Where did the idea for this story come from?

"I think it all started when the Cleveland Kidnappings came to an end. I began paying more attention to cases of people being kept captive inside neighbourhood houses and other places people would never suspect. And that took me back to the Fritzl case in Austria. I was completely gobsmacked that, even after so many years, Mrs. Fritzl never suspected that her daughter was being kept right under her house. So, eventually one night I dreamed of this woman in a farmhouse who, through the kitchen window, could see her husband’s shed from a distance. Until one day she is all by herself and sees glimpse of light coming from inside the shed. Hence, she begins to suspect that her husband is hiding something inside the shed other than just hardware tools. On the other hand, she finds herself psychologically incapable of entering the shed and investigating it herself. Though in that dream it was unclear whether if she knew the truth, if she was too afraid to find out, or if she was delirious. Eventually, I fell in love with this atmosphere of fear, suspicion and madness combined. And that‘s what triggered A Private Session."

What was the biggest challenge in making A Private Session?

"Scheduling. Without a doubt it was scheduling. We were on a very tight budget, it was an ambitious production for the money we had, so we needed to work around that obstacle by spending more time researching locations that had all elements we needed, allocating resources, etc. For that same reason we had to spread our 8-day shoot across 4 weeks. And once time gets stretched – with continuous days off in between – you end up prone to various continuity, resource availability and weather issues. From a director’s perspective you have to be alert to the emotional arcs of the characters, knowing that you might shoot today one scene and the following scene in 4 weeks time. This may be normal when shooting a feature, not a short though. Ideally we would’ve filmed 8 days straight; but when you can’t, you can’t. So you gotta find an alternative way to get the job done."

Can you tell us a little bit about working with the cast?

"I met Amanda and Gareth while DOP-ing a friend’s project. As I left my previous job I decided to catch up with talents who were willing to collaborate in a short film – at the time I didn’t even have a script. The first person I chatted was Amanda, we met one afternoon at a café, and I told her the idea. She loved it, and we decided to meet again a month later. Immediately after that I went back home, and I felt so inspired that the first draft came out within a couple of days. I wrote the script with Gareth also in mind, but I wanted to speak with Amanda and hear who she thought would be a good name to play her fictional date: Richard. A month later we had another coffee and she told me she also thought Gareth would be the perfect Richard. I made them rehearse a lot during pre-production so we could arrive on set and get the right shots in only a few takes; we didn’t have much time, again, our budget was tight. They both worked so hard, through long gelid winter nights. And I loved how they were able to develop such complexity and genuineness to their characters, even though these characters lived in this sort of artificial, cold and harsh universe. Furthermore, Amanda and Gareth have this amazing chemistry on screen even when the relationship between their characters is inherently uneasy."

What is your next project?

"At the moment I finished writing a dark-comedy short called "An Accident" which is currently in seeking funding. It’s quite different to A Private Session, however it does bring familiarities like night scenes and tension. Besides that, I began writing a feature film which I hope to have a final draft by the end of 2015."