A FITTING TRIBUTE – the second short film from award-winning director Daniel Cormack –
began as an independently-funded short. Once shot it was selected by the UK Film Council to be a
part of its nationwide flagship completion fund that awards funding to the most promising short
films and entrepreneurial talent. The film is an unusual generic mixture which director Daniel
Cormack describes as a “surreal black comedy drama” and is already making waves at festivals,
having played at the 61st Edinburgh International Film Festival, the 13th Palm Springs International
Festival of Shorts Films and the 23rd Warsaw International Film Festival. Based on its participation
in these prestigious international events, the 35mm print of the film is currently being assessed by
the BAFTA Film Committee for a potential BAFTA Award for Best Short Film nomination.
The film began life when old primary school friends Daniel Cormack and screenwriter Ben Clover
met up to work on an idea for a film, partly inspired by Ben’s work as a reporter for the South
London Press. The film follows one unsuccessful ‘death-knock’: newspaper terminology for
knocking on the doors of the recently bereaved to get a story. “It was absolutely fascinating – as an
outsider to the world of journalism – to scratch beneath the skin of the murkier side of the job. I
knew straight away the story had huge potential.” Together they developed the screenplay and won
funding from the Lewisham Film Initiative, the area of south London they had grown up in together
since childhood. At this stage, they roped in one of Daniel’s friends from school, Will Briggs, who
runs Sunday night at the local comedy club Up the Creek and was the stepson of the club’s founder
and comedy legend, Malcolm Hardee. “Growing up in Lewisham, he was the nearest thing to
showbiz that we knew,” explains Daniel.
The power of the writing and Daniel Cormack’s award-winning first film, AMELIA AND
MICHAEL, persuaded the acclaimed actress Sally Bretton, of THE OFFICE and GREEN WING,
to play the role of Tammy, the first short film she had agreed to perform in since leaving drama
school. “The script was really intriguing and the writing flowed very well, plus I knew that
Daniel’s previous short film had been really well-received,” said Sally Bretton. The process of
getting the film finished and accepted into some of the top festivals in Europe and America was by
no means a straightforward one, however. Two weeks before filming commenced, Daniel
Cormack’s mother died of lung cancer. “At first, I did think: ‘if I pulled the plug on the whole
thing, no-one would think badly of me.’ The time is always out of joint to lose a mother, but I
realised in an odd kind of way carrying on, and doing something I’m determined to make my
career, would be a great tribute to her. I also realised how much of my own feelings I’d put into the
film which, after all, is about grief and maternal love.”
The film continued with a skeleton crew and was beset by problems. “It was an exercise in crisis
management rather than how to direct a film,” reflected Daniel. “After we finished shooting, I
thought the film was going turn out disastrously” A rough assembly of the film was sent to the UK
Film Council’s completion fund, “more out of duty than expectation,” according to Daniel. In fact,
the film was accepted on to the slate as the only film still at rough assembly stage “it was a huge
gesture of faith by the UK Film Council to accept our film when it was so far away from being
completed. I was stunned,” recalls Daniel. “It just goes to show: you never quite know what
you’ve got.”
