Address from Executive Director

Dear Members,

Please find below update for guild activities and groundbreaking developments with collecting society. I would love to hear from you so if you would like any more information please do give me a call.

Best,

Birch Hamilton
Executive Director

SDGI has teamed up with Drama Department in RTE to create a new TV Drama mentorship programme for directors. Three directors will have an opportunity to be mentored and accompany a director on Fair City across four days of the Fair City cycle in 2010: a day of prep, a day on location, a day in studio and day in post production.

This programme aims to build skills of television directors and understand the process behind directing television drama such as Fair City. This is open to all members.

Please register your interest by sending an email to liz@sdgi.ie before the 1st of March.

SDGI has made important territorial agreements for foreign payments for our members owed to directors for secondary usage of their works internationally through through rental and lending equitable remuneration right, private copy levy, cable retransmission, and broadcasts in foreign territories. In the last 6 months SDGI has made agreements with SACD in France, SGAE in Spain, Suissimage in Switzerland, Bildkunst in Germany, LITA in the Slovack Republic, Filmjus in Hungary, ABRAMUS in Brazil , AKKA LLA in Lativa, KOPIOSTO in Finland and DAC in Argentina.

SDGI has registered each member of the guild on an international IPI system, giving each director a unique number that can be tracked across listings in order to give a precise audit of the author’s work internationally.

Negotiations for National collection has significantly progressed. Please contact Birch Hamilton for more information on these negotiations.

SDGI is delighted to welcome Dearbhla Walsh to the Board of SDGI. Dearbhla was elected at the SDGI AGM which took place on December 2nd in the Sycamore Club.

Dearbhla was taken over from one of SDGI’s founding board members Trish McAdam who stepped down after nine years of tireless and dedicated service to SDGI. On behalf of the Board, Executive Director Birch Hamilton, staff and all the members of SDGI we would like to wish Trish well in all her endeavours going forward. Trish will remain on in her role as SDGI representative and Vice Chair on the Executive of the board of FERA.

Screen Producers Ireland to have Directors’ Minimum Terms officially agreed. This is an important milestone in establishing recognition for the basic economic and creative rights of directors. Good news for SDGI’s Minimum Terms as they will be used as a template for FERA the Federation of European Directors Organizations who will use SDGI’s terms in an effort to make these the standard across Europe.

the 2009 AGM, which took place on Wednesday December 2nd in the Sycamore Club. The meeting began with an overview of SDGI’s achievements in 2009 from Ciaran Donnelly (Chairman) and Birch Hamilton (Executive Director) with highlights such as the further development of the collecting society, the acceptance of the SDGI Minimum Terms contract as a standard contract for use in Ireland and the establishment of new and exciting initiatives such as the Wash Ur Eyes creative forum and the Script Box mentoring Programme.

Ken Wardrop reported on winning the Finders Award 09 and his experiences in LA. Paddy Breathnach, who attended the IAESDO General Assembly meeting in London reported on the work of the meeting and Trish McAdam gave an update of recent changes at FERA. Jason Tammemagi of the Animation Committee and Ray McCormack of the Documentary Directors Committee also addressed the meeting. Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan were re-elected on rotation to the board of SDGI with Dearbhla Walsh being co-opted onto the board. Prior to the re-election, Chairman Ciaran Donnelly gave his thanks on behalf of the board and membership to Trish McAdam, who stepped down after many years of service. He described Trish as a great visionary with a powerful and astute voice for directors.

There then followed keynote speaker Michael Gubbins, UK Media Consultant, who gave a special focused talk on directors taking control of the industry and using new alternative ways to make and distribute film/TV. Cay Wesnigk then presented a Video on Demand platform founded in 2000 by himself and another 120 German producers, directors and authors called ONLINEFILM AG that uses digital technologies for the distribution of audiovisual content. See links at the end of the newsletter for more information.

Since its launch in October 2009 the WASH YOUR EYES series of events has already exceeded our expectations by building a new and exciting forum for the guilds community of directors to meet and be challenged and inspired through dialogue and collective support. The initiative which was created by members, for members is intended as an informal creative space where directors come together to present their favorite films, host test screenings, bring other art forms and mediums into the mix and discuss issues of interest within the spectrum of possibility.

