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. 

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.

The Luck of the Irish

Coming from a background in London-centered media, it was hard to miss the media frenzy that is whipping around this region of the UK when I arrived in Northern Ireland two months ago. From the key note speech delivered by Channel 4 Chief Executive David Abraham at the Belfast Media Festival to the recent claims made by business commentators that Ireland’s TV and film industry could save Ireland’s economy, it’s been hard to miss the celebration of Ireland and Northern Ireland’s emerging creative talent.

I, amongst many, have observed a geographic shift in the UK’s television from out of London into the regions in recent years. Of course, not least as a result of the BBC’s move up north to Salford Quays, but commissioners have been more and more inclined to look outward to companies with exceptional talent in the regions.

Earlier this summer Channel 4 announced its plans to commission more programmes from the regions, hailing companies like Double Band Films in Belfast as producers they had enjoyed working with in the past. Additionally, Northern Ireland’s Producer/Director Alison Millar was given a personal nod during Abraham’s speech at the Belfast Media Festival in October. Channel 4’s relationship with the Northern Irish TV industry may be a recently renewed affair, but the BBC has been paying more attention to this part of the UK for a while longer now with John Ferren’s 360 Production giving archaeology a reinvigoration the likes of which it hasn’t seen since the longest running history programme on TV, ‘Time Team’, dug their way into our homes.

It’s not just the UK networks that are sitting up and paying attention to what regional talent can offer. HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ has been called a “game-changer” for Northern Ireland’s media industry. Northern Ireland Screen’s acquisition to produce and shoot this hugely popular fantasy series on the shores of the emerald isle was a great triumph. It appears the organisation’s Irish affability has paid off as their relationship with the American giant looks set to be even more profitable in the future. Perhaps with a tinge of green, CEO of Screentime ShinAwiL production company, Larry Bass, from the Republic of Ireland, has claimed that if Ireland’s producers opened their nets wider to international networks the creative industry could boost the Republic’s economy significantly by creating 5,000 jobs and bringing Ireland to the attention of tourists globally. Indeed, the Irish Film Board recently released news of a pact it has made with the BBC ‘Storyville’ strand to co-produce five feature docs over the next year. The pact deliberately aims to support Irish talent and crews.

It’s not the only scheme looking to invest in talent in Northern Ireland. The training scheme that I am on is also a sign that Northern Ireland is looking to expand and nurture young and new talent in the region’s television industry. There is a yawning gap in the workforce between producers in the higher grades and those just entering the industry as in recent decades very few have been brought into Northern Irish television, and stayed. But that is changing now with several schemes on offer in the north and south of Ireland for those looking for a career in the creative industries.

To those London cynics who wished me “Good luck…”in my new job here in Northern Ireland with a facial expression that said “…cos you’re gonna need it!” I would say come over here and try it – there’s something in the rainwater…