Nightwalking is a deliciously simple idea yet one that resonates with almost everyone who has read the screenplay or seen the film, male or female. The idea came about after the screenwriter, Ben Clover, and I were discussing situations where we’d been in the same position as James is in the film. The interior monologues Ben wrote in the screenplay turned what was an interesting idea into a micro-short comic gem. I also recognised in the atmosphere of threat and paranoia – and the ‘glam-ed up’ dress of Martha on her way back from a night out – the opportunity to pay subtle homage to one of my favourite movie genres: film noir. Lighting the Thames-side path in Greenwich (near where Ben and I grew up) in chiaroscuro fashion, going dutch on some of the angles and cutting from muted colours to black-and-white (which represents Martha’s imagination of the threat coming behind her) laid out the generic territory of the film to the audience, whilst also setting up a comic subversion of the genre. To give the film a more contemporary feel – and also as an evocation of Martha’s frenetic mindset – we gave the film a pacey edit, incorporating a series of jump cuts and in doing so I think we avoided straying too far into pastiche or parody of the film noir genre. The slapstick ending and the cliffhanger of the mobile phone calling James’ Mum, seemed like the best way to end the film without allowing it to overstay its welcome. After all, there is a delightful irony that the biggest danger is not rape or assault, but a prosaic health and safety hazard and the misunderstanding and miscommunication which is the subject of the film becomes emblematize by that quintessential device of modern ‘communication’: the mobile phone.
Daniel Cormack, Director, Nightwalking