Stories about creative and inventive individuals are often reserved for the triumphant. It’s not only satisfying but inspiring to see someone beat the odds and see the fulfillment of their hard work.
But more often than not, pursuits fail. People run out of time or desire, and their projects end up discarded, never to be heard of again.
But what about those who were ahead of their time and didn’t get to see their ideas succeed but inspired others to take that work and, under different circumstances, see it come to fruition? Is that not a story of success? Is not inspiring to those who put the hope of one day succeeding above being present for that success?
Filmmakers Julie Bruns and Steven Kammerer set out to tell this exact story in their historical short film “Ada.” This 18-minute film by Crazy8s Productions concentrates its efforts on showing how tenacity may not pay off when you want it to, but it may pay off when society needs it to.
“Ada” plot synopsis
Set in London in 1851, “Ada” introduces us to Ada Lovelace, a mathematician dying of cancer and earnestly seeking funds to help build what we would consider the first computer. She gathers a group of respectable men who all shoot down her claims that this machine could create text, images, and compose music from this algorithm that she has created and deny her the £50,000 needed to build her machine.
In her desperation, Ada instead challenges a gambler to place a bet using information obtained from her algorithm. The gamble does not pay off, and Ada is forced to write to her partner, Charles Babbage, and deliver the news that she has run out of time. But 90 years later, her life’s work aided another mathematician by the name of Alan Turing who finally brought Lovelace’s invention to life.
The story
“Ada” takes place in the dark, drab, yet ornate Victorian era. It’s the perfect setting to get lost in your own head and to pull those ideas out into the real world, whether it be in creative or technological pursuits. But a female who is already impeded by gender barriers only has so much pull in society.
The film is very aware of its setting. It’s darkly lit, though not sinister. It’s dialogue heavy, but not dull. The subject matter is educational, though not bogged down in mathematical and scientific jargon. The camera is positioned at interesting angles with a poignant score to keep the audience engaged. History does not dictate a happy ending for Ada herself, but the advantage of watching it as a modern audience means that we’re fully aware that Ada’s work has heavily influenced our present day world.
I love how Ada works on the floor around her fireplace bent over her work which is spread out over her area rug. It highlights her earnestness and the way her brain organizes information. She looks comfortable, like she’s playing a board game or reading a book rather than working out her equations. And the others in the household go about their business, knowing exactly where they can find her if they need her.
The characters
Despite being presented as a math genius, Ada doesn’t come across as a stuffy, emotionless stock character. Instead, she’s a very passionate and emotional character who is not afraid to wear her heart on her sleeve or apologize for being emotional. There’s no ego in her pursuits. It’s all about the promise of what her invention can bring to the world.
Think of what kind of potential treatments her machine could have calculated for her own illness and how it could have kept her around long enough to see its impact on humanity. But it’s easy to tell that Ada isn’t trying to save herself. She’s just trying to leave a legacy and attain some satisfaction that her work will live on.
Ada’s promotional skills are just as strong as her math skills. She knows how to present herself, and she brings her enthusiasm forward in her sales pitch to the table full of men who regard her with raised eyebrows and condescending responses. She doesn’t succeed merely due to a combination of her gender and the fact that her proposal is too forward-thinking for its day.
Ada’s demanding insistence to be heard also makes her a bit of a gambler. She exhausts every opportunity she can in order to find an avenue in which to bring her invention to life..
Behind Ada is her small yet loyal support system: husband, William, and her friend, Mary. They don’t share in her eagerness, but they do have her back and want to see her succeed for her own sake.
The characters are brought to life through strong performances throughout its entire cast, led by cowriter and actress Julie Bruns who can transition seamlessly from excitement to despair with a few tear-stained cheeks and the hardening of her line deliveries. These performances, mixed with an authentic-looking setting, costumes, and poignant score create a transportive experience for the viewer.