Since the beginning of the year Ruth Meehan and Daniel O’Hara have both hosted events. Ruth presented an evening on What makes a moment come to life on screen? Lenny Abrahamson, Paddy Breathnach and Declan Recks discussed what was involved in bringing a chosen scene to life what worked for them and equally important what didn’t work. The main focus was on performance but other elements such as camera, sound and location were also be considered.

Daniel O’Hara, who flew in especially from Scotland to host the event presented the action film Crank: High Voltage (2009) and discussed with the assembled group to decision by the films directors to shoot a $20 million dollar action movie on small prosumer HDV cameras? Daniel O’Hara and DOP Fergal O’Hanlon led the lively discussion on shooting formats with a special focus on getting the most out of low-budget digital filmmaking.

Two Director’s Club events have also taken place since our last newsletter. On December 15th Margaret Corkery screened her catalyst funded and award winning feature EAMON with the post screening discussion led by Ken Wardrop.

On January 18th SDGI chairman Ciaran Donnelly presented an episode of winning TV drama THE TUDORS. Ciaran discussed his vision behind THE TUDORS and the challenges of working with actors and crew on set of a large scale TV drama series. The after-screening discussion was facilitated by fellow Director Ruth Meehan, who did a thorough examination of the screened episode.

A full calendar of events for 2010 can be found on the home page of the SDGI website at www.sdgi.ie and hard copies should have been received by all members either at the SDGI AGM or in the recent 2010 membership subscription mailing.

PROGRAMME FEBRUARY 2010 – APRIL 2010

All Wash Ur Eyes events are supported by a free round of drinks at Pintxo’s Bar.

Wash your Eyes will take place on the first Monday of each month at 7.00pm in the Director’s Screening Room, Temple Bar.

9th February
DIRECTORS CLUB:
Jason Tammemagi presents Fluffy Gardens (2007) Fluffy Gardens is a preschool animation television show, which tells the story of Paolo the Cat, Lola the Mosquito, Wee Reg the Puppy, George the Mean Yellow Dog, and the Small Green Thing. This is a unique opportunity to be the first to see some of the new episodes from the new 2010 series, which haven’t been broadcasted yet. Jason will also be showing the very original pilot episode that has never aired. Fellow animation director Steve Woods will lead the post screening dialogue with Jason who has created, written and directed Fluffy Gardens.

1st March
WASHUREYES:
Truth and Reconciliation with Production Designer Tom Conroy and others to be confirmed. Production Designer Tom Conroy (‘The Tudors’, ‘George Gently’) and two guest production designers provide you with a unique opportunity to learn all about what they love and hate when working with directors.

UPCOMING DIRECTOR’S CLUB EVENTS

22nd February
DIRECTORS CLUB:
Dearbhla Walsh presents Little Dorrit (2008). Little Dorrit is a TV series based on the serial novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, originally published between 1855 and 1857.Dearbhla will talk about her experience directing this Emmy Award winning TV series in dialogue with fellow director Ruth Meehan.

15th March –
DIRECTORS CLUB:
Paddy Breathnach presents I went Down (1997) Fresh out of prison, Git rescues a former best friend (now living with Git’s girlfriend) from a beating at the hands of loan sharks. He’s now in trouble with the mob boss, Tom French, who sends Git to Cork with another debtor, Bunny Kelly, to find a guy named Frank Grogan, and take him to a man with a friendly face at a shack across a bog. It’s a tougher assignment than it seems: Git’s a novice, Bunny’s prone to rash acts, Frank doesn’t want to be found (and once he’s found, he has no money), and maybe Tom’s planning to murder Frank, which puts Git in a moral dilemma. Then, there’s the long-ago disappearance of Sonny Mulligan. What’s a decent and stand-up lad to do?

