Ghostly new tale from Eastbourne film-maker

Seb, by day a physics teacher at Hailsham Community College, is delighted to get Tide of Ghosts (27 mins) (13+) out there on Amazon Prime.

Already it is picking up plenty of positive reviews through the streaming service.

In the piece, Andrew finds his best mate George reappearing to him as a ghost with unfinished business. Together they must find George’s body to uncover the mystery behind his death, helping him move to the afterlife.

Seb wrote the film with John Black. John appears in the film with Benjamin David Taylor.

“It’s pretty amazing to be on Amazon Prime.

“There is a company called Film Hub which is pretty new that takes in films and puts them on the marketplace for distributors to look at, and it got picked up.”

The film was shot in Eastbourne and Horsham in 2017-18 while Seb was studying for his PGCE in physics.

“We made the film for a total budget of £300, and we have some pretty creative approaches to how we got the shots underwater.

“I co-wrote it with John, and the usual way we work is that I come up with the premise and the outline for each scene, and then John adds this beautiful dialogue. He has got a great way of coming up with really flavourful dialogue.

“The starting point is that I have always lived in Eastbourne – apart from when I lived in Brighton for uni – and I have always had this fascination for the sea, for its beauty and for its danger.

“I wanted to make a film that highlighted both of these things.

“The film itself is about two mates, one of whom is a ghost.

“He passed away not long before the film starts, and they basically team up to try to work out where his body is. No one knows.

“It is a paranormal mystery. His memory was wiped when it happened.”

Seb is delighted with the results and with the chemistry between his two leads.

“It is just the two actors, and they were exceptional.

“We have had feedback that it is really clear that they had been mates for a long time, but in fact they had only met on set. They were just fantastic together.

“We shot both at sea and also in a friend’s pool at Horsham.

“We basically had to purchase a very cheap waterproof bag that we wrapped around the camera.”

As for Seb, he had to attach 12kg of mass around his waist and hold his breath to get the shots of the actors from underneath.

“It was quite something!”

But no, he’s not setting a quick viewing of his film as homework for his Hailsham students.

“Obviously, as a teacher you have to keep your personal life quite separate from your teaching life.

“But my professional business is online, and I teach quite a bit of sixth-form and I think some of them are aware of it. It is funny having that cross-over between the two worlds.”