The Blockbuster Course

FÁS Screen Training Ireland is offering a course called, The "BLOCKBUSTER" - Visual Story Development for Animation & Live Action.

The tutors will be Bobette Buster and Bruce Block, and it will commence on December 11th for 8 days in Dublin. The cost is €500, and the deadline for applications is Friday 4th December 2009.

The aim of this course is to provide a creative overview of animation and live action project development from a story and visual perspective. Through two separate sessions, Script Consultant Bobette Buster and Visual Consultant Bruce Block will present a comprehensive analysis of story structure and visual structure. Over five days of Script Analysis, Bobette Buster will explore the craft of emotional storytelling, followed by Bruce Block offering his unique and structured approach to Visual Storytelling. The course will culminate in a joint visual and story analysis of a film from the “Block Buster” tutors.

The course will cover the following:

• Recognising and using the basic visual components: space, structure, line, shape, colour, tone, movement and rhythm.
• Applying these components to story structure
• Emotionally connecting to your audience
• Analysing story structure

Applicants can choose to attend just the Script Analysis or Visual Structure elements of this course, or, at a reduced cost, both.

Waterford Winners

The 3rd Waterford Film Festival has announced the winners of its competitions.

Quelle surprise, none of the writers are credited, except in the obvious category.

Best Feature Film:
Winner: Bitterness
Written and directed by Joseph Delond

Runner up:
Billy and Lilly Go To New York
Written and directed by Bill Maloney

Best Feature Documentary:
Winner: Pipe Down
Written and directed by Cian O Laoi and Oliver Knowles

Runner Up:
Obama's Irish Roots
Written and directed by Gabriel Murray

Best Short Film:
Winner: 'The Man in the Boot'
Written and directed by Anthony Kinsella

Runner up:
'Near Future'
Written by Steven Stubbs; directed by Steven Stubbs & Ray Sullivan

Best Short Screenplay:
Winner: 'The boy who killed James Connolly'
By Laura O Connell

Runner up:
'Silent Night'
by James Phelan

iad-T in the Park

On Saturday November 28th, IADT and the Dún Laoghaire Arts Office are launching iad-T in the Park, a series of literary happenings taking place once a month at the Tea Rooms in the People's Park, Dún Laoghaire.

Writers, readers and booklovers of all ages are invited to drop in and join Mia Gallagher, writer-in-residence at the IADT, for an exciting mix of literature, cakes and super-strength espresso. Tea-drinkers are also catered for!

Whether it's poetry that takes your fancy or crime fiction that keeps you turning those pages, iad-T in the Park offers you the chance to share your work in public, chat with other writers, meet some of Ireland’s brightest literary talents – or just talk about the books you love reading.

The events are free of charge, open to all and will run from midday to 4pm.

A full list of all the events is available on the web site.

Vote in the 2009 ZeBBie Awards

A final reminder that voting in the ZeBBie Awards closes today at 6pm GMT.

It's the last chance for members of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild to read and vote for the best script in Television, Radio, Theatre and Film in 2009.

The winners will be announced at the 2009 ZeBBie Awards Ceremony on Thursday the 26th of November, at the Sugar Club, in Dublin.

Tickets for the ZeBBie Awards Ceremony are €10 each, and can be purchased online here. No one will be admitted to the ceremony without a ticket.

Enjoy reading and voting!

Kerry Wins

The winners of the Kerry Film Festival short film awards were announced recently, and once again the concept of writing seems to have slipped the mind of the festival.

I've included the writing credit as best as I can ascertain:

The Best Animated Short Film
'Elephants'
Written and directed by Sally Pearce

The Best International Short
'Mother, Mine'
Written and directed by Susan Everett.

The best Documentary short from KFF 2009
'A Film From My Parish - 6 Farms'
Written and directed by Tony Donoghue

Best Irish Narrative Short Film
'The Wednesdays'
Written by Conor Ferguson and Luke Clancy; directed by Conor Ferguson

Best Short
'The Man Inside'
Written and directed by Rory Bresnihan, based on a short story by Fernando Sorrentino

Audience Award
'The Valley of Knockanure'
Written and directed by Gerard Barrett

Children's Audience Award
'Our Wonderful Nature'
Written and directed by Tomer Eshed

The Maureen O'Hara Award, which acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields in film, was presented to Rebecca Miller at the ceremony.

