EN8 Productions

Jordan: We like layered stories about culture and disguising them as comedies. Joe suggested the initial hook, serial killers who live together, trying to keep it secret; Tomasz took that and wrote this incredibly funny script about this awkward Victorian couple.

Joe: The soul of this project is love. It is a profound human emotion found in many of our actions and subconscious. The idea of two killers in love with their passion but falling out of love with each other creates an interesting concept which I feel grabs the audience’s attention.

Tomasz: Fundamentally, the project is inspired by real people and events. The characters featured in the project are caricatures of reality: the controlling girlfriend, the socially inept boyfriend, the insufferable jazz pianist.  The idea that the protagonists are hiding aspects of themselves (their love of killing) to protect their relationship is an allegory…

Jordan: … In other words, it’s our documentary about West London. 

Tomasz: To create a humorous film exploring secrecy and classism, to make the viewer feel conflicting emotions. The core of the story is the classism, our upper-class protagonists display obvious signs of superiority through their dialogue and actions, the secrecy is fundamental to the plot and hard to miss through fumbled explanations of blood stains, hiding body parts in the house, etc. Crucially this secrecy is catalysing a rift in the relationship of our protagonists.  When they learn that they are both serial killers, the empathetic viewer may be inclined to feel joy over the couple’s newfound love.  However, the fact that their bond is found through a mutual love for killing is a sharp pull back to reality. All the while, we’re trying to make you laugh –

Jordan: – Juxtaposition, so you almost feel bad for laughing – 

Tomasz:  – a portion of the comedy is achieved through improvisation, there is a scene where one of the protagonists is cooking and Jordan directed him to ‘chop the broccoli as if he had never cooked before.’ The result is an impressive display of incompetence. Another fundamental comedic driver is the music.  Elements such as the pizzicato strings, wonky melodies, unresolved dissonances, and drastic contracts create a comedic setting.  

Jordan: It’s the tragicomedy for me. The killings being just a tool that show that by even existing, these two characters are causing harm to others in such a passive way they literally can’t notice was something I felt had potential for comedy and horror.

Joe: I feel we borrowed aspects of the Addams meeting British satire and emotional unavailability. Crucially, we needed talented actors who could portray these characters. I felt there was a lot of depth poured into both protagonists – which is the true beating heart of this short film.

Jordan: We pre-produce like mad, to the absolute fine detail and consider that the ‘crash plan’ in case nothing creative comes up, so we’ve got something to fall back on. We don’t take ourselves that seriously – and that gives us the space to take our projects seriously, while making everyone feel creatively comfortable and free to suggest and explore ideas. 

Tomasz: Once the central themes of the film were established, we entrusted a great deal of creative freedom to each member of the team to ensure that everyone could put their best foot forward.  As we had a small team – our writer, producer and sound engineer was the same person – it was easier to make sure everyone one was on the same page.  

Jordan: – and our director, editor, cinematographer… Small teams do make it easy to communicate. One of the joys of working indie is there’s no-one with the money, breathing down your neck with ‘their idea of how it should be.’ It’s more like gardening than fascism, see how it grows. & it’s got to be said we work really hard, wonky hours and stay in pretty close contact during post. 

Joe: through excellent time management, good communication and a lot of fake blood we fused together something. Lots of collaboration and shared roles helped form this piece. I think I have, like, 3 credits in this film as actor, producer and cinematographer which is the charm of indie film making.

Jordan: This was pretty smooth, to be honest – but that was because of pre-production –

Joe: – we had to come up with clever ideas to create gore and limbs. We had to do a lot of work with camera angles and one take shots – 

Jordan: – yeah, the biggest challenges were emergencies, last-minute location change – easily fixable – & a failing gore effect – which was a change in camera angle and tone in edit. We were fortunate in that the most difficult stuff to shoot was the gore effects, and the story wasn’t really about that, so they could be like icing rather than the base. 

Tomasz: The largest limiting factor was budget, We had to be frugal – The cake is a plastic box covered in icing.  Finding beautiful locations to use a sets on a budget is always difficult, but we pulled it off by utilising places such as friends’ houses that we could use for free.

Jordan: I absolutely love the party scene. Everything about it. I think the whole cast is funny, I think we nailed the comedy timings, I think it’s weird and awkward and horrible and the colours are disgusting and everyone is annoying and it’s a perfectly captured a millennial house party – and editing was just a joy – the cast was so great, being able to play and discover in the editing how bumbling-ly funny Matt Paul was, and how desperately frustrated Rosy Addison was, and their chemistry together was a real joy to watch and tweak. Top stuff, that. It’s what I’m here for. 

Tomasz: I’m proud of the music just before the credits.  That motif was hinted and developed throughout the film but finically it shines full glory at the end.  To achieve this composer showed miraculous restraint – but I did compose this so I am probably biased!  The scene where the female protagonist is hiding the blood on her face by turning away from her partner is incredibly well shot and acted – I also think we did a great job casting our protagonists.  

Jordan: Yeah, agreed. Rosy and Matt are just brilliant. The casting was a creative decision there was absolutely no anxiety about. 

Tomasz: One of the lav mics was facing the wrong way during the dinner scene. It was a pain to fix in post, I won’t do that again. 

Jordan: I mean, There’s dream camera rigs I would use, a couple of tricks I wanted to try, mostly it was tight time and low budget – but that’s part of what pressures you to come up with creative solutions. Really, I liked hanging out with those awful characters. I wanna make more stories with them.

Jordan: I think we’re very proud of ‘seven times’ in a different way to the feature we’ve just made. Our feature film [THE ENABLERS. (2026)] is very personal and more experimental, it’s a raw scab – and this short is deeply considered and reverse engineered. It’s a real exercise in disguise, where our feature is, in many ways, quite earnest. So, speaking for myself at least, I’m proud of the way we’ve managed to vary the expression of ideas. 

Tomasz: To be honest I don’t feel qualified to answer this because I’m looking to break into the industry myself.  

Jordan: Agreed. Just make your thing, don’t take yourself too seriously and be kind to those about you. 

Joe: Focus on yourself, make the film you want to exist, make mistakes and watch anything and everything for inspiration.

Tomasz: We wrote up documents detailing each characters traits and motivations and sent it to the actors.  We also had meetings with the actors beforehand to iron everything out.  Our lead actors didn’t need lots of direction one the day because they had studied their parts well and were well prepared.

Jordan: We worked with Rosy before, so we how to communicate with her and that she is golden, and auditioned Matt Paul, and his take on it was hilarious. It was slightly different to the initial idea, which was better than what we had. We’re big on rehearsal, and spend most of our short time rehearsing together, including several hours rehearsing the morning of each shoot day. In direction, I try to give tones rather than controls – and then in editing I slightly reshape scenes. For me it’s always more about the heart than the specifics.

Jordan: I trust Tomasz absolutely in his musical ideas – and I think him having wrote the script gave him a hands-on unique insight into the story film composers don’t often have.

Tomasz: We also had a few meetings with to discuss moods, hit points, key beats and setting. Some of the music was written before the film was shot so [Jordan] could edit with the music.  However, most of the music was done in post-production.  

Jordan: Open ears, really. There wasn’t much on this project. As a creative partnership we’re constantly workshopping ideas from the initial concept, through the writing, through the shooting to the final edits & I think it’s given us a lot of practice in listening to each other and taking new ideas on board.