Future filmmaking - Interview with director Ed Kirk
How do you follow up an action heavy, pulpy sci-fi feature? For Ed Kirk, you move from his explosive feature Future Soldier (our review) to procure the most isolated house in the UK, bring along two actors and proceed to film a black and white, folklore-heavy short about generational divides and toxic masculinity.
“I wanted to do something different,” he said, acknowledging with a smile that it’s a complete turnaround from his last project. “For me, it was about challenging myself. Writing something that summed up a feeling, where the landscape became a character.”
The script follows a father and son, who leave the city to return to their rural home. While they battle with each other, and their own mental health, they are haunted by a Black Dog. Ed said that he was intrigued by how different generations approach mental health, noting that he wasn’t in the best place personally when he wrote the script.
“I’d just moved house and I was unemployed, and I wanted to capture that feeling of isolation,” he said. “The idea of the father character was really pulled from how older generations, and those in rural communities will sometimes stigmatize mental health or try and push through their own problems because of some old-fashioned idea about masculinity.”
He added that the titular Black Dog has many meanings in the film. “It’s kept very ambiguous, but our folklore is full of these hounds, which all mean different things. In a lot of places, it’s a sign of grief, or impending tragedy, but then we also call depression ‘the black dog’. Being able to use these small details to tell the story was something that really appealed to me.”
The film was made with Open House Pictures handling production. Ed’s script won first prize in the Emerging Spirit Script to Screen competition back in April, which provided a £500 grant, as well as post-production work and equipment hire. Working with Open House also put Ed, who lives in Sheffield, in touch with a host of professionals from across Yorkshire – including Ciara Lilly O'Rourke, who directed the previous Emerging Spirit winner Dead Skin (currently playing at FrightFest) and acted as producer on Black Dog.
“Collaborating with all these different creatives from across the region was really fulfilling,” Ed said. “Ciara was so supportive and great to work with. And the guys at Open House really helped pull things together.”
In fact, when we chat, he’s two days removed from shooting Black Dog. The shoot took place at 3 Blea Moor, dubbed the loneliest house in Britian; an aged property situated in the Yorkshire Dales, and which is a 20-minute walk from the nearest road. Open House managed to secure the location from the owners for the project.
“It was an incredible location. Absolutely perfect for what I envisioned for the film. One thing I needed was the house to still be in a livable condition, not modern but not completely derelict. 3 Blea Moor is like a relic of another time, where you could imagine these dramas repeating generation after generation. And the location really helped the cast and crew to capture the mood of the piece,” he said.
With shooting now wrapped, Ed has a busy few weeks ahead of him to get the film ready for screening. Black Dog will have its world premiere at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival in Sheffield on the 30th of September. “It’s daunting but I’m excited, and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. After that, we’ll be running the film on the festival circuit.”
Check out more info on the production at https://www.instagram.com/black_dog_short
Matthew Tilt
Twitter @Matthew_Tilt
