The split vision hammerhead goggles, which the boy wears in the film, serve as a powerful metaphor for a split family and the story is built around it. How did this metaphor come about? Where did the idea come from?

It was already in the script when I got it. I said let’s make a new film and I put a call up for scripts and got a big pile of them. And as soon as this script came on my desk, I just immediately fell in love with it. It was just so visual – the idea of these goggles and this kid being in the middle and being able to see two sides beside him. It’s just a wonderful visual tool. I just fell in love with this device straight away and I just knew I had to make this film.

Were did you get the goggles? Did you have to go shopping for them everywhere?

We actually built the goggles. My sister Kate is a production designer and she knows this guy who is a mask maker. We showed him the script and he made the goggles. We got two pairs made up. They were actually quite expensive. I still have a pair and I have given one to the writer as well. They were quite complex to make. The base is taken from snorkel goggles. There are various layers of latex and then light bulbs for the eyes. It took him quite a while to make it but I was very pleased with it.

What did you do with the camera to get them to work?

We just shot from both angles and the rest was post-production. We just shot it straight and made sure that the character was in the middle of the screen, so it gave it a feel of a kind of push and pull image. And then we put fish eye effects on it in post-production. So the whole effect for hammerhead goggles is all done in post-production. We also came up with a way to show Rielly Newbold, the child actor, how they worked. If you put two very small mirrors in front of your noise and just angle them slightly toward your eyes, it gives you the same image as the hammerhead goggles. And it’s quite a trippy thing because your eyes don’t really know what’s going on. And it’s quite painful.

And Antonia Campbell-Hughes? She is cast in Bright Star, Jane Campion’s new movie about the poet John Keats.

Yes. She is really good. She’s also been in a TV show called “Lead Balloon.” She was great and she managed to get the whole kind of sultry outsider side of her character.

Why did you choose the script?

I chose the script because I’ve come from broken family as well, so I can see what it’s like from Boris’s point of view. I know what it’s like to be a boy whose parents are divorced and kind of wanting them to get back together. But I think that my parents, my family situation is actually better now since they are not together. I think that we should celebrate dysfunctional families a little more because the dysfunctional families actually can be functional. And that is why I wanted the film to have quite an upbeat ending with them all walking into the distance happily-ever-after. I believe the family structure doesn’t have to be two parents and 2.4 children. I think it can work out in many other different ways if you have the right attitude towards it. I do not see a reason, if everyone is understanding and respectful of each other, why it can’t work. The other reason was that I used to go out with a girl that had a young boy. So for three years, I was kind of like a stepfather to him. So I knew the complexities of the Lilah situation as well, coming in as an outsider and trying to fit into a family that is going through stress. I know how difficult it is. When you are in a relationship like that, the kid is always going to come first, no matter what. That is what Lilah realizes at the end of the film.

We get a lot of films on this topic – disconnections that make the connection. It is very evident in the world now.

I want to try to show the light with all my films. I want to show at the end of my films that there is hope and there is future and it’s not bleak. I want people walking away from the film with a smile on their face, with a sense of hope and that the future is going to be all right. There is enough doom and gloom without having to see it in the cinema all the time.

What makes a good short film?

You need a good strong script with a strong character going through some kind of an emotional journey. I think the biggest mistake that a lot of short filmmakers make is that they aren’t exactly clear on what the single theme of the film is. I think you’ve got to pick that theme and stick with it. And try to show it the best way you can. You also need to get the best people around to work on your film. I am not talking about going to some big hot shot with a great agent and stuff. I mean just pick someone you can communicate with, who is on the same level as you and work with them as a team. It’s all about creating a great team. You then progress together.

This is yet another short you worked on that has a potential of a feature film.

Well, Hammerhead was originally a feature. Basically, we took the first opening scenes and developed it into the short. Actually, the feature and the short are two very different animals. But essentially it was a feature at first with just Lilah and Boris going on a road trip together. Andrew Yerlett, the writer, is an absolute inspiration and we are developing feature films together now. One of those funny things when you are director who doesn’t write your own stuff, which I don’t, is that if you find a writing partner who is on the same level as you, wants to tell the same stories as you, has the same sensibilities, it is absolutely gold dust. But we found each other and we will continue working together hopefully in the future. And I compliment his writing. His scripts are very funny and he sees them as comedy and I see the serious side to them as well. So we got a very nice balance between us.

This is your second film at the Manhattan Short Film Festival. The first one was King Ponce in TK.

Yes. And I am very proud of that. You know why? I am very proud of that because it’s the best fucking short film festival in the world, in my opinion. Because you do not get another film festival with as much exposure around the whole world and it makes me really proud to think that it’s going to have over 500 screenings in 30 countries. You just can’t beat that. At the end of the day you make films for the world to see and you guys do that at Manhattan Short Film Festival You really try to unite the world with your films. That is just mind-blowing for me. I am a very proud man. Twice now.