High Tide has been somewhat of an auto-biographical project for me. In terms of writing, I was inspired by how my own father wanted our relationship to be after his time in prison. A personal connection to the story has helped with portraying the conflicting emotions, even just with Rob himself as he struggles with letting his father stay with him. I wanted to explore a flip in the familial hierarchy, with Rob essentially taking care of Martin. I challenged the usual assumption of parents caring for children because I felt that it not only added interest to the character’s dynamic, but it also felt more ‘real’.

When I was first brainstorming, my key topic was that I wanted to look at the relationship between two people. I wanted there to be a very clear development between the two of them over time. This made casting very important because a relationship between the two had to be manufactured. In our casting we paired the actors to see who worked best with each of them, as well as their skills as individuals. We even asked them to improvise to see how they could use their own emotions and experiences to develop their acting.

I knew that I wanted the colour-palette to be cool-toned and gritty, which fit the drama genre perfectly, and also linked well to a seaside setting. It was early on that I decided I wanted to film by a beach. Although colour palettes are often the consideration of the director and the editor, it has always helped me to imagine the tone of each scene as I write it, and how the colours in the location might represent the mood. The colours for me are always important. I have always had a very clear colour-theme for each of my projects (whether I’ve achieved that or not). For this I was heavily inspired by The Lobster directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, with the blues and browns being heavily featured.

In terms of producing, I wanted to produce this project because I wanted to develop my editorial skills. Editorial roles are my key interest as I feel I have good people-skills and I like time-management in my day-to-day life as well as in projects. Although I consider myself to be very visual in the way I work, this helps me to arrange the perfect locations, choose the right cast, as well as considering lighting and shot types well before the story has even developed. I like to combine my knowledge of both directing and producing, as it means I can consider everyone’s roles in my work and not just my own timekeeping. I struggle with having confidence in my writing, so to be able to actually organise the project helps me to apply some control over the direction in which the project takes. I also enjoy working with my team from a producer’s point of view. Taking in everyone’s wants and needs as well as what is necessary for the project helps with organising locations.

From the project overall, I want to be able to create a moving story that most of an audience can relate to in some way. Especially connecting to the characters, whether that’s individually or relating to their relationship, is definitely something that I want to achieve.

I want to be able to work along-side my crew as a team member and ensure that everyone can get as much from the project as possible. As a crew, we have worked flawlessly straight from year one, overcoming obstacles, developing our work as a unit, and helping each other as individuals. Continuing to work in this team will hopefully greatly benefit the project and we will be able to push the outcome to be the best work we have achieved so far.