We shot this one back in August 2021. At the time, I’d had a long break from narrative work and was itching to get back involved with something fresh. Howie approached me with the idea back in February of the same year. He hadn’t quite finished the script at that point, and I didn’t get to read a draft until the beginning of the summer. I was hooked instantly. Howie is someone with a very strong sense of how something should look and feel on screen. He gave me extensive film references and mood boards, which really helped communicate his vision for the short. The film was a zero-budget production, but we in no way wanted it to look like one.

At the time, the only lenses I had were a pair of S35 cine primes, 35 & 50mm, so we used those to shoot the entire thing. I think the lack of wide angles, meaning I had to move further back for long shots, suited the piece and gave it a somewhat dream-like separation between the audience and the world the characters were in. The beach scene at the end was all shot on the 50 which added to that vibe even more.

All in all, I had such a brilliant time shooting this short. It massively helped launch me back into the world of narrative film, and I’ll be forever grateful to Howie for getting me involved.