Ken McGuire

Category: Online Video

  • Testing Vine

    Vine was a topic of discussion as a promotional tool in a production meeting yesterday. From the outside, I still don’t get it. For now. Having gone through the Editor’s Picks section, you get a real feel for the kind of content that can be gold on a service like it, comedy certainly high on the agenda.

    Available for iOS and Android devices, Vine allows tap-and-shoot video to create short looping clips, with audio, and share them online. Twitter acquired the app back in October of last year, the Android version only released this month to those running version 4.0 or greater.

    Limited to six seconds of video, have you tried Vine? Are you getting good use from it?

  • Looking Back At Scratcher, Shifting

    THE DEVIOUS Theatre Company (of which I’m a founder) performed Scratcher by John Morton at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, and 76 John Street, Kilkenny, earlier this year as part of the In The Future When All’s Well residency in partnership with Kilkenny Arts Office and Kilkenny County Council.

    Arriving at 76 John Street in February, you would be forgiven for thinking you were walking into a social welfare office, such was the setting for the play. Take seven bodies who are sick with the system and the uncertainty of the future, add some guns, explosions, threats, demands and more and you’ve got a fine recipe for social warfare.

    The residency work continues at 76 John Street with the staging of Smitten from June 26th – July 2nd. Corkonians are in for a Devious treat as Smitten arrives to the Cork Midsummer Festival as part of Solstice in the old Fás building on Sullivan’s Quay for a one night only performance on June 16th.

    For more on the residency, Scratcher, Shifting (the second piece of the residency) and Smitten, check out DeviousTheatre.com.

  • Caffeine Winner: Run On

    For the past few years, the crew at Young Irish Film Makers have been running Caffeine, a 24-hour international film festival and competition where you get 24 hours to develop, storyboard, cast, shoot, edit and release a short film. The catch being that on the day of the competition, each team is given three items, props or elements that must be included in their short.

    The winning short was Run On, above, which was put together by Lukas Hartmann, Joey Harris, Steve O’Connor, Connie Walsh, Roman Hartmann, Liam Dinkelmann, Jamie Stedmond and Eanna Brennan. You can find out more on the festival itself over on Facebook or YIFM.com.

  • How To Vote In 5 Easy Steps

    In the last promotional piece for Scratcher, currently ongoing at No. 76 John Street in Kilkenny, here’s the cast of the show using their acting to tell you how to vote.

    Scratcher commenced it’s theatrical run in Dublin last week at Project Arts Centre as part of The Theatre Machine Turns You On: Vol II and continues this week, until Saturday, at the Kilkenny Arts Office on John Street (old Meubles furniture store). Tickets for the show are €12 and are limited to 70 per night. For more on the background of the show, visit DeviousTheatre.com.

    Scratcher is part of the theatrical residency In The Future When All’s Well, running at Kilkenny Arts Office until the end of June this year.

  • This Is Social Warfare

    Just sayin…

  • Scratcher Invades Dublin

    This year is one that will see The Devious Theatre Company grow a lot, all under the watchful eye of Kilkenny County Council and the Kilkenny Arts Office, thanks in large part to the theatrical residency that is In The Future When All’s Well.

    The first show to be produced in the residency gets an airing in Dublin next Thursday night, for one night only, at the Project Arts Centre. The show appears as part of The Theatre Machine Turns You On: Vol II, a festival of new works curated by THEATREclub and backed by the fine folks at Absolut Vodka, The Arts Council, Dublin City Council, Project Arts Centre and The Workman’s Club. Tickets are available to buy here.

    As a theatre company, we’ve been pushing to do more video online this year. Of course, we’ve been doing it for a few years already with behind the scenes clips, cast and crew diaries, rehearsal and performance clips all getting released online in and around particular shows. So, the trip to Dublin should be no different. If you’ve got 59 seconds to spare, take a peek at the above video and see you in Dublin next Thursday night.

    For more videos, seek out Devious Theatre on YouTube. You can also follow the company’s activites on Facebook and Twitter.

  • May The Force Be With Volkswagen

    Every now and then a video comes along that gives (apart from going viral) makes you smile at the genius of it all. Best child acting performance I’ve seen in a long time too. It was released three days ago and is bound for the Super Bowl this weekend. The agency behind the ad is Deutsch Los Angeles and you can check the full production credits here.

  • Danesfort’s Field Of Dreams (Video)

    Utilising some of Kilkenny’s finest acting talents along with the services of Young Irish Film Makers, Danesfort GAA have produced and released the above video to drum up some additional votes and support for the Kellogg’s Field of Dreams competition which closes this month. The local club have been going great guns in terms of getting votes by mail, text and forms from cereal packs, but now they’ve taken to YouTube to spread the message a bit further. If they get their way, Danesfort’s GAA pitch will be turned into one better than the Aviva, Wembley and Croker (or so they video hints anyway). Connaught are in the lead at the moment but there’s plenty more votes to be cast between here and October 28th.

    If you’re a fan of Killinaskully, then you should enjoy it. Watch it above or here on YouTube.

    How To Vote for Danesfort G.A.A.

    Vote By Text
    Text the word KELLOGGS followed by Leinster to 53799

    One text vote is permitted per day. Each Text costs 20c or 25p. Service provider: Xiam

    Vote Online
    Log on to Kelloggs.ie and click on VOTE NOW. Once you register your vote you will receive an email confirmation to validate your address. You can then vote once every 24 hours.

    Bonus Voting
    Use the form on the side of Corn Flakes and Crunchy Nut packs to send in your votes and get 5 Bonus Votes for Danesfort. Everyone who votes using the packs will be entered in a draw to win a dream sporting holiday for your family worth 5,000 euro.

  • Keep It Easy (Short)

    THANKLESS FILMS have been making a name for themselves locally over the past few weeks and months with the production of a number of comedic shorts including Collusion, La Grande Chasse De L’ane Amende and ComaStoned. Last Thursday night they premiered their latest offering, Keep It Easy, at the Bridgebrook Arms in Thomastown. Check it out above, featuring the on-screen talents of David Thompson (guy), Freda Murphy (girl) and Dermot Tobin (guy in woods).

    Check out Dave’s blog for more.

  • Kilkenny Arts Festival Launches

    ONE OF the highlights of my calendar year (and that of Kilkenny) is the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Now in its 36th year, this year’s festival runs from August 6th to 15th and is packed to the hilt with the best in music, theatre and dance, visual arts, literature, children’s events and more. A long time spectator, last year was the first year I’ve volunteered on the festival and I’m back (along with John Morton) in the same role last year in producing the online content for the festival duration (and blogging the festival via the KAF blog).

    That started yesterday with the launch in Dublin where Fergus Shiel put a group of professional singers through their paces to announce the KAF programme for 2010 through a choral performance. The same will be repeated in Kilkenny on August 14th where Fergus will lead a group of around 200 singers through a performance in St. Canice’s Catherdral where works will include Rossini’s Sabat Mater and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.

    Check out the video above, or watch the Qik clip of the launch yesterday as it happened.

  • Make Money On YouTube – YouTube Partnerships

    There have been some good chats going on locally of late in relation to video content creation and monetising video content online. A mail in the inbox over the weekend prompted me towards the YouTube Partner Programme. On the outside it’s certainly looks more like an option for those who are uploading regularly and clocking up some serious video videos (thousands to millions) but the minimum criteria covers ownership, copyright and age.

    Check the full details here     or view the video above for more of an insight as to how the Partner programme works.

    Next thing I’d like to know is what (if any, or many) Irish groups are able to generate reasonable revenue from their YouTube content?

  • Eyes On Hollywood, Secret Of Kells

    Watch live streaming video from theoscars at livestream.com

    THEATRE WORK is holding me up all weekend but if I can squeeze it in, I’ll be keeping an eye on Livestream.com’s coverage of the 82nd annual Academy Awards, with locally-produced movie The Secret Of Kells in the running for Best Animated Feature.

    In the above clip, Tomm Moore (director) gives a few thoughts on the movie ahead of tonight’s event. Best of luck to all the Cartoon Saloon crew and here’s hoping that whatever happens tonight brings more fortune (and financing) to the company in the future.

    Watch The Oscars on Livestream.com.

  • Caffeine: 24-Hour International Film Festival

    MY OLD haunting ground of Young Irish Film Makers recently announced details of their second 24-hour film festival dubbed Caffeine and it’s taking place this coming Friday January 15th.

    The goal is simple. You have 24 hours in which to script, shoot, edit and upload a short film to YouTube, with your entry to be no longer than five minutes.

    The competition got a good reception locally when it ran last year (YIFM being based here in Kilkenny) but as it’s an online competition, the doors are open to everyone. But, of course, you can’t just go shooting a film about anything. The organisers of the competition will email all teams prior to kick-off on Friday evening with a small list of objects that must be included in your short and must be relevant to the overall plot.

    The Important Details

    • The Competition runs from 6pm Friday 15th of January 2010 to 6pm Saturday 16th of January 2010.
    • Max members per team is six, minimum age of youngest member on team is 12.
    • Films can be shot on any medium and can be of any genre – so long as (point above) objects named in your challenge are included and are relevant to your plotline.
    • If you are interested in taking part, you must be registered on or before Wednesday January 14th 2010.

    Signup & Details

    For more details on Caffeine 2010, read this article. To register yourself, or a team, for this year’s festival please click here.

    The video above is the winning short from 2009, Sclever, produced by Slackless Productions. The winning team included Stephen Colfer, Sarah Walsh, Conor Barry, Richie Cody and John Doran.

    Note: Young Irish Film Makers is an innovative Irish film training and production studio where young people aged 10-18 have the opportunity to create and communicate their ideas and stories by making feature films for international television and the internet. I sit on the board of directors for Young Irish Film Makers.

  • Collusion & The Great Hunt

    I’ve mentioned at some venture before that (or at least I’m pretty sure I have) that I’m delighted to be surrounded by and work with a bunch of very creative individuals in Kilkenny. Two of those individuals and some more friends got together recently under the banner of Thankless Films to great the two shorts below.

    Both were filmed and directed by Dave Minogue with whom I’ve shared the stage with once or twice over the last ten years and both were also scored by Alan Dawson who I’ve been working with through Kilkenny Music over the last four years and have collaborated with on many a musical project. If you’re interested in having your film work scored, I’m sure he’ll only be too happy to speak to you. The results, are below.

    Disclaimer: Be advised, some content in the videos may offend. Questions and comments to Thankless Films on YouTube.

    Collusion

    La Grande Chasse De L’aÌ‚ne Amende

  • The Day I Scored For Ireland

    I haven’t enjoyed a Fifa game in a while, that is until Fifa 10 came along. It rekindled my interest in the game, rekindled my interest in Xbox Live, and furthermore introduced me to the social side of the game with the ability to upload videos and screenshots to the EA Sports World site.

    Following last night’s defeat against France in Paris, I continued my Be A Pro first season, earning a callup to the Ireland reserve squad. Taking to the pitch away against Slovenia, it’s nice to bang in a goal on your international debut. Particularly one that hasn’t been taken from inside the box. Long distance goals just seem to be a rarity.

    It is a pity though that the sharing side of the game is only available to Xbox Gold members but it’s not bad encouragement to work on your skills and then show them off online. By the way, I’m @mcguireken on Xbox Live.

  • The Long Goodbye To Vultures

    Here’s the final installment of the current Vultures series, The Long Goodbye. Whether or not it’s the last we’ll ever see of the Vultures gang remains to be seen but needless to say, it’s been an entertaining two years to get the show to its current stage.

    The trailer can be seen here or immerse yourself for 40 minutes or so and enjoy episode 7.

    For more on Vultures, and all previous episodes, trailers and character information, check VulturesPI.com.

  • The Long Goodbye

    The trailer for the final installment of Vultures has just hit the web. We were treated (we as cast and crew) to the screening of the final episode last weekend and followers of the series online only have to wait until next Sunday (October 4th) to find out how everything comes together…

    …or will it?

    Check out VulturesPI.com in the build up to the release or follow the VPI crowd on Twitter.

  • That’s A Wrap On Vultures

    On Saturday night I went along to The Left Bank in Kilkenny for the private cast and crew screening of Vultures episodes six and seven, Attack Of The Pinkertons and The Long Goodbye.

    After two years of work, it’s great to see the series come to its conclusion. I could be slightly biased in that I’ve been involved in some of the episodes either on-screen or providing locations for shooting but behind the scenes when you look at the mammoth amount of work that was done, the minimal budget that was used to produce the entire series and the talents of those involved, you can’t help but be in awe. Vultures is produced here in Kilkenny by Mycrofilms.

    Above is episode six, Attack Of The Pinkertons, featuring a cameo from myself (“Got any change?”), with episode seven set to hit the web early next month.

    For this and all previous episodes along with trailers, character development notes and more, check out VulturesPI.com.

  • NFL Game Pass Falls On Week 1

    NFL Field Pass

    Outside of prepping Devious Theatre for two productions still to come this year, returning to the autumn podcast schedule and work in general, I’ve been spending the last week or so getting set to return to football blogging. American Football that is. Of all the things I’ve written about and taken an interest in over the last four years, the NFL is the one I felt I shouldn’t have stopped on, but did.

    Flash back to last week and the 2009 season just a few days away from kick off (it officially started on Thursday night), I subscribe to NFL Game Pass HD, the NFL’s answer to video on demand for all games, every team, including access to the NFL Network and their new Redzone TV channel, and all for the princely sum of around €190 or so.

    Day one, no problem. Day two, no problem. I get to watch some NFL Total Access shows over Friday / Saturday. I dip into the 2008 archives and stream the Steelers and Titans from Week 16 of the 2008 calendar, all in full-screen high-definition streaming quality. Impressed – most certainly.

    Then comes yesterday, I settle in to watch Game Day morning TV, the show streaming in advance of the lunchtime starts in the US (6pm Irish time). Bengals vs Broncos my game of choice before switching to Redzone TV to geet flash updates and footage from all games. I’m five minutes in, click to switch to Redzone TV and the console crashes. Hmmmm. Possibly the Windows machine at fault, so I reload, get myself back in the game. Two minutes later, it crashes out. And thats it. 7pm rolls by, 8pm rolls by and nothing. Whatever about US users having the luxury to watch the games in the evening, we’re five hours ahead and the rest of Europe heading further into the night.

    No video access, no radio access (I’ve a Field Pass radio account as a back up) – nothing. No explanation either apart from an eventual graphic, displayed above. Boards.ie users weren’t too happy and I’m hoping, having made a season-long investment, that the NFL have some serious backup plan and this isn’t the level of service on game day we can continue to expect.

    That said, when service was restored a few hours later (late enough for me to catch the final TD score in the Bengals and Broncos game), uptime was maintained and quality never suffered. But for an organisation the size of the NFL, with subscribers paying a fee of that size in advance for their services, on the opening day of the season, surely we’re allowed to expect better.

  • Turn Around (Short Film)

    It’s been a summer of media and arts and video work for me, particularly of late, and Ross Costigan is no different. Having released his special fx test shoot / short The Game earlier in the summer, he’s gone and produced another one entitled Turn Around featuring himself and Dave Minogue.

    If you like what you see, let him know by leaving a comment at YouTube.