SOMETHING POINTLESS: Director Asa Bailey PERSONAL OUTPUT

'What's the Point?' Director Asa Bailey on Finding Humanity with his new film Something Pointless

SøEdited Team
Article: Kellie Neilson
SøEditor-in-Chief: Chris Saint Sims 
​SøDeputy-Editor: Savannah Barthorpe
Photography : Hiraeth Productions Cyf

​In an industry obsessed with franchises, algorithms and the next big streaming hit, Something Pointless feels almost rebellious. Not because it's loud, but because it dares to be quiet.

The 14-minute short from director Asa Bailey isn't interested in productivity, hustle culture or optimising every second of your day. Instead, it asks a deceptively simple question: what if doing something pointless is exactly the point?
​
For Bailey, whose career spans blockbuster commercial productions and pioneering AI filmmaking, the film represents something increasingly rare: art made purely for art's sake.

The Film That Found Him
​
Something Pointless wasn't a project Bailey spent years chasing. In fact, the screenplay had already built a reputation long before it landed on his desk, winning the Canadian Short Film Competition years earlier.

"The script found me," he says simply.

That timing mattered. Bailey describes his career as existing in two very different worlds. One is commercial filmmaking, where directors become custodians of a shared vision shaped by studios, executives and stakeholders. The other is intensely personal and a place where films become artistic statements rather than products.
​
"There have only been two opportunities in my career where I've really been able to make something that's purely my art," he explains. "One was my first feature, Duty of Care. Something Pointless comes from exactly the same place."
​
It's easy to see why. Every frame feels handcrafted, carrying the kind of emotional weight that doesn't come from market research but from lived experience.

​A Small Film with Big Feelings
​
One of Something Pointless's greatest achievements is how emotionally invested audiences become in barely a quarter of an hour. Bailey credits much of that success to casting.

"I wasn't just casting actors," he says. "I was casting warmth."

With casting director Victor Jenkins helping assemble the ensemble, Bailey looked beyond talent alone, choosing performers whose genuine humanity could shine through the screen. The result is a cast that feels authentic from the moment they appear, creating emotional shorthand without ever relying on exposition.
That warmth becomes the film's secret weapon.

​The Antidote to Hustle Culture

It's impossible to watch Something Pointless without thinking about modern life.
We're constantly told every hobby should become a side hustle, every passion should become a business, every spare moment should be monetised.

Bailey sees the film as a gentle reminder that life doesn't have to work that way.
Following what he describes as a Christian philosophy, he believes there is immense value in doing things simply because they enrich the human experience and not because they generate profit.

"It's about doing things for the enjoyment of exploring life."

Rather than shouting its message, Something Pointlesswhispers it. In doing so, it becomes surprisingly radical.

​Wales as a Character

The film could hardly exist anywhere else. Shot in Newport after production shifted from North Wales, Bailey deliberately rooted the project within Welsh communities, bringing emerging creatives into the production wherever possible.

"It was all a bunch of Welsh people working together," he laughs.

Those local voices helped shape the film's texture. Bailey even embraces moments he describes as imperfect.

"In another production I couldn't get away with them. But here they become part of the beauty."
​
The result feels refreshingly handmade. A quality increasingly rare in modern filmmaking.

​Asa Bailey on AI: "Art and Industry Are Different Things"

Given Bailey's reputation as one of the UK's leading voices in AI filmmaking, technology inevitably enters the conversation. His position is refreshingly nuanced.
He isn't interested in replacing artists.

Instead, he sees AI as another tool in the filmmaker's toolbox.
For Something Pointless, AI wasn't used to generate the story or replace performances. It enhanced carefully planned sequences using photography captured on set and building subtle visual effects that would otherwise have been impossible within a short film's limited budget.

"We shot the photography on set," he explains. "Then we used AI to enhance what we'd already created."

For Bailey, that's where the distinction lies. Industry content, particularly factual television or formulaic entertainment, will inevitably become more automated.
Art shouldn't.

"I would never let AI write something when I could have original human genius."

It's a perspective that feels surprisingly balanced amid an often-polarised debate.

One Scene Says Everything

Ask Bailey which image he hopes audiences remember, and he doesn't choose one of the film's more overtly sentimental moments.
Instead, he recalls young Leo alone in the bathroom, finally releasing the emotional pressure he's been carrying.

"It might be a little autobiographical," he admits.

The scene is brief but devastating, encapsulating the quiet emotional truth running through the entire film. It also demonstrates Bailey's belief that cinema doesn't always need grand spectacle to leave a lasting impression.
Sometimes a child, alone with his thoughts, is enough.

​So... What's the Point?

As the conversation winds down, Bailey is asked one final question.
What's one thing interviewers never ask him? Without missing a beat, he smiles.

"What's the point?"

It's the perfect answer. Because Something Pointless isn't actually pointless at all.
It's a reminder that creativity doesn't always need to justify itself. That slowing down isn't wasted time. That making something beautiful, even if it serves no commercial purpose, might be one of the most worthwhile things we can do.

And in an age where everything seems to demand a measurable return on investment, that message feels anything but pointless.

​Credits: Strike Media