The shortlisted work Tender is a short horror film about health inspectors looking around a restaurant Gully’s, student Shaun described the restaurant as “the most popular diner in town, serving top class food no one has ever tasted before. But this food has a special ingredient that the people of the town can’t get enough of, they don’t just like it, they don’t just love it, they are addicted to it.” 

Fellow Actor Tee Preston-North commented “Tender is a short horror film based on a family run restaurant with glowing reviews from the health and safety team, that is until fresh meat Jessica joins the team of inspectors, and risks closing down the restaurant and revealing the truth about the supplies, the meat order in particular. The siblings do what they have to in order to keep the restaurant running, finding themselves under threat with their older sister. She meets the same fate as the burgers in the pan. (Pun absolutely intended).”

Student Shaun continued “the story of Tender see’s many characters intertwine as everything passes and ends in Gully’s. Food Bloggers, Health Inspectors and even hopeless romantics! Gully’s, Sounds great Right?”

Tee continued “The project took approximately 5 months from start to finish with character work, writing and filming and we had the privilege of working with so many people on the project including the film students, David Edwards, Jonathan Youdale and John Kirkbride. It was lovely to be able to be so involved with the whole process from discovering our characters and what sort of people they are, to puzzling that into a narrative script together. I personally also enjoyed being treated like industry professionals, as we always have been on the course.”

Shaun highlighted that the collaborations that they got to have for the film were “astonishing” saying “we not only got the chance to work with the final year film students who were prepping to enter the industry, they were very good at what they did, but we got to work with John Kirkbride. John is an external filmmaker who accepted the offer to come help us out on this project. It was cool and really kind of him to do such a thing for us, especially with him having a really busy schedule.”

Fellow student Izzy agreed that working with “John Kirkbride which was a really exciting opportunity that he kindly made time for” and that the production as a whole was “such a fun process” explaining “There were so many positive experiences during this period, one being that we collaborated with an external film maker.”

Izzy also said that one challenge she overcame for the project was the “character development; my role as Susan, was not the type of character I had yet explored as an actor, but it was really fun to develop the role over the duration of Tender. Susan is a cold, arrogant health inspector. Susan was a really new role for me as I had rarely played nasty roles, so it was a lot of fun to improvise and workshop the character in groups to develop scenes and roles! Having the creative freedom to generate scenes and character profiles independently really allowed for a collaborative process, it’s really nice to see and hear our own ideas come to fruition in some of the scenes.”

Acting student Kate Hann said the production was “a very exciting project to be a part of and filming was a great experience.” Taking the role of Jessica Kate continued that she was a “dream to play. She started quite simple being uptight, professional, and serious. As the process went on, she grew into an optimistic and confident character who loves big hand gestures to support her points. She always has a motivational quote up her sleeve, but the second she is out on a job she becomes direct and focused.”

Tee described their character as “stoney faced” and that they loved “getting to play a role I would not normally have played.” Stepping into the character of “Ms Daly, head of the health and safety inspectors and older sister to the restaurant owners. Daly was unlike any other role I have played and I enjoyed getting to do something new and fresh. She is a strict and uptight woman that likes to keep her minions in order, even if that means violence, actually, especially if it means violence.

She enjoys taunting her younger siblings and hurting them to keep control, with a soft spot for Susan, one of her inspectors. They have a mutual respect for  each other and work hard to keep Gully’s open. Eventually Daly becomes too big for her boots in threatening murder and meets her demise through her brother, who, ironically, she used as a weapon against others before. Daly was a stone faced character, however during the before and after takes there were many laughs.”

Tee explained further “whether that be apologising for shouting some absolutely heinous things in peoples faces, to practising making it look like I was truly about to kill Paige’s character or accidentally using far too much of the fake blood that Dave spent hours making for the death scene in the first shot. Ms Daly had some very watery blood in the second shot!”

Shaun played, “Archie, the hopeless romantic who falls in love with a ‘stripper’ called Lucy, played by Zoe Hudson, who is secretly involved with the dastardly methods of the people of Gully’s. This was fun to do as we were given the freedom to create the relationship between the characters, as initially we were assigned two basic prompts of customers. We worked on the development and coincided with the writer and director to help fit this into the storyline.”

Reflecting on some of the production detail0s, Kate also revealed a special detail about the film, “the voodoo dolls were tailor made to each character. The secretary has voodoo dolls of all the workers, that have been created to look like the actor. Georgia Purvis, who plays the secretary, created all these dolls with wire, clay, wool, buttons, and paint. Also, between scenes she started to teach the cast how to make them when we had time to spare. It was a great moment of bonding for the group and gave us down time between big scenes.”

Speaking of the nomination Kate said “it’s an honour to have the piece nominated. I think we are all proud of the work we have done and what we have created as a team. We’re so grateful for the nomination.”

Tee agreed: “The film being nominated for an award feels amazing but also very well deserved in the sense of everyone working so hard, whether that be people overcoming fears to play certain characters, the crew buying new tech to make the film as high quality as possible and the hours of writing, filming and editing that went into it all. Filming Tender has been an incredible opportunity and showcases the high standard professionalism our course provides us with that is as close to the industry as possible helping us to prepare for our future careers.”

Student Izzy said the nomination feels “Incredibly exciting! it feels really strange to tell friends and family that we’re part of an award nominated film!”

Kate said “As for the course, I have had so much fun this past 1½ years. Even on areas that I felt were my weakest, the lecturers gave me support and the confidence to try new things. From Shakespeare to solo shows, the projects we have worked on have been exciting and I’ve had the opportunity to play a dream role of mine. I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, and everything left to happen!”

When Izzy was asked what she liked about the course she replied “The opportunities! We are always being introduced to industry professionals, whether that’s via guest workshops, lectures, Q&A’s or by having them actually collaborating on our projects with us!”

Speaking of the award and course Shaun said “it feels really good to be nominated as it shows that our hard work was to a top level, but also that through this course we are growing as actors and that our ability is only going to grow. It’s an exciting prospect for our futures as actors going into the industry. The course that I am on at the Northern School of Art is great. Everything about it makes you better as a person and an actor. The versatility of styles you learn to grasp who you are as an actor is so eye opening. This varies from Clowning to Radio and Classical. It’s really fun and intense.

You are always doing something and that’s great as it gives you the independence to decide what you are doing with your time. The opportunities you receive are incredible, for example we get to perform on renowned stages where professional productions are performed such as The Arc Stockton or Northern Stage. Or we receive opportunities to create films which are nominated for prestigious awards. It’s brilliant!!!”

If you are interested in a career in performance we offer a fantastic degree programme for aspiring actors. Find out more about BA (Hons) Acting for Stage & Screen today or book on an open-day here.