Filmbase Fundraiser

Filmbase will host a Fundraiser Table Quiz on Friday 27th November at the new club Alchemy in the Temple Bar Hotel. There will be a welcome reception with canapés from 6.30pm, and the quiz starts at 7.15pm (ends 10.30pm).

The quiz will be a fundraising event for Filmbase to go towards improving the services it provides. It will cost €10 per person when booked in advance, and €12 on the night. There will also be a raffle on the night with lots of fantastic prizes.

Canemaker Classes

The Irish film industry are invited to a number of events with John Canemaker, a Professor of Animation at New York University and the author of a number of highly-acclaimed books about the history of animation in general, and Disney in particular. His film, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation won the Oscar© for Best Short Film - Animated in 2006. He is the first NFS Visiting Fellow and his residency at IADT is supported by the Irish Film Board and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Visiting Artists Program. The subject of his illustrated lecture will be "Winsor McCay - His Life and Art".

During the first week, he will conduct a series of themed masterclasses under the title "Action Analysis: The Thinking Character". The second week will see a second series of 5 masterclasses under the title "Storyboarding: Process". There are be limited places for industry and/or non-IADT students.

There are also three evening events which are all open to the industry:

1. Tuesday, 10 November at 5.30pm in IADT - NFS Lecture ("Winsor McKee: His Life and Art")
2. Thursday, 12 November at 6.30pm in IFI: "An Evening with John Canemaker" (screening followed by Q&A)
3. Monday, 16 November at 6.30pm in the Light House ("The Art and Flair of Mary Blair" followed by discussion on industry issues)

The National Film School Lecture Series is held in association with Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board.

For more details contact:
Celine Blacow, School Administrator, School of Creative Arts<
Phone: + 353 1 239 4664
Email: Celine.Blacow@iadt.ie

World Conference of Screenwriters Report

Last weekend a delegation representing the Irish Playwright and Screenwriters Guild attended the historic first World Conference of Screenwriters in Athens, Greece. It consisted of David Kavanagh, Chief Executive of the IPSG, Audrey O'Reilly, Chair of the Board of Directors, and screenwriters Mark O'Halloran and Lauren Mackenzie.

The event brought together all of the members Guilds and Unions of the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) - who initiated the project - and the members of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG). Approximately 160 people attended the two-day event, from countries as far apart as Israel, Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil.

The conference tackled its subjects with intense energy, even when faced with intimidating issues such as bi-lateral trade agreements.

What quickly emerged is that while screenwriters in other countries may operate under different agreements with producers and directors, there is a commonality of experience which bridges the cultural divides.

In particular, most screenwriters and Unions encounter issues to do with how credit is attributed to the writers of films; the process of writing treatments and drafts and the manner in which they are subjected to critique; coping with the advent of digital media; the globalisation of the industry and the rights that multinational corporations are attempting to co-opt; and finally the hope writers have for their future based on being the creative source for a good script.

Sometimes the mood in the room became despondent or strained, as people from various groups tried to communicate their frustration and fears, but in the end it was overtaken with a serious determination for screenwriters to remember their strength as the originators of material, and the power of collective action. Screenwriters are not powerless, and it's not impolite to ask for fair treatment. As the American screenwriter Frank Pierson said, in a video clip to the audience: "Take it easy, but take it."

When the conference concluded the FSE and the IAWG issued a joint Declaration, and also a Joint Activity Programme.

The conference was a good first start, and already there is a suggestion of another meeting in two year's time to carry on the action, and conversation.

Cork Winners 09

The winners of the Short Film Awards at the Corona Cork Film Festival have been announced.

As usual none of the writers have been credited.

