Cork filmmaker pays homage to apocalyptic TV hit in new short film

One of the most-talked about TV shows of recent weeks, The Last Of Us is a post-apocalyptic saga based on a critically acclaimed video game.

Set in a world ravaged by a disease, the series follows two unlikely companions - an older man and a young girl - navigating grief and survival in a world where moral ambiguity has become the norm.

Both the video game and television show have a massive fan following, and one such fan, Cork-based filmmaker Jay Woodard, has put his own stamp on the franchise.

Woodard’s Cork-set short film, The Last Echo, imagines that the disease that has caused such devastation is also active in Ireland, forcing the country into a post-apocalyptic crisis.

Woodard says the idea stemmed primarily from his love of the game, but he says the covid-19 pandemic made the idea a reality.

“I was a massive fan of the games; it is one of the best games of all time, and then I was blown away by the TV show,” says Jay.

“I remember spending plenty of time playing the game with my wife during the pandemic, and the pandemic brought a realisation to the whole thing, knowing that something like this could happen, so I started to think making a short film would be a good idea.”

Woodard, who made a short Western film a few years ago, has worked in the corporate videography world for several years, and decided the time was right to reconnect with his filmmaking.

“Corporate pays the rent, and I’m happy to do it,” he says. “I enjoy the job, but I want to tell narrative stories as a filmmaker.

“I recently joined Take Nine Studio in town, a studio for filmmakers and photographers with a co-working space. I met Leah Barbour there, one of the co-founders, and we started a conversation.

“We are very similar, and both loved The Last Of Us, so I suggested that we make a film together based on the franchise.”

Woodard wrote the script and was joined in the production by his wife, Jules, who is also a writer.

Barbour took on the role of director of photography for the film and handled several other behind-the-scenes duties.

The film follows Saoirse, a young woman fighting to survive in an environment where death lingers at every turn. Saoirse is played by Ballincollig actor Hannah Henchin, who was discovered by Barbour.

“Leah discovered Hannah,” says Jay. “She is a new actor, but really good and, as soon as I met with her, I knew she was perfect for the role.”

Saoirse is taken under the wing of Eamon, a man who has become separated from his family. The actor who was meant to play Eamon had to pull out at the last minute, and Woodard stepped into the role.

“I hadn’t planned to be in it. I used to act a lot when I was younger, but it has been so long since I worked as a film-maker that I wanted to ease my way back.

“I wanted to write, direct, and produce and not act because you can’t always see what is happening behind you when you’re in front of the camera, but we were stuck.

“My wife, Jules, convinced me to do it, and I’m glad I did. It was good to act again.”

Woodard, who studied film-making at St John’s and lives in Crosshaven, needed a ruined building as a setting for the film and found the perfect location on TikTok.

“We were looking at different locations all across Cork when Leah came across Heatherside Hospital on TikTok. The old hospital closed down a few years ago, and the building is empty. It was just what we needed.”

The Last Of Us has just returned to Sky for a second series, and Jay has hopes of a similar sequel for his own idea.

“We would love to make another film set in this world, and the building is so large that we could use it for other scenes, and it would look different each time.”

For those unfamiliar with The Last Of Us, describing the Clickers - deadly creatures that have arisen due to the infection - can be challenging. These beings resemble zombies and have grotesque heads.

Woodard needed to find a way to incorporate a Clicker into the project while staying within his budget.

“Prosthetics are super-expensive, and our budget was tight,” he explains.

“There was no way we could have afforded to commission someone to make an actual Clicker mask or be able to buy one, so we bought two cheap Halloween masks and asked a make-up artist, Alessia Leone, to see what she could do with them.”

The result was rather disgusting, exactly what Woodard hoped it would be!

“She took the masks down to the Take Nine Studio and used one for testing to come up with a look before making the one we used in the film.

“She came up with this really disgusting gloopy mucus look; it’s fantastic.

“Jules plays the Clicker in the film, which was a lot of fun; it’s not every day you see your wife looking like a scary creature.”

As The Last Of Us is a major franchise, is Woodard concerned that the company behind it could have issues with taking on its intellectual property? He asserts that this is not a problem at all.

“We are paying homage to them. We’re not making money off it; the film is not going to festivals. It’s like us writing a fan-fiction story; we are using the idea of The Last Of Us, but we never mention it in the film.

“If you look on YouTube, there are fan films galore with millions of views. If they do reach out, it means I’ve done something right.”

Woodard’s film The Last Echo is available to watch for free on YouTube at www.youtube.com/@JayWoodard