Two Manx filmmakers are celebrating the success of their innovative film, created during last year’s lockdown period.

Bethany White and Patrick Crellin, from Dark Avenue Film, have seen their most recent short film, ’Endless Summer’, reap many awards from international film festivals over the past few months, with the possibility of more to come.

’Endless Summer’ was conceived and written by Bethany and Patrick while the island was under Covid-19 restrictions during April and May last year and has received many awards from the Versuvius International Monthly film festival, including ’Best Actress’ for Freya Kingsley, who starred in the film, along with ’Best Editing in a Covid-19 short film’ and a final slot in the ’Best Film’ section.

They have also won the award for ’Best Covid-19 Film’ in the Phoenix Monthly Short Film Festival.

Inspired by Freya, an actor friend who had just had a baby shortly before the lockdown, Bethany and Patrick both wrote the script and then teamed up with Freya to shoot and produce the film.

The film follows Freya as she brings up her daughter, Lilah, at home alone and focuses on the idea of the ’extra time’ she has unexpectedly gained with her daughter.

Filming the short proved more complicated, with Freya living in England, which led Bethany and Patrick to develop a method of having Freya shoot the film herself.

Essentially, they were forced to developed a new way of filmmaking, with the Manx pair filming a ’test’ version of the film, with Bethany standing in as Freya, before sending the necessary film equipment to Freya, who then reshot the test film at home.

The footage was then sent back to Patrick and Bethany, who edited the footage and created most of the sounds in post-production.

’It was an experiment that all started from us being in touch with Freya, who was dealing with a lot of thoughts about being a new mum and having, at some point, to go back to work, while also living under the lockdown in England,’ said Bethany.

’When we decided to do the film, we wrote it all in a week, while we were living under the lockdown in the island.

’By the time we got round to filming, we had relaxed all our restrictions, but Freya was still stuck at home. So we came up with a different way of approaching the filming.’

The result is a touching 10-minute film that focuses on Freya’s anxiety over the lockdown and what will happen to them when she goes back to work, along with the effects that living in an isolated way is having on Lilah, and also reflecting on the unique time that they spend together.

’The film has some universal feelings about the lockdown, such as whether or not it will go on forever,’ said Bethany.

’What I found was that, after completing it and we looked back on it, with a bit of space between us and our own lockdown, was that it captured a part of the times we were living in and I think other people recognise that too.’

The film was produced with help from the Isle of Man Arts Council Covid resiliance fund.

’The fund has enabled us to react creatively to the times, and produce a short film we’re very proud of and which is already performing well at festivals,’ said Bethany.

’In a medium like film, where so often the work involves group work, it gave us something to focus our energy on during the period when we couldn’t film traditionally and we want to thank the Arts Council for its support throughout this strange year.

’One of the biggest things, for me, about our success in the various film festivals is that it lets us represent the Isle of Man on the global map.

’When the awards are announced, you see the Isle of Man mentioned next to ours and it is a great feeling that we are generating this kind of exposure.

’Also, winning awards like these means that our film has a message that people appreciate and identify with on both a local and a global level.’