Claire Gormley gives us an insight into The Date, which screens at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh.
What can you tell us about The Date?
The Date is a story of young love. It centres around our couple, Sinead and Brian, played by Charlene McKenna and Rory Fleck-Byrne. It’s a really charming and sweet story. The film is directed by Selina Cartmell, the new creative director of The Gate Theatre and produced by myself for Parallel Films. Selina is obviously incredibly talented and very successful in the world of theatre so it was really exciting to work with her on her first film.
How did you become involved in the project?
I met Selina and writer Liz Quinn on last year’s Filmbase/RTE short film’s funding scheme. I had read the script as part of the process and once I met both of the ladies I immediately knew I wanted to work with them. There was a really strong shared vision for the film and we all seemed to agree on how it would all play out.
What is your role as producer on a short film like this.
I was involved in all areas of the production – from discussing the script to casting, budget management, assembling our brilliant crew, locking in locations – basically anything that needed to be done. It’s great how hands-on you get to be with short films so I was more than happy to pull it all together.
You assembled a terrific cast – can you tell us a little about this process.
Yes, we were so delighted with our cast. It’s always exciting when you have a really strong script as you know people will do it for the right reasons. I think the combination of a great script and Selina’s talent as a theatre director attracted our cast. Charlene and Rory were both on board as soon as they read the script. We also assembled an amazing cast to surround them, including Owen Roe, Camille O’Sullivan and Donnacha Crowley. We struck gold when we came across the band “Darktown”. They feature in the film and their music is a really important part of the story.
How involved were you day to day on set.
With shorts like these it’s a really good opportunity to get stuck in and get all-hands-on-deck for the shoot so I was very involved on the shoot days. We had a lot to fit into our days so it was important to make sure we kept moving and all of the cast and crew were happy and able to do their jobs. There’s a certain buzz that you get from the intensity on shorts like this, with everyone pushing themselves to get the very best out of what we have so I loved being heavily involved on set.
And now onto Galway…
We’re thrilled to be launching The Date at the Galway Film Fleadh. Galway is such an encouraging environment for young filmmakers and we can’t wait to finally see it on the big screen!
Preview of Irish Film @ Galway Film Fleadh 2017
