Name: Nicole Murray
Age: 27
Job Title: Co-creator and Co-founder of Svelte Dog Productions
College: University of Washington (UW)
Major: Biology
Social Media: @lil_ginga @deadfriends_webseries
Her Campus: You are a co-founder of Svelte Dog Productions. Can you tell me more about Svelte Dog Productions?
Nicole Murray: Svelte Dog Productions is my co-creator, Paige Henderson and I. As a team, we write, produce, and direct. We took on those roles together and fully created a web series, Dead Friends, which is currently available on YouTube. Svelte Dog Productions is mostly just associated with Dead Friends, but we, as a team, would like to continue creating together. Before this, we had just done a couple little short films. Dead Friends would be our creation that we would be most known for.
HC: This month, you and your co-creator released a web series, Dead Friends, that you both wrote and starred in. What inspired you to make the web series?
NM: First, Paige and I really wanted to create our own content. We really wanted to have more control over our careers. We’re both living in Los Angeles right now and trying our best to be actresses and filmmakers, so we decided the way to do that was to get on creating our own content.
Second, we were brainstorming and this whole web series came from a single idea that there’s this ghost and they’re trying as hard as they can to be noticed. They’re running around screaming, pounding on things, flickering lights, and then you flash this real-world view of a person, where all they hear is a [small noise] or see a tiny flicker. Emerging from that is us thinking about these interactions between humans and spirits and the comedy that can be associated with that, as well as delving into some of these themes with the afterlife, death, and self-acceptance in a comedic way that a lot of people can relate to.
HC: Your co-founder of Svelte Dog Productions, Paige, is also a UW alumni. How do you choose a good partner? What quality in your co-founder showed that she would be a good partner for you?
NM: I think something that we really value about our partnership and something that I saw a lot in her was this intense honesty. We can trust each other and our opinions because we are just very open and honest and not afraid to have the difficult conversations and the great conversations that you need to have in order to create a company and to create a film where you’re delving into a lot of different creative ideas. With art and creativity, you need people to tell you exactly how they feel about it and how it comes across. When you’re co-creating something with someone, you’re going to run into these times where you both are not seeing eye to eye. When we opened up to each other and told each other what we thought about, we actually melded our two ideas in a way that was better.
[Paige] is so supportive and reliable. We found that on set, if anything went wrong, we knew we had each other no matter what. When one of us was down, we’d pick the other up. It made us a very strong team and able to handle a lot of the difficult situations that you come across during all the troubleshooting that happens with film and life in general.
HC: Recently, Dead Friends has been screened at several film festivals, such as the Indie Gathering Film Festival in August and the Glendale International Film Festival earlier this month and you won best web series last week! What has been the most rewarding part of making this series?
NM: I think a huge and very rewarding part is how much we learned. [Paige and I] started out as actresses, but then, along the way with making [Dead Friends], we’ve learned how to be writers. We learned how to be producers, directors, and showrunners. It was such an invaluable experience because not only were we able to see things from different perspectives, but also, it helped me become a better actress because I had all those perspectives in mind. Everything with the filmmaking process just elevated my ability to create good work.
HC: Did you encounter any challenges in creating this web series? How did you overcome it?
NM: In general, with filmmaking, on set, you’re always problem solving. Something will happen, like, “we don’t have enough food in this area” or “this costume doesn’t actually look right on film” or “this set design…let’s move these things!” Those were little challenges that we faced, but the biggest challenge was budget.
Filmmaking and bringing in as many people as you need on board can be expensive. With having these budgetary constraints, we had to be very creative. We were like, “How could we differentiate the ghosts from the humans, but in a very cheap manner.” Especially when Paige and I first started creating this, we were imagining it was just going to be us and our friend and [Director of Photography], Ben Slavens making [Dead Friends] in our house. With that, we were brainstorming and came up with all these silly, weird ideas. What we ended up settling on was this one sleeve, which was great because we could use it as an indicator of when Chris was close to moving on to the next realm or not. It ended up being better due to those challenges.
HC: So, you have a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the UW. Did you see yourself going down this path of filmmaking and acting? How did you decide to pursue this passion?
NM: I didn’t at all. I still loved acting and I was in a couple plays while at UW, but I hadn’t really realized that this was the path I wanted to go down. I always loved film and acting, but I was also very much in love with science. Pursuing that biology degree and the research that I did after it at our laboratory at the UW was so rewarding. But, there’s this itching for acting and I need to explore that. That’s where all of this happened. I was like, “Whoa, I’m actually so in love with this (acting on film and the filmmaking process)!” I just decided that I had to leap fully into that.
HC: You are also a Her Campus founder at UW. What inspired you to start Her Campus at UW?
NM: I started it with my friend. We both really loved the idea. We loved what Her Campus was doing by giving women a voice. Looking through all the content, it was so fun and it was such a great exploration of the university. Not only were we excited about it for ourselves, but we also wanted to provide an outlet for women to be able to do it together and collaborate.
HC: How has Her Campus helped you after graduation and in your career?
NM: Her Campus was my first time taking a lead on something. Her Campus does a really good job providing you the tools to be able to learn how to lead and allows so much room for individual, independent growth. I was able to learn how to build a team. I learned how to reach out and how to communicate with people in a way that got them excited about the organization. It made me so much better at communication in general and being thoughtful.
That lends well in filmmaking because I am very thoughtful of the audience and how do they come across and how do I communicate these big ideas in a way that is fun, creative, and that people can jump on board with.
HC: Finally, what kind of advice would you give to undergraduate students at UW today?
NM: Be involved with anything that you can be. When I was at the UW, I was in biology and did clubs associated with that. But, I also found myself so much more of a well-rounded person because I did things like Her Campus and a club for acting called Stage Notes. All of these things helped me in every field I’ve been in. They helped me in my confidence with communication. All of these things blended together so well, and I really recommend for anyone to explore every avenue you possibly can. Anything you’re interested in, just go for it. Even if it’s not something you end up doing later, you will learn so much from it and that will help you in any field that you’re in.
Dead Friends is out now and can be viewed at www.deadfriendswebseries.com! Indulge in this comedic, off-the-wall take on the afterlife, self-acceptance, and unexpected friendships.