As you all know it’s that time of year where membership subs are due for 2010. Many thanks to those of you who have already returned your subscriptions prior to the due date of February 19th. We understand that these are challenging times for the sector so if you have any difficulties in meeting this deadline please give Liz a call on 01 633 7747 on Mondays and Tuesdays or send an email to liz@sdgi.ie

In 2010 SDGI intends to further build on the successes of the award with calls for applications planned for mid April. For more information as it becomes available go to the SDGI website at www.sdgi.ie The importance of the Finders Series Award is now indisputable with previous winners going on to make a significant impact on the international film stage. Last year’s winner Ken Wardrop, with his beautifully crafted documentary HIS AND HERS just added the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Prize at Sundance to other numerous awards and credits the LA screening of his film with providing him with the opportunities to develop key relationships with studios and distributors worldwide. Similarly 2008 Finders Series winner Tomm Moore secured US distribution with Empire Films Group USA for THE SECRET OF KELLS and as everyone is now aware was nominated last week for an Oscar in the Best Animation Film Category.

We would like to remind members that the SDGI screening room is available weekdays between 10.30pm and 5.30pm. As a member of the Guild you can book a day long session for either a screening or meeting for €70 (or €50 for half a day).

The room has been equipped with wireless broadband in order to create additional flexibility for members. To ensure the screening rooms continued survival it is now also available for hire to non guild members at a commercial rate with interest and uptake being steady and encouraging. Guild members continue to benefit from low cost priority booking. Your help in also promoting the Screening Room and its excellent central location and facilities is always appreciated. Please contact guid for availabilty today.

Jason Tammemagi became new Chairperson of SDGI Animation Committee. The Committee would like to thank Steve Woods for all his work as Animation Committee Chairperson over the last three years and will continue to work with him on the board.

The Committee would also like to thank Barry O’Donoghue who has stepped down from the Committe and wish him all the best with his projects. SDGI has worked on extensive activty plan for the Animation Committee, please contact the Guild if you would like a copy of this plan.

The Documentary Directors Committee, chaired by Shimmy Marcus have met and begun to work on a range of issues that are important to documentary directors. If you would like to become involved in helping to shape the future of documentary film making in Ireland the committee would love to hear from you. To find our more just call or email SDGI Executive Director Birch Hamilton or contact Shimmy on shimmymarcus@gmail.com

We love to hear from our members and now there is an even easier way to contact the guild through Skype. Our SKYPE name is screendirectorsguild. Find us and follow us on Twitter: screendirectors and Facebook under directors guild.

Trish McAdam remains our representative on the FERA board. FERA continue to meet on a regular basis to lobby for directors rights at a European level. If you would like to find out more please contact the guild.

Congratulations to the following for their recent oscar nominations: Nicky Phelan for Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty in the Best Animation Short Film category Tomm Moore & co-director Nora Twomey for The Secret of Kells in the Best Animated Feature Film category Juanita Wilson and James Flynn for The Door in the Best Short Film (Live Action) category.

Congratulations to Ken Wardrop for his success at the Sundance Film Festival were HIS AND HERS picked up the World Cinema Documentary Cinematography Prize for Kate McCullough and Michael Lavelle.

Congratulations to Conor Horgan who received a Special Jury Mention for One Hundred Mornings in the Narrative Film Category of the Grand Jury Awards at the Slamdance Film Festival.

Margaret Corkerys EAMON opened at IFI on 5th February and will run until February 18th. Winner of the Independent Camera Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival and nominated for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actress at the upcoming IFTAs, this entertaining and quirky tale of a doomed family holiday is having a hugely successful run on the international festival circuit Margaret Corkery will take part in an in-depth discussion about her work on Thursday 11th February at 6.30pm (the discussion is free but booking is advised).

Recent achievements mentioned above are those which have come to the attention of the Guild. We rely on Guild members to make us aware of achievements/events that they would like to have published in the quarterly newsletter

SDGI’s annual membership survey is planned for mid 2010. It is intended to once again use an on-line survey for efficiency and cost effectiveness reasons.

The Arts Council funding / awards deadlines are as follows:

DEIS
€50,000
Deadline: On-going

Deis is a new scheme established under the Arts Councils Traditional Arts Initiative, 2005-2008. Deis is a proposal-based scheme which is aimed at encouraging and facilitating the traditional arts community to seek funding from the Arts Council for a range of projects.

