Filmmaker Statement

Made by director and editor Rajneel Singh, Blank Spaces was one of five finalists in 'Your Big Break': a 2010 filmmaking contest run by Tourism New Zealand that gave the finalists a chance to have their script realised with the help of producer Barrie Osborne (The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings). The brief was to "capture the spirit of 100% Pure New Zealand — the youngest country on earth". Blank Spaces was inspired by a real-life location in New Zealand called 'Lake Unknown' and the writer/director being tickled that a geographical location would have such a pointless name. When thinking up of alternate names, inspiration struck - 'Lake Dave' - and the script was written in less than a day. The script was chosen as one of the five finalists for the Your Big Break competition and the filmmakers were flown to New Zealand's South Island and awarded a $100,000 NZD budget and a film crew to make their short film into reality. Blank Spaces was filmed in 1.5 days.