TEDDY WESTERN SINGS THE HITS
Writer/Director - Case Study
Teddy Western is a Sinatra impersonator in Leeds, who's been at it for so long he literally lives in the social club he performs in. When he's fired and replaced by a handsome country singer, it's time for Teddy to find out what's left of his true self.
When I started writing in December 2022, Teddy Western was my attempt at creating a Steely Dan-type character. I wanted to create a boozey, jazz-tinged loser - a man who isn't even a has-been. "Never-was" would be the appropriate term. The project was pure vibe - but over time, however, it became much, much more.
DEVELOPMENT
At first, Teddy was a Japanese ex-bank clerk, lost in the sea of a sprawling New York City. He sang a wider repertoire, ranging from Durante to Prima, and his cowboy replacement went by the name of Tommy Benson. I submitted the script for a university assessment, and a passing reference to Scarsdale, New York was interpreted as Scarsdale, Yorkshire. I chose to hold off on submitting the initial 5-page script for the Northern Film School fiction ballot to focus on realising the story further, and started by dragging Teddy and Tate (formerly Tommy) across the pond to Yorkshire. As I continued to develop the project, I saw the opportunities that this strange clash of American and British ideology presented - and "Sinatra and a cowboy walk into a pub" became shorthand when casually pitching the film later on.
After this very, very long development period, the film was greenlit by the NFS in September 2024 to be one of 6 fiction films made in our graduating year. Our script supervisor Sean had been getting me really into The Eagles, so at this point Tate was now rechristened Johnny (of "New Kid In Town" fame). You can see the original pitch and outline here.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Following the greenlight, it was time to crew up and start hunting for locations. I reunited with Rayner Goh, a producer I had 1st AD'd for on 2024's Scopa, and we built a cine team led by Morgan Foord, an art team led by Stella Wood and a sound team of James Latimer and Tom Jackson.
With the script undergoing a few further rewrites to finesse the tone and relationship between Teddy and Johnny, we began looking for locations around Leeds. We found a place that was gorgeous until they stopped responding to our emails, so we found another social club that was perfect. Later, a Google search revealed that a dead body had been found on the grounds a few years earlier, so we didn't go there. As is life.
Our above-the-line team was a little defeated. That was, until, we found Queenswood Social Club, and one of their managers, the fantastic Christine Richmond.
Here's me being very happy besides the stage. To use a cliche, it was love at first sight, and we returned to cine testing with high spirits. Myself and our DOP Morgan agreed strongly that conveying the staleness of the location was a priority - so we decided on a series of static shots that turn to steadicam as the film continues, literally conveying the destabilising of Teddy's life. Key references throughout were the work of Edward Hopper, and Martin Parr's photography of British social clubs.
CASTING
After several weeks of casting, we decided on Jeremy Rose and Jack Roper to play Teddy and Johnny, respectively. I met Jeremy at an in-person audition and he brought a great new angle to Teddy. There were times in a project with such protracted development that you just feel exhausted, but leaving the audition had me energised and excited to go forth with this new collaborator. Jack is a filmmaker himself, and was a great actor to work with as I felt we could openly speak about the process of filmmaking and he thoroughly understood what we were trying to achieve.
They were also lovely guys, and had great chemistry developing, as I learnt in an online table read.
CINE TESTING
We recce'd the location with the whole crew, and shot a proto-version of the film which was later turned into an animatic. This was an insanely useful step of production, and it is at times uncanny to see how similarly it translated to the final film. You can see the animatic below:
SHOESTRING CARPENTRY
If I say "dressing room mirror", we're imagining the same thing, right? Those big, grand vintage dressers, covered in bulbs that shine like the sun. Turns out those are really hard to find on a student film budget. But, with a bit of luck, we managed to find some IKEA lightstrips on Facebook marketplace, and I got to work refashioning a dresser into one that would be worthy of a fading star like Teddy. I would have never imagined the drill I picked up to construct Sustecorp's Obelisk would come in handy for Teddy, but there you go. Now for production...
PRODUCTION GALLERY
POST-PRODUCTION
The post-production crew of this film was, at times, a revolving door. At one point before production, we had an editor, then two editors, and then no editors, or one editor who could only do half of the work on the film due to other commitments - you get the point. We were making 16 films as a graduating cohort, and people are busy. So when we wrapped, myself and camera op Archie England stepped in to finish the film. We worked as a great team and managed to reach picture lock in about two weeks, handing off to sound and colour with great excitement to see the final film.
While sound and colour worked away, I got to work on a poster for the film.
POSTER ITERATIONS
As you can see, this took a lot of iterations. Most unfinished, some made just for fun, but eventually we got to the final poster you can see on the graphic design page of the website.
THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!
We finished the film on the 11th of May, and that's the end of that. We're currently angling which film festivals to submit to, and hopefully Teddy Western Sings The Hits will be showing at a festival near you soon. Thank you for reading - I hope this has somewhat revealed my creative process and has shown you how we could work together on a future project.
Thanks!
Evan
14/5/25