Late Splitters

Story by Jean Hogg, written by Vittoria Benedetti.

Since they were born, ISOBEL and EMILY (22) have been inseparable. They aren’t just twins; they are each other’s person, banding together when their father left and their mother shut down emotionally.

When Emily announces she is pregnant and moving in with her boyfriend, ADAM (23), Isobel is heartbroken and unable to handle this sudden loss. Overcome with jealousy and hurt, Isobel runs away; she travels to the Norfolk coast, a place of childhood holidays and sets about reinventing herself.

However, how do you be ‘you’ when the person who has always defined ‘you’ is no longer there?

As a dyslexic writer and director, I sometimes find it difficult to “work things out” on a page. I find collaboration crucial to enable productive discussions where we can “talk things through”.

As a director, I often know what I want to achieve, but as a writer, I need visual prompts to write the script. By filming the improvised story in the first instance, I have time to think and process it visually, and from this, construct the script.

Photographs are from test shots taken at Happisburgh Lighthouse, Norfolk.