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I saw Shadowscan at Sundance this year where it opened for the feature Chopper. I had managed to see no fewer that four films in twenty-four hours where drug over doses both accidental and intentional, featured strongly and frankly could well have done with out seeing any more junkies and angst.

Shadowscan however came as a refreshing surprise; it tells an unusual story of an unseen reality in hospital life, using a combination of both horror and rye humor.

"One of the largest influences in Shadowscan was Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth", Tinge revealed. "There is a scene in which we were cutting between a cardiac arrest and a scene where Amir is harming himself. I wanted to break the mold of hospital drama. Move away from the ER vibe where they have steady cams circling around, with lots of movement and chaos so instead we went for a camera very gently dollying across the scene and got the sense that this was a technical situation that they were faced with a lot. A scary situation, as cardiac arrests always are, but there was a sense of calm in contrast with the more frenetic stuff of him (Amir) harming himself. We also used a device on the camera, which changed camera and shutter speed so it went from under cranked to over cranked to create a frenetic feel.

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Perhaps because of a poverty of truly striking images in the films I have seen recently or maybe the way the subject matter was handled, but Shadowscan left me profoundly disturbed and kept creeping unbidden into my thoughts for days afterwards. It was interesting that when Tinge introduced the film she said that as the audience was there to see Chopper she didn’t think it necessary to warn us that Shadowscan was quite disturbing, strangely those 10 minutes affected me so much more that the feature it preceded.

When asked about the process behind the making of the film Tinge said "The inspiration behind Shadowscan came from my own experience. I was in fact a doctor for two years, seeing what happened around me and what happened to friends.

I had always written but realized that I wanted more control over my work than just being a writer, so I went to New York and studied film at NYU.

Shadowscan is my third film, my first, (award winning)Groove on a Stanley Knife did the festival circuit and we were able to sell to Channel 4. This led to the development of our relationship with FilmFour; we then shot a 3-minute piece for them, and now with the help of British Screen, Shadowscan.

The Development period for Shadowscan was only about three months and I found the subject matter painful in many ways so it really took me a long time to decide that I wanted to write it but once I'd made the decision I wrote it in about three weeks.

Having had previous experience with Groove made Shadowscan somewhat easier as it was quite an ambitious project in terms of the psychological journeys the characters have to go on, the production design elements and in addition the DP suggested shooting on super 35 which I loved. Also I wanted to use a lot of in-camera effects rather than doing it all in post, cost was part of the reason but also for a more organic feel. We were juggling a lot of challenging elements and a lot of experimental stuff and this way we could ring protect the time and energy of the performances".

So what’s next? Well, Tinge and Justine are currently developing their next project; a feature who’s working title is Atrophy in Dreams with both FilmFour and Sprit Dance (Forest Whitaker’s production company).

I caught up with producer Justine after they received the BAFTA for Best Short Film who said "We Won! Which was a complete shock, but very lovely"

And, I might add, much deserved