Dead Dog and The Wake were made through the UK Film Council’s Completion Fund scheme. To find out more about the Completion Fund scheme and the UK Film Council’s other short film schemes, Digital Shorts, Digital Nation and Cinema Extreme go to UK Film Council

Dynamic duo Loren Slater and Kerry Kolbe have spent the last six years making films together and inspiring others to do the same through their Cumbria-based film production and training company. Barrow-in-Furness may seem like an unlikely centre for cinematic advancement, but thanks to Signal Films it has become the envy of independent filmmakers all over the country. Their co-production Dead Dog screened in the UK shorts competition at Edinburgh 2008 and their new film, The Wake, which they co-wrote, directed and produced, recently premiered at the London Short Film Festival.

How and when did the two of you start working together as a team?Loren: We actually know each other from way back. We went to the same secondary school but were in different years (I wont say whos older!) But it wasnt until after university that we both ended up back in Cumbria and got to know each other better. Id set up a film company and Kerry was doing some publicity stuff for us. Kerry: Id been working as a journalist.Loren: And then in about 2003 we each realised that we had talents that worked well together in the film company, so we just sort of went from there really. Kerry: We have a similar outlook on life and weve got a similar work ethic, even though weve got different talents. Laurens very visual and Im not particularly visual, so she does the more practical camera side of things. Im more gossipy and interested in stories and stuff. But we do the writing together.You now co-run Signal Films. Can you tell us a bit about the work you do there?Loren: We do loads. Were a film production and training company, so we do a lot of industry-level filmmaking training for people in Cumbria, which we get funding from the regional screen agency for. But we also do a lot of young persons film training projects.Kerry: Working with naughty kids.Loren: Yeah, working with kids who have truanted and teenagers who mightve come from troubled backgrounds. Kerry: We also just put on a new festival called the Film Insiders Talent Festival, which was more of a training festival than a screening festival. So people got to hear about the latest filmmaking technologies, and directors, scriptwriters and camera people came to talk about what they do. We get funding from the regional regeneration funds to do things like that, to make the local area more exciting.Loren: Yeah, to improve the cultural offer in Barrow-in-Furness!Kerry: The courses we do are really just funded for people from Cumbria, but we keep getting calls from lots of jealous people from all over the country who want to come on our courses. We have to keep saying sorry and turning them away! Your previous film company, Shoreline Films, closed down due to circumstances beyond your control (which we shant go into for legal reasons!) How hard was it both in terms of motivation and finances to pick yourselves up and start afresh with Signal Films?Kerry: I think having each other was the main thing. I think if either of us had been on our own trying to deal with the break-up within the company it would have been really traumatic and awful. But because weve always been really strong together, when one persons really upset or stressed out, the otherll say, come on, cheer up, itll be alright. Loren: It was traumatic and hard work but we had such a good team and so many great contacts, and all the funders were really behind us the whole time. But it was emotionally quite upsetting.What advice would you offer to other filmmakers to avoid having to go through a similar situation?Loren: Get everything in writing. I think in filmmaking, because its such creative work, people often make quite loose arrangements with each other. But if you can, you should always get things in writing, right from the start. When youre working with friends you just want everything to be free and easy and you think that you can trust everyone, which you can to a certain extent, but I think it actually helps you in the long run to get a lot of it formalised.

