Short Film - DRAMA

Manifestation

Set in 1994, Emma and her boyfriend Samuel a head off for romantic weekend in his fathers hotel only to find the previous guests have forgotten to check out.

Manifestation was shot on the Canon C500 with a vintage Leica R prime set — chosen for their characterful colour and the slightly softer, more lived-in glass roll-off that suits a story leaning into the uncanny. Captured spherically at 16:9. We used Steadicam extensively for fluid in-hotel coverage and brought in a crane for a handful of key sequences.

The shoot took place inside a hotel with documented hauntings — and that hotel doubled as the cast and crew's accommodation throughout the production. The film itself is set entirely within those same walls: a story about people who check in, are killed, and remain trapped there for eternity. The meta layer was unavoidable. Living in the location for the duration of the shoot bled directly into the performances and the visual atmosphere — the hotel started to feel less like a set and more like a third character.

Working with Josh Groom

Josh Groom and I first met at AFTRS — he was completing his Master of Arts in editing while I was doing mine in cinematography. My first-year film at school was cut by Josh, and we've worked together steadily ever since. His love of visual arts and filmmaking is second to none, and that broad design sensibility shows up in every project he directs.

What I value most about working with Josh is his sense of story. He arrives on set knowing exactly what each shot needs to do narratively, which lets the camera serve the cut rather than fight it — a clarity that's unsurprising given his editorial background. Our collaborations have ranged from short-film drama (Manifestation) to music video (Snow Droppers — Love Letters among others), and the same principle holds across every format: pictures in service of the story.