Location One Fellowship
€37,000
Deadline: 05/03/10

A 10-month fellowship based in New York. Location One is a not-for-profit art centre in New York devoted to convergence between visual, performing and digital arts in a time of rapidly changing technology. It operates an international residency programme where emerging and established artists can experiment with new forms of artistic expression, particularly those involving new technologies. The Arts Council offers an annual Fellowship to one artist to facilitate his/her participation in the international residency programme at Location One for 10 months, in order to develop his/her practice and create new work. In addition to the support and resources provided through Location One, the Fellowship also includes accommodation and a stipend.

Travel & Training Award
€12,000
Deadline: Ongoing

The primary purpose of the Travel and Training Award is to support training and other professional development opportunities through international travel. The Travel and Training Award will facilitate participation in one-off training opportunities, specialist courses or master classes. The award will support participation in formal postgraduate training only where it is made clear how the selected course or opportunity is of a type and/or at a level not available in Ireland.

Visual Artists in Prisons Scheme
€2,400
Deadline: Ongoing

This scheme is co-funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Justice, Equality and Reform and administered by the Prison Education Service. Requests for information or application forms should be directed to the Prison Education Service. For more information go to www.artscouncil.ie

Irish Film Board

Keep an eye on the Irish Film Board website for announcements regarding the next round of Frameworks funding for animated short films which is due in early 2010.

Irish Film Board also offer a number of strands of development loan funding i.e. Fiction Development Loan, Animation Development Loan and First Draft Loan. For more information go to www.irishfilmboard.ie

Culture Ireland

Are you visiting a festival or promoting your work abroad? Apply to Culture Ireland for support. Culture Ireland promotes the best of Irelands arts and culture internationally and assists in the development of Ireland’s international cultural relations. The next deadline for applications to Culture Ireland for grants for travel costs of filmmakers is February 15th, 2010. For more information go to www.cultureireland.gov.ie

Northern Ireland Screen - Skills Development Bursary Fund

Northern Ireland Screen supports the development of the skills of those working in Northern Ireland’s screen industries. The Northern Ireland Screen Skills Development Bursary Fund is designed to assist NI talent with financial support to participate in training or development courses up to a maximum of £1500.00 Northern Ireland Screen also administers a number of other funds listed as follows:

Product Development Fund is a loan fund targeted at supporting the development of both inward investment and indigenous film, television and digital content projects (max of £100,000 typically for a ‘slate’ of five projects although smaller slates can be considered). Although currently closed for applications NIS aims to re-open the fund in April 2010

Northern Ireland Screen Lottery Fund – also currently closed for applications but due to re-open in March 2010.

Markets, Festivals and Conference Fund is designed to assist NI talent with financial support to attend appropriate markets, festivals and conferences. A key principle of the fund is that a visit should lead to activity in a range of areas including sales, promotion, co-production, advancement of skills and expertise and should have a positive impact on the film, television and new media sectors. To find out more about available funding go to www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk

Skillset – Northern Ireland – Screen Bursary

Due to an unprecedented high volume of applications the Skillset Screen Bursary Scheme has been closed for the Film and TV sectors for the remainder of this financial year, however Multiplatform Bursaries are open to support the TV workforce in developing the skills needed for multiplatform content creation. Eligibility criteria can be viewed here.

County Council Arts Bursaries

Many County Councils offer individual bursary funding and various other awards such as travel and mobility awards to artists living in their area. Funding deadlines vary depending on the council involved. Some sites which you may like to visit include:

Cork County Council – www.corkcity.ie
Dublin County Council – www.dublincity.ie
Galway County Council – www.galway.ie
Wicklow County Council – www.wicklow.ie – bursary awards for young wicklow filmmakers.
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council – www.dlrcoco.ie

In the first half of February a new call for proposals MEDIA International 2010 is likely to be launched. With a budget of €1 million, it will concentrate on projects taking place mainly in the second half of 2010. The call will focus on training and on market access activities, which aim at facilitating the search for production and sales partners. The indicative deadline for the submission of projects is 31st March 2010.

