National Film School @ IADT
NFS Newsletter Number 4—JUNE 2009
NEW NFS BUILDING—PLANNING APPLICATION Contents: New NFS Building ENGAGE 2009 NFS Lecture Series 08/09 Film Student Shares “Empire” Award Freedman at Cannes Postgrad Applications up NFS Award Winning Students Wardrop selected as Winner for DGA “Give Me Direction” conference sponsored by the NFS “Tomato Soup” Wins Yet Another Award European Media Literacy Research New Book Launch at Venice Biennale Graduate Exhibition 2009 Filmsense Symposium “Media in Crisis” Conference Farewell to Toni Delany
After receiving approval from the Department of Education and Science, IADT has now lodged an application for planning permission to Dun Laoghaire‐Rathdown County Council for the NFS Building. We expect that construction will begin on site early in 2010 and that the building will be completed approximately twelve months later.
FIRST 2009 ENGAGE WORKSHOP IN IADT Following the success of the pilot programme in 2008, ENGAGE (European Network Growing A Generation of screen Entrepreneurs), has begun its second year and the first workshop took place in Dún Laoghaire on 1st—3rd April. The original partners of Screen Academy Scotland (Edinburgh Napier University), the Baltic Film and Media School (Tallinn, Estonia), and the NFS have been joined by the University of Art and Design (Helsinki). The IADT participants are: Bill Tyson, David Lester Mooney, Cleo Whittingham, Darach McGarrigle and David Tynan. Days One and Three took place on campus, with Day Two at The Light House in Smithfield, where there was a screening of Lance Daly’s Kisses, followed by an interview with its producer, Macdara Kelleher. Other visiting industry professionals included: writer/director, Gerry Stembridge; script editor, Rachel O’Flanagan; and producer, David Collins.
CLOSING NFS LECTURE IN 2008/2009 SERIES The final NFS Lecture of 2008/2009 was with writer, Michael Hirst, on Tuesday, 21 April, in conversation with Roger Greene. Mr. Hirst, screenwriter of Elizabeth, Meeting Venus, Ballad of the Sad Café, Fools of Fortune, and probably best known as the creator of The Tudors, also had a session with Screenwriting MA students. This extremely successful series of lectures, with industry professionals of international reputation, was once again generously supported by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.
Michael Hirst—NFS Lecture
National Film School @ IADT
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NFS Newsletter
Number 4—JUNE 2009
CONAL SHARES “EMPIRE” AWARD
FREEDMAN ON THE MOVE AT CANNES
3rd Year Film & Television Production student, Conal O’Meara, was presented with an Empire (magazine) Award by This is England director, Shane Meadows, at London’s Grosvenor House on Sunday 21 March. He was the co‐winner of the “Done in Sixty Seconds” Award, with his co‐director, Stephen Power, for their one minute remake of Jerry Maguire. View the film at: www.empireonline.com/awards2009/winners
IADT graduate, Andrew Freedman, of Venom Films, was selected to be the Irish participant in the “Producers on the Move” programme at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in May. Organised by European Film Promotion, the scheme is in its 10th year and brings together up‐and‐coming film producers from 23 countries for various events and networking opportunities during the festival.
POSTGRADUATE APPLICATIONS UP Programme Co‐ordinators, Paul Freaney and Roger Greene, are delighted with the increase in applications for their respective postgraduate programmes: the MA in Screenwriting, which is ten years old, and the MA in Broadcast Production (Radio & Television), which began in 2008.
WARDROP’S FEATURE FOR DGA SCREENING Ken Wardrop’s first feature documentary, His and Hers, produced for Venom by his business partner (and fellow IADT graduate) Andrew Freed‐ man, has been selected as the winner of the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland Directors Finders Series. This provides him with the opportunity to show‐ case his film at the Directors Guild of America theatre in LA in August.
NFS STUDENTS CLEAN UP AT AWARDS IADT Film & Television Production students won all the jury prizes and €5,000 at the DARE2BDRINKAWARE awards in April. Now in its second year, the alcohol awareness competition for 3 minute films is open to all third‐level students, and is sponsored by drinkaware.ie and is organised by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA). On the Cutting Room Floor, the IADT entry, came out top from over 100 entries from all over the country, winning awards for Best Overall Film, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Narrative, and Best Creative Interpretation of the Competition Brief. Our team consisted of: Ian Hunt Duffy, Evan Barry, Richard Boland, Simon Doyle, and Kevin Herlihy. Director, Lenny Abrahamson, made the presentations and the jury included broadcaster, John Kelly, and Deirdre Hopkins of the Irish Film and Television Academy.
NFS SPONSORS “GIVE ME DIRECTION” Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival organised “Give Me Direction”, which was held in the Shelbourne Hotel on Friday 5 June. Attended by approxi‐ mately 170 participants, it was the first Irish conference on the art and craft of screenwriting. The NFS sponsored the opening session “Don’t Get Weird on Me”, which attempted to find some middle ground in the arthouse versus commercial cinema debate. Chaired by Film Board Chief Executive, Simon Perry, panellists included: screenwriter, Mark O’Rowe; directors John Moore and Damien O’Donnell; and Israeli writer/director, Eran Kolirin (The Band’s Visit).