The Wake is set on a fishing boat. Do either of you come from a fishing background?Loren: No, but the storys actually based on a real character, a friend of Kerrys. Kerry: Id made a little documentary about all the weird outdoorsy things that people get up to around the periphery of where we live in Cumbria, like fishing, hunting and catching sharks. Then this guy I knew told me a story about finding a dead body out at sea. Someone had jumped off a boat and committed suicide. So me and Loren got talking about this and about how you get such a weird mixture of people all thrown together in local fishing communities Loren: Wed always been really interested in at what point in your life you make a decision about who youre going to be. We talk about that a lot in Barrow because its quite a small town, so you know people whove gone off to London, but there are lots of people whove stayed as well, and work in the local shipyard. But at school everyone was quite similar. Until the age of about 18, you had no idea who was going to do what. And maybe theres one moment in their lives that changed their perspective on life or their career. The story for The Wake sort of came from a mixture of those things. Do you find it easy writing together as a team?Kerry: Yes. Even though we work quite differently, we always seem to come to the same conclusions. For the dialogue for The Wake, we just thought about all the boys we knew and wrote down what we thought they would say in that situation.Loren: Its quite interesting, because guys are so different when they communicate about deep things.Kerry: They dont communicate!Loren: Well, exactly. But a lot of guys were working with us on the project, like the editor and the sound recordist, and they all seemed to really agree with the script. Actually, on the whole, men seem to like the script more the women do. The scripts for The Wake and Dead Dog (which you produced for writer/director Edward Jeffreys) are both quite minimal. Is this because you prefer to let the images do the talking? Loren: I think I do like to let the images do the talking. I quite like films that are a bit ambiguous, where the audience has to fill in the gaps and think about it even after theyve seen the film. But were quite strong believers in what needs to be in there needs to be in there. We try to be ruthless and cut anything from the script that isnt essential to the story. Kerry: And similarly, if theres a beautiful shot that we really want to include but its just not necessary, then well cut it out. Loren: I think thats another way we work quite well together. I might get a bit carried away with the artsy fartsy side of things and Kerryll rein me in a bit. Kerry: Were not precious about changing things. We always trust the editor to know what to do as well. You have to be willing to keep re-jigging things and not mind constructive criticism.

How much did it cost to make The Wake and Dead Dog?Loren: Initially we spent about 9000 on each film, but we didnt have enough money to finish them at all. So we applied to the UK Film Council Short Film Completion Fund. This gave us about another 5000 per film, which allowed us to get a better editor in to re-edit both films, and then do the grade and sound design, and use ADR for the digital dialogue recording. Both films received money from the UKFCs Short Film Completion Fund. Would the films just never have been finished without this money?Loren: They certainly wouldnt have been finished to the high standard we needed without the funding. Kerry: Theres only so many favours you can pull with crew members as well, so its important to be able to pay them properly. Loren: That was especially important with The Wake because we shot it documentary style. So we had loads of footage and had to spend loads of time with the editor getting the story out of the footage. And to get him to do that we really needed to pay him.Where did you find your actors for The Wake and Dead Dog?Loren: We already had people in mind for Dead Dog. Id met Chloe Bale at Slamdance Film Festival a few years ago and had seen her in London to Brighton as well. I just think shes got this amazing presence. The guy [Iain Loudon] had been in a short film of a friend of ours. He wasnt really an actor hes a stonemason in fact - but we thought hed be perfect for the role. We had to coax him into it, because hes not massively keen on being an actor and he had to take time off work. Hes sort of playing himself in the film, but he is actually a really good actor. And him and Chloe have a strange sort of electricity between them - off-set as well! For The Wake, we had to do a really rushed casting session at the BBC in Manchester, because we were short of funds. But it actually turned out really well. The actors really got into it Freddie, who plays the chav character Darren in the film, had long hair, and he was really excited about going to get it shaved off at the local barbers. Kerry: But hes actually quite effeminate! He played a drag queen in one of his films. Hes not like a little chavvy person at all. But he plays it so well that you just think hes a chav. Both films are set in rural Cumbria. What is it that draws you to the Cumbrian landscape, other than the fact that its where youre from?Loren: I think one thing is that its so varied. Youve got the Lake District with mountains and lakes, but then youve got the coast as well. And there are lots of interesting industrial towns, especially Barrow.Kerry: And what interests me especially is that theres lots of interesting local characters. I worked for the local newspaper so Ive met a lot of them! Its very different to city living. Everybody knows everybody and its just a kind of weird little microcosm. You get all different kinds of people, and all you have to do is walk into the local pub to find them all thrown together in one place. How did you get hold of the boat and all the fishing gear for The Wake?Loren: We saw the boat out in the docks near where we work and knew straight away that we wanted it for the film. Kerry: So we just went and collared the fisherman who owned it. Loren: Hes called Tony and hes just the loveliest guy. He got really involved in the shoot in the end.Kerry: He actually doubled as our continuity!