The following list includes all the writers - as best as I could discover:

Best Irish Short Film
'Free Chips Forever!'
Written and directed by Claire Dix

Special Mentions:
'A Film From My Parish – 6 Farms'
Written and directed by Tony Donoghue

Best International Short Film
'Muto'
Written and directed by Blu, Italy

Special Mentions:

'Walking/Marcher'
Written and directed by Jeanne Herry, France

'Little Red Hoodie'
Written and directed by Joern Utkilen, Scotland

'A Film From My Parish – 6 Farms'
Written and directed by Tony Donoghue, Ireland

Cork Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards
'Joseph's Snails'
Written and directed by Sophie Roze, France

‘Made In Cork’ Award for Best Short Film
'My Beamish Boy'
Written and directed by Mike Hannon

Special Mention:
'The Shop'
Written and directed by Neil Hurley

Youth Jury Award for Best International Short Film
'Lesh Sabreen?'
Written and directed by Muayad Alayan, Palestine

Award of the Festival for Best Short Film
'Elephant Skin'
Written and directed by Severin Fiala and Ulrike Putzer; Austria

OutLook Audience Award for Best LGBT Short Film
'Bombshell'
Written by Kim Farrant & Anthony Johnsen; directed by Kim Farrant, Australia

Audience Award for Best Irish Short Film
'Bye Bye Now'
Written and directed by Ross Whitaker and Aideen O'Sullivan, Ireland

Audience Award for Best International Short Film
'Moore Street Masala'
Written by Rodney Lee & David O'Sullivan; directed by David O'Sullivan, Ireland

IFTAs Open

The Irish Film and Television Awards, presented annually by the Academy, are a platform to honour and celebrate outstanding Irish creativity, talent and achievement; to encourage a high standard of arts and technique in work produced.

The Call for Entries for the 7th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards is now open. Submissions are invited for categories in film, television, shorts and animation.

The deadline for submissions is 5.30pm, on Monday 23 November 2009.

More information on the nomination process is available on the IFTA web site.

IFB Galway Information Session

The Galway Film Centre is hosting an information session at 2pm, on Thursday November 19th, at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway City, to take a look at Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board's development and production funding schemes.

Andrew Meehan, Development Executive and Sarah Dillon, Production & Development Co-ordinator, will outline the principles and criteria for each scheme, the application process as well as answer any questions in relation to the schemes.

To reserve a place contact Mary at education@galwayfilmcentre.ie or 091-770748, as places are limited.

ZeBBie Voting Starts

Voting in the 2009 ZeBBie Awards has commenced.

All members of the IPSG should have received their individual IDs and passwords that will enable them to log in securely and read the nominated scripts.

The final ballot must be cast by 6pm on Monday, the 16th of November.

The winners will be announced at the ZeBBie Awards Ceremony on Thursday 26th November 2009 in the The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Each ticket costs €10. No one will be admitted to the Awards Ceremony without a ticket.

You can purchase your ticket(s) online, via PayPal, or you can drop into the IPSG office in Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 and buy them in person.

Save the Kino

Over 300 people attended a public meeting to launch a campaign to save Cork's Kino Cinema, the only independent art-house cinema outside of Dublin in the Republic, which recently announced it was being forced to close as a result of High Court proceedings by creditors seeking repayment of a debt owed for design work.

Kino owner Mick Hannigan confirmed that a special steering committee has been formed following the public meeting to both raise funds to pay off a debt of about €60,000 and to develop a business plan to put the 188-seat cinema on a sound financial footing.

Those in attendance included the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune, Labour TDs Kathleen Lynch and Ciarán Lynch, and Senator Dan Boyle.

The SaveTheKino.com web site has been established to co-ordinate the effort, and over 8,000 people have signed up to a Save the Kino group on facebook.

DARE2BDRINKAWARE 09

Now in its third year, DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie is a competition for third-level students, sponsored by drinkaware.ie and organised by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA).

The aim of the competition is to highlight young people's attitudes to alcohol: through the use of digital media, students tell their stories and inform their peers about responsible drinking.

The competition is open to students of any discipline. Technical ability is just one element of the judging criteria.

To apply for this year’s competition please fill out the Online Application Form before Friday, 20th November 2009.

Last year’s winning film 'On The Cutting Room Floor' won all of the judges' categories, beating rival entries from colleges throughout Ireland and scooping a total of €4,000 in prize money.

To find out more details about the competition visit the web site.

2009 ZeBBie Awards Short-List

The short-list for the 2009 ZeBBie Awards has been announced.