My recommendation
I recommend Ada to anyone who loves historic dramas, viewers looking for educational, quality stories, and even teachers who want to expose their students to Ada Lovelace’s life beyond a few dryly written paragraphs in a textbook. The film is well-crafted, concentrated, and shares a unique message about how slow progress really is and how it takes extraordinary people in thankless roles to move this progress forward.
It wasn’t lost on me that I was viewing this film on the very invention that Lovelace set out to create. And it was very eye opening to see text, images, and music appear on the screen in culmination and to realize how a modern-day viewer such as myself tends to take this invention for granted.
But the message here is to just do it anyway. Leave it behind, and maybe someone else will pick it up and carry that torch to the finish line. Or more likely, they will carry it to the next starting line where it can become something else entirely, just as a simple adding or code breaking machine one day became sophisticated film equipment used to tell the stories of its creators.
An interview with Steven Kammerer and Julie Bruns
What inspired the idea for this film? What do you want viewers to take away from this film?
Steven: I’ve always been fascinated by the history and philosophy of science, particularly in the 19th century, and by forgotten or neglected names of the past such as Ada Lovelace. Here was the world’s first computer programmer writing algorithms for a steam-powered computer in the 1840s that was never built, 100 years before the first computer was actually built by Alan Turing (actually, with Ada’s notes serving as one of his inspirations)!
I came across her story while reading about her father, the poet Byron. I shouted, “How is this not a movie?” and Julie shouted back, “Let’s do it!”
Julie: I was absolutely shocked that I hadn’t heard of Ada before. When I was a teen, I had dabbled in the idea of working in web development and had spent a fair bit of time learning code. And even then, even that closely associated with the tech industry, I had never heard of Ada. I never would have guessed that the world’s first computer programmer was a woman in the 1840s — that seems like something that should have been household knowledge.
I think, had that career been my passion, it would have been hugely inspirational to know Ada’s story then and to realize that women have been at the forefront of STEM fields in such an impactful way, all the way through history. It’s ridiculous that they aren’t household names.
Steven: I think Ada is a wonderfully inspirational, if also tragic, figure. I hope as her story becomes more well-known, that it inspires more young people entering STEM fields. And I’d like viewers to come away with the sense of how fragile the threads of history can be, of how different our world could have been had Ada’s circumstances been just a little more favorable to her during her all too brief life.
You each wore multiple hats in the production of the film. Which job title is your favorite and why?
Julie: Acting is my first and greatest love — there’s something magical about really getting to know a character so closely, and then bringing them to life on the screen. Especially when it’s an actual historical icon, like Ada, that’s a really special experience that comes with a lot of responsibility. There was also this sense of reaching through time to try to really see her, really understand her, and then trying to bring that forward and honor her legacy.
Steven: I have to say I enjoyed both researching Ada’s life (I read 5 biographies about her!) and directing our film in equal measure. I think it was Werner Herzog who said “read, read, read, read, read,” which I’ve taken to heart.
For me, the past is a place filled to bursting with secret stories waiting to be told – as well as well-known stories waiting to be retold from a different perspective. Directing challenges me to think in terms of bold and rhythmic sequences of images. I went through a lot training as a musician (that’s me on the piano at the end of Ada), and transferring those skills to a visual medium has been exciting for me.
The performances are very strong among the entire cast. What was the casting process like? Were there any rehearsals?
Steven: I’ve worked with Julie for years, either shooting short films or reading for her auditions, and we’ve developed a shorthand communication which helps immensely on a fast-paced set! The rest of the cast was really a joy to work with. In Vancouver — or Hollywood North as they call it — we are blessed with a deep pool of talent to draw upon. Rules for the Crazy8s film competition did restrict us to a single rehearsal though!
Julie: It was a great rehearsal though— there’s something so exciting when you finally get to hear the story come off the page and come alive in the room.
What research did you do to capture the time period in which this story is set? How did this research inform the way you approached the actual filming process?
Steven: First off, we were confronted with having to conjure the world of London, 1851 while shooting in Vancouver, which has no buildings going back any earlier than the 1880s. Luckily, we were able to shoot at a heritage house from 1890 for our interiors.
