The Breakout Role Podcast returns! In the latest episode, Luke and Jess watch Mazes and Monsters , a morality tale about the dangers that tabletop roleplaying games pose to our innocent youths, starring young Tom Hanks in his first lead role!
Anyone who’s ever watched the credits at the end of a film knows what a collaborative effort it is to get from a script to a screen, and how many people are involved. But when a pandemic locks you into your home, how do you go about it using available technology?
We’ve all become accustomed to Zoom meetings during the pandemic, but co-producers Adam Brennan and Colin Fleming decided they would use the platform to direct their short film “Devolved”. The film is a co-production between Monaghan-based FKU Productions and City Morgue Films.
Read more…
With news, reviews and events in the fair city of film a little thinner on the ground at the moment, Film In Dublin will taking an occasional look at What’s On…The Shelf, taking a deeper dive in to some of the films in their personal collections. This time, Luke Dunne goes on long on John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China.
Every year the Galway Film Fleadh serves as one of the biggest and brightest celebrations of film in the Republic, a summer film festival with top programming and an enviable atmosphere. Film In Dublin’s hopes for a road trip to the Fleadh are dashed this year, with large gatherings non-viable and cinemas to remain closed until at least mid-August. However, the Galway Film Fleadh have made the decision to present the 2020 festival edition online, meaning viewers in the fair city of film, the hooker county and elsewhere on the island will be able to come together for a taste of that festival magic.
Following its cinema release earlier this year, Ciaran Cassidy’s critically acclaimed documentary Jihad Jane will be available on various digital platforms in the UK and Ireland from May 11th.
Two Dublin-based filmmakers have overcome social distancing and quarantine restrictions during lockdown and produced a music video for Closer, a new single from UK indie band, The Tin Pigeons. The video is produced and directed by Tommy Creagh with DOP Conor Tobin filming starring in and editing the video on location in his home.
Speaking about the process, producer/director Tommy Creagh had this to say:
“We had to adapt to the reality of what we could do under lockdown. The only way it could possibly work was for Conor, D.O.P, to film himself throughout his daily routine and for us to discuss the rushes over Skype at the end of every day and work them back into an ever evolving treatment. The process was slower than usual but from the restrictions, an organic visual style formed. Through trial and error we figured out a way to work around the obstacles in place and tell a compelling story”
The song, Closer, written during a rural escape writing weekend in a remote corner of the Lake District, explores how the society we live in can be emotionally draining and makes us numb to our own feelings. Although written well before the Covid-19 pandemic, the theme of the song certainly rings through in relation to the current global situation.
Fraser Norton and Thomas Quemby of The Tin Pigeons had this to say:
“In light of recent events in the world, this subject matter has never seemed more appropriate. In some ways we are all battling with the effects of social isolation, finding plenty of time to sit with ourselves and study our cracks…
We are creatures designed to be together and ‘Closer’ reflects the mental health conflict we go through in separation”
Acclaimed as “One of the best festival bands we know” by BBC Music Introducing, the bouncing indie two-piece have received national recognition and an incredibly strong fan base throughout the UK are one of the strongest bands on the UK’s live circuit.
Check out the video for Closer below:
Tommy Creagh is an English-Irish writer/director based in Dublin, with a passion for lyrical, expressive storytelling. Over the past three years his short films have won several awards and have been shown at over fifty festivals around the world. His film Land of Winter won Best Irish Short at the Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival and Best International Young Talent at the New Renaissance Film Festival in London.
He has also been establishing himself in the music world with videos for The Rupees, The Golden Dregs, and now The Tin Pigeons.
Conor Tobin is an established filmmaker, known for his camerawork and is also an accomplished editor & director. He strives to push the medium, creating interesting and thought provoking content when possible. His shorts include Light https://vimeo.com/200471910 and music videos including The Paddy Blues Band . Conor was DOP on Hold The Line, the multi-award winning Irish short film.
The pair have worked collaborated on a number of short films and music videos including Children of Dawn short film and a Music Video for The Golden Dregs.
Director: Neasa Hardiman Starring: Hermione Corfield, Connie Nielsen, Dougray Scott Running Time: 89 minutes
________________________________________________________________________________
From the visceral threat of Jaws to the unnerving nightmares of H.P. Lovecraft, the sea has always been a fertile breeding ground for horror. To cast characters adrift into vast, unexplored and uncaring waters means that they are exposed to one essential real-life fears – the instinctual anxiety that kicks in when a human is fundamentally and literally not on their home turf. Start adding freaky monsters into the mix and you can really start turning the screw, just as Irish director Neasa Hardiman has done in Sea Fever. Set aboard a small Irish fishing boat that becomes infested with aquatic parasites, the isolated ship mates become their own vessels and are as much at risk from each other as they are the horrors of the deep. What the film lacks in originality, knowingly but practically taking inspiration from classics like Alien and The Thing, it has gained considerably in timeliness. Let’s hope we don’t start seeing every movie through an “of-the-moment” lens, but if the lifejacket fits…
With news, reviews and events in the fair city of film a little thinner on the ground at the moment, Film In Dublin will taking an occasional look at What’s On…The Shelf, taking a deeper dive in to some of the films in their personal collections. This time, Luke Dunne goes on a ramble about Jackie Chan’s 90’s hit, Rumble in the Bronx.
In Direct Line, Film In Dublin cuts to the chase, asking 20 questions of Ireland’s directors to get a brief look into their outlooks, influences and inspirations.
Director Shaun O’ Connor’s work has screened all over the world and won awards at various festivals, from DC to Dublin and Cork, where Shaun himself is based. He’s directed for television, on stage and for several advertising campaigns, but has received particular notice for his short films. His latest, A White Horse, has been a smash success on the Irish festival circuit over the last year, as an official selection at the Galway Film Fleadh, the Belfast Film Festival, the Cork and Waterford Film Festivals and VMDIFF 2020. Having won at the Oscar-qualifying Foyle Film Festival, A White Horse will be on the longlist for the Academy Awards in 2021.
Director: Lorcan Finnegan Starring: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris Running Time: 97 minutes
________________________________________________________________________________
Even as news reports were starting to darken and arrive ever closer to our doors, while sitting in the sold out screening for the Opening Gala of VMDIFF 2020 it was difficult to imagine just how real Vivarium would become. Or how quickly the energy of a film premiere, glamorous stars ; a room packed full of people eagerly anticipating the uncertainty and possibilities of the immediate future, would feel like a bittersweet memory of oohhh, a billion years ago.
If Vivarium is a horror, it’s a horror about the domestic drudgery, a blunt jab at how social constructs can be so narrowly confined, widely expected and hellish to navigate that they can feel like a trap from which there is no escape. The fact that we all have to stay indoors right now with unknown and deadly consequences lurking ominously over us all the time has made the film’s blunt, exaggerated parody of suburbia very real in ways that director Lorcan Finnegan and writer Garret Shanley (who paired previously on Without Name) might never have anticipated when putting this story together, and it would be hard to blame the average viewer for running a mile from its ideas at the moment. The black joke has gotten a few shades darker, but the film is so committed to the bit, so giddily weird, it manages to pull off the delivery.
