One Night’s Premiere at Belfast Media Festival

 

Without a day to spare, ‘One Night’ was completed in time for its’ premiere on October 18 2012 at the third annual Belfast Media Festival. Shown at a session held by Creative Skillset to introduce ‘The Next Generation’ within Northern Ireland’s media industry, ‘One Night’ coupled with ‘One Fortnight: the Making of One Night’ was met with positive feedback.  

The two films created a launch pad from which Creative Skillset, BBC NI and NI Screen announced the second intake of Aim High trainees next year. Slightly adapted from our 18 months, the second round of entrants will undoubtedly have as valuable an experience as we have.

Oscar-winning and highly acclaimed writer and director Terry George was also in attendance. The 15 Aim High trainees waited with baited breath to hear his thoughts on our wee film, and to our great delight he was complimentary! The director described short films as a “calling card” to be used to demonstrate what a filmmaker is capable of. This perspective was very welcome as I had thought that short films were often met with an air of snobbery by other TV or feature filmmakers.

We were extremely lucky to have an hour of conversation with Terry after the screening. He used appropriately imaginative metaphors to pass on advice to us. He compared films to cornflakes; some are the All Bran kind that you don’t really enjoy but are good for you. Others are coated in sugar, and some boxes are just empty. So when we’re making films, we should remember that we’re always making cornflakes… Terry’s key point was to always remember that cornflakes, sorry I mean, films must be entertaining (tasty).

Terry also reflected on the crucial importance of telling the story. Writers he says, are the only ones who can start from the end and work backwards because they’re the only ones who really know what’s meant to happen. He also expounded on the importance of the relationship between a director and their Director of Photography.

Terry was patient and encouraging in his conversation with us. His anecdotes of working with the likes of Jim Sheridan, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington, and crossing paths with the men whose lives inspired his films, Gerry Conlon and Paul Rusesabagina, were entertaining and witty.

The rest of the Belfast Media Festival followed in a similar style, with keynote speeches and panel discussions packed full of information, advice and even self-mocking commentary on the media industry today as well as hopes for future developments.

‘One Night’ and ‘One Fortnight’ are two films that we deserve to be proud of. Made with industry-standard production values and a personal dedication that only come to a group of young friends making their first film together, we were all happy with the end results. There were hair-raising, headache-inducing, and fretful moments throughout production but that makes the final films even more rewarding.

Stills from the shooting weekend, news and updates on the film can be found at the facebook page.

Stills by Pete Graham. 

Aim High to Cannes

This month marked one year since the Aim High Production Trainee Scheme began, and appropriately the trainees made another field trip. A far cry from BBC Wood Norton in Worcester, England we were flown to MIPCOM, Cannes.

Twelve months on from the intense training we had received at the BBC Academy “bootcamp” to give us the skills we needed to begin in TV, we were given the chance to see the value that one idea can have in the international television market. The market place itself was overflowing with ideas for scripted and unscripted TV programmes from the four corners of the world.

Amongst the most popular shows was unsurprisingly SYCO’s ‘Got Talent’, the number one selling format being broadcast in 54 countries – so the looped trailer repeatedly informed us. The drama ‘Homeland’ was also the talk of the market (both the original Israeli version and the American hit), whilst Belfast-set, and shot, BBC drama ‘The Fall’ was making its first appearance before it had barely left the cutting room.

We were privileged to meet some of the best distributors, agents, and broadcasters in Europe and the USA. Pat Quinn of Quinn Media was a very attentive listener being a self-confessed fan of Northern Ireland’s productions, eager to find out what programmes we had been working on. Google’s Joe McDermottroe, YouTube Sales Development Manager based in London, gave us a very honest and excited look into the future of content making. YouTube London has just launched the YouTube Creator Academy to support “partners” (YouTube channel owners) to become the next stars on the platform and help them enhance their, often already popular, content.

To balance out the sometimes overwhelming commerciality of the market, Ruth McCance of Sparks Network told us about the fascinating and insightful benefits beyond the dollar and euro signs, of working in programme distribution.

These are just three of the inspiring professionals we met. We also had the chance to pick the brains of UK and Ireland distributors; Derry O’Brien from Network Ireland, Tim Morley founder of Content West, Helen Jackson from BBC Worldwide, Andrea Jackson of DRG (Digital Rights Group); and the film music library and rights specialists, AudioNetwork.

All of the industry professionals we met had ambitions and dealings beyond the boundaries of our established comprehension of TV. But they all had a link or connection to the work we are doing back in Northern Ireland, whether it be acting as an agent for many of the companies we have worked for, or selling the documentaries and dramas made for audiences back home, to untapped international broadcasters.

The whole experience raised our perspective on developing ideas and stories for broadcast onto a much bigger scale. But it also reminded us that the humble beginnings of those ideas are the universal experiences and values that appeal to global audiences and translate into countless languages and formats.

We also left with some especially trendy bags sponsored by French company, Banijay. You’ll see us rocking these in and around Belfast!