Whether behind or in front of the camera, TY students are exploring film and television - and even winning awareds, writes John Holden.
Television, according to Homer Simpson, is "teacher, mother, secret lover". We don't all feel as strongly about the box as he does. But TV and film still capture the collective imagination. What's more, the equipment and skills needed to make them are no longer the prized possessions of a select few in the industry. Opportunities to do it yourself are increasing, and transition-year students are among those taking the lead. Suddenly, Hollywood seems that little bit closer.
"Young Irish film-makers have a very interesting approach," says Jayne Foley, director of Fresh Film Festival, an annual event that showcases the best of Ireland's young talent. "Storytelling is at the core," she says. "Because the budget is usually either low or non-existent, film-makers have to be very inventive with plot and location. Some young film-makers can be living in isolated places, and it is to the credit of maverick teachers out there who give students opportunities to explore the medium."
Since the festival's inception, 11 years ago, TY students have been submitting short films of all kinds. It has two categories: the junior level, for primary schools, and senior level, for secondary. There are awards for the best films in each.
But, says Foley, the festival is about more than competition. "It is a forum where young film-makers can meet each other. Even at that stage networking is important. You may end up meeting the same people again later in your career. As advocates of young film-making we also try to showcase films abroad. We've brought Irish films to Korea, Palestine, Austria, Germany and Edinburgh."
Seventeen-year-old Eoghan McQuinn, who was named last year's Senior Fresh Young Film-maker, had his movie, The Cycle, submitted to Berlin Youth Media Festival. It won the award for best film in Europe in the 15- to 20-year-old category. "I made the film when I was 15," he says. "It is about a teenager with terminal cancer and looks at how his friends deal with it. It is less about the disease and more about friendship."
Eoghan is now in sixth year, so, much as he would like to be making more films, he'll have to wait for a while. "I'm into acting and directing, and I do a lot of stuff with Dublin Youth Theatre, but I don't have time at the moment. If I was in TY now I would definitely submit another film to this year's festival."
Last year's TY students at St Mary's Secondary School in Macroom, Co Cork, won the 2007 innovation award at the festival. It was the school's first trip into the world of film, and it has set the ball rolling for future screen successes. "We learned so much about film-making," says 17-year-old Lucy Kelly. "The theme of our movies was fairy tales. But we put our own modern slant on them. We used old fables to tell new stories. We also made a movie called ZT, which showed how events in our lives are all interconnected. It went down really well."
The students were helped by a local company, Asylum Productions. "We worked as their mentors," says Donal Gallagher of Asylum. "We gave them a crash course in film-making and helped them develop ideas and select good locations. The level of enthusiasm from the girls was amazing. We had one group who went to a local graveyard and spent the entire weekend there. Another group were doing the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, about a girl who gets attacked in the woods. To be honest, we were slightly shocked by some of their ideas. But their ability to develop a thought from something very small was remarkable, and the school were very open to the whole thing, even though they'd never done it before."
This year St Mary's students have teamed up with Cork Deaf Association for a range of projects that examine communication and deaf culture. As well as a large stage production, incorporating dance and music, the students will be making a film that brings to life the work of the deaf poet Anna M Stott. "The poem is called The Sound of Sunshine," says 16-year-old Ailís O'Riordain of St Mary's. "It is basically about how the author can't hear but still sees everything around her. We will be performing it through a mix of sign language and imagery. We may enter it in the festival next year."
Students involved in the musical part of the show had their work cut out. They had to find a way of staging a performance that could be enjoyed by both deaf and hearing people. Sixteen-year-old Lauren Hurley explains their approach. "We are going to sing a number of songs and will have two big screens on each side of the stage, with lyrics and pictures to go with the singing and the sign language. It is a multimedia extravaganza."
These projects, fun as they are, may be launch pads to future careers. Tomorrow night, at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin, Fresh is showcasing winning films from the festival over the past 10 years and inviting their creators to come and talk about where they are now. "We'll have directors, screenwriters and others involved in film there, to talk about their careers," says Foley. "Some would have gotten their first chance to make films in TY."
Feat of clay: students become animators
Last year's transition-year students at Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon, Co Clare, took part in Fresh Film Festival's "lunchbox animation" workshop. The Fresh crew travelled to the school - one of several it visited around the country - to introduce students to how animation works. Since the workshop, Scoil Mhuire has started its own TY animation project.
"Twenty of us were lucky enough to do the workshop," says 16-year-old Aileen Murphy. "We all had to draw our own cartoon, still by still, and then the animators from Fresh put them together in a machine which aligned them and put them at the correct speed. I did a monkey on his journey up a tree to get a banana."
Sixteen-year-old Hannah O'Brien focused her drawings on a theme more of us can relate to. "I did the different stages of a fella's quest to get a girl who's way out of his league," she says. "So he buys her flowers and chocolates and eventually wins her heart. I wouldn't be the best at drawing. My characters were stick men. So my cartoon required a bit of imagination."
Seventeen-year-old Alison Byrne enjoyed the workshop so much she is now drawing cartoons of her own. "It was great to have an opportunity to try something different in TY," she says. "Putting lots of your own pictures together and then seeing them come alive is a great feeling. You could tell who was naturally good at it. Some people's cartoons were jumpy and others were more fluid. The important thing when you start is to do something simple. I draw lots of cartoons myself and am now looking at opportunities to study animation when I finish school. I love the traditional cell animation, like we did in TY, but these days most of the work is in computer animation and video games."
The experience was so positive that Scoil Mhuire's TY co-ordinator, Mary Fahey, is about to start an in-house clay-animation programme. "Most people would be familiar with clay animation through Wallace and Gromit," she says. "But there is so much more to learn from it than just how to animate. Through clay animation you essentially have to build a mini film workshop where students can learn about all aspects of film. They need to write up scripts, learn how to edit, do storyboards and use lighting effectively, just like in real-life film."
Behind the scenes
Good storylines and convincing actors will only get you so far in TV and film. Without the skills of camera operators, editors and the other crew members, the show won't go on.
Cue the Cross Border Digital Creativity Project. Anyone interested in a career behind the scenes will envy the four Co Monaghan schools involved in this TY project with a difference.
Ten students from Castleblayney College, Our Lady's Secondary School in Castleblayney, Monaghan Collegiate School and St Macartan's College in Monaghan will get multimedia training in TV, film and music production from industry professionals on state-of-the-art equipment.
Training starts this year at Monaghan Education Centre, where they will look at film production with a moving-image technician. Then, next spring, students will travel to primary schools to work as crew members and help make a documentary on best practice in primary teaching.
Their work will be directed and co-ordinated from the Truck, a digital outside-broadcast unit, similar to those used by RTÉ and the BBC, full of audiovisual gadgets.
The Truck can send broadcasts - such as interviews, news items, concerts, seminars and drama productions - straight back to schools.
The project gives students with "a unique training experience that will prepare them for careers in television, radio, film-making, music production and primary teaching", says Jim McGee of Monaghan Education Centre. "It also provides students with many key team skills that are an important part of any work experience."
Next week Integration and citizenship
