song reached a vast audience worldwide in several screenings.
As Independent Filmmakers we have to be incredibly creative and inventive, try everything and do anything possible to maximize the potential we have for projects to reach the people who would love them across all channels.
I wrote a song, but it wasn’t meant to be a song; it was meant to be a prayer, a wish, a dream, a desire for all, a touch of magic that would reach every heart. Isn’t this what songwriters intend to do with their art?
“I love the militant cadence…. Like women marching to the beat of a new world” Amy
“In stillness fulfilment is found….”
The song expresses with simplicity how meditation, visualization, and silence are the keys to bringing to the manifestation of our every desire. The song portrays the divine and magical essence in the human Soul.
Five young girls leading us onto a dreamlike adventure in the forest make it for a charming setting in She Moon, Love Spell. Fans worldwide are looking forward to the feature film based on the novel, “Mystic Dream”, which is one of Inner Vision Pictures’ future projects.
In Mystic Dream, the enigmatic character ‘Selene’ has already enchanted and captured the hearts of many readers who have genuinely fallen in love with her attributes. They have said that she is Sensitive, vulnerable, mysterious, powerful, weightless, bounces through life, full of colour, with much spirit, unique, a resonant, complex character, mystical, ethereal, surreal, seductive, sultry and beautiful. Selene leads her friends into the world of Desires fulfilled while accomplishing a mission involving humanity’s dream for Peace, Love, Joy and everlasting wellbeing
“May the love Spell Unite humanity” Chris Billy Bob
The She Moon Song Lyrics
“Mother Earth, Father heaven
here we are One
Heart to heart, soul to soul,
spirits of nature are One
Mother Earth, Father Heaven,
here we are One
With the beatings of the earth
hear the beating of our heart
Your love caress divine is the pledge
On humanity’s edge, a door concealed
Dreamers of Dreams, Makers of Greatness
Where vision lies
Where mystery hides
Without a doubt, our secret flies
Beyond the walls of unborn times
In stillness, treasure is found
Fulfilment hopes profound (Repeat)
Mother your call we hear
in the fight against our fears
We must wipe away their teas
In order to release our fears
To our mother’s womb, we shall return
Our hearts and souls shall guide us in
We raise our voice to the sky
Our voices sing to the heavens above
Hearts unbound, not cruelty found
We claim the truth
We walk the path
In stillness, treasure is found
Fulfilment hopes profound
Mother Earth Father heaven
here we are we are One
Heart to heart soul to soul,
Spirits of nature are One
With sacrifice comes a hefty price
We have no say our hands are tied
In our hearts, we hold the key
Our destiny we soon shall see
Be still be calm be forever wise,
We sleep we travel,
We close our eyes
In stillness, treasure is found
Fulfilment hopes profound
Mother Earth Father Heaven, Awake, Your heavy burden.
Joy: Overlooked and Missed
I was swamped with excellent and magical film reviews. However, I felt that the “Film Industry” was completely ignoring me. The people absolutely loved it but I wasn’t able to appreciate this love at the time when it was pouring on me.
I felt that no one pays attention to one, no matter how good or different you are. No matter how much you try or how good you are at playing the game. No one pays any attention until someone does until it is the right time. By this, I mean succeeding in the way I perceived success to be. At the time all I wanted was to get my film screened in all the leading International Festivals, and instead I got these amazing reviews from people all over the world.
Film Reviews
Original work of fine art !! Well done! Thanx for sharing. Matt Desimone
Very cool! Keep up the great work. I would love to share with you in regards to our practice, poetry. I do prose, and putting something like that background video and melody; it would be amazingly brought to life. It’s very personal to me. I would love to see it come to life. ( I am a writer, and we have similar interests. I can see the art, the beauty in your work. I am so happy to know that you have blossomed. Blessed Be. Shelli Buhr
Suggestive and beautiful. Per Bohlin
“Good artwork. Like it very much. Music, lyrics and pictures are in one mood, one wave. The feeling of innocence flows through the whole film…”
“As per my message, a lovely moment of Zen to start the day. Thank you!”
“A wonderful moment of Zen with which to start my day- thank you, Sylvia, for this intriguing short film. All the best”, John B. Gately
wow! Fantastic, magnificent, splendid. I liked it very much, congratulations. Hugs. Greetings from Brazil. José Pompeu
“Very profound. Chant of spiritual unknown awaken. Beautifully made. Although Pageant like worship.”
