lipstick | Natasha Lay captures the feeling of being 18 again

“This is so embarrassing,” admits Natasha Lay. “Everyone says ‘write what you know.’ So, I wrote what I knew.” What she’s talking about is an experience in a bathroom around 10 years ago, which is being realised in the micro short Exeter Phoenix Commission lipstick.

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The incident took place on a New Year’s Eve. “It was always a big moment for me,” she says, and lipstick is a coming of age story that reflects that. And it is the passage of time that solidified the story and made it shareable.

18 again

“It wasn’t until recently that I felt it’s time – I can do this story now,” she says. When she pitched it to the Exeter Phoenix commissioning panel, she felt 18 again – transported back to when it happened.

The story follows Lucy, a reserved 18-year-old, and her extroverted new friend Rachel in the women’s bathroom of a bar, touching up make-up and chatting.

Bathroom issues

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lipstick is set in a contemporary bathroom. And there are pros: a single location, indoors, with no natural light, so the environment could be controlled.

And cons. “I realized that a lot of bathrooms are quite small, and a lot of bathrooms have big mirrors,” she says, making finding a suitable one, and then being able to film in there something of a nightmare.

The short was initially intended to be made in Devon, but Natasha moved back to Aotearoa New Zealand. A change which meant she had to re-start the process from scratch.

Inspiring DOP

“Having moved back, it was actually quite difficult finding a bathroom that would work.” The venue that she found was incredibly accommodating. Even then there was a lot of climbing over cubicles and being clever with shots and space, but Tash had found an inspiring DOP in Sofi Issak-Zade.

“She was just amazing. She was really clever about where to set up and how to maximize the space that would be as nimble as possible. It was a good challenge, and the constraints dictated some of the film.”

If the confines of filming was new, Tash’s theatre background meant she had previous experience of both casting and recasting. And to do so, she leans into vibe, interest and availability.

Vision

“It’s good to have a vision,” she says. “It took me a while to cast one of the characters, because I wanted to get the right person.”

Rosalind Lay-Yazdani bagged a role when she and Tash were working together at a box office for a film festival.

Perfectly serendipitous

“She’d recently graduated from drama school, and after serving a former drama school classmate, she started talking to me about her post-graduation insecurities. There was something about her earnestness and willingness to be vulnerable that got me – it was almost like a monologue. It wasn’t an audition, but it was perfectly serendipitous,” says Tash.

Plus Tash was determined to work with an all fem crew. And hitting the jackpot with her DOP opened the door to other contacts.

Camaraderie

“I was really lucky that I basically got what I wanted,” says Tash, and she would love to work with them again. A stand-out moment came from the set dressing. Turning the bathroom into one at a music venue wasn’t just fun, it was a great way for the cast and crew to get to know each.

“We all took turns, getting markers out and scribbling on the mirrors and scribbling on the cubicles. It was a nice little moment of everyone having a bit of fun and pitching in – the sense of camaraderie was really nice. I felt so supported by my crew,” says first time director, Tash.

(And yes, it was all cleaned up afterwards.)

Turns out, plenty of seminal moments happen in bathrooms, whether that’s coming of age, connecting. Or making movies.

lipstick premieres during Two Short Nights at the Exeter Phoenix