LBB Film Club: Wet Fish
This short opens with quite the normal scene - a woman comes back from her shop to see her partner laying on the couch, in an obvious mental slump. She starts by asking him what’s wrong and offering alternatives to help alleviate his mood, among which is, “a slap in the belly with a wet fish.”
Out of all the options, the man catches onto this: “What did you say,” he asks. “A slap in the belly with a wet fish,” the woman repeats suspiciously. What ensues after cannot be explained, it can only be seen.
After a series of (you guessed it!) slaps in the belly with a wet fish - a director’s secret if it was a real fish or not - the man vomits a new version of himself, but with a wig on. A choir of people in yellow capes comes. An ominous message appears on screen. And more.
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Pier van Tijn and Johnny Burns about why the idea stuck out to them when Toby Williams pitched it, at a time during which the industry is quite wary of irreverence.
LBB> Why 'Wet Fish'? How did the idea come to you? What's the story?
Big Red Button> In 2019 we shot another short film called ‘Don vs Lightning’, which starred Peter Mullan and Joanna Scanlan. It was an attempt to make something a bit longer and more considered than we'd made before, and despite the fact that it turned out really well, finishing it was a slow and sometimes painful process. It doesn't help that covid-19 showed up about halfway through, ultimately making post tricky and turning most of the festivals into online-only affairs.
While we were at a small screening of the film with some friends, I mentioned to Toby Williams, who stars in ‘Wet Fish’, that after the discipline of trying to make something heartfelt and carefully crafted, we were really in the mood to do something really, really, really stupid. Toby's eyes lit up and he pitched a film where we hit him repeatedly with a fish.
LBB> What drew you to the idea?
Big Red Button> For us there's something magical that happens when you take a stupid idea really seriously and give it way more love and attention than it deserves. We like smart things and complicated things and earnest things as well, but there's something uniquely inspiring and funny about films that can't really justify their own existence.
It’s a funny time in the industry at the moment, it feels like people are quite nervous and so a lot of the work that's coming out feels pretty inhibited and cautious. That's not to say there isn't good stuff being made, but everything feels pretty considered at the moment. We got into filmmaking because it's fun, because spending an afternoon faking a vomit-birth is one of the best things you can do with your time. I think once in a while it's important for us to find an outlet for all the nonsense they won't let you put in other projects. It felt really exciting to make something irrefutably silly and pointless.
LBB> How did the casting go and what were you looking for when you cast Toby Williams and Rachel Stubbings?
Big Red Button> We had both of these actors in mind right from the beginning. Both Toby and Rachel are uniquely gifted at keeping unapologetic nonsense feeling grounded. It was really important to us that this film started somewhere very relatable and familiar and getting actors in who could create an immediate sense of characters with depth was a crucial part of that.
LBB> Tell me more about the story itself. What would you like the main message to be to audiences?
Big Red Button> “Love one another.” Was that not clear? Maybe we should have made the font bigger.
LBB> And what was that rebirth scene like to create and film? What did it mean?
Big Red Button> The birthing scene was a lot of fun. We watched a lot of videos of horses and giraffes being born as research. We worked with a great effects company called Red Girl who made all the latex and gunk and then Rascal Post helped us out stitching all of the elements together and giving it some life.
LBB> Why is the main character suddenly wearing a wig when he's reborn?
Big Red Button> One of our fans on Vimeo speculated that the whole film was an allegory for a new techno-human hybrid being brought into existence by Silicon Valley. Could be. We just do what the voices tell us to do.
LBB> What was the funniest part of this project to produce and equally, was there a very difficult part?
Big Red Button> At one point Rachel hit Toby with the fish and he farted. It was the dumbest, most puerile and slapstick moment but it took us all a good ten minutes to stop laughing. We almost gave up on the film and just put that out instead.
