Dream Teams: How Matias & Mathias Painted Themselves Into the Comedy Corner

Norwegian filmmakers Matias Rygh and Mathias Nordli Eriksen make up Epoch Films’ directorial duo Matias & Mathias. After meeting in a high school film and photography programme aged 16, the pair instantly bonded over their unusual fashion choices and passion for video cameras, and have been each other’s sole collaborators ever since.

“Mathias joined our class a week after me. He was wearing blue striped pants, carrying his Sony VX2000 camera, and smoking like a chimney,” says Matias. “We’ve never not collaborated on something. I think we’re proud of that. Weirdly, the best end product seldom has the best behind-the-scenes story. I actually think some of the collaborations we value the most are also the ones we’d never share with anyone.”

While they have different strengths and weaknesses - and have taken turns playing every role imaginable - the pair are mostly in sync during production, fluidly sharing roles instead of ‘dividing and conquering’ like many other duos.

Fortunately, they never seem to be pessimistic or demotivated at the same time, allowing one to pick up the other in times of need. “I’m a little impatient and can get bored very easily (especially with very nitty-gritty, technical stuff) whereas Matias is a little more thorough and deliberate,” explains Mathias. 

“But saying that makes me question if I’m actually even impatient, or if that’s a lame excuse I made up because I’m incredibly spoiled by his expertise and can take a nap knowing that he’ll think of a way to make it seem like the janky cardboard ‘spaceship’ is really floating through the cosmos.”

[Above: Matias & Mathias' ad for Dollar Shave Club, 'Mafia']

Today, the Matias & Mathias duo is known for comedy, but this wasn’t a niche they set out to carve for themselves. However, as Mathias points out, there are worse boxes to be put in as a director. “Trying to find the humour in any given situation is how we deal with most things. What constitutes as funny in advertising seems to be quite trend-based and often leans very safe, but we’ve always appreciated stuff where you could, in theory, strip away the logo and place the idea in a different cinematic context, and it would still make you laugh.” 

He shares that there’s an added hilarity when recognising that a big brand - and some terrified marketing executives - have taken a risk on a wild idea; ideas they’ve been inspired by like Harold Einstein’s ‘Bulldozer’ for Crest, Lionel Goldstein’s X-Box campaign and others that parody commercial genres like Steve Rogers’s Old Spice work.

This sensibility, however, is far removed from the pair’s original ambition, which was to make cryptic, existentialist films “with insufferably long dolly shots and existentially pondering voiceovers” in the vein of Tarkovsky and Antonioni. 

Their first joint venture was a short film in which Mathias played a suicidal ballet dancer who, thanks to him not being able to maintain a convincing ballet routine for too long, mostly just smoked cigarettes on a snowy bench. “We shot Mathias spinning in an office chair with his hands up in the fourth position and played it backwards in slow motion, with a ghosting trail effect to make it look more graceful,” says Matias. After learning a lot about each other while pulling together an idea that was clearly out of their reach, the film actually went on to win an award - although they were kicked out of the festival the night before the ceremony (a story for another time).

“It was a lot more fun working together than on our own and we complemented each other, both on a creative and surface level,” says Mathias. “But more importantly, we were good at making each other laugh and at egging each other on to try new things. It just felt very natural from the get-go.”

Eventually, a producer suggested they try putting these laughs into their work, and the rest is history. “One commercial led to the other, and before we knew it, we’d painted ourselves into the comedy corner,” says Matias. “To us, funny commercials often tend to feel like a more honest approach to making stuff for brands, and we appreciate it when ads don’t try to hide that they’re trying to sell you something. We love work that is formally strong yet ridiculous at the same time.”

Their work and sense of humour has since transcended international boundaries, most notably directing the surreal, international ‘Join the Flip Side’ campaign for Samsung, as well as a cult-inspired Super Bowl ad for Irish Spring.

Regarding the latter, Mathias says, “It was just a really good script. Being two Norwegians who don’t own television sets, the ad culture context is very abstract, and we just tried to make something we would like and appreciate while also trying to make the most of each mind-bogglingly expensive second of screen time.”

Noting how the clients took a leap of faith on both of these “out there” ideas, Matias adds that working on big ad culture moments, like the Super Bowl, provides another fun element; the expectations get raised and there’s pressure to take things a bit further.

Addressing the “inherently silly” Samsung Z Flip campaign, Mathias says that shooting it straight, rather than in a funny way, allowed the script and concept to shine instead of the craft. “It’s always been very confounding to us that comedy is supposed to be front-lit sitcom coverage. Dumb ideas are much funnier to us if they are executed with the same formal discipline and integrity as an aspirational sports montage for the Olympics.”

Matias adds, “Sometimes making commercials reminds us of the ‘Five Obstructions’ by Lars Von Trier, where there are so many curve balls coming at you every second that you have to deal with. This was that kind of job.” 

He continues, “At some point, we all found a way to go with the flow and use certain client requests and product features to the story’s advantage, rather than try to fight any of them. Even the stuff that we didn’t think would work on set suddenly made us smile once they were dropped into the edit timeline.”

Learning to go with the flow is one of the key lessons that Mathias says has come out of the pair’s partnership so far - all starting with a pact they made at 18 to never protest if one of them vetoed an idea. “It probably took me a little longer to respect this rule,” says Mathias, “but I learned from Matias that this rule is really productive and creatively generous (if you respect it).”

“We’re always learning new things from each other,” adds Matias, “and it would be hard to pick one lesson. We’ve both reflected on the importance of leaving our egos behind, and that feels like an important key.”