facilitated companies that ask us to work with their staff on specially commissioned works for their businesses, and we teach them the same types of practical filmmaking workshops. We've had companies who want to train up their staff to be able to shoot and assemble videos for in-house communication purposes or even for social media.
Increasingly now video is the method of getting the most information across on social media platforms. So it's definitely important that people who how to shoot for that.
A lot of people have phones now that have full video recording capabilities in them. Everybody at some point has hit record on their phones, but what the workshop really focuses on is how to bring production values to the films and really what a lot of it is focused on is getting good sound and being able to use the available light that you have at your disposal. We make a recommendation, that if you have a budget and you are thinking of buying some equipment, on how you should spend it. Say somebody has €500 to spend they might say "I'm going to go out and buy a camera for €500", but I would always say "No, make sure that you getting some sound equipment with that or a tripod that you will be able to shoot a movie with, rather than just blowing the whole thing on a camera." Most cameras, even at a very basic level, are HD nowadays. You have to consider the whole filmmaking pack rather than just the camera.
Have many of your past pupils gone on to work within the audiovisual industry?
We've worked a lot over the years with people who have done the Digital Film School course in different capacities. And even some of the teenagers we've cast in a TV series that we have done for RTÉ. It's a great network and it's a great way to meet people. To be honest we want to put more research into "Where are they now?". A lot of the teenagers in particular have gone on to have full fledged careers in film. In terms of the adults, again I'd love to explore where people have gone, but I know that some of them have gone on to work full-time in filmmaking. An example would be Natasha Waugh, who did the filmmaking course and is now an award-winning shorts director.
You have got people with real industry experience involved as teachers on the course. That seems to be an important factor.
All of the teachers are wonderful, and most of them work within the industry. We've had some fantastic guest lecturers on these short courses, like Conor McMahon who directed Stitches. He's actually ran some of the courses. Then Mark O'Connor, who recently made Cardboard Gangsters, did a scriptwriting course with adults and teenagers. And then Dave Turpin who wrote The Lodgers as well. You're really getting people from the industry and who are professionals.