“I like this piece/peace….the metaphor and vocalizations are very nice. I love the militant cadence, like women marching to the beat of a new world. Thanks.” Amy
“I’m genuinely impressed. This short film is magic. It lives from camera positions, the cut and the music. Made alive by the actresses. Thanks for that, Sylvia. I will share this film with my friends. A beautiful piece of film art. When I started to watch the movie, it impacted me in after seconds and released me with the last word and fading music. I love music with your lyrics. MAGIC! My vote: 11 points of 10Martin Kwabena Schulz
Truly a beautiful and very inspirational short film Sylvia, I am genuinely very impressed, keep up the excellent work
xx God Bless you with my very best wishes to you for always. Neill Chisel
I have watched your film, and it is very magical. I have read your synopsis of the movie, so I know that my thoughts are not one in one with your intentions. But still, I felt thrown watching the film that this woman has been put down by her friend saying she is not ready for love. I think it is a universal feeling. We have all been there and will reencounter it. And this dream she is having of these girls is there to reassure her confidence in herself and love. I think the outcome is enchanting! A true woman’s work. I had this thought that I wish I had a dream like that to reassure myself, and then I realized that is precisely what your film is a dreamy boost of confidence to another woman in similar situations. 🙂 there is also some stunning photography in the movie. Thank you for sharing your film with me! Mizmor Katzman
Very divine and Kudos for creativity, but most daring was the combined thrust for love, power, and an in-depth display of spells. I liked it a good job, Janet Kelly
Very well done, I loved the singing and the camera angles and background shots. Very well done, Sylvia, very artistic. P.S. I love the sound of your voice… Steve Samson
wow Sylvia that was great. You did a fantastic job keep up the good work I enjoy the film hope to see more. xoMarie Clark
You got a lot done in very little time. Nice variety of images, sound editing and I liked the musical cues. Janis Jones
The more I view your remarkable work, Sylvia, the more I love and respect you, your job is truly amazing, and I am very proud of you, please keep up with your excellent work as I genuinely like all you do XXXX Neil J. Chisel
Truly a splendid and very inspirational short film Sylvia, I am genuinely very impressed, keep up the excellent work xxGod Bless you with my very best wishes to you for always Neil J. Chisnall
Awesome. An empathetic and emotional movie I love it Martin Di
The Misconception of Success
It took me a long time to read these, and many other comments and see them as a success. It took me over year. I didn’t get what I strived for: to be accepted in all the main festivals. I was screened in a bunch of them, but my attitude was negative. I felt like it was a failure for years. This is the danger of going after smoke: aren’t the people who go to festivals and feel touched by the art the important thing about festivals? My attitude was the injury of ungratefulness and the grotesque self-destructive effect of lack of love of the self. Here was I desperately wanting to grasp the concept of Universal self-love. We are One. Yet I was totally unappreciative of my work for not giving me the results I thought should give me.
She Moon Love Spell, initiated me in the path towards healing. I had yet a long way to go but my short film in which I dared to scream out to myself to the Universe and to humanity: YES! It’s ok to LOVE ME. I love me. I love you; WE ARE ONE! She Moon was the first step towards healing.
She Moon Experimental: The Inspiration
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be an actress. I can recall the exact day I told my mum what my profession would be when I grew up; I was five years old.
At the age of nine, I started writing stories. These stories sent me in luxurious fantasy journeys. I invented worlds, characters, thoughts and feelings with the thoroughness and devotion that only a child can have.
My characters stayed with me; they organically grew and developed as I grew and changed over the years. For instance, Selene my character from (Selene Hekate, Mystic Dream) has the exact appearance and air of mysticism that had one of my very first characters, Christine. Christine is a red-headed, ten years old girl, with green eyes, pale skin and face swamped with freckles. She is a twin sister born on earth from an earthly mother, yet she is not of this planet.
In my early twenties, after graduating from Drama school, in London. I wrote my very first full-length screenplay “Tears of Mariposa Lily”.
I was reluctant to send “Tears of Mariposa Lily” off to any producer or filmmaker who could alter or change my screenplay I decided that I had to do it myself, learn to produce and make films. Such a task seemed utterly impossible at the time.
I set off on a long journey that would take many years collaborating and helping in different productions, with talented filmmakers. Efren Gonzalez and Antonio Gonzalez, Lance Nielsen.
Then I became a wife and a mum and continued to juggle different, T.V., Cinema and Theatre roles and writing with my demanding family life. Many of my creations, such as the Selene Hekate story, emerged and developed in between breastfeeding and changing nappies. My children were born in 2004 and 2005.
Because my journey is not over, it is a life long journey, and I took this journey for the sole purpose of learning. Exhilarating! I am learning that success is when I choose to feel successful. I’m learning that to be successful, you don’t have to be perfect or anything close. You just have to be bold and get on with it. I’m learning that I’m living this life for me, not for festival programmers not for medium publication editors, for me, me alone, and zero else! Ugh, selfish. Yes, at first sight. But, no remember We are One.
The happiest most fullied me=the happiest most fullied We. I’m learning that my Higher Self is Boss, full stop. I’m learning that fear is an illusion not worth a thought. Fear has many faces, and it comes in all sort of shapes it is still fake.
I’m learning that I am; we are unstoppable. That’s the reason we here. Think about it.
“Whole desire is Creation, for better and for greatness, know that is is your higher self is in charge. Choose to listen and to raise to call or else. Whatever you do know this: Your Higher Self will never give up nor will she/he will ever accept or agree to come down to levels of fear or dissatisfaction.
When you feel the nagging feeling of Creating and you cannot live with yourself unless you do, know that’s the calling. You cannot scape it. You cannot oppose the will of your Higher Self, trying to do so by settling with dissatisfaction, boredom or mediocrity will make you miserable but it is your choice, it’s always your choice.”
Sylvia Love Johnson is the creator of the “She Moon Song” “The Love Spell Poem” and the She Moon Love Spell Short Film.
Sylvia Love Johnson is an Entrepreneur, Filmmaker, Actress, Writer, Producer, Method Acting Tutor and Acting Career Coach and Founder at Inner Vision Pictures
Sylvia is currently working on Feature film ‘Montana Mischief’ and her upcoming Series METHOD.
She is the Winner of the Best Produced Kid’s Short Film Award at San Diego International Kids Film Festival for “Art’s Eyes” 2013. Her short film “Forgotten Paradise” was selected in the Official Selection of Depth of Film International Film Festival in 2015, the official selection of the Nairobi International Film Festival in 2016 and featured in PalmsSprings Short Film Market in 2015. “She Moon Experimental” was selected in the Official Selection of A Film for Peace International Film Festival 2014 and featured at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Market 2014.
Sylvia received the Kingston University New Enterprise Award in 2011 for the self-publishing and self-distribution of her first novel “Mystic Dream”. She won the Barcelona Activa New Enterprise award in 2008 for her Award-winning Drama School “School of Theatre “in Spain. A School acclaimed by multiple professional theatre companies and casting directors resulting in the successful casting of some of her students for parts in the Hollywood Movie “Wrath of Titans” 2012
