This has been a hectic (read: brilliant) week for me. It started last Saturday with my involvement in the Film Nation Shorts workshop in Derry as part of the Foyle Film Festival. I was not one of the participants in the workshop, but it was to help new directors get to grips with working with actors for the first time. It also assisted myself and Christine McGowan (who was also acting in the class) get experience in front of camera.
The project was organised by Jacqui Wells, of 104 Films and it is part of a National Lottery Olympic Games 2012 outreach program, and involved Paul Christie on camera, and John Carlin directing.
The main exercise involved taking a scene from Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece Magnolia, and dissecting it for pace, camera work, and essentially bringing out the best in the actors.
Then throughout the week I helped Queen's University Players put on a couple of short plays for their Freshers Festival on Thursday. I was aware that I would not be able to attend the festival itself, so I took the opportunity to take the seat on the other side of the production. As assistant director, I helped Seamus O'Hara and Daisy Brindley put on plays that they wanted to showcase with intentions of bringing them to the stage in a greater capacity in the future.
Seamus' piece was a series of sketches, written by Seamus Collins, very firmly based on the mould of Chris Morris' oeuvre, a genre I love. It featured young actors David Heatley and Sarah McErlain
Anton Thompson- McCormick and Antonia Eastwood were the actors in Daisy's piece, a tender study of love set on a pub settee.
All the guys were great to work with, to be able to turn around performances so quick is a real and useful skill, and I look forward to working with them all again.
Finally yesterday (Thursday) and today, I god involved in the Cinemagic Festival workshops, that were run by Hubbard Casting and Patrick Bergin and Silé Bermingham. Cinemagic is an organisation that I have been wanting to get involved with for a long time, and I wish I had taken up their opportunities earlier because the workshops have been brilliant, and I have made countless contacts in the past two days.
Tonight the festival is rounded off by an awards ceremony in Belfast City Hall, which I will be attending, which will no doubt be attended by some of the many patrons of the festival, of whom there are numerous.
Like I mentioned, this week has been amazing, so I am getting ready to work with a whole raft of new people, who'll bring fresh ideas and impetus to my career. I can't wait.
The project was organised by Jacqui Wells, of 104 Films and it is part of a National Lottery Olympic Games 2012 outreach program, and involved Paul Christie on camera, and John Carlin directing.
The main exercise involved taking a scene from Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece Magnolia, and dissecting it for pace, camera work, and essentially bringing out the best in the actors.
Then throughout the week I helped Queen's University Players put on a couple of short plays for their Freshers Festival on Thursday. I was aware that I would not be able to attend the festival itself, so I took the opportunity to take the seat on the other side of the production. As assistant director, I helped Seamus O'Hara and Daisy Brindley put on plays that they wanted to showcase with intentions of bringing them to the stage in a greater capacity in the future.
Seamus' piece was a series of sketches, written by Seamus Collins, very firmly based on the mould of Chris Morris' oeuvre, a genre I love. It featured young actors David Heatley and Sarah McErlain
Anton Thompson- McCormick and Antonia Eastwood were the actors in Daisy's piece, a tender study of love set on a pub settee.
All the guys were great to work with, to be able to turn around performances so quick is a real and useful skill, and I look forward to working with them all again.
Finally yesterday (Thursday) and today, I god involved in the Cinemagic Festival workshops, that were run by Hubbard Casting and Patrick Bergin and Silé Bermingham. Cinemagic is an organisation that I have been wanting to get involved with for a long time, and I wish I had taken up their opportunities earlier because the workshops have been brilliant, and I have made countless contacts in the past two days.
Tonight the festival is rounded off by an awards ceremony in Belfast City Hall, which I will be attending, which will no doubt be attended by some of the many patrons of the festival, of whom there are numerous.
Like I mentioned, this week has been amazing, so I am getting ready to work with a whole raft of new people, who'll bring fresh ideas and impetus to my career. I can't wait.