Television

• Frank Deasy for Father and Son (Episode 1)
• Lisa McGee for Raw (Episode 2)
• Peter McKenna for The Clinic (Series 6: Episode 1)

Radio

• Shay Linehan for The Lottery
• Elizabeth Moynihan for Cider Queens
• Eugene O'Brien for Numb

Theatre

• Gary Duggan for Trans Euro Express
• Elaine Murphy for Little Gem
• Billy Roche for Lay Me Down Softly

Film

• Lance Daly for Kisses
• Mark Doherty for A film with me in it
• Enda Walsh (with Steve McQueen)for Hunger

Congratulations to all the nominees!

Members of the IPSG will be able to log on and read the scripts, and voting will commence from Monday, the 9th of November and end at 6pm on Monday, the 16th of November.

The winners will be announced at the ZeBBies Awards Ceremony on Thursday 26th November 2009 in the The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Each ticket costs €10. No one will be admitted to the Awards Ceremony without a ticket.

You can purchase your ticket(s) online, via PayPal, or you can drop into the IPSG office in Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 and buy them in person.

A special thank you to the agents, producers, broadcasters, publishers, and nominees, for their assistance.

Kino in Cork will Close

The Irish Times reports today that Kino, Cork's arthouse cinema, will be closing next month after a firm of architects began a High Court proceeding to recover €50,000 owed for design work.

Mr Hannigan said the debt arose from a plan he developed in 2003 to expand the 188-seat single-screen cinema into a three-screen facility with a total capacity of some 360 seats.

"We had got a grant of €750,000 from the Arts Council and the Film Board for the project which was costing around €3 million in total. I had managed to secure substantial borrowings but we were still left with a shortfall of around €1 million," he explained.

"Because of that shortfall, we were unable to proceed with the work so we never drew down the grant money but . . . we had to do a considerable amount of preparatory work including getting a design done and that's where the debt stems from.

"It's ironic really that our plan to actually expand the arthouse facilities in Cork has now resulted in the city losing its only dedicated arthouse cinema," said Mr Hannigan, who established the Kino in a former pool hall on Washington Street in November 1996.

James Parriott Interview

On the BBC Writersroom web site there is an extensive interview with US screenwriter and showrunner James Parriott (Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Sons of Anarchy).

In it he talks about pitching, how the Writers' Room works in America for creating television series, and the changes he foresees in how television programmes will be funded in the coming years.

The piece is well worth reading.

Digital Theatre Download

The Stage reports that theatrical live productions from prestigious companies, filmed in high definition, will be available to download from a new web site called Digital Theatre.

Launching this week, the first two productions to available to buy will be English Touring Theatre's Far From the Madding Crowd, recorded at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, and The Container, presented in association with the Young Vic and Amnesty International. Currently, Digital Theatre is working with five partner theatre companies - the RSC, Young Vic, Royal Court, ETT and the Almeida Theatre Company.

The initiative has been set up by theatre director Robert Delamere and TV and radio producer Tom Shaw. Five shows will be made available in the first season, with future productions due to be announced and available for download shortly. Royalties from the shows will be paid to the theatres involved, as well as creatives and performers and agreements have been reached between Digital Theatre and Equity and Bectu over payments to participants.

ETT director Rachel Tackley said the filmed version of its show "cleverly captures the raw energy and dynamism of the live production", while Royal Court director Dominic Cooke said that "the potential of digital technology to connect with a worldwide audience is genuinely exciting."

Cork Festival Talks Industry

The 54th Corona Cork Film Festival takes place from November 1-8, and will offer a splendid array of premières, documentaries, film tributes, special guests, exhibitions, short films, animations, workshops, and courses.

In association with MEDIA Desk Ireland the festival will be coordinating a discussion about film production at the University College Cork, on Friday, November 6th from 2.30pm to 5pm.

"Having been impressed by the cultural and economic enquiry of the recent Global Irish Economic Forum, we invite those active in the Irish film, television and new media sector to attend the Cork forum to engage in reflection and debate," says Festival Director, Mick Hannigan.

"In the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, we are delighted to partner with the MEDIA supported Cork Film Festival in this creative forum which will allow for blue sky thinking," Siobhan O'Donoghue, CEO of MEDIA Desk Ireland continues.

Screen Producers Ireland will host a networking reception for the event’s participants. For further information contact MEDIA Desk Ireland.

