We’re thrilled to announce the winner of our inaugural staff short film competition, shooting director Joe Fereday, and his film ‘Rodent’.

In 2021 we created an ongoing initiative to give our staff (outside of Producers or Series Producers) the chance to experience the full process of filmmaking. Entrants were tasked with pitching a creative short film that fit with Silverback’s environmental values alongside schedules, logistics, budgets, and staffing. For the winner – the opportunity to produce and direct their vision, while overseeing all staffing, finance, prep and post, helped along the way with support and mentors within Silverback Films… 

This year’s winner was Joe Fereday and we’re proud of his amazing film ‘Rodent’ – a cautionary tale about a rat caught up in a dystopian future of our own making. 

Joe joined Silverback Films in 2018, starting as a camera assist filming kingfishers on ‘Our Planet’ then creating short form content for the Netflix project, he has worked as part of the Emmy award winning cinematography team for ‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet‘ feature film and more recently on the ground-breaking ‘Life on our Planet‘ series. 

“The film ‘Rodent’ has been a labour love and I am really excited to share it with the world. The short film competition has been a brilliant initiative by Silverback and I can’t thank the company enough for this fantastic opportunity.”

With a huge amount of determination, creativity and passion he’s created a powerful film that’s now being showcased and nominated for awards at film festivals around the world, including Hamilton, FilmQuest, Seoul Animal Film Festival, Imagine Festival and Brighton Rocks.

Watch the trailer below > 

Behind the scenes of ‘Rodent‘. Interview with Joe Fereday.

Tell us a little about the film

With ‘Rodent’, I wanted to find an original and entertaining way to approach existential threats to humanity, namely climate change and AI.

“Think Wall-E meets 28 days later… but with rats!” 

Often documentaries about this are set in the now but what about seeing how the future might look like in a worst case scenario for humans? At its heart, the film is a cautionary tale. I wanted to hold a mirror up to see how exploring this world may make us question if this is something we really want. 

It’s told with the sensibilities of a twisted natural history sequence that plays out in the drama of a dystopian future. The project posed an opportunity to try something different outside of conventional wildlife films, take risks and see where else we can go telling new stories about the natural world. With the ultimate aim to engage and excite a more varied audience. 

We already know the answers to solve many of the issues we face today, yet we are in an ever narrowing margin to take action. The good news is it’s still possible, so it’s important to find new creative ways to keep this conversation at the forefront and not get fatigued by the momentous task at hand. 

What inspired you to enter the competition? 

The competition allowed me to try out an idea that was little outside of the box and a bit risky. Having worked on blue-chip, which sets such a high bar for filmmaking, I was really interested to take this approach to topics surrounding the Anthropocene but from a totally different angle. The film is a crossover of drama and natural history. Something that interests me, that I wanted to explore more.  

What did you most enjoy about making Rodent? 

The most rewarding thing about making ‘Rodent’ was creating a diverse team of up-and-coming filmmakers who wanted more hands-on experience. Every person really stepped up and brought something fresh to the table. The film wouldn’t have been possible without them. 

Every aspect of this film was created in Bristol. We filmed at a shop unit in The Galleries, a studio near Clifton and we used crew who all lived in the city and all the post-production was done at Films@59 on Whiteladies Road. 

Almost all the set materials were second-hand and after which were recycled/donated where possible. As a result, our carbon footprint was very low for this film and keeping things local didn’t affect the finished product. The opposite in fact, it made things a lot easier to achieve and more manageable. 

Any final thoughts?

Rats are brilliant. I wasn’t the biggest fan before making this film but having spent so much time caring, training and filming them they really are fun, intelligent and friendly animals that have gotten a bad reputation. 

Follow Joe on Instagram @JoeFereday

https://www.feredayfilms.com/