Death & Mrs BradyDeath & Mrs Brady was my graduation film for the University of Northumbria, shot on 16mm filmstock in March 2002 on a budget of around £2,500.
A darkly comic tale of one stubborn old woman's battle with The Grim Reaper, Death & Mrs Brady wasn't quite the introspective arthouse chore the University had come to expect from their third year students, but rather a very simple and personal exploration of filmmaking by design.
Death & Mrs Brady was my way of fulfilling a growing passion for every aspect of filmmaking, by designing a project around all the cool things I'd seen on 'making-of' documentaries: Stunt doubles, visual effects, kung-fu choreography, set design, make-up, costume design - I wanted to try it all. And so I did.
The finished result was a surprisingly polished little movie, worth far more than the sum of its parts. Tireless attention to detail and beautiful performances from everyone involved turned what could have been a tragic attempt at replicating hollywood into a genuinely charming short film that scooped the 2002 Keith Bell/Neil Marshall Prize for Best Film and received a Royal Television Society Commendation at the North East regional awards. |