The Abbey Stays Put

The Irish Times reports today that the Abbey Theatre will remain in its current location for at least another five to six years as the Office of Public Works (OPW) has initiated a feasibility study on the possibility of relocating it in the GPO.

Minister of State for the OPW Martin Mansergh said a "considerable degree of pressure has been taken off the Abbey Theatre" because of its recent refurbishment. "It is quite happy it will be able to continue for the next five or six years until a new site is developed, hopefully in time for the centenary of the Rising in 2016."

He told the Dáil that to date €219,590.32 had been spent in the development of a new national theatre. The Government had originally decided to relocate the Abbey to a site at George's dock.

Dr Mansergh said the work done was "project specific", not "site specific", and "the vast majority of it could be transferred into the GPO if that is the decision".

Fine Gael arts spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell described the GPO proposal as a "red herring" and said the preparation for a design competition had been going on for years. "Three Ministers have dealt with it and it still has not been announced." She would have loved the GPO as a location "if it had come up five or six years ago when it was first announced". But she was concerned that "it is merely a time-wasting exercise".

The Eclipse wins at Stiges

The Eclipse, the supernatural drama written and directed by Conor McPherson, won the prestigious Melies D'Argent Award for Best European Motion Picture at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain, one of Europe's largest fantasy and horror film festivals.

European Commisson Tackles Digitisation and Copyright

The European Commission had adopted a Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy, which aims to tackle the issue of legal challenges of mass-scale digitisation and dissemination of books, particularly in relation to the European library collections.

The Communication was jointly drawn up by Commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Viviane Reding. Digital libraries such as Europeana will provide researchers and consumers across Europe with new ways to gain access to knowledge. For this, however, the EU will need to find a solution for orphan works, whose uncertain copyright status means they often cannot be digitised. Improving the distribution and availability of works for persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, is another cornerstone of the Communication.

On adoption, Commissioners McCreevy and Reding stressed that the debate over the Google Books Settlement in the United States once again has shown that Europe could not afford to be left behind on the digital frontier.

"We must boost Europe as a centre of creativity and innovation. The vast heritage in Europe's libraries cannot be left to languish but must be made accessible to our citizens", Commissioner McCreevy, responsible for the Internal Market, stated.

Commissioner Reding, in charge of Information Society and Media, said: "Important digitisation efforts have already started all around the globe. Europe should seize this opportunity to take the lead, and to ensure that books digitisation takes place on the basis of European copyright law, and in full respect of Europe's cultural diversity. Europe, with its rich cultural heritage, has most to offer and most to win from books digitisation. If we act swiftly, pro-competitive European solutions on books digitisation may well be sooner operational than the solutions presently envisaged under the Google Books Settlement in the United States."

The Communication addresses the actions that the Commission intends to launch: digital preservation and dissemination of scholarly and cultural material and of orphan works, as well as access to knowledge for persons with disabilities. The challenges identified by the Commission today stem from last year's public consultation on a Green Paper ( IP/08/1156 ), the Commission's High Level Group on Digital Libraries and the experiences gained with Europe's Digital Library Europeana (IP/09/1257).

The recent information hearings held by the Commission on the Google Books Settlement Agreement highlighted the anomalous situation that would arise were the

Settlement to be approved, namely that the vast number of European works in U.S. libraries that have been digitised by Google would only be available to consumers and researchers in the U.S. but not in Europe itself. Ensuring that Europeans are given access to their own cultural heritage, while European authors are fairly remunerated, is therefore of immediate concern and will require European responses, as recently stressed jointly by Commissioners Reding and McCreevy (MEMO/09/376)

Digital Preservation and Dissemination

The Commission will now engage in a stakeholder dialogue to find viable solutions for simple and cost-efficient rights clearance covering mass-scale digitisation and the online dissemination of library collections still protected by copyright. This concerns both out-of-print works and orphan works, i.e. works whose owner cannot be identified or located.

