On Air

On the surface, ON AIR is a claustrophobic, supernatural thriller with classic genre tropes, but things are not quite as they seem.

Working with writer Zara Symes, we wanted to explore a very real and modern subject matter within the horror genre. In this case, the idea of the ‘female glass ceiling’ where damaging behaviours occur when women in senior positions of power (who have undoubtedly worked their way up the ladder) choose to discourage younger women from following them, or worse, belittle them in order to maintain their own status quo. In a male dominated industry, some could say is unforgivable.

The film is undoubtedly from Megan’s perspective, a fresh-faced sound engineer who ultimately has the power to challenge this status quo: but will she do the right thing, or not? It is somewhat irrelevant whether we agree with her decisions or not (we all know right from wrong) but as the ending suggests, the misuse of power will catch up with you eventually and the self-sabotaging cycle is destined to go on forevermore.

This has been a collaborative project from the very start, as this film has been produced in a short amount of time with participants from the BFI Network and Bafta Crew programme for emerging creatives. We were challenged to make a film with a small team (a core group of just 5 to start!) where most of us had never met, let alone worked together before. This would have been a creative challenge under normal circumstances, but this film was also being made during a pandemic. That said, we didn’t want to make a ‘lockdown short’ and only wanted to craft a fully functioning story that live beyond our current situation. It has been a welcome distraction from the pandemic and we’ve all come together in a united vision, tone and vibe from the very first zoom meeting!

To date, most of my work has been through a comedy lens, so ON AIR presented a complete change of pace for me, which I have relished. From the get go, I wanted to create a world that felt both familiar and unfamiliar; where the space feels real, but something isn’t quite right. Working with DOP Dann Emmons, we intentionally wanted to keep the studio dark, dingy and distant - where you can just make out bits and pieces in the background that suggests we are in a fully functioning studio. But this is all a distraction to hide the true intentions of this supernatural space. I wanted to have a lot of fun with the idea of the recording studio being in limbo; an eternal loop, as demonstrated by the crawling opening shot and credits, to bookend this story. We also carefully held back specific items, like the clock (and looming deadline that is never seen) because time doesn’t exist in this world.