Loose in the Lab

Paul Farren went out West to Renvylle to catch the goings on at last February's Moonstone Film Makers' Lab. He was met with a vista of intense activity: emerging talents pitting their wits against the challenges of a fully-crewed professional set in freezing midwinter locations. Read on. [Extract]

It's February and I'm traveling through the stark, beautiful landscape that is Connemara. The driver points to the snow capped mountains on our right, and says "It could be anywhere". I like the sound of that and have some vague notion in the back of my mind of trying to be a clever bastard and work it into the article you are now reading. The journey takes us to Renvylle House Hotel, the location of the latest Moonstone International Film Makers Lab. What I don't expect is the level of hectic activity that is waiting to greet me.

I arrive at what must be the busiest off-season hotel in Ireland, crew and actors roam back and forth through the quaint foyer, advisors talk with directors and I already feel like the proverbial spare, er... part: these people look too busy to talk about anything other than the tasks at hand. A quick trip to my room to drop off my toothbrush and I head for the production office in the hope of getting some of those pertinent questions answered. There to greet me is Tara Halloran the Managing Director of Moonstone. She invites me to visit some of the film sets with her and Jean Luc Ormières, Artistic Director of Moonstone. It seems odd at first that Jean Luc is a producer, but he is a French producer, the kind most directors (outside of France) can only dream of. He is soft-spoken, and has an air of quiet wisdom about him. Over the two days I observe him talking methodically to directors and each conversation seems to remove some of the perplexity from their expressions.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 92