When we first started our Classics series, Chris Shepherd’s Dad’s Dead was one of the first film’s that popped into my mind as a short we just had to feature. Created in 2002 (probably just about old enough to be considered a “Classic”?), the 7-minute short went on to win over 20 international awards at film festivals and 14-years after it was made we finally shared it with you – our Short of the Week audience.

Since then, Shepherd has been one of the filmmakers regularly in touch with us here at Short of the Week HQ to let us know what he’s working on and with two shorts currently at different stages in their life-cycle, and more on the way, we spoke to Chris to get a filmmaker update on his work:

Your latest film see’s you directing a short animation in tribute to playwright Joe Orton. Focusing on the letters of complaint the writer penned under the pseudonym Edna Welthorpe – how did the project originate?

It came about because of a joke email. I was complaining about something on Twitter. I read back what I wrote and I sounded like a middle aged bore. It sounded like something from You And Yours on Radio 4. I tried to joke my out of it. Saying that there’s only one person who is good at complaining and that’s Edna Welthorpe. Edna was Joe Orton’s pseudonym for writing prank letters. He liked to use her to complain about things that were clearly ridiculous. So I suggested that there should be National Edna Welthorpe Day on twitter where everyone could complain.

Then Dr Emma Parker from the University Of Leicester got in touch and we both came up with an idea where modern writers would write new letters especially for the 50th anniversary of Joe Orton’s death on the 9th August 2017. The project is funded by the University of Leicester and Arts Council England.

We tried to capture Edna’s’ voice in the new letters. Joe used the letters to poke fun at establishment figures but Edna herself as a character was a reaction to everything he thought ridiculous. So we tried to mirror this in the writing.

The film has a fun style to compliment its playful storyline – how would you describe the aesthetic of the film and what made you opt for this approach?

On the visual side, Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell were sentenced to prison for defacing library books. They used photomontage to create subversive versions of classics . We thought about this when we made the film and came up with a photo montage approach that celebrated this with brilliant animators and designers Jocie Juritz, Hannah McNally and Martha Halliday.

The vocal point were Joe’s Edna Welthorpe letters. So we asked lots of great comedy writers to contribute including Arthur Mathews, Jesse Armstrong, David Quantick and Caroline Moran. We created some really funny letters, we even got Hollywood legend Alec Baldwin to write one. The film came out of this exploration. Alison Steadman and Robin Sebastian both voiced the Edna film.

The project has become bigger and bigger because of everyone’s love for Joe Orton’s writing. The main website goes live on the 9th Aug with the film on VOD from the 10th.

You also currently have the short Johnno’s Dead touring festivals at the moment, what can you tell us about that short and how’s the reaction been to it?

Johnno’s Dead has been doing really well. Playing lots of festivals. Annecy, Edinburgh and we have Encounters coming up and I will have a retrospective there. Its a real pleasure to get a chance to revisit so many festivals and catch up. People really like Johnno’s Dead.

What are you working on next?

I’m making a film about Brexit for French TV station Arte. It will be sad, funny and clueless, just like the real thing.