I’m looking forward to appearing as a guest speaker at the upcoming Chichester FilmMakers event at The Assembly Rooms on 31st October, where Time and Tide will be screened. Tickets are available here. Time and Tide is a trilogy of short films I wrote and co-produced starring Sam West, Greta Scacchi and John Locke. Featuring dialogue in dramatic verse, the films explore how we approach the past, reconcile it with the present, and face the future.
John will be joining me on stage to talk about the making of the film and its success on the festival circuit, winning awards including Best UK Short Film at the London Independent Film Festival and Best International Short Film at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. John starred in the second short, The Last Lighthouse Keeper, which was the first of the trilogy to be filmed, on board the lightship moored on the Thames in Gravesend. John has had roles in big hitting films including The Favourite and Poor Thing, and on TV, most recently in Channel 4’s Big Mood.
Chichester FilmMaker events take place every 3 months and are attended by 100+ people, supported by industry professionals, charities, businesses, and education, with activities including networking, screenings, cast & crew calls, and production launches. The trailer for Time and Tide was shown at the last event, and I’m told it was well received, so I’m excited to find out if there’s also a good reception for the full film.
The last in the trilogy, Homecoming, which stars Sam West in Brighton’s Theatre Royal, is a spin on Odysseus myth and the first screening since the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which adds some interesting context given renewed interest in the subject.
The event itself will be something of a ‘homecoming’, as the first rehearsed reading I received for my work took place in Chichester, coincidentally also at the Assembly Rooms. The reading was for a play which I wrote at the beginning of my exploration into the use of modern dramatic verse, so it will be a great experience to return for the screening of this film.
Chichester is also just a few miles from West Wittering beach, where we filmed Greta Scacchi for the first short in the trilogy, The Arena. The location inspired the film, as I often swam there as a child, with the central idea for the script sparked by those memories.
Although I still very much enjoy being involved in live theatre, I appreciate the aspect of film that means a particular production exists as a lasting record and can be viewed in different contexts. At a time when I’m embarking on the process of creating new work, which can sometimes be daunting, it’s heartening to be able to share this work with a new audience.
