Vincent Ward is the Director of Storm School and has collaborated with Rolf de Heer and Louis Nowra on the film’s screenplay. In July 2019, Vincent went to Weymouth as part of his location research and also to meet and interview Lijia Zhu and Jon Emmett, two of the characters from whom the film draws inspiration. While in Weymouth, Vincent also talked about how he came to be involved in the project, what drew him in, the elements in the story and characters with which he identified and what he thought the film offered the cinema-goer and the public in general.