Did you face any particular difficulties filming at sea?Loren: The first day we got out there, everybody started getting seasick, and we only had the boat for three days. Kerry was sick, all the assistants were sick, the actors felt sick. You can actually tell in some the delivery of their lines that they were feeling sick, because their lips are quite tight and green. Its a real hassle filming out at sea. We had to have a security boat as well that followed the boat we were filming on wherever we went. But the police offered to come and tail us as well - just because they thought it was interesting I think. But we had to say no because it was hard enough keeping one security boat out of shot. The boat we were filming on was constantly spinning round in the water. It was a total nightmare. Kerry: It was madness.Loren: Were not going to make another film on a boat. How many of you were actually on the boat during filming?Loren: Seven. And its tiny! There was me and Kerry, the camera assistant, the sound recordist, Tony the fisherman, and the two actors. Kerry: Me and Tonyd be lying on the floor with about 2 gallons of water sloshing around us trying to keep out of the shot while the actors climbed over us. Loren: Yeah, hes actually in one of the shots. Kerry: Is he? I didnt know that!Loren: You can just see a bit of him lying down near the beginning. Did Tony the fisherman train the actors how to sail the boat and use the fishing equipment? Loren: Yeah. The lead actor loved driving the boat, but he actually wasnt very good at it and he crashed it into a wall at one point. Tony was really good about it though.

How did you create the convincing sequence in which a man is shot in the background in Dead Dog?Loren: Its just a sound effect believe it or not. Nothing happens, apart from the actors reacting. We wanted to have a blank bullet so we could see smoke coming out of the barrel. But theyre not very easy to get hold of, especially ones that smoke, so we didnt want to spend a load of money on them and then have them not work anyway. The gun is owned by a friend of mine. Hes a gamekeeper, so he had a licence for the gun anyway. Kerry: For the blood, a friend of ours whos in special effects made a sort of pressurised spray collar which the actor had to press at the right time to set it off. Loren: If you look closely at the dead body on the floor, theres actually a wire coming out of the head, which is the tube that the blood came out of. Kerry: What? You see, Im not visual, I didnt notice any of this stuff. To return to The Wake Did you choose to use hand-held camera for practical or stylistic reasons, or both? Loren: It was for stylistic reasons. We wanted the film to have a really naturalistic, realistic feel. I think its kind of worked, because bits of it do feel like a documentary, especially when you watch all the footage.Kerry: I suppose we were taking a bit of a chance really. We werent sure at one point whether it would work or not. But we wanted it to be a bit like a documentary and show this weird little world trapped on a boat with someone you dont really want to be there, so I think we needed to use hand-held to give that sort of immediacy. Loren: But you do worry when you do something documentary-style that it might end up looking a bit amateur. But hopefully its worked!Youre both used to training people in the art of filmmaking do you have any helpful tips for new filmmakers?Loren: It sounds obvious, but know what you want to specialise in. So many people come to us and say they want to work in film, but they have no idea what area of filmmaking they want to work in. Recognise what your talents are and go with that. Kerry: Filmmakings all about forming successful collaborations. Even if you try a few things, you cant do everything. Being able to talk to people and networking is really important too. Youve got to be really good at getting out there and meeting people. You have to find people with complimentary talents. Do you find Shooting People useful from that point of view then?Kerry: Yeah. We often advise people to take a look at the postings and bulletins on the site for like-minded people to collaborate with. You can also see how other people have dealt with a particular problem, so its also a good way to learn from other peoples mistakes too.

Dead Dog has already been screened at Edinburgh, Leeds, the London Short Film Festival and Glasgow among others. Are there any other festival dates coming up?Loren: Dead Dogs on its 11th international film festival now, at the Bradford International Film Festival next week. At the end of April its in competition at the Hull International Short Film Festival for the Anthony Minghella Best Short Film Award, which would be great. And its just been at Cinequest in America. How about The Wake?Loren: The Wake only just premiered [at the London Short Film Festival] in January, but weve sent it off to other festivals as well. Weve submitted it to Edinburgh and Toronto and stuff, so were just waiting to hear back Will your films be available to watch online at some point?Well be putting them up online after theyve done the rounds at the festivals. Thatll be another four or five months for Dead Dog, and The Wakes got another year. Its advisable not to put them up online too early so it doesnt damage their festival eligibility. But you can watch clips from them on the Shooting People website.Any plans for them to appear on a compilation DVD?Loren: Hopefully, but nobodys asked us yet Weve been offered before for other short films.Maybe someone will read this interview and make you an offerLoren: Yeah, that would be great! What do you think is the best way to get people to see you film?Loren: Festivals are the best starting point really, especially specific short film festivals. And things like Shooting People are really useful too it seems that lots of people do log on and watch the clips and things that are up there. Lots of regional screen agencies have a section where you can promote yourself too. Kerry: Yeah, like the BBC network. You can submit to that and its really well used.