Blood Rites BBC Short Film out on Nowness this November.

Director Helena Coan brought me in as movement director to work with the actors tasked at playing three girls who share in a monstrous secret. The physical language needed to tell much of the story and to grow as the story took hold. It was a joy working with the leads, Mirren Mack, Ella- Rae Smith and Ellis George before and throughout the shoot.

This film script by Polly Stenham is based on a short story of the same name by Daisy Johnson. The inspiring team was led by Helena, with producer Tobi Coventry and co-producer Lorine Plagnol. DOP was the formidable Simona Susnea.

Filming both indoors and in the wild gave different chances for the three female leads to inhabit the physical work in animal we had explored and it was in the outdoor filming sequences that some of the most striking transformation occurred.

Blood Rites has been competing in film festivals across Europe and the US and in a timely way at the start of the horror season, this BBC short film is viewable through the video channel Nowness.

Images are from Cinematographer Simona Susnea and official photographer for the film Christoffer Åhlén