Celia and Paola began discussing ideas that they could turn into a live action short film back in June 2003. ‘I was aware of Cinema Extreme and having seen Celia's rocking animation ‘Historia del Desierto', I felt she had the necessary skills to transfer from animation into live action. Celia has the right sensibility and a very unique style, which could appeal universally, yet was so typically hers. I remember falling in love with Celia's initial pitch. At the time, it was just a germ of an idea, but retrospectively the core of the story (i.e. a boy who works nightshifts longing to meet the girl on the dayshift) was already there. The idea then grew organically inside Celia's head over the next three months and by September 2003 we had a very strong first draft'. – Paola recalls.

‘The film explores our fear of change'. Celia adds – ‘Steve and Robert work at night in the 24-hour convenience store and Every New Year's Eve they recall how so little actually changes in their lives. Working the night shift has become a shell that protects them from the outside world'.

After receiving the news that the project had been selected for Cinema Extreme, Celia began considering what music would best bring the story to life. ‘I don't know if I could have been able to cut this film silent and then give it to the composer to create a soundtrack afterwards. – Celia recounts. ‘For me music is so important and intrinsic to the film that I need to start working on them both simultaneously. The edit affects the music, and the music affects the edit'.

As in her previous short, Celia wanted a band that has a distinctive sound to create the music for the film. ‘The Archie Bronson Outfit were recommended to us by a journalist friend of Paola's and we went to see them playing in the Barfly a long time ago around March 2003', - Celia recounts ‘We liked the way they sounded. Their music had a harsh quality to it that I felt would be the perfect balance for a melancholic story such as One Minute Past Midnight. We just asked them if they wanted to make music for a film and they said yes. So from that point on we had a series of meetings. They composed the songs before the film was actually shot, on the basis of the script and the storyboard. So during the shoot, the actors were dancing to the actual songs, and during the edit the film was cut to the actual soundtrack.

Celia and Paola worked closely with Casting Director Joan McCann to find the two lead actors. Because Steve and Robert spend years working together in the shop, they are really buddies so the challenge was to find two actors that would not just look good together but that would feel comfortable with one another so that an audience could really believe they are friends'. When we first saw Stan Robinson for the part of Robert we just fell in love with him. ‘Stan was a clear choice from the beginning' – Celia comments. ‘He had the perfect balance of surreality and seriousness that the script demanded as well as the ability to appear vulnerable and sweet. The character of Steve, on the other hand, is a less tormented personality than Robert. He doesn't waste his time in endless reflections: he gets straight to the point. For him the reality is what he sees in front of his eyes: everything has a simple explanation'. The main challenge for an actor in playing Steve was not to turn him into some sort of ‘dumb disconnected idiot'. Alex (Alexander Perkins) got the balance absolutely right and the chemistry between them shone through in the rehearsals.

Shooting took place in the third week of April in one single location in Hackney and lasted 6 days, including one day for the exterior shots of highrise blocks at night.

‘The biggest challenge for me as a previous animation director was to work with a crew' – Celia reflects. Suddenly you have a team of people who are there to help you create the film. Understanding that your job is to tell them what you want felt quite strange in the beginning. But then I realized how difficult it is to communicate to others your personal ideas, many times coming from very deep levels, sometimes being very subtle. It's very easy for a fragile and subtle idea to get killed in the communication process. In my experience as an animator, however, ideas don't have to be expressed, as I was at the same time the cinematographer, editor, and designer. However live action is a whole different way of working, and I was so happy to have a supportive group of incredibly talented people focusing their energy and creativity into the film. I was also amazed at the speed in which the original script turned into a completed film. If I think of the 11 months it took me to finish my 6-minute animation Historia del Desierto and I compare it to the 4 months of One Minute Past Midnight, I realize how refreshingly fast live action can be, in terms of having a vision and turning it into reality'.