Funding will be continued under the successor MEDIA Mundus Programme: a first call for proposals under the new MEDIA Mundus Programme for projects taking place in 2011 is likely to be published in the beginning of the second half of 2010. For further details and to keep updated on MEDIA Mundus please visit regularly the MEDIA Mundus website.

These are just a few leading examples of hundreds of VOD platforms and other sites. Each is representative of a general cross-media trend taking work directly to audiences. There are, of course, many more and the situation is rapidly evolving. It is certainly not yet clear whether there is room for lots of sites or whether a dominating force such as iTunes will do what they did in music.

The Auteurs: Set up to showcase European film.

Babelgum: Pioneering internet television service. Pays for some work and runs shorts competition as well as experimenting in new areas such as mobile.

Find Any Film: A site set up to help locate screenings on any platform.

Reframe: US site that came out of Tribeca but shows films from around the world. Revenue sharing model.

YouTube Screening Room:YouTube’s attempt at mainstream feature presentations based on a revenue share model.

Cinema Reloaded: Rotterdam’s new crowd-sourcing experiment encouraging audiences to pay for film and collaborate with directors.

Universcine: Leading French VOD platform.

Onlinefilm.org: Cay’s site.

SOME EXAMPLES OF CONTENT

Age Of Stupid: Crowd-funded film that has made a huge global impact. An example of mobilising an audience for a political aim as well as entertainment.

The Onion: Satirical comedy site that attracts major sponsore

Sita Sings The Blues: Creative Commons licensing. Trailer

Head Trauma: Lance Weiler’s pioneering film. Blog Trailer

A Glass Eye Pix: A genre business making an impact with I Sell The Dead. Interview: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2009/glass-eye.php Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIQ-xcI1zKQ

Mary Poppins trailer recut: Mashup video attracts more than 9m hits on YouTube alone.

Ted Hope: Well-known indie producer champions new film-maker approach.

Jesus Christ The Musical: viral hit.

USEFUL LINKS

Power to the Pixel: The leading cross-media conference, consultancy and strategy body.

The Workbook Project: Set up by digital film pioneer Lance Weiler to spread knowledge on digital film-making and distribution.

COMING SOON: The Pixel Report: A report looking at cross-media developments in film, edited by Michael Gubbins.

A new online channel showcasing all audiovisual arts and culture content across Ireland has officially launched its trial site. www.platformireland.ie aims to bring both historic and current Irish arts content to audiences both nationally and internationally. Funded by Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism and with over 40 organizations already providing contact Platform Ireland are looking for you to send them on any good quality audio visual content you want to showcase. For more information go to www.platformireland.ie

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre
Newbliss, Co Monaghan

Borough councils and local authorities in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland offer special bursary awards to artists born or domiciled in their areas to enable them to spend two weeks in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig. Each bursary covers all accommodation and meals plus the use of a studio if necessary. The bursaries are administered by each individual Local Authority. Interested artists should apply directly to their local Arts Office for further information. For a comprehensive listing of international residencies available worldwide go to www.resartis.org

This is a reminder email regarding returning the survey questionnaire that the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon are undertaking on the living and working conditions of professional artists in Ireland. This is a very important survey gathering vital information on a range of core issues affecting artists and will be used to ensure that the supports the Arts Councils provide are as relevant to your needs as possible. Download it here and then email it back to arts@insightsc.ie.

FÁS Screen Training Ireland, with the support of Bord Scannán na hÉireann aim to provide continuing training for professionals in film, television, animation and digital media. By registering with FSTI and becoming a member on their website you can receive updates on training available and apply on-line for relevant training programmes.

UPCOMING FESTIVALS / SUBMISSION DEADLINES

Berlinale 2010 will take place from February 11th – 21st.

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival will take place from 18th – 28th February 2010.

Festival De Cannes will take place from May 12th – 23rd. The festival is currently open for submissions, closing date March 16th, 2010.

Nantucket Film Festival – now open for film submissions until March 5, 2010. For more information go to www.nantucketfilmfestival.org

For information on other festivals go to www.filmfestivals.com