About

It all began with a phrase: “Let’s buy some swords.”

My friend Ryan and I were training in stage combat and we thought it would be fun to shoot a few pirate scenes. Just for fun. Just because we loved it.

While we were brainstorming locations, a beautiful tall ship popped up on my Instagram. I became obsessed with it and with tall ships in general. I’ve always said that if I hadn’t found cinema as my passion, I probably would have bought a boat and lived at sea.

So I turned to Ryan and said, “What if we filmed it on a ship?” It sounded crazy.

But funny enough, a few seconds later we were both asking ourselves, “Can we actually do it?” And already started brainstorming how exactly we can do it.

If we were really going to do this, I wanted it to be a full story, not just a scene.

I asked myself: What do I really want this film to be about? Not what will get me into festivals. Or help me become a better director. Not what other people will like. Or what would be easy to do.

What do I want to see on screen?

Then, like a lightbulb went off in my head, I knew exactly what I wanted.

I wanted rival factions. Wild and free pirate women, an order of loyal, disciplined monk-warriors, a group of power hungry merchants and two people raised to hate each other, forced to question everything they had ever been taught. From there, the fantasy came spiraling out.

Being completely honest, I’ve never been fascinated by CGI, green screens, or creating everything on a computer. I understand why you sometimes have to use them, and why some people like it so much. But what I’ve always loved is creating something in real locations, surrounded by passionate people, where every set, every costume and every moment becomes real.

Filming at sea meant seasickness, tides, and the sheer logistics of just getting cast and crew on and off the ship every day. Finding the ship’s hold was its own hunt, same went for the Treeland (the only forest in this fantasy world). But it was worth every second.

Sometimes the greatest adventures begin with one reckless decision.

Mine was:

“Let’s buy some swords.”

That one decision has now grown into an entire universe filled with stories I can’t wait to tell through films, books, music, and everything still waiting beyond the horizon.

Thank you for being here.

Fair winds,

Alexandra Celestin, Creator of Tides Eye Universe