A Woman Frantically Searches for Her Phone in Short Film ‘Lost Without You’

Whether you’re about to head out of the house, or you’ve spontaneously realised that you don’t know where you’ve put it, the moment of panicked realisation that comes with misplacing your phone is something every person can relate to. No matter how meticulously organised you might be, no matter how consistently you return the phone to its charging spot between uses, somehow, some way, at some point, you will randomly put it down with the assumption you’ll pick it back up shortly, only to later discover you have no idea where you left it.

This emotional rollercoaster – and subsequent search process – is exactly what the short film ‘Lost Without You’ captures. A fitting name, considering our general reliance on our phones, director duo GoshDamn cleverly bring the entire experience to life through original writing, relatable, humorous characters, and an all-too realistic depiction of retracing one’s steps with a slight sense of panic. Without spoiling the ending, it also comes with a great twist, which you can see for yourself, below.

To learn more about how the film came together, and the desire to dip their toes into short film production, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with GoshDamn for a chat.

LBB> Where did the idea for ‘Lost Without You’ come from? What made the idea of telling such a relatable, human story so appealing?

GoshDamn> A long time ago, we had a brief that was about a device which finds your phone for you. Sadly we didn’t get the job, but we had a blast writing a treatment and for some reason, that idea really stuck with us. It felt like such an easy little story to tell.

We always want to make films that people can relate to, in both our personal and commercial work. For us, we find the most mundane and insignificant moments in everyday life the funniest and the most relatable.

LBB> What was the creative process like? How did you work to flesh everything out and develop the story?

GoshDamn> Our creative process is very much about making each other laugh or smile. We talk all the time about little annoyances, things that have happened on the way to the shop, something we saw the other night, etc. We then take that little nugget – whether it be a line of dialogue, a character, or a visual gag – and build on it.

For this, we talked a lot about inviting other people into the writing process and helping us make it better, but we wanted to see what we could do first. It felt like a good opportunity to test ourselves. We talked about how deep we could go, and how extreme we could make this very silly concept.

LBB> How did these discussions translate into the final script? What did it take to bring everything together, and why did you want to end with that specific twist?

GoshDamn> You know the classic ‘where are my glasses? Oh they’re on my head…’ thing. The phone being on her the whole time was a modern take on that. Also, after building up the pace and drama, we loved having a punch line that was as simple as the phone being there all along.

The other huge element, for us anyway, was how we could hide the phone throughout the film. We wanted to do just enough that you could see it if you were looking, but not enough to give the joke away so quickly. That one element ended up dictating the blocking, the performance, the camera angles – everything, really.

Ultimately, we wanted a little Easter egg that might make people watch again, and see if they can spot it!

LBB> What was pre-production like? What did it take to get everything ready for shooting?

GoshDamn> It was quite simple, really. The brief we set ourselves was to make something attainable that didn’t take up our entire lives. We just wanted to make something fun… and good.

In turn, that meant we were super efficient in pre-production, mainly due to James Dearden, our producer, being so damn organised and one step ahead of us.

As per usual with us, we shot and tested the whole thing with Tim Fok (DoP) in one of our houses. That was to try and work out the framing, see what lines didn’t land, and ultimately make the shoot day extremely efficient. Basically, we treated the whole thing like one of our commercial projects.

LBB> Of course, finding the right actors to bring it all to life would be imperative. What was the casting process like? How did you find the right people for the job?

GoshDamn> Oh man, Andrea Valls was absolutely the right person for the job. Many years ago, we worked with her on a very corporate project. Since then, we’ve kept in touch – sort of – and when we started to imagine who the right person might be to take on the role of Steph, she popped into our mind. I think we sent her our test film and the script, and honestly, that was it.

(Sidenote, she describes herself as having a Play-Dough face, and whilst we think she has a very lovely face, she does indeed have the qualities of Play-Dough too).

For the voice of Lucy, however, things took way longer. We just couldn’t imagine the tone for so long. We batted ideas back and forth for ages, and in the end, we shot the film and cut it before we finally reached out to Charlotte Ritchie. We’ve been huge fans of hers for many years, and we were completely stoked that she was keen on the idea. She didn’t make too many changes to the lines we wrote, but her delivery was totally different to how we had imagined it. She brought that fine balance of funny but stern and in control we were after.

LBB> And how did the shoot itself go? Do you have any anecdotes from on set?

GoshDamn> The shoot went very well. Honestly, there is very little to say – it was extremely efficient and smooth throughout the day. Sure, there were a few little hiccups, but nothing that wasn’t solved incredibly quickly by the sensational group of friends we had with us.

