‘This Way Up’ is an animated short about two undertakers, one corpse and a bungled burial …. this darkly humorous film takes the characters A.T Shank & Son from their humble funeral parlour, across country and down to the afterlife itself – all without one word being spoken.

After a falling boulder flattens their hearse, this eight-minute film follows the two dour undertakers as they battle through a series of misadventures while trying to deliver a coffin to the graveyard.

‘This Way Up’ was directed by Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith of the London based animation studio Nexus; and has been nominated for best animated short at this years Academy Awards.

“I think people like it the darker it gets. The bit where they all go underground becomes a bit of a death carnival.” Adam Foulkes.

“So that’s how our ‘Death Comedy’ was born. It’s a simple tale about a father and son who have a very bad day at the office. And how their determination to finish the job with as much dignity as possible allows them to find respect for each other. We hope you enjoy… “Smith & Foulkes.

About Nexus
Nexus have been producing animation for television, commercials, music videos and film since 1997. Their first project was for U2 ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Pop Mart’s world tour where they made an animation for the world biggest TV screen.

Credits:

directors: Smith & Foulkes
writers: Smith & Foulkes, Christopher O’Reilly
producers: Christopher O’Reilly, Charlotte Bavasso
music: John Greswell, Christopher Taylor for MPM
co producer: Christine Ponzevera
Layout Supervisor: Nicolas Domerego
Character Modelling Supervisor: Darren Price
Character Set-up Supervisor/Tools: Luis San Juan Pallares
Background Supervisor: Adam Willis
Visual Effects and Compositing Supervisor: Fletcher Moules
3D Modelling & Texturing: Darren Price, Michael Greenwood, Vincent Fiere, Ben Bigiel, Alison Bond, Nicolas Domerego, Simon Landrein, Kuba Gryglicki, Benjamin Devaux, Guillaume Julien.
Character Rigging: Luis San Juan Pallares, Miguel Garcia Lluch, Michael Greenwood, Rudi Hammond.
3D Animatic and Layout: Nicolas Domerego, Ben Cowell, Simon Landrein, Stuart Doig, Antoine Bourruel.
Storyboard Artist: James Husbands
Technical Director: Mark Davies
CG Animation: Reece Millidge, Stuart Doig, Steve Brown, Antoine Bourruel, Melanie Climent, James Wilson, Mark Davies, Roly Edwards, Dominic Griffiths, Boris Lowinger.
Digital Painting: Adam Willis, Florian Mounie, Justin Atkinson.
VFX and Compositing: Fletcher Moules, Sheldon Gardner, Jerome Haupert, Dylan White, Navid Bagherzadeh, Clayton McDermott, Kwok Fung Lam.
Voice Over Artists: Chris Grand, Marc Silk.
Music Consultant: Jonny Trunk
Song: Happy Weekend
Sung by: Ray Merrell
Head of Productions: Julia Parfitt
Studio Manager : Theano Kazagli
Production Manager: Jo Bierton
Head of 3D: Ben Cowell

Related links
www.thiswayupmovie.com

www.nexusproductions.com

BBC Interview with Smith & Foulkes