Also, personally, my main drive was to write something with as much ‘acting’ in it as possible because I’m a thirsty actor and I wanted it for my showreel. Elena called me a few days later and said “Simon’s asked me to write a short film” and would I like to collaborate? I said yes.

He initially asked me for use of one of my stupid songs and I said I’d just write something bespoke and then I didn’t. Tell me about the development of the initial concept?Īmar Chadha Patel: Simon mentioned that he wanted to direct a series of shorts, all-around one to two minutes, written by different people. And so unsurprisingly we’re delighted to premiere Behind The Mask on DN today and were lucky enough to join Matthews, Patel and Saurel in conversation to discuss the benefits they found in collaborating as a trio, the film’s intentionally pretentious black & white cinematography and their shared desire to explore the essence of toxicity within the entertainment industry.īehind the Mask is a hilarious deconstruction of the showreel process. We first highlighted the film as one of our The Shortest Nights picks earlier in the year and it hasn’t left our minds since, which is a credit to its acerbic distillation of career performativity. Matthews is joined by his regular collaborators Amar Chadha Patel and Elena Saurel, who star as a pair of actors entering a mental, physical and emotional dick-swinging contest with one another in an effort to prove whose acting credentials are the most impressive. London-based filmmaker Simon K Matthews (last seen on DN here) returns to our pages today with another great comedy short, this time exploring the misplaced portentousness of the acting profession.

Look After You by Elena Matthews