FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Q: What was the genesis of this film, and how did it evolve over the course of development to production and completion?

"To be honest, I’ve had the title Conversations in Bed written in my notes since around 2022. The idea kept distracting me while I was developing other stories, and it grew out of my love for two-handers, chamber pieces and relationship-driven stories, particularly the apartment sequence in Breathless, which has always stayed with me.

The film is also, in many ways, an adaptation of my first funded short film Shea and Hannah, following the same type of young character through different romantic experiences. After experimenting with improvisation on my second short, Double Vodka and Blackcurrant, I became fascinated by what that approach could bring to performance and editing. Conversations in Bed ultimately became a combination of those two experiences: revisiting the story and characters of the first film while applying the unconventional, improvisational approach I discovered while making the second.

The film’s original vision changed considerably as we made it, largely because of the improvisational process. It was initially going to explore three relationships, but once Grace McMahon joined and I saw her chemistry with Jonny, it became clear that their relationship needed to be at the heart of the film. As we began shooting, I also realised that the focus needed to stay on what was happening between the actors in the room, rather than forcing backstory or off-screen anecdotes into the dialogue.

The whole process became incredibly flexible and spontaneous, with the film essentially being discovered through the performances and then shaped in the edit. In that sense, despite being a scripted feature, the two-camera setup, ability to adapt ideas on the fly and lengthy editing process made it feel much closer to making a documentary than a traditional scripted film."

Q: What did you feel was the most fulfilling element of working on this film?

"Without a doubt it was directing Jonny, Grace and Skye. Working with actors is my favourite aspect of directing and I genuinely couldn’t have asked for three better artists to collaborate with on Conversations in Bed.

Being on set obviously can be stressful at times. There’s always things going wrong. There’s always challenges and obstacles that you have to overcome. Even just to be able to get to set and film what we needed to film, to have all the stars align, was really really difficult at times. Storm Éowyn in 2025 very nearly pushing filming back by six months is just one example of many! But the happiness and excitement when I knew we got the right take. It was always worth all of the hard work needed to allow it to happen."

Q: To what extent was your on-screen talent vital to the success of the film?

"One hundred percent. I would say that about most films probably but because of the unique way Conversations in Bed was made that idea was definitely just amplified so much. I remember discussions early on about whether or not I was worried or whether or not there should be any kind of contingencies if the improv approach doesn’t work out at all on set. But I genuinely had so much faith and confidence in Jonny, Grace and Skye and they exceeded every expectation that I had too.

There were a lot of things over the course of it all that made me worry about if the film could succeed but they were absolutely not one of them. When things were tough, at the very least I always knew we were filming some really special people. It was so much fun working with them at times."

Q: What does it mean to have your work acknowledged by your peers in the Irish film community and have it showcased for consideration for the IFTA Awards?

"It really does mean a lot. Conversations in Bed is the first ever improvised feature film to come from the north and the first from all over Ireland in a really long time, so to have the opportunity to share what I’ve spent the last couple of years of my life working on with an IFTA audience is just wonderful.

The film recently experienced a lot of exposure on social media with a clip reaching over a million people, so the timing honestly feels perfect. I really appreciate the support from IFTA for showcasing our unique film to its members and I’m so excited to share the film in person which will also be my first ever time screening my work in Dublin too!"