We pooled images. We defined our palette. Because we had a relatively low budget our challenge was to figure out where to allocate the money.

It was a big expense to build the chamber set but we decided it was worth it. I was deeply impressed by the entire art department’s resourcefulness and ingenuity.

I worked very closely with my wonderful editor, Nick Meyers. Symptoms of editing, of watching the same images over and over: I picked up character mannerisms; I used lines from the film in my daily life; I went to sleep and woke up with grabs of the film playing in my head; I noticed every visual detail my kitchen had never looked so drab and dirty.

An unsung role is that of the colourist, Olivier Fontenay. We shot on 35mm film and then went to a digital intermediate. Smoothing out the visual tone was important for this film where we hold long shots and the audience really gets to see everything. It’s not like we could flash a two-second image and hope to get away with it.

- What were the circumstances behind Jane Campion’s involvement?

I was introduced to Jane Campion by the principal investor, Screen Australia. She read the script, we met, and she thankfully agreed to come on board as a mentor. It was at a period when it seemed our funding might fall through and her support was an element which helped shore things up.

We continued to meet through pre-production and we always knew she wouldn’t be available for the shoot. We reconnected in post-production. Throughout the process she reminded me to stay attuned to my instinct, to respond energetically, to service the film.

She suggested skillful ways in which I could discuss particular issues with my key collaborators. She [Jane Campion] wrote me an email after seeing an early cut. I approved the answer print on 12 October 2010.

Between June and October I must have read her heartening message about twenty times. There were many occasions when I was being battered in the high seas. Her encouragement was vital comfort and ballast. She could not have been more generous. I think of her as a part of the film.

- Why Emily Browning for the role of Lucy?

Emily Browning did a great test: I couldn’t take my eyes off her. When we spoke it was clear that the script resonated with her. She was brave; she is brave. She made the material her own in the best possible way.

I love the latent tip-of-the-iceberg feeling you get when watching Emily on screen. The sense of a quiet and deliberate recklessness. Emily side-stepped the major danger of self-pity. She made many brilliant subtle choices.

It was a demanding role and we had some big days. Mutual trust was vital to the process. I realise how lucky I was to work with Emily on my first outing as a director.

- And the other actors?

I would never say this to an actor but I do feel a strange kind of love for them in their roles. I knew Rachael Blake from Lantana and had a soft spot for her in the TV series Wildside. I find her incredibly beautiful. I wanted to avoid an overly ‘stern’ Clara. Rachael brought a depth to the role, a sense of hard-won worldly experience, a mix of genuine care for Lucy and callousness.

She is a keeper of secrets. During rehearsal I had a woman instruct Rachael in the art of the Japanese tea ceremony. This was partly to learn the steps of the ceremony but also to observe the poise and calm control of the teacher.

I knew Ewen Leslie from his outstanding theatre roles and the film Jewboy. He came onto the film very early, I didn’t test anyone else for the role. He was a true supporter of the
project as a whole and as a first-time director that trust in me was deeply appreciated. He is beautiful as Lucy’s friend, Birdmann. Lucy takes care of him; they take care of one another.

Safe harbour for those who refuse to be ‘well adjusted’. You want him to put his arm around you. Peter Carroll is a legend of the Australian theatre. I needed to cast someone who could transmit the character’s ‘truest wisdom’ directly to the audience.

Someone who despite everything was sympathetic in his own way, someone who embodied a calm - if broken - dignity. Very simply, I love his face. I think it was on the fourth take that Peter nailed his monologue. Miraculously, there was no ADR.

- What was the thinking behind the film’s sound design?

Sam Petty and I pushed the sound design as far as we could. The restrained visual style required restraint in the sound world. I wanted the audience’s attention to grow acute, I wanted the on-edge feeling you get when ‘you could have heard a pin drop’.

We used a minimal score to subtly enhance the disturbing magic of the sleeping beauty world (not minimal music itself but a minimal amount, less than 10 min). Around the time I began looking for a composer I received an email announcing Ben Frost’s involvement as Brian Eno’s protégé in the Rolex program.

I followed up and it turned out Ben had been commissioned by a friend of mine in Krakow to compose a new score for Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’. Ben was in Iceland; I was in Sydney. There was a clear brief.

Ben sent through a generous amount of material which Sam Petty and I tried out against the film. We then sent back our selections for Ben’s fine tuning. It was a deeply satisfying collaboration.

- What do you hope to leave the audience with?

My hope is that the film allows the audience to use its imagination.

Sleeping Beauty is out now.

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