The Final Nail In The Coffin | Interview with Conor Kehelly
Irish-born animator Conor Kehelly, presently living and working in London, has created a remarkable, surreal short film that uses dark humour to discuss what it is to be a human navigating the weird and often unpredictable nature of life. The Final Nail in the Coffin is Conor’s his first film since studying at Manchester School of Art, created independently around his commercial work. Conor also lends his musical talents to the film, crafting a brooding soundtrack that carries the narrative through to its surprisingly hopeful ending.
The almost brutalist minimalism of the design, with its heavy emphasis on block shapes, texture and lack of colour, is in one regard an efficiency measure by Conor to aid in both the storytelling and animation. However, the design also lends the film an elegance that is demonstrated throughout the film, perhaps most succinctly in the opening credits in which every word of the title is connected by a single line, symbolising both the connective tissue of the story and the titular nail. This works in tandem with the humour of the film, which allows the audience to react to its darker and grander themes. Born from a promise made by an artist to themselves to continue to explore their own work after leaving art school, The Final Nail in the Coffin demonstrates a commitment to creative development and pursuing one’s own artistic voice alongside industry work.
Above: The opening minute of The Final Nail in the Coffin (Dir. Conor Kehelly)
Having been selected for various animation festivals including Monstra, Pictoplasma, British Shorts Berlin and our own Skwigly Screening at the 2023 Manchester Animation Festival as well as winning the Best Film Award at Singapore’s Cartoons Underground and Best Late Night Bizarre Award at London International Animation Festival, we were able to ask Conor a few questions and get a better insight into the film and the filmmaker himself.
How did you first come to animation?
I watched the typical popular animated shows on Cartoon Network growing up, but the thing that flicked the switch in my head for wanting to actually make it was due to having unsupervised access to the internet during the flash-animation renaissance. I was obsessed with the janky but passionate work made by these outsider artists on websites like Newgrounds and albinoblacksheep. The majority never did it for money or fame. They usually just had an odd idea, a crap drawing pad and a lot of time. I was probably 6 or 7 years old so didn’t have the technical skills to learn how to “acquire” Adobe Flash until I was 14 or 15, but the Flash animation community of the 2000s was definitely the igniting spark.
The narrative follows some pretty bizarre characters that are linked through some equally unusual circumstances, was any of the film based on real events or was it totally fabricated story?
It was completely fabricated. I think the only idea that was loosely inspired by reality was one day walking to work when I first moved to London. I walked past scaffolding and heard a faint noise of someone shouting. I looked up and a cockney guy in a high vis shouted down “Oi mate. Nice socks.” I was wearing bright orange socks.
Still from The Final Nail In The Coffin (Image: Conor Kehelly)
Your film has this brilliant surreal wit, where do you feel this humour comes from?
It’s a played-out answer probably but I think being born and raised in Belfast in the North of Ireland has shaped my humour a lot. I think the troubles really damaged a lot of people during the 1960-1980s and in doing so, it damaged their humour a bit. Now their children, my generation, have absorbed that dark biting humour without as much of the traumatic baggage that comes with it. As for it being surreal, I think that is just the result of being terminally online for my whole life. With the advent of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and the like, it is so easy to have an unoriginal thought. Every possible idea and joke has been played out, so I guess trying to find things that are still funny or thought-provoking requires us to think of ideas that go against what we think we know. Everything is hidden under so many layers of irony now that humour has become a gut instinct and it is really just hoping that the audience in some way will think like me and “get” it.
Visually you have developed a really clear identity in your work. There’s a graphical sense to your character and environmental design that feels representative of classic modernism but with a very contemporary look, where do you draw inspiration from?
My work is mainly born out of functionality and essentialism. I am one person making work in the tiny gaps of free time I can grab during the 9/5 work week. I really just got into my head that the idea is everything. The visuals are just an aid to help the idea stand up properly as best it can. I wanted to disarm the audience of prejudice before coming into the animation, so I thought if I designed the animation to look raw, sore and broken from the beginning, any small missing details and technical errors would sit in harmony with the style. The stereotype of animation is that it is for children, so to counteract that I just leaned into it with the character and set designs. Wobbly lines, building block bodies and overly expressive key poses. People think the intent of the animation is to make them laugh and hopefully, they believe that until it hits a point where they slowly realise I want to say a little bit more.
Still from The Final Nail In The Coffin (Image: Conor Kehelly)
The film was your first after graduating from Manchester School of Art, what prompted you to make a film independently?
I think the only goal I ever set myself after uni was to not make my grad film my last. I find it sad that we only really get one chance to say something with our art, before being thrown into the deep end. My grad film was not what I wanted to use as my short film career gravestone. I hope the shorts I make act as milestones in my life somehow. I have probably jinxed it now and will struggle to make anything ever again. Hopefully not though.
There’s some really strong music and sound design in the film that you also did, could you tell me about that process?
I was a classically trained double-bass player before I swerved into the animator lane. A guilty thought has always sat in the back of my brain telling me that I wasted a lot of time and money in music equipment, training and software over the years. But in starting the process of this film, I realised I could have a lot more control if I built the music alongside the film, swapping out temp tracks for my own scores. I bounced around many many genres. At one point the music was very chaotic and electronic, like synthesized jazz but as I kept building on the ending, I ended up stripping back layers and layers until it became more quietly uplifting and sweet sounding. The final result ended up being heavily inspired by the types of songs you would hear during a funeral march.
Still from The Final Nail In The Coffin (Image: Conor Kehelly)
How have you found the response to the film?
People have been very kind to my film. I think I am a very “glass half empty” type of person when it comes to my work but it is heartwarming to see people genuinely laughing and thinking about it. At least, I think they are genuine laughs. Although sometimes I am fighting imposter syndrome when my film is wedged between these big-budget grandiose shorts at film festivals, it is interesting that my film and its small humbling budget and production value seem to garner the same positive responses.
I can see from your various social media platforms that you are working on a new film, can you tell me anything about that?
I don’t know if I would call it a new short film yet. I am not sure what it is at this point. It started off as a 30-second TikTok. But I ended up adding lines and in-betweens and now it has landed somewhere in-between. I don’t want to say much about it at all yet. It may never see the light of day, but I will say that it is a lot more polarising and strange than the Final Nail In The Coffin.
Still from The Final Nail In The Coffin (Image: Conor Kehelly)
You can see more of Conor’s work and find out where his film is playing next on his website and his Instagram.