Loading the studio
Independent film & creative studio · Est. 2026
Free · open access · year-round
Bridge the gap from university to unboxed creativity.
01 · Unboxed creation
We never ask “who's the audience?” before we ask “what are you trying to say?”. No genre requirements, no runtime targets, no note from a distributor. The work is judged on its own terms, and it stays yours — rights included.
02 · The creative collective
A working collective of directors, DoPs, editors, composers, writers and photographers — most of them one to five years out of a degree. Monthly crits, crew swaps, kit sharing, and a room where “I don't know how yet” is a normal thing to say.
03 · Catalyst funding
Micro-grants and production budgets for the stretch between the degree show and the first paid commission — kit hire, locations, festival fees, a month of rent so you can finish the cut. No equity, no repayment, no strings to the story.
The premise
You spent three years learning to make things. Then the industry asked you to make things that sell. We think the work is worth backing before it knows how to sell — the money, the people and the support, so it stays yours.
Member access
Streaming, the upvote cycle, kit booking and keys to the spaces all live behind this door. Membership is free for anyone within five years of leaving a creative course — we just ask what you're making.
Selected work
Films, photography and moving image from the collective. Everything here was funded with no commissioner attached — and every maker kept their rights.
A film about leaving
Low Tide,
Then Nothing
direction • 16mm • grade • sound
A portrait of a tower block
Concrete
Sunday
documentary • dop • edit
A study of northern light
Nine Rooms
Facing North
photography • 35mm • darkroom • print
An essay on inherited accent
The Weather
In Her Voice
essay film • super 8 • voice • edit
Hand-drawn, one frame at a time
Everything
Was A Field
animation • hand-drawn • 2d • score
Recorded inside the building
Signals From
The Ropewalk
sound • field recording • score • mix
The full catalogue — including work in progress and members' back catalogues — streams inside the member platform.
Watch everythingWatch everythingMembership
Not a cohort you get selected for and then leave. Membership stays open, and everything below runs continuously — whether you graduated last week or never went at all.
Every month
Last Thursday, every building. Work in progress on the screen, then a room full of people who make things.
Every month
Ten minutes each, unfinished welcome. Honest notes from people at the same stage as you.
Ongoing
Grading, sound design, festival strategy, rate cards and contracts — run by members and invited crew.
Ongoing
Cameras, lenses, recorders and edit suites to borrow, plus keys to every open studio.
Quarterly
£500–£8,000, no equity, no repayment. Members vote on which projects go to the front of the queue.
Always on
Stream every member film, including rough cuts that aren't public anywhere else.
Monthly
Open calls, residencies, festival deadlines and paid work from across the North — filtered, not forwarded.
Reference
What to charge, what to sign, what to never sign. Deal memos, release forms and minimum rates in one place.
Who it's for
Independent film makers, photographers, writers, composers and collectives — at any stage, and anyone with an aspiration to work creatively who hasn't been given a way in yet.
No portfolio requirement, no CV, no fee. We ask what you're making and what's in the way, and we answer every sign-up ourselves.
Become a memberBecome a memberThe spaces
Every studio is a heritage building brought back into use — rooms to meet in, kit to borrow, walls and screens to put work on. Members get keys; everyone else is welcome at open nights.
01 · Manchester
A single-storey 1840s cotton warehouse annexe with north light the whole length of it. Edit suites in the old office range, a 40-seat screening room where the loading bay was.
02 · Sheffield
A Victorian hydraulic pumphouse with the original travelling crane still in the roof. Double-height build space for sets, a sound room in the accumulator tower.
03 · Newcastle
A long, narrow ropewalk on the riverside — 90 metres of continuous floor, which turns out to be a very good dolly track. Darkroom, kit store and a bar at the far end.
Meet
A members' mixer every month in every building, plus crits, open nights and crew calls.
Create
Edit suites, sound rooms, build space and a kit store you can borrow from.
Share
Screening rooms and gallery walls for work at any stage of finished.
Keep
Buildings that were going to be lost, kept in use by the people using them.
Every month · All locations
Last Thursday of the month, in every building at once. Work-in-progress on the screen, whoever wants to talk about theirs gets ten minutes, then the lights come down and it's a room full of people who make things. Bring someone who isn't a member yet — that's how most of the collective found us.
Member platform
Members watch the whole catalogue — finished films, rough cuts, sound pieces — and upvote the work they want to see funded further. The board doesn't decide alone.
01
The full catalogue streams inside the platform, including work in progress that isn't public anywhere else.
02
One vote per member per cycle. Votes are public to members, so support is visible and makers know who backed them.
03
Each quarter the most-backed projects go to the front of the funding queue. The rest stay in the catalogue and can rise next cycle.