RTE Storyland 4

Damon Blake · 16-02-2012 7:40pm

Hi there,

I'm the producer for Student Teacher, some Boards people might have seen me do the Christmas Santa Strikeforce gig for a couple of years, if you can remember any jokes about Batman and Tetris heard through a beer soaked haze.

I wish I had known in advance it was possible to embezzle some money. I personally have yet to be paid anything from our production, in fact currently I've covered transport costs for the cast and printing costs (= $$$) which I doubt I'll get back. That's not a complaint, you are pretty much told that's probably going to happen going into the competition.

We have paid our cast and crew though, which I think is important.

As for what grames_bond said about the show...the writer, Giles Brody, is from Galway, as was the crew and extras. Some of the actors are from other counties though, Lawless is from Mayo, Kevin McGahern is from Cavan, Ed Sammon is from Offaly and Carol Tobin is from...Tipperary? I think. Conor is the only stand-up from Dublin as far as I can tell. I'm not even Irish.

But you knew this already Graham. So, cheers for the comments.

Anyway, it's been an interesting experience and if anybody ever has any questions about it, just in case they want to apply for a future Storyland feel free to get in contact with me, I am a nerd for talking about the creative process.

D.

grames_bond · 16-02-2012 10:47pm

Damon Blake wrote: »

As for what grames_bond said about the show...the writer, Giles Brody, is from Galway, as was the crew and extras. Some of the actors are from other counties though, Lawless is from Mayo, Kevin McGahern is from Cavan, Ed Sammon is from Offaly and Carol Tobin is from...Tipperary? I think. Conor is the only stand-up from Dublin as far as I can tell. I'm not even Irish.

But you knew this already Graham. So, cheers for the comments.

Haha f*cking fail on my part -apologies for that! I think I was just making the point that its wrong that people should be asked to vote because "it's a show made in Galway by Galway people" when there is more than that gone into the show! And it should be more than that to the voting process - sorry if any offence was caused!

Damon Blake wrote: »

We have paid our cast and crew though, which I think is important

That is the most important thing and fair play for that - certain other shows were trying to "wait until we get through to the third show before we give wages - it'll pay off I'm the long run"

Just unfair and wrong!

Galvasean · 16-02-2012 10:52pm

grames_bond wrote: »

certain other shows were trying to "wait until we get through to the third show before we give wages - it'll pay off I'm the long run"

Just unfair and wrong!

As far as I'm aware none of the shows that got commissioned are towing that line (I'm open to correction on this).
But yeah, accusations of embezzlement on here are way wide of the mark and display an ignorance of how much it actually costs to make a TV show/film IMO.

Renn · 16-02-2012 10:58pm

What about the voting system - agree with that? Don't see how it's a good thing if people are whoring themselves out for votes every two minutes.

Galvasean · 16-02-2012 11:05pm

Renn wrote: »

What about the voting system - agree with that? Don't see how it's a good thing if people are whoring themselves out for votes every two minutes.

I'd much rather if it wasn't. It's more a case of who can get the most 'bums on seats' rather than who makes the best show. Happens every year unfortunately. As long as the winners/losers are determined by 'popular vote' it's always gonna be like that.
And reading this post you're probably thinking, "So why do you do it then?". Because, like everybody who has a show in the competition I would imagine, I want to make more. For us it's work. Sadly we have to whore ourselves out to succeed. It would be nice to be able to sit back, relax and know that the quality of one's show would be enough to see it out into the next round, but that would be naive.

indough · 16-02-2012 11:39pm

well id imagine its a case of once someone starts doing it, everybody else has to follow suit.

Damon Blake · 17-02-2012 12:05am

people should be asked to vote because "it's a show made in Galway by Galway people"

I think people will tend to vote however they want to vote, whether that reason is quality, regional or because they find the theme of a story interesting. People do have a tendency to check out what's made in their area though. If you look through the local papers around the country, they're filled with everyone reaching out for that local connection, it happens in productions, in technology, in business. People do find it interesting.