Ada lived quite poshly in a rather palatial apartment on St. James’ Square in her early life but then downsized to something more middle class just off Hyde Park later on. We went for the latter look in this film. The costumes were designed by Hayden Kruger and won the Leo Award for Best Wardrobe in 2019.
Julie: I was just amazed by all the care that the costumes and production design teams put into the tiny details. I was wearing a period-accurate corset for the whole shoot, and Hayden created that amazing dress and would sew me into it every morning.
Once I was all in costume, it just felt like I’d stepped back in time. And then the drinking glasses on the table during the dinner party scene were all actually from the 1800s. I wasn’t allowed to tap the authentic one with the knife in that scene; they had to substitute in a modern glass. A stunt glass, as it were.
Also, a lot of my lines in the film, and the entire monologue at the end, were lifted from Ada’s actual recorded letters and quotes, thanks to Steven’s careful research.
Ada not only explains that computers should be able to transmit calculations but also images and music. What features on today’s modern computers/phones do you think would most intrigue her?
Steven: I often wonder if she would be gobsmacked by the Internet and social media and cat videos or disappointed that we don’t have space stations and flying cars yet in the 21st century! She would be fiercely involved in moral debates about AI, but I also believe she would still insist upon what Alan Turing called “The Lovelace Objection” that, however amazing the feats of computers would be, they would not be “thinking” like us.
While she was a brilliant mathematician, she was also her father’s daughter and believed in the uniquely human faculty of creative imagination. Of course, if computers do one day “wake up” and develop intrinsic intentionality, I think she would graciously admit she was wrong after all.
Julie: I think she’d want to deep delve into the coding languages we have now. She’d absolutely want to get under the hood and see what’s making all these computers tick. Also, she foresaw the future of what computers would be, but I wonder how surprised she might be by the size of things now. Even the Analytical Engine would have been the size of a locomotive, now you have the Internet in the palm of your hand —it’s honestly wild to think about.
Did you have a favorite day or a favorite moment on the set?
Steven: I think my favorite moment on set was during our first set up, when I saw how pretty our frame was and realized that this rather large production (with 60 crew!) that we’d been prepping for months to shoot was successfully getting off the ground like a heavy bird. Another moment we have to mention was getting into the sound studio with our composer, Sean William, and watching him conduct a live string quartet while we watched Ada on the screen overhead.
Julie: Ohh, the live scoring was definitely a treat. There were a number of moments for me. That one was a highlight for sure, and also I really enjoyed doing the scream scene. There’s something a bit surreal about screaming one’s head off in a room full of 60 people, all trying to be very quiet.
Do you have a favorite costume or prop that is featured in the film?
Steven: Our production designers, Jennifer LeCaine and Major and their team, did such a wonderful job with those antique drinking glasses and also the actual blueprints for the analytical engine, I just loved all that. And they were nominated for a Leo Award as well for production design in 2019!
Julie: I admit, I really loved my whole costume. I actually got to keep it after the shoot. I still have it in a trunk in my closet.
As the film showcases, Ada is a somewhat forgotten historical figure. What sources do you recommend for viewers who would like to learn more about Ada?
Steven: I mentioned, there are five full length biographies. The very first one from 1977 is still the most detailed and insightful and was my go-to: Doris Langley Moore’s Ada, Countess of Lovelace. Byron’s Legitimate Daughter. Ada’s Algorithm by James Essinger is short and punchy and a fun read. The BBC has an excellent documentary about her, available on YouTube, called Calculating Ada: The Countess of Computing.
The filmmakers’ links
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Photo credit: WendyD Photos and Natalie Farrow
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I didn’t realise you reviewed films as well! I love historical fiction and had never heard of Ada Lovelace. What a great story that needed to be told.
Thanks for reading! Yes, I’m always on the lookout to review indie films and help spread the word for those who tell visual stories.