Office Royale (A Comedy Short Film)

Aim

Eight employees. Eight bullets. One new boss. A comedy that takes the ordinary, kicking and screaming, into the extraordinary.

Eight employees. Eight bullets. One new boss. 

A comedy that takes the ordinary, kicking and screaming, into the extraordinary.

Synopsis

Swindon, present day. A bland, working office is shaken up when the owner of the company enters to declare, that due to legal trouble, he is parting ways with the organisation.He informs his employees that he wants to leave the company to one of them and that they are unable to leave the premises until a new boss is selected. He goes on to explain that in the centre of the room there is a crate with nine guns (one bullet in each.)

Then, without warning, the Boss collects one of the guns from the crate and uses his bullet to remove himself from consideration. Eight remain.The stunned employees have only ten minutes to navigate their new moral quandary or all will be terminated. Who lives, who dies, who gets the company, they must decide. 

Unspoken feelings, outrageous truths and unnecessary corporate jargon abound in this hilarious, and surrealist comedy that poses the question ‘Just how far would you go to climb that corporate ladder?’

Writers Notes 

Despite the seemingly dark plot of the story, what we will create is a fun, silly, surrealist comedy with heart, romance and a peace lilly.…and yes, some death.....ok, maybe quite a lot of death but think Lethal Weapon death and not Quentin Tarantino death. Think touch rugby, not rugby. Think cat, not tiger.

ALSO, We want to take this opportunity to reassure you that whilst the film does reference guns, it in no way promotes or glorifies the use of weapons or violence in the work place. We can also confirm that we will not be using live firing guns on set and that all weapons will be non firing replicas with additional sound effects added in during post production.  

The Corporate Peace Lilly*

*Please note, The Corporate Peace Lilly will be explained in the film. But for now, let us all accept it feels very weird. 

The Plant Pot

 Written by Harry Kershaw and Chris Leask, this ambitious short will be set in an office with eight very talented actors (We take that back, Harry and Chris have, OF COURSE, cast themselves in it, sorry.)    Directed by the sickeningly talent Sam Baron and produced by the incredible Nathan Craig and the available Gareth Tempest, we endeavour to create something visually sharp and beautiful to contrast the dark, silly nature of these people. Think succession meets the office (U.K. or U.S. We don’t want to get into that debate). We should also mention (Contractually we have to) that Henry Shields is our wonderful (Contractually) Exec. Producer. We look forward to having him on board (Contractually.)

We originally wrote this as part of an anthology series and decided to shorten it to ten minutes so we could enter it into short film festivals and hopefully build up a reputation to use it as proof of concept for a future series.

The Stem

Chris Leask (Writer/Producer)        This will be Leask’s writing debut having only recently learnt how to spell. As an actor Mr Leask has worked extensively with Mischief Comedy and was most recently a part of their newest show, ‘Good Luck, Studio.’ With other notable credits including; The Ark (Syfy), The Goes Wrong Show (BBC), We Hunt Together (Alibi), PhoneShop (E4), Call The Midwife (BBC) and some other TV stuff where he most likely played either Policeman 1, 2, 3 or 4. IMDB

Harry Kershaw (Writer/Producer)                                                                                    Harry claims, without any factual backing, to be more successful than Chris, though this is widely disputed. Harry is a founding member of Mischief Theatre Group and has recently been a consistent disappointment in Mischief Movie Night in which he played the bafflingly popular Delta Von Tussle. Notable credits include;  What’s new Pussy Cat (Birmingham REP), Edmond De Bergerac (Birmingham Rep), The Madness of George III (Nottingham Playhouse/NT Live), Great Expectations (BBC Films), Skyfall (MGM), Cuckoo (BBC) and many more surprisingly good credits. IMDB