Orphan Works

The digitisation and dissemination of orphan works pose a particular cultural and economic challenge – the absence of a known rightholder means that users are unable to obtain the required authorisation, e.g. a book cannot be digitised. Orphan works represent a substantial part of the collections of Europe's cultural institutions (e.g., the British Library estimates that 40 percent of its copyrighted collections are orphan 1 ). The Commission will now examine this phenomenon more in detail via an impact assessment. The aim is for an EU-wide solution to facilitate the digitisation and dissemination of orphan works and the establishment of common 'due diligence' standards to recognise orphan status across the EU. First progress in this respect has already been made by the ARROW (Accessible Registries of Rights information and Orphan works) project which gathers national libraries, collective management organisations and publishers and is co-funded by the European Commission under the eContent plus programme (€ 2.5 million). This project (launched in November 2008 ) is aimed at identifying rights holders and clarifying the rights status of a work, including whether it is out of print or orphan: "The EU-funded ARROW project is a first step to link Europe's different rights registries and make it easier to identify rights holders," said Commissioners Reding and McCreevy today: " We call on national libraries, collective management organisations and publishers to build on this good start and work with the Commission to develop a pro-competitive and pan-European system of book registries that will allow for cross-border licensing under a transparent and affordable pricing system, while ensuring a fair remuneration of authors."

Access for Persons with Disabilities

Persons with disabilities experience obstacles in accessing information. In particular, visually impaired people experience a "book famine" – only 5% of European publications are available in accessible formats, a situation compounded by restrictions on cross-border distribution, even between countries sharing a language. A stakeholder forum on the needs of disabled persons, in particular visually impaired persons, will examine policy responses, including ways to encourage the unencumbered EU trade of works in accessible formats.

Douglas Hyde Conference 2009

The Irish Times reported yesterday on the Douglas Hyde Conference 2009 that took place last weekend in Roscommon. Its theme was Culture and the Economy: Creativity and Innovation in Post Boom Ireland

The piece quotes from several of the conference speakers, such as Garry Hynes, founder and director of Druid Theatre Company, poet Alice Lyons, and our own David Kavanagh, chief executive of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild.

Cinemagic Workshops

The Coca-Cola Cinemagic Film and Television Festival for Young People, which is taking place during from 18 November - 4th December 2009 in Belfast, is seeking young people aged 16-25 to participate in their ‘Talent Lab’ and Masterclass series - covering topics such as screen fighting, casting, makeup, production, acting and screenwriting amongst others.

The 2009 Masterclass lineup for the Cinemagic Festival includes: ‘Fights for Stage and Screen’ with Youngblood’s fight director Tim Klotz (Shakespeare’s Globe, Lyric Hammersmith, Royal Festival Hall); ‘Make-up for Film’ with Academy Award winning hair and make-up artist Christine Blundell (Topsy Turvy, Casino Royale, Sherlock Holmes); costume design guidance from Academy Award winning designer Jenny Beavan (A Room with a View, Gosford Park, Alexander); a script writing lesson with Ryan Rowe (Tapeheads, Run’s House, I’m on Fire); a film production session with Terry Bamber (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Phantom of the Opera) and David Cain (Thunderbirds, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Hannibal Rising), casting advice from casting director Ros Hubbard (The Commitments, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Bourne Ultimatum), and location management pointers with Andrew Wilson (City of Ember, Middletown, Breakfast on Pluto).

Cinemagic are running other special events in November. Amongst these is an ‘In Conversation with’ session with Muppets Potto and Hilda on November 20th who will be screening ‘Sesame Tree’, the Northern Ireland adaptation of ‘Sesame Street’. There will also be an acting masterclass with IFTA winning actor Ciaran Hinds (The Eclipse) on November 23rd where the actor will deliver a practical workshop in acting for film. Another masterclass being held on the same day is the Channel 4 Programme Making Workshop, hosted by Neil McCallum (head of music at Channel 4) and other members of the Channel 4 Production Team, which aims to expand the skills of individuals who already have gained a degree of experience in areas such as presenting, producing and directing. The Channel 4 Programme making workshop will run for two days.

DEAF 2009

Next week see the launch of the eight Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (22 - 31st October, 2009).

DEAF's focus is on the experimental, and the intersection between music, art, film and the public. It attempts to promote a genuine inclusiveness in its approach to showcasing the electronic arts to new audiences in Ireland.

The festival will be running films, workshops, gallery showings, talks and of course live gigs.