ANOTHER WIN FOR “TOMATO SOUP” Animation graduate, Paul O’Brien, won the Best Experimental/Animated Film Award for his graduation film, Tomato Soup , at the inaugural Fastnet Short Film Festival in West Cork on Sunday 17 May. Another NFS graduate, Vincent Gallagher, received the Best of Festival Award for An Cosc, his first film since leaving IADT last year.
National Film School @ IADT
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NFS Newsletter
Number 4—JUNE 2009
EUROPEAN MEDIA LITERACY RESEARCH Helen Doherty, Pro‐ gramme Co‐ordinator of the MA/MSc in Digital Media, has completed a research project, in association with the National Film School, which was commissioned by the MEDIA Pro‐ gramme of the
media literacy is a response to changing patterns of communi‐ cation in civil society and how broadcast‐ ing is adapting to these social trends. Helen’s report will be used as a discussion document across the MEDIA Programme,
European Union. The research, entitled, Media Literacy and Public Service Broad‐ casting, focuses on changes in the public media sector that have been brought about by digital media. The themes explored include how
and related depart‐ ments of the European Commission; in the Autumn, she will pre‐ sent her research to the EU Expert Group on Media Literacy.
MAEVE LAUNCHES NEW BOOK AT BIENNALE Dr Maeve Connolly, Lecturer in the School of Creative Arts and former Acting Head of the Department of Film & Media, launched her new book, The Place of Artists’ Cinema: Space, Site and Screen (Intellect/ University of Chi‐ cago Press) at the Venice Biennale on Saturday 6 June. The event was hosted by GradCAM at the Irish Pavilion. Maeve was elected to the Board of the Irish Film Institute at its AGM in December.
2009 GRADUATE EXHIBITION Michael Colgan, Director of the Gate Theatre, opened the School of Creative Arts Graduate Exhibi‐ tion on Thursday 4 June, and, in his speech, welcomed our new BA (Hons) in Design for Stage and Screen, which begins
in September. He said that the Gate will be delighted to support the programme in every way it can. Pro‐ grammes repre‐ sented in the show were: Animation, Make‐up, Modelmak‐ ing, Production Design/Art Direction,
Image from the Graduate Exhibition Website Sandra Nugent Higher Certificate for Makeup, TV & Theatre
Visual Arts Practice, Photography, Film & Television Produc‐ tion, and Visual Com‐ munications. It was open to the public until Thursday 11 June.
National Film School @ IADT
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NFS Newsletter
Number 4—JUNE 2009
FILMSENSE SYMPOSIUM On Friday, 24 April, on campus in IADT, the NFS and the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media hosted filmsense, a symposium concerned with film and education, organised by IADT’s GradCAM Fellow, Dr. Elaine Sisson, and Donald Taylor Black, Creative Director of the National Film School. Cary Bazalgette, former Head of Education at the British Film Institute, was the keynote speaker, taking as her subject “Moving the Goalposts: Film Education and Media Literacy”. The day ended with “What Makes a World‐Class Film School?” discussed by a prestigious panel, consisting of Ben Gibson, London Film School; Professor Robin MacPherson, Screen Academy Scotland; and Dr. Michal Bregant of FAMU in Prague.
FAREWELL TO TONI After 16 years as originator, Programme Co‐ ordinator, and principal lecturer on the Make‐up course, Toni Delany retired this month from the National Film School at IADT. At a party in the President’s office, on Tuesday, 9 June, she was presented with a print by Patrick Hickey, cham‐ pagne, flowers and other gifts. The event was attended by a large group of staff, students, for‐ mer students, and colleagues from the film indus‐ try. We wish Toni well in her retirement in Kil‐ kenny but are delighted that she will remain as a member of the NFS Advisory Board.
L‐R: Robin Mac Pherson, Donald Taylor Black, Michal Bragant and Ben Gibson at the filmsense Symposium
KEVIN RAFTER SPEAKS AT “MEDIA IN CRISIS” Kevin Rafter, Head of the Department of Film and Media, was a contributor at a recent conference entitled “Media in Crisis”, which was organised by the University of Westminster and the British Journalism Review. With advertising revenue in freefall and audience viewership patterns changing, the conference heard contributions from academics and industry practitioners including Mark Thompson, BBC Director General, Robin Elias, Managing Editor ITN, and Dorothy Byrne, Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4. Kevin’s paper on the redefinition of political reporting in Ireland assessed the changing nature of political journalism arising from changed news values and market competition. A longer version of the paper will be published in The Irish Communications Review later this year.
National Film School IADT Kill Avenue Dun Laoghaire Co Dublin Ireland Phone: + 353 1 239 4950 Fax: + 353 1 280 3345 Email: info@nationalfilmschool.ie Website: http://www.iadt.ie/en/ InformationAbout/NationalFilmSchool/
Sean Larkin presenting Toni Delany with a bouquet of flowers on the occasion of her retirement party