Two independent filmmakers have kept themselves busy over the lockdown, despite having many of their plans and projects interrupted by the period of restrictions.

Patrick Crellin and Bethany White, who work under the name Dark Avenue Film, were set to finalise their first short film and were looking forward to travelling to the Celtic Media Festival when the restrictions came into place and the borders were closed.

However, the creative pair kept on working through the period and, along with releasing the trailer for their first self-produced film, they wrote and filmed another film inspired by the current events.

Patrick and Bethany’s first short film, ’The Lost Wife’, a modern-day re-imagining of a little-known Manx folk tale, was conceived and filmed last year and production was in its very final stages when the lock down happened.

’We were literally getting in the car to go to the cinema for a sound test when everything shut,’ said Patrick.

’One more day and the film would have been done.

’We have released the trailer and when the film festivals around the UK get back up and running, we will release it around then.’

The film is based on the Sophia Morrison story, ’The Lost Wife of Ballaleece’, which tells the story of a husband who’s first wife is taken by the little people and who, after a time, gets re-married to a wife riven with jealousy.

The modern-day re-telling is set on a farm and is centred around the police questioning the farmer, played by local actor Jeremy Theobold, about his wife’s disappearance.

’We have set it in the modern day and really focused on the three central characters,’ said Bethany.

’The "fairy" side to it is not explicit but is used more as a background way of interpreting the story. We’re very proud of it.’

’The Lost Wife’ is the pair’s first project since they both graduated from the University of York, where they met, both studying film and production.

’It is a project that has been developed over many years, said Bethany.

’When we finished university we had these grand ideas to make this 40-page script, which Patrick wrote, into a film.

’We realised that was hugely ambitious and went back and, after having another look at it, we turned it into something we could actually produce ourselves.

’We built a team and gave ourselves plenty of time and, in 2018, we started to prepare everything and filmed it in 2019. It took about a year to make sure we’d done the whole process thoroughly.

’Its a big step to go from shooting at university to filming out in the real world by yourself.’

It was working on ’The Lost Wife that led the pair to meet up with Mera Royle, which resulted in them making a short documentary about the harpist’s success in 2018.

’We had heard a radio interview with her, after she won at the BBC Radio 2 folk awards,’ said Bethany.

’She mentioned that she would like to compose for film and TV so we reached out to her to see if she would be interested in writing with us.

’As we got chatting, her story seemed to be really interesting, so we decided to see if we could make a film based on her as well.’

The film was nominated for the ’shortform’ awards section at the International Celtic Media Festival which, had they been able to attend, would have introduced them to many in the industry.

’To be listed along with the sort of people who get mentions in this kind of festival was a great honour,’ said Bethany.

’The only shame is that we couldn’t actually go there this year and actually meet with people. But we think we have done something that is a benefit to the island and hopefully we’ll be able to get back there in the future.’

With ’The Lost Wife’ completed, Patrick and Bethany have turned their attentions to a project they wrote during the lockdown.

At the time of conception, being unable to meet with crew and also unable to travel, they designed a film that they could produce remotely.

They wrote a scripts and teamed up with an actor friend in the UK to film herself, under online direction

’It is semi-autobiographical of Freya Kingsley, the actor we are working with,’ said Patrick.

’She had a baby and she hasn’t acted since she got pregnant. The film is about her having more time than she expected during the lockdown with the baby and also about her feelings about going back to work.

’We do the planning and actually shooting the film ourselves on our end, and then we send the equipment out to her so she can film it herself by copying what we’ve done.

’It is definitely a unique film.’

For The Lost Wife, Dark Avenue Films had support from the IoM Arts Council and Culture Vannin, and for the Mera documentary they were sponsored by I-Cap Marine.

Support for the lockdown film came from the IoM Arts Council’s Covid-19 Resilience Fund.

’The Lost Wife’ trailer can be viewed at darkavenuefilm.com

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers