laying the corner stones section 4

We arranged to come back that night and meet at 8 O’Clock with the rest of the students, and we arrived with my Mac Book Pro and there I was sat in their kitchen the only warm room exuded via the fire place, as there is no heating in the house, surrounded by a cool gang of motley individuals, as I pitched once again the story of this film. They were all open and eager and in fact two of them, Jerry Fitzgearld and Ray are both actors and had recently put on a play of Glen Garry Glen Ross at their college, and were keen to read for the acting roles. Jerry is in the process of creating a student film festival in Kerry, and although he did not get an acting role will work on the film while we shoot in the house, Ray will be away in Australia at the time. This is a great opportunity for him to get first hand experience by simply getting up early and walking down the stairs after his mornings toiletries.

Daniel came over again on Monday the 10th of March for three days to see what progress had been made on the ground as well as to work on the props necessary with Daithi as Daithi is our more than competent in fact brilliant Production Designer. The afternoon Dan arrived his plane was delayed by three hours as we had some heavy storms blowing through Ireland and England, added to that a farce where the Bank of Ireland screwed up a money transfer into his account from mine which left him penniless, especially for that all important previous Friday to meet with the actors in Soho House. I eventually got that money back and gave it to him the day after he arrived. With no time to waste we drove from the airport and had our second meeting with all the crew in the house, video footage of which I shot for a planned documentary we are making on the making of the film, Jerry did his screen test as well that evening. We visited the house again the next day this time Alan came and met Daniel and joined us as we photographed the house and measured it out. We all then went to see the second location which Daithi and I happened across while searching on that faithful day for our desperately needed new main location. LOCATION LOFUCKINGCATION.

Shit! I just got some bad news while writing this, a friend of mine named Paul Fryer called me to tell me that Angus Fairhurst has killed himself. God Rest His Soul. He was a good man. He and Sarah Lucas, Abigail Lane, Paul Fryer, Padraig MacEgan and my great friend now also deceased, Donal na Greine, all had a few days together here in Ireland back in 1997, and now two of those souls have gone, it makes me sad and yet passionate as a lust for life must be drummed up from sometimes banal interior states of despondency, and making this film work is an act of exactly that, trying to make living here in Kerry while a magnificent county when it comes to mother nature, it can sometimes be rather dull. Angus’ death will be a terrible loss to a lot of people.

The second location is a 1970’s house in the Spa owned by a lovely couple Brendan and Regina who have been very welcoming. We all went along to see that, and had a chat with Brendan, then went for lunch and talked out logistics. Daniel and Daithi worked day in day out on the shooting script and room requirement layout as well as on props. Daniel will come again probably on Monday the 14th of April as we are scheduled to begin shooting on the 21st for 18 working days in Ireland including Saturdays as well as three days in London, the logistics of which are also extremely involved and costly. Daniel has done lots of painstaking work in organizing that end in relation to scouting out locations and enquiring after parking suspensions.

I have also been working on setting up a limited company here to be entitled ‘Spiderhole Productions Limited’ Daithi and I had a meeting with John Naughten about that on Friday the 14th of March I think, then we had to go back to him on the following Tuesday with regard to good advice he gave on the structure of the company. Alan and I had a meeting with Philip Manzor our account on the Thursday that Daniel left, he has a very sharp and keen mind and is also a good adviser. We should have our articles of memorandum on Wednesday with which to open a business account with the Bank of Ireland, I have had a few phone calls with a young manager in there named Tom Keane who has been very helpful, and it appears if all is in order then we might have a functioning account that evening. This is essential as we will need transparent accountancy details when it comes to applying for a possible finishing grant from The Irish Film Board, Sarah Dillon has been very helpful from that governmental body.

A lot of the aspects of Brian Nolan’s initial concerns in relation to the setting up of the necessary structures of making a feature film have now been set in place, while oddly enough Brian I know is harbouring excitement about it all, he is not overtly on board so to speak. I know he has plenty of other projects on the go, but I did think he might be more full on in the process of this pre-production to date, having written that he has been there on call when I needed to know something everytime, and did come out for a meeting one evening here, where Alan, Daniel, Daithi and I trashed out various elements of the plot. I had wanted to pay him and give him a percentage of the production but I was left unsure as how to structure that myself as I was not at all working with him on the same level of exchange as everyone else, hence he has relinquished my initial offers as all Brian wants is to see the film get made, and he is happy to do whatever he can for free, this type of selfless behaviour is inspiring to me.