Eight Months Later

Eight months ago I started Northern Ireland Screen’s Aim High Production Trainee Scheme. Fresh from the first ever Belfast Media Festival, I was excited and impatient to begin working in the burgeoning industry here that I had heard so many positive things about. What can I say now I’m eight months into the job?

June 2012’s Belfast Film Festival has given me useful pause for reflection. When the 15 trainees began we knew fairly well the capabilities of the TV industry here and we weren’t disappointed. I know I can speak for everyone when I say we have all seen and experienced the breadth and quality of TV production coming out of the region. But the recent film festival has demonstrated that Northern Ireland has the ability to reach beyond the small screen, and fill theatres with its feature films.

During the course of the Belfast Film Festival, there were three premieres of feature films produced by Northern Irish talent and made on location in the region.  Good Vibrations is a biopic of Terri Hooley, a Belfast record storeowner at the height of the punk-rock scene, directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn. Jump, adapted from comedian Lisa McGee’s play, is a heart stopping journey through Derry on New Year’s Eve as seven characters find themselves entangled with one another, produced by Brendan Byrne and directed by Kieron Walsh. Whole Lotta Sole is the latest film from Oscar winning Terry George. It’s a comedic tale in which a hapless father and a visiting American get caught up in a fictional underworld in Belfast, starring Hollywood stalwarts Brendan Fraser and Colm Meaney.

All three films embody an ambition that is building in Northern Ireland to test the potential here and see how far it can go. The reception they each received was equally telling of the appetite and support there is to see the industry go far. The effect of the festival on myself, as a trainee here in TV, was to spur myself on to stretch higher in my own roles. I am coming to the end of a placement that gave me experience in numerous fields and taught me a lot about Northern Ireland – its politics, culture and people. For my next placement I feel able to push myself further and take on more responsibility. This is something I hope will be possible.

My first ever blog was written the day after the MTV European Music Awards. I must admit I felt rather jaded that day, but I was brimming with optimism about the city of Belfast and the time I was going to have here. This latest blog is being published at rather an apt time, as someone I met that night has just appeared in a short film made by a friend of mine who also attended the awards. In a rather cyclical progression of time, after meeting David Monahan on the 6^th November 2011 when he streaked at the MTV EMAs we kept in touch and Jane Fletcher asked him to be the subject of one of a series of short films she is making for the NI Tourist Board. David’s story of courageously putting himself, or should I say running, onto the world stage is something that Northern Ireland can empathise with.

Over the past eight months Northern Ireland has done nothing but put itself at the forefront of the world stage, including the hosting of an international concert, the opening of a world class exhibition centre, the launch of three feature films, a visit to the US by the First and Deputy First Ministers on an investment mission, and there is more to come with the Irish Open being hosted in Portrush and a potentially history making state visit by Queen Elizabeth II.

There are now ten months left of my trainee scheme, keep checking in to find out where it will take me next!


I interviewed David for Jane's film. You can watch it below.

Ask nicely and you shall receive (or how I maintain my faith in humanity)

It doesn’t take long when you first start working in TV to realise just how much you rely on other people, the good members of the public, in order to do your job. Most of my working day is spent finding the right person to speak to, phone bashing until I come across that expert who is going to share years of research with me. The community worker who is going to reach out to their circle and find the case study I need to tell my story, or even that independent health care company who will not only give me the use of their training room to recreate a hospital scene but will lend me a nurse’s uniform, hospital bed and stethoscope to boot. (True story – and yes I played the nurse.)

And for what price? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Granted there is often an element of mutual exchange; good PR for an organisation wanting more exposure, the highlighting of an issue that is of concern for a group in society or simply the lending of an interested ear to someone with a passion rarely sought by mainstream popular culture.

The absolute importance of building a relationship and maintaining the trust of contributors cannot be stressed to a TV researcher. They need looking after, consideration and gratitude because without them your programme wouldn’t be possible.

Working with people from all walks of life is one of the aspects of this job that I love the most. If you begin as you mean to go on; politely, patiently, and with a listening ear, then there is little that someone might be prepared to do for you. I am constantly humbled by the generosity and openness of people I work with, it always restores my faith in humanity especially when you’re dealing with serious or sensitive content.

Here are some of the more diverse members of society that I have had the pleasure of speaking with…

• A train signal box enthusiast
• A rat catcher
• An American pyro technician
• The dedicated mother of an 8 year old free style dancing champion
• The youngest member of an amateur dramatic society, aged 35
• Helena Bonham-Carter’s parenting coach
• The sales manager of specialised thermal imaging cameras for firefighters
• A Master tea blender
• An Army Major
• A babyplanner
• The man who sent the first ever picture text message
• The world’s best Elvis impersonator

Recently, a friend and I had the most helpful and generous experience with a tattoo studio for a short film she wanted to make. I helped Jane produce the film by finding a tattoo studio who would let us record a time lapse of a tattoo being done in their studio. My housemate introduced me to Belfast City Skinworks and the rest was plain sailing. The studio made our job the easiest in the world, and here's the end result: