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Thursday, December 18, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Marsha Mehran
Anyone who remembers Marsha Mehran from her brief period as receptionist in FilmBase over a decade ago will have been deeply shocked by the circumstances of her sudden death in County Mayo in April this year. She was just thirty-six years old.
It was while Marsha was at FilmBase that she began the writing that would culminate in her debut novel, Pomegranate Soup (2005). An adaptation of this book was proposed by Matador Pictures in London with Kirsten Sheridan set to direct. Marsha's third novel, The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty was published posthumously just two weeks ago.
An inquest was held in Castlebar in May and the verdict has been reported today
Sincere condolences to Marsha's father, mother and brother.
It was while Marsha was at FilmBase that she began the writing that would culminate in her debut novel, Pomegranate Soup (2005). An adaptation of this book was proposed by Matador Pictures in London with Kirsten Sheridan set to direct. Marsha's third novel, The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty was published posthumously just two weeks ago.
An inquest was held in Castlebar in May and the verdict has been reported today
Sincere condolences to Marsha's father, mother and brother.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
A bit of history...
Yesterday I was recalling the late Albert Reynolds's involvement with the film industry back in the day... The Film Production Industry in Ireland, Report to the Taoiseach, Mr. Albert Reynolds, T.D. [Dec. 1992]. Then today I remembered these excerpts from accounts for the Film Board's 'hiatus years', 1987-1992.
I wonder what such a list would look like today?
I wonder what such a list would look like today?
Sunday, April 6, 2014
The Irish Frock & Tuxedo Awards (IFTAs)
I wasn't at last night's Irish Frock & Tuxedo Awards, although I have been an attendee in the past when asked to do jury duty on a few occasions (Best Short Frock, best new talent in a Frock or Tuxedo etc).
Nor did I see the televised (as live) version of the show on RTÉ last night. If Twitterland is any measure then it was not a success. At all. Much talk of inadequate stage management and a complete disregard among chattering attendees for what was happening on the stage.
This should not come as a surprise. It's been a feature of the awards ceremony that has been becoming more evident each year.
But don't forget, these are people who know how to be quiet on set. In fact not just quiet, but absolutely and completely silent. No rustling papers, no stepping on a creaky part of the stage, no whispering to the crew or cast member beside you. If a 2nd AD says "Quiet on set!" even the mightiest ego will be stopped in their tracks, silenced.
So, what's going on? I believe it's a demonstration of complete disrespect for and lack of faith in the whole IFTA process. It's not about the presenters, award winners or fellow professionals, it's an unspoken determination to turn a charade into a knees-up and thumb the nose at the organisers.
If the event is to survive this year's nadir the 'Academy' will have to take ownership of the entire process and lay down some standards of transparency and accountability. Otherwise the IFTAs party is over.
(another view... Irish Times 7 April)
Nor did I see the televised (as live) version of the show on RTÉ last night. If Twitterland is any measure then it was not a success. At all. Much talk of inadequate stage management and a complete disregard among chattering attendees for what was happening on the stage.
This should not come as a surprise. It's been a feature of the awards ceremony that has been becoming more evident each year.
But don't forget, these are people who know how to be quiet on set. In fact not just quiet, but absolutely and completely silent. No rustling papers, no stepping on a creaky part of the stage, no whispering to the crew or cast member beside you. If a 2nd AD says "Quiet on set!" even the mightiest ego will be stopped in their tracks, silenced.
So, what's going on? I believe it's a demonstration of complete disrespect for and lack of faith in the whole IFTA process. It's not about the presenters, award winners or fellow professionals, it's an unspoken determination to turn a charade into a knees-up and thumb the nose at the organisers.
If the event is to survive this year's nadir the 'Academy' will have to take ownership of the entire process and lay down some standards of transparency and accountability. Otherwise the IFTAs party is over.
(another view... Irish Times 7 April)
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Required reading...
Some required reading...
Irish Film and TV Review 2013.
Introduction
Roddy Flynn, Tony Tracy
And separately (but related)...
Irish Film and TV Review 2013.
Introduction
Roddy Flynn, Tony Tracy
The Concrete Manifestations of Emotional Eternity in Brendan Muldowney’s Love Eternal (2013)
Barry Monaghan
Pilgrim Hill (Gerard Barrett 2012)
Laura Canning
The Last Days on Mars (Ruari Robinson, 2013)
Roddy Flynn
Amber, Screenworks and the production of culture
Dennis Murphy
I wanna destroy the passer by: Nihilism, Narcissism and Authority in Love/Hate Series Four
Angela Nagle
New Voices in Irish Experimental Cinema
Donal Foreman
And separately (but related)...