I would think however you know me well enough by now Graham to know I don't believe someone should vote for something just because they're from somewhere, seeing that I'm not from anywhere.

In any case, the same way The Guard is an Irish movie even though Don Cheadle and Mark Strong are in it and it was partially funded by the UK Film Council, Student Teacher is a Galway production. The production company, the other producer, the writer/director, a lot of the cast and all the crew are from Galway and it was wholly filmed there.

We're very privileged to have had people everywhere show their support though.

What about the voting system

Storyland is not just about making a show, but about making a show that's marketable. I believe the idea is that if you get more votes it means you've reached more people, otherwise they'd just make a jury and have them vote for it.

The talent in Ireland is high (and that's reflected in this and previous years Storylands) but we don't have the luxury of HBO, who can make things that aren't popular. So they aim for (hopefully) quality AND popularity.

It is a bit Darwinian, admittedly.

Frank Funk · 17-02-2012 1:07am

Storyland is a failure. This "drama talent search" been going four years and has yet to throw up an original idea or, god forbid, develop new script writing.

As every year, the comedies are competent enough if a bit light on laughs and leading the board, the dramas are all dull rip offs of recent films/tv shows.

Despite weeks of advertising on TV this time, (so that more than just the friends and family know it exists) the episodes have been up since monday and average at about 2,000 views each. The 3rd ep of that Talifornia Swipe thing (not a fan but fair play for seeing a gap to exploit) has been up the same length of time and has 150,000. It also didn't cost 60,000 of license payer's money.

I was at the open day for the first story land years ago and it was clear from the off that they hadn't a clue what they were doing. They had two women from marketing talking about how to spam your family members.

Easy to cheat internet polls are not how to make commissioning decisions. Maybe the marketing dept get some data for their next powerpoint but the quality of the actual episodes doesn't come into it. Most people I asked thought that the Masterplan was the best of last year's lot but it was quickly voted out.

It's a pity to see entries forced to run Facebook spam campaigns but that's what RTE wants. The productions put a lot of work/sweat into rushing these things into place and want to keep going. RTE justs wasn't some cynical way of paying lip service to new talent. Storyland is certainly not about making good TV.

Aside from Talk it Out and Student Teacher, the writing this year is very poor, an afterthought at best.

RTE should looks at what BBC and Channel 4 have done for decades and READ scripts and develop scriptwriters if they want to one day make a show that's any good. Leave the film board to teach director / DP types how to make things look pretty through their myriad short film schemes, good TV has always been about good writing.

AnonoBoy · 17-02-2012 2:26am

From what I can see RTE for the most part just pick off directors and writers from Storyland.

Beyond the Hardy Bucks nothing else has been commissioned as a series has it?

Frank Funk · 17-02-2012 2:54am

Directors and producers anyway, they can probably get them to work for cheaper than established ones.

Have any writers been spotted from storyland? How many RTE shows even have writers outside of the soaps? (fair city, raw, whathaveyou)

Havermeyer · 17-02-2012 3:04am

I'd have to agree with most of what Frank Funk has said regarding the script writing.

I watched all of the shows last night and felt that the writing was quite poor, with the possible exception of Vidileaks. The writing wasn't particularly helped by the standard of acting either though.

I single out Vidileaks for the simple reason that there wasn't much/if any dialogue between any characters. Dialogue is a factor that lets down Storyland year in year out, but also lets down many fully commissioned shows produced by RTE, imo.

There were a couple of ok ideas from this years batch, but they were poorly executed, imo.

The only show to come from the four years of Storyland with good writing, regardless what you think of the show/storylines itself, was Hardy Bucks. There's a fluidity to the dialogue, which is helped by a more natural performance from the central cast.

