Redshift

Redshift came about as a confluence of several ideas. I had been working with screenwriter Allan Hill for some time and we had already developed one short fantasy script exploring ideas around age and social acceptance which we were working on putting into production until recent experiences in my own life motivated me to want to explore some similar concepts in a familial setting along with some related ideas about memory, legacy and time. So I took these ideas to Allan and together we developed the core story and then draft screenplay that became Redshift. It was a story that spoke to me personally, but also offered broader questions that as a director I felt I could offer a unique cinematic perspective on.

At this stage James Hunter came onboard as producer and really helped to get things in motion. The three of us had very different backgrounds and influences and we had no budget to speak of, but we shared an ambition to do quality work and between us I was confident we could bring Redshift to life. It was through James that composer & sound designer Tom Forfar got involved, bringing another strong skill set to the table and we were ready to go into production.

Shot on a Red Epic using a combination of modern Samyang and vintage Soviet lenses, the shoot took place over three days spanning two weekends - along with a few pickups. As is often the case with micro-budget shorts it was not achieved without overcoming some fairly significant challenges.

Early on in development of the story we took the decision that the raw nature of the flashback scenes meant they would work best if largely improvised. We remained strong to this conviction throughout production, despite working with a largely non-professional cast and I have nothing but praise for each of them, who all delivered in challenging circumstances, I was very pleased with the performances we captured We knew from auditions that in Dean Cox we had a strong lead and he really brought a naturalism and intensity to the role of the father that made my job as director much easier than it could have been.

During filming it was important to me that the experience of childhood memory was vivid and so chose to capture these scenes almost exclusively in single wide frames, using cutaway sparingly and rather employing jump cuts as key memories emerge and replace their predecessors from one consistent point of view. This technique is an extension of an economic approach to visual storytelling I have come to appreciate and respect from the films of Roy Andersson and Werner Herzog amongst many others and I attempted to imbue Redshift with a similar sense of situations that potentially exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time, that may be real or a simple trick of memory.

Working to a tight schedule, with a skeleton crew, this approach also allowed us to concentrate on getting each primary shot right, rather than resetting to shoot new angles every few minutes and I believe effectively conveys the experiential realism that the screenplay was aiming for.

I hope you enjoy my first film - Redshift - as much as I enjoyed bringing it to life.