We made Not Waving over two days filming in Southend-on-sea in Essex. I conceived of, wrote and produced the project whilst on a UK tour of Ray Cooney's award-winning farce, Out Of Order.
The inspiration for the film came from an experience I'd had whilst in Uruguay earlier in 2018. I was reading on a beach when suddenly the whole beach erupted into applause to celebrate the successful rescue of a swimmer who had been in peril. It was a profoundly moving moment, everyone coming together when we had previously been so isolated. But that unity dissipated so quickly that I began to doubt it had even happened. Returning to the UK to a backdrop of people at such odds over Brexit, it felt that we so desperately we needed a national moment of unity such as I'd experienced, on a smaller scale, on that beach. I wanted to say something about the state of Britain, which the faintly sad beauty of an abandoned seaside spoke to me of, about the beauty of a shared moment of community, something about feeling like an outsider and how those things combined can bring about feelings of disassociation.
I think the poster, which was designed by Rachel Valentine Smith of Moglich, captures those ideas beautifully and I love it.
The film has a crazyily wonderful cast. I was so lucky to be touring with such a talented group of people, many of whom are rather well known faces. I am so grateful to Shaun Williamson, Susie Amy, Arthur Bostrum, Sue Holderness, James Holmes, David Warwick, Elizabeth Elvin, Raphael Bar, Jeffery Harmer, Jules Brown, Simon Murray, Tommy Doyle for giving their time to the be part of the film, especially as they all had to be onstage at the Palace theatre that evening and also to my dear friends Andrew James Deane and Claire Dewar who drove down from Suffok to join the cast.
The soundtrack, remarkable and hauntingly beautiful, was composed by David Rowntree. A life-long Blur fan, when I received an email from David offering to compose music for the film after he saw my Indiegogo Campaign, I was positive that I was the victim of a cruel prank. But, after several phone conversations and an in person meeting I was finally convinced it was for real and so, incredibly, I get to say I've worked with David. Nuts!
I worked once again with Ricky J Payne as DOP and Editor and Mollie Hill was his assistant whilst Shelley Davenport supported me as assistant director. It was a dream team.
I hope you enjoy the film. It strikes me that the film is really rather relevant to our situation at the moment, particularly the themes of isolation and dreaming of a sunny day at the beach...here's hoping watching this will pass 9 minutes 21 of the time until we can be back on that beach in real life pleasantly for you!