That's just my two cents. I'll keep an eye on the shows and hope that they improve, the further they get.

indough · 17-02-2012 6:27am

the kinetic typography and editing in cuckoo is almost brain melting. in the space of about the first 30 seconds it made me want to tear my eyes out of their sockets. it may or may not have been funny but i don't find irish comedy remotely humorous at the best of times so can't really comment on that. the dialogue seemed a bit forced in the living room scene but i don't know is that a valid criticism. i have to say i found it a bit unbelievable that two young fellas would have payed enough attention to a photofit in some crappy whinging rte documentary to have recognised the girl on a night out whilst presumably half cut

i can't believe that someone had the balls to not only totally and unashamedly rip-off a terrible show like 'v', but to call it victory was just the icing on the cake. some examples of terrible acting in it too but i like the idea of an irish sci-fi, if only it was executed a bit better (which im sure it could be with more than this shoestring of a budget allows). it had some ok costume design though and some of the effects were at least passable given the constraints. i would probably continue watching it for all the wrong reasons but still, entertainment is entertainment i suppose!

hysteria is my favourite so far purely for its technical quality and the fact that they had the good sense to copy something that was actually good in the first instance (in my opinion it is essentially 'children of men' albeit with a slightly modified premise, although i could be proven wrong with later episodes of course). i felt it had the best balance of writing, acting and cinematography. it also had the best cliffhanger, which is really quite an important factor in this format (only barely forgave it for that info dump at the start though).

talk it out may have potential because it has an interesting enough concept, but again the comedy was far too obvious for my personal tastes so i didn't find it funny. Looked nice to me though, well enough framed shots as far as i could tell and realistic enough set and costume design.

i didn't like the begrudgers purely for subjective reasons, as in the subject matter and style just wasn't of interest to me, so i wont really comment as i didn't watch it the whole way through.

trouble x 3 has some pretty frantic editing cutting between shots in what seems like less than a second at times. im not sure its a valid complaint but personally i found it a bit off putting. again there was obtrusive use of typography that drew me out of the action. it was an ok concept let down by horrible acting on occasion.

i didnt get the point of vidileaks and always find other people's political opinions boring. therefore i couldn't sit through it due to personal taste and wont comment on the quality but i will say i would never consider watching it if it were a series.

Surly · 17-02-2012 5:23pm

I really liked the opening of Talk It Out but it lost pace quickly after that. Some potential there though, hope they get to make another (better) episode.

Hysteria was the prettiest but it's completely devoid of originality. That Sarah Connor voiceover at the start put me off straight away and the "Get orf moi land" line towards the end made me burst out laughing.

Like the idea of The Begrudgers as well, just didn't find it all that funny.

There are clearly some strong performers in Student Teacher but it would really benefit from better editing, the pacing is all wrong and the timing of most of the gags isn't working.

Much as I love the Hardy Bucks the fluidity of the dialogue is mainly down to how much of the scenes are improvised, it'd be generous to say it's well written. Those lads are genuinely funny fúckers.

Galvasean · 20-02-2012 2:02pm

Qualifiers for the next round (in no particular order other than alphabetical):

Cuckoo
Hysteria
Student Teacher
Talk It Out
The Begrudgers
Trouble Times Three

Galvasean · 24-02-2012 12:33am

For those who missed it on RTE's site, the full first episode of Hysteria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awf4XLZLfME

I think all of the episode 1s (plus promo material) are available on Youtube now.

Galvasean · 19-03-2012 12:45pm

The 2nd episodes are up now:
http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland

homerbert · 19-03-2012 12:53pm

Second episode of Trouble Times Three is up. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland/troubletimesthree.html

Thanks for watching.

SiDoyle · 20-03-2012 1:04pm

Second episode of Talk it Out is up.

Let us know what you think!

Cheers.

http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland/talkitout.html

Galvasean · 23-04-2012 12:59pm

The episode 3s are up now for those interested.

http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland/hysteria.html

homerbert · 23-04-2012 1:14pm

Hi All,

The latest episode of the Trouble Times Three is up: http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland/troubletimesthree.html

Cheers,
Eoin

Ainec · 23-04-2012 6:43pm

RTÉ Storyland Round 3 has begun. Check out 'The Begrudgers' and please voite if you like what you see! Thanks!
http://www.rte.ie/drama/featured/storyland/begrudgers.html

RTE Storyland 4

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