Watching – The Haunted Hotel

Reece Ritchie in Watching, The Haunted Hotel

OUT TODAY! I had such a great time directing ‘Watching’ starring @ReeceRichie produced by @NickWoolgar @FILMSuffolk Written by Daphne Fox. Eight short stories all set in ‘The Haunted Hotel’ spanning over as many decades.

I directed Watching, written by Daphne Fox back in a sweltering June of 2017. I came involved in the project as I was approached by one of the producers after a networking event by Creative England for the Talent Lab in Norwich.

I was thrilled to work with a talented cast and fabulous crew. It was the first time I had worked with Mark Mountford, DOP, but we had a similar approach to the material and quickly found a good way of working together. I found Mark very supportive of my ideas and making them work with our limited budget and resources.

The actual filming days were great fun although hard work, especially as the room was so hot! We had a wonderful production team that put the fans on after each take. As we were shooting a film about Charles Dickens, everything happened by candlelight so you can imagine lighting was of the utmost importance.

Seeing my two leads, Reece Ritchie and Richard Bates, bring the characters to life was fantastic and being able to mould their performances is, for me, so thrilling. I don’t get to do this as often as I’d like, and so I am grateful to Daphne Fox for writing the script and the producers for making it all happen.

Click here to watch The Haunted Hotel.