GOOD HOME TURF NEWS

We had some good news there a couple of weeks ago:

Home Turf won Best Short Documentary a the Kerry Film Festival!

We were delighted because we made a Kerry film - shot in Kerry, featuring Kerry people and produced by a Kerrywoman.


Our poster pic (above) even features a picture of a Kerryman - Aideen's dad... Mr. O'Sullivan.

We're really happy that the film is connecting. It's a simple film about cutting turf but we feel there are also a few more layers to it.

The juxtaposition of hand turf-cutting and machine methods visually tell the story of progress and we think, too, that the film reveals a certain type of masculinity that deserves celebration but is perhaps often overlooked.

With winter coming, the film really makes me long for a good turf fire. And a nice cup of tea!

More info on the film here:

http://www.hometurffilm.com/

LOOKING BACK AT THE BAILOUT

 The Bailout was a documentary I did last year while working in Prime Time that used eye-witness accounts to tell the story of how Ireland came to be in the EU/IMF financial programme.

It’s almost exactly a year since we made it and it reared it’s head again this week when it won Best Business Feature at the Smurfit Business Awards. Here’s a pic of reporter Robert Shortt picking up the award:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/1119/two-rte-journalists-win-smufit-business-awards-business.html

It was a documentary that changed in form on a few ocassions during the making of it. At first, it was to be a shorter report that would allow in-studio discussion afterwards but halfway through filming an hour-long slot became available and suddenly we were under pressure to deliver a one-hour programme in a total of four-and-a-half-weeks. I think I had a pretty extreme look on my face for those few weeks!

I suddenly realised that I’d never done a full hour of interview-driven TV before. I’d done long documentaries driven by observational scenes and I had done plenty of short interview-based pieces but never a full hour. How to pace it? How many shots would I need?

So, I decided to resort to what I know... it was an unfolding story so I divided the documentary into scenes and thought about the relationship between those scenes and how they would drive the narrative on.

I wanted the documentary to work as a drama that had an “and then and then and then” flow with each scene being motivated by the last. I was working with the excellent and thorough reporter Robert Shortt and we both felt that we didn’t want commentary in the documentary and that really helped. Retrospective analysis would have interrupted the flow. We wanted the audience to stay in the moment and not to be pulled out of it by opinions.

We also had to think about how the reporter’s narration would work in that situation and I felt it was important to make sure that our interviewees revealed the important information, so we looked closely at each piece of voiceover to ensure that it didn’t give away the key information in the upcoming scene. If the audience knew what was coming up, why would they stay interested?

The Sunday Independent said the programme was “gripping” and hopefully that was a reflection of the way we approached it.

The documentary was on the RTE Prime Time website but seems to have disappeared today, so hopefully it'll reappear there soon.

EXCITING TIMES

In the last month or so there has been a flurry of activity. First, I was delighted to programme the IFI Dublin Documentary Festival, Stranger Than Fiction, which was opened by the sensational THE IMPOSTER. Director Bart Layton joined for a post film Q&A and he turned out to be a very sound man - staying until late as audience-members quizzed him about the film well into the night.

HOME TURF won the 'Man and Nature' award at Film Festival Della Lessinia in Italy and then screened again in Los Angeles last week.

LINK: http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&aid=73&rid=4285271&tpl=archnews&only=1

At the same time, BYE BYE NOW has had a bit of a revival and had its Irish television premiere on RTE. A week later it was selected to represent Ireland at the EU Film Festival in China where one film from each EU film will be screened.

LINK: http://www.thejournal.ie/video-film-disappearance-public-phoneboxes-ireland-620475-Oct2012/?utm_source=twitter_self

With all of the interest, we decided to put BYE BYE NOW up on YouTube:

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agRwRf6JoyE&feature=player_embedded

SAVIOURS - a blast from the past - has been invited to screen at a film festival in Madison, USA and BLIND MAN WALKING might also be going stateside with a screening in New York for an event Mark Pollock, the film's star man, will be speaking at.

We've been busy this week working on the next film. The story of how Muhammad Ali came to fight in Ireland. The idea is to get it done for broadcast before Christmas. Wish us luck!

Recent Work

I haven't done this for a while but I intend to get a new site up and running very soon.

For now, here is some of the stuff I've been working on recently...

THE BAILOUT
A Primetime Special for RTE that explores how Ireland lost its economic sovereignty.
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/1128/primetimespecial.html#

HOME TURF
A documentary for the Irish Film Board about the dying tradition of cutting turf by hand in rural Ireland. After debuting in Cork, the film recently had its International Premiere at Hot Docs, screened at  Krakow and will soon have its US Premiere at the AFI Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival.
www.hometurffilm.com

BYE BYE NOW
The little film that could, continues to be invited to screen all over the world after touring festivals successfully for the last two years or so, including winning at Silverdocs, Nashville and elsewhere.
www.byebyenowfilm.com