The dispensation for those foreign 'Artistes' eligible for payment from the new tax credit being brought in next year - Finance (No. 2) Act 2013 - see Section 25 'Film Withholding Tax'
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Figures
Always handy to get a look at what's happening to cinema audiences at home and elsewhere in Europe. This chart was prepared by the European Audiovisual Observatory for a press conference at the Berlinale. Their regular complete overview of 2013 will be presented at Cannes in May.
I did enquire what 'NC' denotes (as regards Ireland and Belgium) and was told "NC signifies 'not communicated' ie we didn't get these figures." Further information on numbers of national titles etc. can be found here.
As regards the current state of Irish cinemagoing I suspect admission numbers have been sliding for the last few years. It's difficult to be certain of this because several contributory factors have impacted the collection of Ireland-only data. Theres the growth in importance of new entrants in the UK distribution market; the increasing number of non-film screenings (opera, theatre etc) with figures hard if not impossible to get (while these aren't movies they do have an important bearing on the market); and the knowledge that a lot of non-mainstream, one-off screenings are taking place in arts venues, 'pop-up' venues, and at festivals for all of which there is little or no data.
Another factor in terms of evaluating market trends here is that it is nigh impossible to obtain reliable figures for the newer services competing for the cinema audience. Even where films have been released at the same time theatrically and online (VOD), and/or on a platform such as Sky Box Office, the figures have never been published. Figures for VOD services in Ireland are effectively below the radar and I would guess that adequate service provision and take up is largely limited to densely populated urban areas. And the traditional feature film DVD rental/purchase market seems to have collapsed except
for the Christmas trade and cheap back-catalogue titles but, again, figures for the Irish market are very hard to come by.
Anecdotally there is at the very least a plateau in total BO revenues here since 2011 - I would guess there's actually been a drop of about 10% in the gross before tweaking for price changes and inflation. One
would also have to look at the demographics - who is going the cinema, and when - to see if there the nature of the admissions (and not just the over-all numbers) is having an effect on total box office earnings.
Also, since 2008, there has been significant unemployment and/or emigration in the 18-25 age cohort which may be a factor in any fall in admission numbers.
There are those in the industry who are, in my opinion, too ready to blame illegal downloading for a drop-off in Irish cinema attendance. The truth is that Ireland is behind significantly on high-speed broadband roll-out and that the infrastructure is not yet capable of supporting anything like universal legal (VOD) or illegal downloading.
As regards the current state of Irish cinemagoing I suspect admission numbers have been sliding for the last few years. It's difficult to be certain of this because several contributory factors have impacted the collection of Ireland-only data. Theres the growth in importance of new entrants in the UK distribution market; the increasing number of non-film screenings (opera, theatre etc) with figures hard if not impossible to get (while these aren't movies they do have an important bearing on the market); and the knowledge that a lot of non-mainstream, one-off screenings are taking place in arts venues, 'pop-up' venues, and at festivals for all of which there is little or no data.
Another factor in terms of evaluating market trends here is that it is nigh impossible to obtain reliable figures for the newer services competing for the cinema audience. Even where films have been released at the same time theatrically and online (VOD), and/or on a platform such as Sky Box Office, the figures have never been published. Figures for VOD services in Ireland are effectively below the radar and I would guess that adequate service provision and take up is largely limited to densely populated urban areas. And the traditional feature film DVD rental/purchase market seems to have collapsed except
for the Christmas trade and cheap back-catalogue titles but, again, figures for the Irish market are very hard to come by.
Anecdotally there is at the very least a plateau in total BO revenues here since 2011 - I would guess there's actually been a drop of about 10% in the gross before tweaking for price changes and inflation. One
would also have to look at the demographics - who is going the cinema, and when - to see if there the nature of the admissions (and not just the over-all numbers) is having an effect on total box office earnings.
Also, since 2008, there has been significant unemployment and/or emigration in the 18-25 age cohort which may be a factor in any fall in admission numbers.
There are those in the industry who are, in my opinion, too ready to blame illegal downloading for a drop-off in Irish cinema attendance. The truth is that Ireland is behind significantly on high-speed broadband roll-out and that the infrastructure is not yet capable of supporting anything like universal legal (VOD) or illegal downloading.
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