Death is coming for us all. The bleak yet truthful sentiment of that sentence is the propulsive force that drives the mysterious monologuing protagonist of Matthew B.C.’s darkly comic short Death!. B.C.’s film, which we first highlighted as part of the National Film and Television School’s Graduate Showcase, is an excellent exercise in economical craftsmanship and comedy timing. Led by comedian and co-writer Abi Tedder, it skilfully mixes an unsettling claustrophobic feel with moments of pure hilarity. As you can tell, it’s a short we’re big fans of, both because it’s a clever story and also because it was created with minimal means. DN caught up with B.C. to learn more about the process of making Death!, collaborating with Tedder on the script and her performance, and the difficult challenge of manifesting their grand ideas on a shoestring budget.
What sparked the concept for Death!?
The initial concept came from Abi Tedder, who wrote, produced and stars in the film. The film is about the magnitude of death and how we cope with the shadow of that knowledge while bumbling along in the absurdity and banality of living day to day. Sometimes it’s not a convenient moment to think about death. Sometimes you’re trying to eat hummus. Sometimes you’re at the dental hygienist. Sometimes you’re buying a new fancy laundry basket to more easily separate your lights and darks. The fact that we as humans are able to compartmentalise our relatively imminent demise and go about our business is something Abi was fascinated with. I think a lot of people can relate to that deep, unsettling fear of death and those moments when that existential crisis creeps into your mundane everyday activities, overwhelms you and has to be shaken from your thoughts. We wanted to capture that feeling but in a dark but silly (and hopefully funny) way.
The fact that we as humans are able to compartmentalise our relatively imminent demise and go about our business is something Abi was fascinated with.
How was it collaborating with Abi on the project? What did she bring to the table?
Abi’s background is sketch comedy and she had a clear vision for that central performance. She selflessly cast herself as the lead, and in terms of budget, she was a bargain! We were very excited to have some incredible other performers in the production, Phil Wang, Pierre Novellie, Jason Forbes, Genevieve Gaunt make up the rest of the crew so some incredible comedy chops there. Also, a very patient and generous group of extras who braved the wind and cold conditions, mainly made up of Abi’s family and course mates from NFTS.
I don’t want to spoil anything but given the initial monologuing nature of the short, did that mean you required less production time?
We didn’t have long in terms of production days, the budget limited us to one! So we wanted to maximise what we had available to us. The camera was excellently taken care of by Dom Hopking, whom I had worked on several projects with, and the rest of the crew were largely made up of talented NFTS students. In short, we had what we needed to pull off something small-scale yet ambitious.
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Could you talk about the reveal and the challenge of pulling that off? Spoiler free of course!
Our biggest challenge was the reveal: how to capture that opening monologue without giving away the gag. Our solution was a strategic red velvet curtain that allowed the audience to join us in a Cabaret Club before we pulled back and revealed the truth. Our incredible Editor Jonny Lennard, who worked on the project for free in between his day job editing a documentary about Greggs, and the other post production team did such a great job pulling it together, keeping that comedic timing/pace and ending up, we feel, with a student project that could stand up against big budget projects and hold its own.
Death! was made during Abi’s time at the National Film and Television School. What benefits do you feel studying at the school brought to the film?
Death! was made as Abi’s graduate project for the NFTS Writing and Producing Comedy post-graduate course. Firstly, they funded the project so those sweet, sweet pennies helped a lot and then it was the people. I got an incredible mentor for my film, the Writer/Producer Anil Guptaa, legend of British Comedy and now the Creative Director for Comedy at Sky Studios, so having his input/advice was a huge honour. Our Course Leader [and DN alum] Rachel Stubbings is a BAFTA-nominated incredible writer, performer, and director, so again, having that kind of guidance and expertise was invaluable. And then it’s the students, having a cohort of comedy writing fanatics by your side as you create something and put yourself out there, and a pool of talented and enthusiastic students from all the filmmaking disciplines that would get involved was incredible.
It’s a comedy short but it’s actually quite dark thematically too. Was it a challenge balancing those tonal opposites?
Abi was looking for someone who could work with horror and suspense, which I have experience of, and I was looking for a project I could inject a bit of humour into, so I think it was perfect timing for us both. My main aim was to make the audience feel uncomfortable in the first half, something that comes across from Abi’s script, and then keep the shot selection moving once the reveal sets in. The 4:3 aspect ratio choice was also a big part of that claustrophobic feeling. We wanted to capture that feeling of growing dread and existential crisis. Our hope was a film that ended up being both deeply unsettling and very funny.
I think the absurdity of it all is what makes the film work.
It was great to work with such a great cast and their commitment to the absurdity really sold the film. Abi, in particular, gave a performance that was both compelling yet completely unhinged. I also felt the full force of Jason Forbes’ slapstick skills, which were great to see in person.
Our hope was a film that ended up being both deeply unsettling and very funny.
How did you manifest all of these ideas on a tight budget? What kind of favours did you call in the pull this short off?
Death! is a student film and we had a small budget of only £1200 so keeping within that and pulling off an ambitious reveal was always going to be tricky. When you watch the film you’ll see the one item that maxed out our budget fairly instantly! With the majority of our pennies going on that item, the rest of the production was a lot of favours and friends. We borrowed generators, made sandwiches, sneaked props, and Abi’s boyfriend ferried the cast/crew around in his van. Abi did the costume and set design, and the extras were largely other students from the course. We’re enormously proud of the final product and what our team was able to achieve with a project so tight for time and cash.
What does the future hold for you both filmmaking-wise?
I’m directing my next feature, Nowhere Bridge, starring Teddy Linard (Host) and Michaela Longden (Cara), due for release next year.
Abi is currently working on a new short film that is shooting this year, co-writing that with the amazing Charlotte Hamblin, whose short film Everybody Dies… Sometimes did unbelievably well. The film is set in a lake in winter so she’s currently navigating her ways around GoPro filming and avoiding hypothermia. Very excited to see that project come together. The working title Abi suggested was Lake Bitches but I think this will get vetoed any day now.
