The rising director taps up Ahmed, With Love. and EFÉ as part of his new short film.

Adam Kelleher AKA Weepy Woopy has made a name for himself as the director and visual artist behind many of Dublin musician’s most arresting visual offerings. Whether that’s music videos for EFÉ or headline show posters for Ahmed, With love., he’s become a consistent force in the DIY scene.

Last night, he shared his short film ‘HOW ARE YOU’. It wrestles with the unavoidable half space people find themselves during early adulthood and the inevitable comparisons to the journey of others. A collaborative project that leans on his close circle, the film features Ahmed Karim Tamu AKA Ahmed, With love., sound from EFÉ and also stars Josh Anyae, Benedit Akemba and Tim Shearwood.

Following the release of the film, Adam spoke to District about how it came about.

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What inspired the project?

After co-directing a music video, ‘LIME’ for EFÉ I felt super burnt out. That was the first time I really worked with a big crew and although the experience was amazing I came away wanting to do something teeny tiny with a micro-budget and a near-zero crew. Ultimately I found that I wanted to comment on the stage in life I’m in right now, where people I grew up with are really growing up and I was feeling kinda alienated by the idea of maturing and taking the next step in life. I also just wanted to make something and put it out. Simple as that. 

What was the creative process like?

Visually I wanted to try to find a new way of presenting thoughts during a conversation between two people where someone may be leaving details out of a story or even lying.

I came to the flickering, 9-panel idea because I figured it would be the best way of trying to show thoughts and memories in a new visual way. I feel like I wanted to challenge the viewer to engage in a fresh filmic experience that didn’t explain everything.

I stewed over the script for a while; because the film is just a conversation I wanted to try to have it as natural as possible. But when shooting it, it was pretty free-flowing for the most part, there’s like 25 minutes worth of film of Josh and Benedit meeting and spending an evening together. 

I shot it on a little Panasonic digital camcorder by myself and I had my girlfriend do the sound. I ended up editing it by myself and reached out to one of my best friends, Daragh Lyons to do the music for the film. 

What was the intention?

I really just wanted to express a visual idea and show how I feel right now through the medium of film and hopefully have people engage in experimental storytelling. 

I find it really hard to follow through with ideas a lot of the time so it was almost a challenge to finish something and put it out.

Having not gone to film school I’m trying to find new approaches towards getting into the film industry and while also actually getting films to people. Especially with the internet I hate the idea of submitting a film to a festival and then no-one actually gets to see the film, if not for like a couple of months. I feel like film should be for the people. I think people want to see films by independent filmmakers and people just want to know that it’s possible to make stuff. I know I feel inspired by people actually finishing anything.

Watch ‘HOW ARE YOU?’ below:

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