From the start, we knew we wanted to run this like a commercial project. We allowed for time to dwell and test things on the day, but everyone knew what the deal was. We are always very keen to maintain a fun and warm atmosphere on set, so we didn't want to push people beyond the long day we already had planned.

Ultimately, it was like having a second chance at making our student films again… with years of experience and a little more money. In fact, one of the team members, Flaura Atkinson, our wonderful friend and editor, was from our student film days, cutting our student films for us back then! Full circle!

We stayed in the property we shot in, James got up and made bacon sandwiches for everyone, and Dan made a vat of overnight oats (which everyone agreed were surprisingly amazing). There was a storm at lunchtime, so Mark Holownia (gaffer) and his team of sparks strapped down the lights to our car to keep them from blowing away (we’re pretty sure there was duct tape involved as well).

LBB> Speaking of preventing gear from blowing away, what sort of equipment did you use to bring ‘Lost Without You’ to life, and what inspired your choices?

GoshDamn> A minimal kit is the honest answer. Again, we pulled favours from everyone on this, including Emmyland and Firebug. So, all Tim had to do was put together a humble(ish) wish list of kit, and they basically got as close as they could to it for us.

For us though, we were keen to focus on performance, dialogue and editing. This film, ultimately, was for us all to play around with snappy dialogue and have the camera accentuate those beats.

LBB> Your use of creative camera angles to depict the search looks amazing! What inspired these, and how did you use these plus cuts to achieve your desired aesthetic?

GoshDamn> Why thank you! It was all about having the camera help elevate those little moments and find unique angles that made the audience feel like they were on the search with Steph.

I think the original treatment (that we lost, but which inspired this film) had really wild camera angles like probe lenses in food jars, a fortress of dirty washing on the floor, reaching deep behind the sofa and the arm going on and on and on. It was all stuff we would have loved to do, but we just didn’t have the time or money. Instead of seeing this as a negative, we just leaned into what we did have and made every angle and performance work that little bit harder to do the job.

LBB> In terms of look, colour and feel, what were your main aims and ambitions? And how did you approach achieving them, both on set and in post?

GoshDamn> This is a short short film, and we knew we wanted to leave an impact, so the colour and texture intentionally has a commercial feel to it. There’s a certain amount of vibrancy and pop, without feeling too ‘much’.

Obviously, with the limitations we had, we needed to lean into the location we had, first and foremost, and then build out the look from there. Tim and Lou Foley (production design) did an incredible job of making the best of what we had available. Then, for Karol Cybulski (colourist) in the grade, it was a case of playing with how far we could push the look so it felt fun and fresh, but not distracting to the story.

LBB> One of the standout elements of the final film is the aspect ratio – tell us about this! What inspired your choice here, and how did it lend to the overall feel of the film?

GoshDamn> We just love that 3:2 ratio. It’s got that medium format photography quality to it, making every frame feel carefully composed, and that’s how we like to work. Especially in performance stuff like this, it just feels made for portraits of people.

Granted, we didn’t always love this. Like lots of other filmmakers, we were grumpy when people wanted to take a slither of our beautiful 16:9 frames and only use that bit on the internet. But instead of pushing against the wave, we started working in a more square ratio, which meant we could get frames closer to that vertical slither and still maintain some of the beauty.

LBB> Aside from this, what were some of the biggest challenges you encountered while filming, and how did you overcome them?

GoshDamn> When you're working on a short film with effectively zero budget, you're always mindful about the good will that crew, locations and talent are giving you, and you try not to squander it. So, trying to find that balance of pushing for the takes we wanted, but also not wanting to take the piss and create an overly long day for everyone was the biggest challenge.

LBB> In the same vein, what lessons have you learned throughout this entire process?

GoshDamn> Great question! We set out to make this film as a bit of a test for ourselves, and so we’ve learned a lot.

Firstly, writing dialogue is fun. We’d love to do more of it, but we’d also love to work with a writer next time. Someone that takes the bare bones and can flesh out these ideas of ours.

Secondly, the short film scene is brutal. We’re honestly not really into the ‘short film scene’, as we’ve never really made shorts before, but dipping our toes in, we’ve realised this whole scene is super hard working. We just wanted to make a film for fun, but when you start to explore all the factors of what makes a short film successful – apart from being a good film or not – the odds are mega slim, and the work involved behind the scenes is epic. Kudos to everyone out there making shorts!

LBB> Finally, are there any elements of this project you’re particularly proud of, or scenes which mean a lot to you?

GoshDamn> We just hope people spot the phone… or maybe don’t, but then want to watch again.