Happy birthday, Ashes

[Above: On this day exactly 10 years ago, directing with a sprained back. Photo by Jenna Cataldo]

    Everything is so mad right now, in a very exciting way, but I wanted to make time to reflect on the 10th anniversary of filming Ashes - which was my first time ever directing a professional crew. The subject matter was very challenging, but I didn't let that put me off.

   We had the tiniest budget and it was very hard to get the film off the ground. I went and got a 'normal job' to help pay the bills, but our location still fell through twice before we finally went into production. Then a back injury left me bed-ridden and I almost physically wasn't able to do the shoot - but we did it anyway. Our expensive rented camera kit failed the night before the shoot - but we found workarounds. Nothing was stopping us by that point.

   [Note: you can see how difficult the location search was for me in this dodgily-filmed old video diary which I shot at the time: https://youtu.be/q5sTZke4AFU ]

   All the way through the hurdles of pre-production, I pictured the faces of my incredible cast, and that pushed me to keep going. I was such a newbie, but Sarah Lamesch & Adam Lannon put so much trust in me, and gave such brave, vulnerable, stunning performances which really elevated the film. I will forever be indebted to them, their talent and their commitment. 

   I'm grateful to all the crew and people who helped the film get made, but I need to say special thankyous to Chris & Rena, for offering me emotional support behind the scenes as well as managing their own roles; to Neil for showing such professionalism and creativity with such a low cinematography budget, delivering inspiration to all of us; and to Ian for making post-production so hilarious even in the final hour when we were staying up late and racing against the clock to meet festival deadlines. Our film family really was born that year.

   A lot has changed in the past decade. I've grown, learnt and created so much along the way. But I will never forget the film and people that made me who I am today. Happy birthday, Ashes.

Sophie

P.s. For more posts about what it took to make this film, just click the appropriate 'Ashes' tag, or you can read more information about how the film was shot on DOP Neil's blog.