Ken McGuire

Tag: Movies

  • Kilkenny Company & Movie at The Oscars

    Oscar Nominated, The Secret Of Kells

    THE SECRET of Kells has been on a good roll of late. Hell, it’s been on a good roll since the movie premiered last Spring. Of course, nothing says “good roll” than rolling on up to the Oscars as Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret Of Kells has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. See full list of nominees here.

    If Glen Hansard can do it, maybe the “luck of the Irish” can rub off as the Tomm Moore directed movie goes up against Corlaine, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess & The Frog and Up (which I loved in the cinema).

    Congratulations to Tomm, Paul and everyone else at the Saloon who worked on the production, both in Ireland and overseas. It’s great to see another company from Kilkenny making a serious mark on the global stage.

  • 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.

  • Dopplehammer Trailer

    This one was screened before the Vultures Episode 5 premiere last night in Kilkenny… it can only mean one thing – the next installment of Vultures hits the web later today. Keep an eye on VulturesPI.com for the release of what is quite possibly the funniest episode to date. Bless that Noah Hennessy.

  • Beating The Cinema Queue With MovieTickets.ie

    Having spotted an advertisement for MovieTickets.ie (possibly during a trip to see the latest Indiana Jones flick when last in Dublin… love the Savoy) I decided last night would be the right time to give it a spin.

    Having taken a trip to see ‘Wanted’ recently, seeing the hoards of people turned away from the Kilkenny Omniplex for the consecutively sold-out screenings of ‘Hancock’, I figure I may get the tickets in early for Thursday night’s opening of Batman.

    With booking available via Omniplex.ie and MovieTickets.ie all I needed to do was pick the day for the screening, the time for the screening, select the number of tickets and away I go. A painless service that I’m happy to pay the .50c booking charge on tickets for if it means avoiding the usual horrible queue on opening nights in Kilkenny.

    The tickets are set for collection at the cinema within 30 minutes of purchase so I may swing by this afternoon and collect them for Thursday’s screening of The Dark Knight. If it all works out, I don’t think I’ll be queuing in the cinema again any time soon. Though it would certainly help if you could pre-order your food / popcorn / drinks as well.