Fear Of Water

'You need passion and goodwill to work on micro-budget films' says Rebecca Tranter, producer of Kate Lane's directorial debut feature film - Fear of Water.

She's not wrong there. But for your on-a-wing-and-a-prayer film to work, those dedicated and kind souls need to be armed with talent too. Which luckily, for the team behind Fear of Water, they have bags of it.

The simple, yet emotionally complex story tells of two teenage girls (seamlessly played by Lily Loveless (Skins) along with newcomer, Chloe Partridge) from opposite sides of the socio-economic spectrum, and their sexually-awakening friendship that develops one summer.

For a first feature, Kate Lane, in many respects, has been lucky albeit the lack of funding. She's managed to bring a film inspired by her own personal journey coming out as a lesbian to the screen - have it portrayed by outstanding young lead actresses, achieve both beautiful camera-work and music, and be shot on location at the picture-perfect Korda lake. However, in its current state, a couple of problems are holding it back. Firstly, the inconsistent quality of the audio and secondly, an appalling, misplaced American accent used by seasoned actress, Sara Stewart. It leaves a senseless, confusing hole in the narrative, showing Stewart up as possibly not being much of a team player and Lane's leadership, lacking in confidence. One gets the feeling Stewart perhaps misinterpreted the film's potential, expecting it to suffer the fate of many micro-budget projects that never see the light of day, instead using the opportunity to practice an accent on tape. If this is the case - how wrong she was.

My hope is that Fear of Water will raise further finance, either through private investors or Kickstarter, to rectify these technical issues and get the film out to the masses. It deserves to be seen and worthy of the festival awards won so far. Being at the helm of a production is no easy task, it's a huge, continuous learning curve. But now Kate Lane has that initial experience under her belt, I wouldn't be surprised if her directing career goes from strength to strength.