Good Time Charlie

Some very good news has come in about Charlie Casanova, the film I edited in March & April 2010 which was put together via Facebook with a budget of €1, 000 (yes, a mere one thousand yoyos). The film has been picked up for UK and Irish distribution by the highly respected distributor STUDIOCANAL, a member of the Canal+ Group and formerly known as Optimum Releasing, all names familiar to lovers of European and non-mainstream cinema. Optimum/STUDIOCANAL have been involved with such acclaimed films as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Paddy Considine's Tyrranosaur, Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Thomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, among many others.
See http://www.studiocanal.co.uk/ for more details about this company and its film catalogue.
Charlie Casanova will have a cinema release in Ireland and the UK sometime in 2012 which is an amazing achievement for a flick with such humble beginnings. It is a testament to the energy and commitment of Terry McMahon, its writer, producer and director.

Before this, Charlie Casanova blazed a trail through the festival circuit and picked up a number of awards along the way. It was selected for this year's SXSW (South By South West) film festival in Austin, Texas and it was the first Irish film to receive this honour. Its lead actor, Emmet Scanlan, won the Best Actor award at the ECU European Independant Film Festival in Paris, it won Best Feature and Festival Pick at the DMV International Film Festival in Washington DC and it won the joint Best First Feature award at the Galway Film Fleadh*. It was selected for screening at numerous cinematic shindigs including the Edinburgh International Film Festival (where it had three sold out screenings), Brisbane and Dublin Underground Film Festivals and, more recently, the 56th Cork Film Festival. Phew!

* Fleadh is the Gaelic word for festival and is pronounced 'flaah'.

More information from these links:

http://www.corkfilmfest.org/2011/films/42/charlie-casanova

http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284071&tpl=archnews&force=1

http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/irish_film_industry/news/Irish_Feature_Charlie_Casanova_Scoops_Two_Awards_at_Washington_Festival/1686

Long time no blog...

It's been a while since I posted anything and for that, many apologies and no excuses. A lot has been happening since March so I'll get stuck in.

At the moment I'm in the middle of editing Kelly+Victor, a film written and directed by Kieran Evans  and adapted from the novel by Niall Griffiths. The film is produced by Janine Marmot (Hot Property Films London) and is co-produced by Andrew Freedman (Venom Films Dublin) and is supported by Film Agency Wales, the Irish Film Board, FilmFour and Domino Publishing. I'm editing the film in Venom's cutting room in Ranelagh, Dublin, and I'm at about the half way stage in the editing schedule.

It was shot over four weeks in Liverpool from late August 2011 and I had a great experience there despite the hard work & long hours. It was my first time to visit the city which is slightly absurd since it is close to Dublin in more ways than one. I fell in with the spirit & the craic of the place straightaway, thanks to Chris Taylor, Dave McCabe, Spud Murphy and the rest of the gang. The crew were all great gas and the banter was non stop even while working under the typical conditions of low budget film production. It was an intense and special time, to say the least. The film was shot by the young yet incredibly unflappable cinematographer Piers McGrail on the Arri Alexa system and he has done a fantastic job, as always.

Links:
Irish Film & Television Network (IFTN) article
Hot Property Films
Kelly+Victor: review of novel
Article by Niall Griffiths about the filming of Kelly+Victor

Yeee-haw!!!!

CHARLIE CASANOVA - he's a fighter not a lover....
The big news is that Charlie Casanova has been selected as one of eight films (out of a total submission of 984 films) to be in the Narrative Feature competition in the 2011 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. This is a huge coup for the film and is truly exciting news indeed. The festival starts this Friday 11th March and Charlie Casanova will be screened three times, the first (its world premiere) will be on Sunday 13th March at the State Theatre on Congress Avenue. Naturally, I have my fingers crossed for the film and for its writer, producer and director Terry McMahon.
You can look at the competition line up at  http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/film_lineup
The trailer is viewable on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSVCEJRWg0c
Facebookers go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/CHARLIE-CASANOVA-THE-MOVIE/294033936394

If you have even more time on your hands then you can read Terry's own account of how he came to make the film on IndieWire

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2011/03/07/meet_the_2011_sxsw_filmmakers_charlie_casanova_director_terry_mcmahon#

Vimeo killed the ramio star...
I have set myself up on Vimeo where a selection of my film and music video editing work can be seen - go to http://vimeo.com/user1457770 . I will, of course, be adding more clips regularly.
It just keeps getting better
I had the enormous pleasure of seeing Crossing Salween (see earlier posts) on the lovely big screen in the Irish Film Institute as part of the Irish Film Board Short Film Programme during the recent Dublin International Film Festival. It looked and sounded absolutely lush, thanks to the gorgeous cinematography of Richard Kendrick and the stunning score by Steve Lynch. You can see the trailer at
http://www.redragefilms.com/page.php?intPageID=25

Lisa Vandegrift Davala's film, For Peace Comes Dropping Slow..., has been selected for competition in the New Hope Film Festival in Pennsylvania, USA. I had the pleasure of editing this film in her beautiful artist's studio in a remote part of County Sligo last August.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Hope-Film-Festival/281255329939

The long and the short.

Best wishes for 2011, my faithful reader(s).

Some news about Crossing Salween, a 20 minute short film directed by Brian O'Malley, produced by Gary Moore through Red Rage Films, Dublin, and edited by myself.

This week Crossing Salween was screened twice at the Flickerfest Short Film Festival in Sydney as part of their international programme. Flickerfest is an Academy Accredited Short Film Festival as well as Bafta recognised event. More info at http://www.flickerfest.com.au/

Crossing Salween has also been invited to take part in the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. The film will screen three times during the festival which runs from February 10th-20th. The film is part of the 'Generations' programme which focuses on short and feature films with a child as the main protagonist, and the programme will screen a total of 59 films from 32 countries. Crossing Salween is part of the Generation 14plus programme in the festival. You can read the press release at

http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_8212.html

Go to the film's web page and watch the trailer at 

http://www.redragefilms.com/page.php?intPageID=25

and have a gander at its Facebook page at 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crossing-Salween/126262327441090?v=info

Here's a recent article about Citadel, a feature film which I am currently editing in Dublin.

http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/irish_film_industry/news/Big_Freeze_Fails_to_Chill_Production_on_Irish_Feature_Film_CITADEL/1488