Short of the Week

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Thriller Josh & Mitch

D.I.Y.

A broken man tracks down his wife's lover at his place of work.

Play
Thriller Josh & Mitch

D.I.Y.

A broken man tracks down his wife's lover at his place of work.

D.I.Y.

Directed By Josh & Mitch
Made In UK

Inspired to create D.I.Y. after over-hearing a conversation surrounding the dangers of fooling around with the locals in a hotel bar in Qatar, directors Josh and Mitch soon found they’d stumbled on a simple but violent act to base the narrative of their next short film around. With the line “don’t get with any locals or they’ll cut your dick off” ringing around their heads, the pair began to form a revenge thriller storyline inspired by past experiences and news stories.

The story of a man desperate for some kind of retribution after he discovers his wife has been unfaithful and centred around themes of masculinity and inner-strength, D.I.Y. is a tense and emotion packed thriller driven by a strong lead performance. Speaking to the directorial duo via email, the pair told Short of the Week about the production of their 10-minute film:

“The overall production process of D.I.Y. went as smoothly as we could have hoped, given the size of the budget and the scale of the story. The actors and crew fell into place very quickly and after a vast search the primary location was sourced, turning out to be an actual hardware store located in Earlsfield, South-West London. There were time and spacial constants on the actual day of filming in the store, given were were shooting on the Arri Alexa and the shop floor was littered with seemingly every hardware implement in existence. The blocking of the actors, in particular, and the couple of elaborate tracking shoots we had chosen really tested our skills as directors on the day. Our vision though was clear and our crew were amazing, meaning the production passed with relative ease and we’re really happy with the outcome.”

Following a fairly successful festival run, where the film has played at close to 20-festivals worldwide and picked up a couple of awards for lead actor Anton Saunders, it sounds like the experience has really whet the appetite of directors Josh and Mitch – “As a result of D.I.Y. being screened at a London film festival, we were invited to screen the film at BAFTA along with a selection of other short films in July last year. This was a real privilege for ourselves and the rest of the team, with it being displayed on their full sized screen and in such a prestigious location”.