Don't Fear Death - Louis Hudson - Freelance Animator & Director

“TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE END OF YOUR LIFE.”

A fast-paced comedy arguing the joys of being dead, aided by a montage of corpses and a dance-crazed Grim Reaper.
Starring Rik Mayall. Produced in association with Lupus Films for Channel 4 as part of their Random Acts strand.

CAST:
Rik Mayall, Marc Silk, Myles McLeod

CREW:
Directed and Animated by Louis Hudson
Written and Produced by Ian Ravenscroft
Associate Producer – Ed Bye
Sound – Mark Ashworth
Music – Rob Connor
Animation – Ross Butter, Jo Hepworth, Ian Whittle

Thanks to: Chris Shepherd, Ruth Fielding, Jon Petrie

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:

The sudden and tragic death of Rik Mayall was a loss for generations of comedy fans and has robbed the world of one its most irreplaceable humans. The morbidly ironic fact that this film is now one of his last projects thankfully hasn’t been lost. It’s nice of people to think that this would have been a fitting two-fingers to the world on the way out. From my point of view it’s hard to tell if the humour of the film’s been tainted as Ian and I felt quite close to him. But maybe everyone else can just see his vast body of hilarious work and incredible life for what it is. I just keep hoping that he faked it and has been in on the joke the whole time.

The aim of this film was to twist the connotation of death in an absurdly positive way, while still making a rich, layered film that rewarded multiple viewings. Hopefully we’ve created a 3 minute film that you could happily watch on a loop for 15 minutes.

Starting with Ian’s great script, we weaved in as many jokes, visual gags and plot twists as we could. When Rik added his glorious performance, the ambition of all aspects of the production were raised. A lot of attention to detail was spent on the character animation, music and sound design to heighten every laugh and to bolster Rik’s voice at the forefront of the film.

Here’s some lovely outtakes from great man himself:

Over 50 characters were created to make the film feel like it was exploring different aspects of a world, rather than just a series of isolated events. Using a brightly lit ‘90s throwback world full of lumpy worn people gave the film a grubby kitsch which felt right for a cast that are being eyed up as potential corpses.

While the film is a series of vignettes with a punchline, the actual plot is non-linear. When put in order it is about a criminally insane butcher who poses as a pilot so he can crash a plane. Although partly told in the real world, most of the scenes occur within the pilot’s imagination. Plane passengers are addressed to as he places them in scenes, and he envisions himself as the Figure of Death.