Sam Baron (Director)                                                                                                       Sam has been making short films for 20 years. Given that he is now 34 years old, this means (A) he was a child labourer when he started and probably broke multiple laws by employing himself; (B) that the film industry is stubbornly refusing to let him in to make real big boy stuff; (C) that he has, possibly, maybe, perhaps learned a few things over the years and is really quite good at this kind of thing now, possibly, maybe. Sam loves comedy and has been a fan of the Mischief gang since 2011. He played hard to get for the first 10 years - so effectively that none of us paid any attention to who he was - but after racking up awards and accolades from places like the Academy Of Motion Pictures, the BFI, the BBC and other OMG-level acronyms, he is now thrilled to be working with the legendary Delta Von Tussle. And Chris. IMDB

Nathan Craig (Producer)                                                                                                  By some miracle we managed to persuade Nathan to produce our film. Why did we shamefully beg him? Well, just take a look below;

Nathan Craig produced the feature film Strings (Best Debut Feature, British Independent Film Awards). He has produced short films such as the reincarnation revenge film Comeback Kid (BFI London Film Festival and London Short Film Festival), trippy post-apocalyptic sci-fi Fruit (released by Channel 4 and Dazed) and high school horror The Devil’s Harmony (Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award, London Critics’ Circle Film Award and Raindance, Best UK Short Film). The Devil’s Harmony has been released by Disney+, Canal+, HBO, and the Criterion Collection and is now in development as a feature film with Complete Fiction. Nathan has an MA in Producing from the National Film and Television School and is a Berlin Talents alumnus. IMDB

Henry Shields (Exec. Producer)                                                                                     Henry is undeniably more successful in every way than Harry and Chris. This is not disputed. He is an Olivier award-winning writer and has been a member of Mischief Theatre since 2009. Broadway, West End, prime time TV, he’s done it all, and is no less unpleasant than he was before. But as our Exec. Producer we should probably mention his credits - The Play That Goes Wrong (winner 2015 Olivier Award), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Apollo Theatre), The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre), Groan Ups (Vaudeville Theatre), Magic Goes Wrong (Vaudeville Theatre), Mischief Movie Night,  A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (BBC1), The Goes Wrong Show (BBC1), Holby City (BBC1) and The Royal Variety Performance (ITV). IMDB

Gareth Tempest (Producer)                                                                                       Gareth is by far and away the least successful out of the whole production team.* Whilst he has worked fairly frequently in the industry, it’s mainly been in theatre (which nobody goes to**) Gareth’s main function on this project will be to keep an eye on Harry and Chris, and make sure that they don’t wander off. He will also be responsible for providing tea and coffee at any and all meetings. 

When asked why he wanted to be involved in the project he said it was because he wants to win a Grammy. IMDB

*Before everyone thinks we’re super mean, Gareth wrote this.                                    
** Harry and Chris wrote this

The Flower

Why we need your help?   We currently have £6,000 of our funding in place however we believe that in order to unlock the full potential of the project we need an additional £15,000. This money will make a huge difference to the quality of the project and enable us to make the film we want to make without cutting corners.

Where your money will go?                                                                                            All the money raised will go towards the nuts and bolts of filming the short. Location, props, camera and sound equipment, music, wardrobe and make up, post production, all crew, travel and actors (bar Harry and Chris, who will not be paid but have promised to try their best.) 

Any extra funding will be used to submit the finished product into Film Festivals including Cannes, Raindance, Sundance, Toronto, and Melbourne Film Festival.

We would really appreciate any help you can give. We truly believe in this project and if given the chance to make it, we know we can create something not just entertaining, but VERY entertaining. (When writing this, Harry said, ‘put very in capitals, it will really drive the message home’. Thank you Harry.) 

We won’t let you down. 

Thanks! 

C & H

BUT THERE’S MORE……….

What do YOU get out of this we hear you scream. Well, do not fear!

We would really appreciate any money you can give, but if you would like some cool rewards for supporting us, then please see our tier list!

Our thanks - 

This project successfully funded on 3rd January 2023