Winning Entries in Student Competition Highlight Home Drinking Theme

gordon | April 23, 2012 | Comments (0)

An online game show tracking the effects of alcohol on daily life and a short film documenting antics at a drink-fuelled house party were amongst the winning entries at the fifth annual DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie awards ceremony, held in Dublin last Thursday night.

DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie – now in its fifth year – is a film and multimedia competition for third-level students, organised by drinkaware.ie, in association with the Digital Hub Development Agency. This year, the competition challenged students to explore the theme of ‘drinking in a home environment’.

Students nominated for awards rubbed shoulders with well-known personalities from the worlds of film, TV and multimedia at last night’s ceremony. Special guests included: Paddy Cosgrave, founder and organiser of the Dublin Web Summit; award-winning TV director David Kerr; John Kelly, RTÉ and Lyric FM presenter; David Graham, Sales Manager for YouTube in Ireland; Caroline Twohig, presenter of ‘FYI’ on 3e; Ciarán Norris, Head of Digital with Mindshare; RTÉ 2 presenter Stephen Byrne; and Community Manager for WorldIrish.com, Darragh Doyle.

Speaking last Friday in the wake of the awards ceremony, Fionnuala Sheehan, Chief Executive of drinkaware.ie, explained why ‘drinking in a home environment’ had been chosen as the theme for this year’s competition.

‘We wanted to choose a theme that really resonated with students, and that offered them plenty of scope to be innovative and creative,’ she said. ’We are used to seeing alcohol awareness campaigns that revolve around goings-on in pubs or nightclubs. But home drinking now constitutes more than 50 per cent of alcohol consumption in Ireland – up from 30 per cent a few years ago – so it’s important to address this phenomenon too.’

‘Students – who are usually living off limited budgets – have always had a tendency to favour home drinking, or to combine having a few drinks at home with a night out in the pub. They consider it cheaper to drink at home than to drink in a bar.’

‘So we felt the theme of ‘drinking in a home environment’ would offer students plenty of scope to produce fresh, imaginative film and multimedia entries, and we were proven right: as always, there was a very high quality of entries received this year, and a wide variety of approaches were taken by those who were nominated for awards.’

The winners in the 2012 DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie competition were announced at the awards ceremony last Thursday night, which took place in the Wood Quay Venue in Dublin. In total, seven prizes were awarded, including three runner-up awards in the multimedia category, which was deemed too close to call. The prizes awarded were as follows:

1. People’s Choice – Film Category: ‘Pre Drink? Precaution’, produced by ‘Shifts’, whose members are students from UCD, DCU and St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. (Chosen by an online public vote.). Awarded €500.

2. People’s Choice – Multimedia Category: ‘How Drunk are You?’, produced by the Flamboyantnunchucks from Limerick Institute of Technology. (Chosen by an online public vote.). Awarded €500.

3. Joint Winners in the Multimedia Category:

- ‘Booze Tracker’, produced by Paul Murphy, from Limerick Institute of Technology (Clonmel campus). Awarded €500.

- ‘How Drunk are You?’, produced by the ‘Flamboyantnunchucks’, from Limerick Institute of Technology. Awarded €500.

- ‘Home Party Quiz’, produced by Paul Farnan, from Cavan Institute. Awarded €500.

4. Runner-Up Film: ‘Behind Closed Doors’, by Philip Blake, from IADT (Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire). Awarded €500.

5. Best Overall Film: ‘The House Party’, by Streal Productions, from Limerick Institute of Technology. Awarded €1,000.

At the awards ceremony, a panel discussion chaired by well-known broadcaster John Kelly took place, with panellists Paddy Cosgrave and David Kerr. Both men spoke about their own successful careers, and offered advice to students on how to break into the film, TV and multimedia industries.

“Bringing people of the calibre of Paddy and David to the awards ceremony – to meet and mingle directly with the nominated teams – is an integral part of what we do with DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie,” said Fionnuala Sheehan. “We don’t just view this as a competition; we also see it as an opportunity for students to network; to develop links with key industry insiders; and to gain experience that will help them to forge successful careers.”

Winning and nominated films and multimedia projects from this year’s competition can be viewed at www.DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie.