Issue 130 – Living at the Edge, Working at the Centre
Galway Film Centre manager Declan Gibbons talks to a cross-section of people about working in the film and television sector in the West of Ireland.
The Galway Film Centre celebrates its 21st birthday this year. I remember when we started we had a borrowed Bolex camera and an old Steenbeck editing suite that rté had discarded. For a resource centre we had very few resources! Over time the audiovisual sector in the West has become the largest outside of Dublin. We now have over 25 independent production companies with specializations including drama, documentary and animation and over 200 skilled freelance audiovisual technicians and practitioners. We have state-of-the-art facilities in Telegael and Studio Solas, our own broadcaster (TG4) and even our own soap opera with dedicated studios. We also have the Film Fleadh, two film and television schools at GMIT and the Huston School of Film & Digital Media, and, very importantly, (BSÉ/IFB) have their headquarters in Galway.
In spite of all this progress, working in this industry is always a challenge, so I set off to talk to a cross-section of people working in the West to see how they got started, what keeps them here and what the challenges are that face them.
How did you get started in the industry?
Pat Comer, filmmaker: There was very little if anything happening in the West of Ireland back in the ’80s. I ‘hustled’ it a bit in Dublin, door-stepping different production companies but only got encouragement, not employment. Then, in 1988, the Galway Film Resource Centre started up. You had to be on the dole to qualify, but back in the ’80s that was pretty much everybody. We had a wind-up Bolex camera but little film. Gradually new people became involved – Film West got published, the Film Fleadh started and eventually a network of people with growing levels of expertise and ability began to establish themselves in the West. I didn’t care if I worked in drama or documentary. What was important to me was the chance to work in filmmaking, which is essentially a form of storytelling.
Moe Honan, Head of Animation at Magma Films: One of the first projects I worked on in the television medium saw me buried in a dark studio for nights on end making war documentaries. This was quickly followed by running around like crazy with a crew, filming almost every gig for a documentary about the Galway Arts Festival. This was by Justin McCarthy and called In The Shadow of Galway Cathedral. I knew then I could never grow tired of a job that offered me the privilege of working with so many different kinds of stories and people.
Pierce Boyce, Managing Director at Abú Media: I got my break in this business when Roger Corman opened his Concorde Anois Studios back in 1996 in Tully. I started off as locations assistant on what I think was a Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson film, Bloodfist VIII: Trained to Kill. I worked 6 days a week, doing 17-hour days for small money but I loved it and got hooked. We set up Abú Media in 2001 and whilst everyday has its challenges, I still love every (well, almost every) day of it!
Ciarán Ó Cofaigh, Managing Director of ROSG: I always had an interest. When I was in University I got the opportunity to work as a trainee with Muiris Mac Conghail on Mórchuid Cloch agus Gannchuid Cré, a feature documentary he directed for RTÉ in 1988. When I graduated from UCD in 1990, I was accepted on a producer/director course funded by Údarás na Gaeltachta and run by the RTÉ training centre. It was a comprehensive nine-month course, which included both single-camera and multi-camera production. At the time we all believed TG4 would be six months down the road as opposed to the six years we had to wait. It was, however, a great display of initiative by Údarás na Gaeltachta, who, through a series of similar courses, had developed a core of trained professionals by the time TG4 was actually established in 1996.
The full article is printed in Film Ireland 130.
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