Who said directors can't job share?
Mathy & Fran are a directing duo with credits spanning commercials, music videos, narrative and documentary shorts. Fascinated by colour, they create work with a meticulous eye for detail and a glorious sense of the absurd. They’ve worked with brands such as Google, Amazon and Target and artists such as Anna Calvi, James Bay and Two Door Cinema Club, picking up awards and multiple Vimeo Staff Picks along the way. Their short films have screened widely at festivals, supported by Film London and the British Council, and their debut feature project was developed through Creative England and the BFI. They are currently developing a slate of long-form projects.
Partners both professionally and personally, they are based in East London, where they live with their two children.
Q: Tell us about yourselves - how did you meet and start working together?
Fran: We met studying film at university and became a couple soon after. When we graduated, we moved to Mathy’s home town in Cornwall and secured funding to make a film in the Cornish language. It was a steep learning curve that put a lot of pressure on what was a very young relationship at the time - but we survived it. We actually said we’d never do it again, but found it surprisingly hard to resist getting involved in each other’s ideas, and soon enough, we were working collaboratively all the time and known for being a duo.
Q: As you know, we are huge supporters of job-sharing, but we often hear that there are many creative roles like directing that couldn’t be job shared. Yours is a unique partnership. What are the advantages of having a shared creative vision?
Mathy: Creativity is about collaborating and communicating, so a lot of our strengths come from the sharing of that vision. Also, in a role like directing, which you don’t really ever clock out of, it’s helpful to be able to share the responsibility, and keep a flexibility to how you balance work with life - an advantage neither of us would have solo.
F: We definitely benefit from having each other to bounce ideas off. With commercials and music videos, it’s not uncommon to find directing teams, or duos, but the advantage for us is that the other person is almost always on tap… I can’t count the number of times we’ve fixed a creative problem or had inspiration strike whilst brushing our teeth or hanging out the washing.
We all have times where we don’t get on / don’t see eye to eye with our other half. What are the challenges of being a working couple? How do you deal with disagreements about creative decisions?
M: As much as our shared vision allows ideas to grow and flourish, it can also mean we sometimes double up on doubt and anxiety. I think most of our struggles have been where we do see eye to eye but when doubt presents itself, we can’t provide the other person with a reassuring outside perspective.
F: It's a fine line in having enough time to make sure we're aligned, without killing the excitement for an idea. I get quite precious about us having time to discuss things together before bringing HODs on board because it feels important to present as a united front. That's particularly true on set - we never argue - or at least I don't think we ever have? We save any sticky conversations for behind closed doors!
Q. How do you manage your time when you are both working?
M: We’re a lot more structured about it these days, as for years we just muddled through without really thinking about how we were managing our time. The busier things have got for us the better, and the rhythm of work and having children has meant we’ve delegated a lot more, which has been freeing in many ways. More and more it’s a case of one of us leading the project, but due to our shared vision and the way we communicate it never actually feels like that from a creative point of view. It’s more the practical/client facing side that is led by either one of us. We’ve rarely done shoots on our own, so under normal circumstances it will always be both of us on set.
F: Having kids definitely changed things. We used to have so much time to talk! We're lucky because a lot of our work happens from home, so we're around the kids a lot, but they’re less enamoured by us constantly talking shop, so we’ll often tag-team tasks - one of us working whilst the other is with the kids, before swapping over. Not many jobs have this flexibility when it comes to parenting, but it is a constant juggling act, and so we've become quite adept at scheduling work around nap times, or reclaiming the quiet after the chaos of bedtime to sit down and write, or come together to share ideas.
Q. How do you initiate the conversations with employers/ producers about the fact that you job share?
F: The last few years it’s been obvious to clients and producers that we have caring responsibilities to contend with, particularly as we’ve often had a baby with us! And we’ve generally found employers to be supportive in trusting us to juggle this, and know we’ll always be keeping each other up to speed. There can be an unfair expectation that we'll both be on every call, or in every meeting simply because we are a couple which gets tricky - I don't think this happens with other directing teams, where quite often one person will be leading the charge. And of course, the fee is the same for a duo as it is for an individual, so we have to be a bit careful with how we balance our time.
M: It’s all about expectation, so we try to outline with producers, agencies and clients from the start, if it’s going to be one of us that’s leading the project. We try and maintain that consistency across a project so that the point of contact isn’t flip-flopping! It’s helpful now that more remote ways of working have become common, that we can both be keeping in touch with elements of pre and post-production, so whether that be casting or a colour grade, we can both be overseeing everything whilst being able to share and delegate responsibility a bit more.
Q. Are there particular ways that you support each other's careers?
M: We both have personal projects we’re developing outside of the work we create as Mathy & Fran, so I think allowing space for us to develop those and have our own creatively nourishing time is really important! That work might end up either being or informing something under the M&F banner, but having that individual time to explore is really important. We’re also each other's best cheerleaders, so we can be encouraging and supportive influences.
F: We try to be as generous as we can in affording each other time to get immersed in personal projects, which is a diplomatic process as there never is enough time! We’re getting less precious about doing everything together these days, and leaning into the projects that excite us most as individuals, so it’s always exciting to hear what the other person is excited by. This addictive side of what we do means we’ll always be there to support each other, and have something valuable to feed back.
Q. How do you balance your personal and professional lives?
M: There isn’t a huge amount of division and we’ve discovered over the years that it’s quite tricky to ever shut the door on one or the other aspect. I think we’ve found joy and balance in allowing them to co-exist and not creating pressure to divide them. But certainly delegating more has been really helpful to us.
F: Yes, there's never going to be a clean line. The only times I find it really hard is when I want to be present for the kids and my mind is still chewing over a creative problem. I've struggled with the balancing act of becoming a mother and keeping up with my career - and have been grateful for the flexibility certain jobs have offered to bring baby on set to breast-feed, or shoot remotely when we had a newborn, but for me, it's slightly torturous to try and wear these hats simultaneously, and I think there's still a lot that could be done to make the industry accepting of, and sustainable for working parents.
If you want to get in touch or learn more about Mathy and Fran, here’s where you can find them:
Website: mathyandfran.com
Instagram: @mathyandfran