Short Film: It's Payback Time

"It's Payback Time" directed by Adam Foulkes and Alan Smith of Nexus

An alien world comes under attack from a mysterious blue substance.  The citizens are struck down in their millions, splatted where they stand or run.  What is the cause of this catastrophe?  Can anything stop its inexorable progress?  This short was created as part of an advertising campaign launched by Channel 4 on behalf of Cancer Research UK for the Stand Up to Cancer campaign.

"We wanted to create something that would empower people to stand up and throw cash in cancer's face. We did this by literally giving cancer a face. An unpleasant, pathetic, terrified and destroyable face,” explained John Allison and Chris Bovill, heads of 4Creative, the creative team behind the short film. "Then what better way to show the epic destruction of cancer than by utilising all the tropes the modern disaster has to offer. In your face cancer.

The initial brief was to turn the table on cancer, depicting the disease as a civilization spreading aggressively – unable to prevent its own Armageddon in the style of a disaster movie.

The main challenge was how to visualize the cancer cells. We wanted to steer away from the obvious route of showing cells as a bunch of grotesque alien germs, but we were also acutely aware of not making them too human or cute."

Be a Fan