The Ghost On The Bridge
The Ghost on the Bridge is based on Maria Johnsen’s horror novel. The film was finalist in 13horror film festival back in 2018 and currently is streaming on Amazon Prime
This film is also distributed and streaming in North America, UK, Asia and the Middle East in 2022.
Writer and Producer: Maria Johnsen
Cinematographer: Pascale Neuschäfer
Cast: Andrew Shire, Elena Harding, Niamh Blackman
Music Composer: Mark Smith
Production: Golden Way Media Films
THE FILM
The Ghost On The Bridge is a paranormal horror story based on Maria
Johnsen’s novella. It was shot on the Richmond Bridge in London, the
United Kingdom.
LOGLINE
A writer uncovers the mystery of his missing wife through some
paranormal activities in his house which lead him to the bridge where
she was last seen.
SYNOPSIS
Set in 2018, since his wife, Julia, disappeared two months ago, John has
not been able to finish his book. His daughter can’t pay the bills with her
low income and keeps asking her father to sell the house. Some
paranormal activities start to happen in the house which leads John to
uncover the mystery of his wife’s disappearance on the bridge
THE ORIGINS
The Ghost On The Bridge ‘s entire production took eight months. The
aim was to create a short film to portray dealing with grief in form of
paranormal ghost story. It’s about love, family values, sacrifice and
endurance in the time of trouble and financial difficulty.
The film aims to intrigue and engage the audience. The script was
revised many times and has come a long way to its predecessor. The
project was ready for private screening on July 30th 2018
PRODUCTION
The inspiration for the movie dawned on me in February 2018. Interestingly, the category of movie that appealed to me is paranormal horror movie.
The narrative of it focuses on a male character that searches enthusiastically for his lost spouse until he discovers her ghost on a bridge. My vision in this project was to talk about love, family, faithfulness and grief in form of paranormal horror with traces of psychological thriller. I wanted to make it on low budget. I wanted with use of lights; VFX and sound create interesting scenes. I imagined my film would look like a gloomy rainy day in Egham in Surry, UK on the Bridge when John my hero meets the ghost of his wife. I wanted to use these imageries to express my vision to
the potential director of my film. It wasn’t easy to produce this short. I faced with financial difficulties. At this point, it seemed like there was no way forward. A deep feeling of frustration and resentment began to creep in. While I endured obstacles, I remained undeterred and I created budget and schedule for my short film.
I could not move my 16 members of casts and crew to Egham in Surrey County due to the budget problem, so I decided to shoot in London. All bridges were too experience £200/hour, finally Richmond Bridge authorities and police agreed upon shooting on the Richmond Bridge. This is one of the busiest bridges in London. Some told me it’s madness to film on such crowded bridge and it never work. Interestingly, the funds came in from one of my digital marketing gigs which was £7,500. I decided to use this hard-earned money for my film. As the filming date approached; it became imperative that I get a director and DP. I interviewed 200 British actors during 8 months in order to find the ones who matched with my story. I finally chose the right actors. They expressed their commitment to work with me on the project. Their optimism energized me and strengthened me to devote more energy. We shot in London on June 22end 2018, one of the warmest days in the history of London. It took 3 days shooting.
I had to change the script because in the script it supposed to be a rainy day but when the shooting day came the weather got too hot and sunny so I had to change the script and reschedule. The entire camera and lighting equipment had a value of £1,500,000 which was insured for £50.000.000. We filmed on FS7 4k camera with Samyung kit lenses.
POST PRODUCTION
We embarked on the task of editing the film and this wasn’t particularly easy. Alex Pink the director who supposed to edit, emailed me and wrote he could not do it. So I hired a new editor Daniel Haywood and at the same time a music composer.
Editor: Daniel Haywood
MUSIC SCORING AND COMPOSING
Mark Smith the film composer composed and scored the music based on my requirement. I chose Alternative Gothic genre for my film. It matched with texture of my story. I gave him one of my lyrics “The Garden of Eden” from the book of poetry Bavarian Lover
Cast
Andrew Shire as John Baker
Elena Harding as Julia
Niamh Blackman as Rose
Behind the scenes
As a producer I took care of my cast and crew. I created a friendly and stress-free environment on set and provided excellent catering, snacks and beverages. After production they all looked forward to working with me. Everything was done systematically and on time.
While the office of a producer is prestigious, it comes with a lot of responsibilities as the entire process rests on one’s shoulders. However, there is that adrenalin rush and excitement that comes with it too, the entire process was successful and concluded well. From my experience, I learned that food, remuneration, and other relevant logistics are imperative. Indeed, I gained immeasurable insight and experience from the entire undertaking. I came to the realization that an impressive financial plan and properly handed documentations can facilitate the filming. Hiring the right crew is imperative in order to create a harmonious environment during shooting. I equally discovered that workshop for an actor is imperative in order for them to settle into their characters quickly.
About the producer and writer:
Maria Johnsen is a film and television writer, director and producer. She has published 21 fiction and nonfiction books which are on sale in bookstores and online. Maria runs Golden Way Media Films a production and development company in London, UK.
Maria Johnsen is also director and founder of Golden Way Media an award winning multilingual digital marketing company in Norway. In 2016 she was ranked #6 digital marketing influencer in the world by Onalytica Company who runs Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) solution in the UK and U.S.A. She was also ranked among top 100 global artificial intelligence A.I and Fintech influencer by the same company.
Maria Johnsen holds a degree in political economy, Beauty Arts from Sorbonne University in Paris, BA in Information technology, BA in informatics, Master of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Johnsen graduated from Royal Holloway University of London, where she received a M.A., in Film Production, with an emphasis in Writing, Directing and Producing Film and TV.
She was mentored by Jonathan Cavendish Golden Globe Award Winning Producer of Bridget Jones Diary. Mark Dormer executive producer (BBC), Jonathan Powel the former head of BBC1. Gillian Gordon award winning film and TV producer. Her script writing mentor was Nicholas Martin BAFTA award winning film and TV screenwriter. One of his amazing works was Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg.
In 2019 Maria received The International Star Award for quality leadership, innovation and excellence. The convention was held in Geneva Switzerland.
Currently Maria has two commercially viable film projects in pre-production and looking for sales agents, film studios, film distribution companies to help with investing and financing.
