Conor Barry graduated in film production from DLIADT in 2000. Since then he has produced seven short films for writer/director Brendan Muldowney and SP Films, including the award winning Innocence and The Ten Steps. He also wrote the short The Honourable Scaffolder. The Irish Film Board Short Short Final Journey is the latest short he has produced for Brendan. Presently SP Films have two feature projects in development with the Irish Film Board, Soul Broke and Savage, and aTV series in development with RTÉ, The Getter.

Esther Terradas: How did you fund your first short?

Conor Barry: The first short I produced was The Church of Acceptance, written and directed by Brendan Muldowney. In 2000, we were both doing the one-year degree film course in Dún Laoghaire College of Art and Design (now IADT Dún Laoghaire), and so we received funding from them to make it as Brendan's graduation film.

The first short I produced after college, was Innocence in 2001. When we left Dún Laoghaire we tried to fund the script by entering it into the Filmbase/RTÉ awards. Unfortunately, despite being short-listed, we didn't get a funding award. Out of belief and enthusiasm in the script, and no little naivety, we set about trying to fund the short ourselves. Being short-listed helped me as a producer, as we had a good idea ourselves of how realistic it was to make the script the way Brendan wanted to direct it. In the end we funded the script with distribution sales from The Church of Acceptance, private sources and favours. And while Innocence went on to win awards including Best Irish Short in Galway, the fact that The Church of Acceptance had got into the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival – and as a result got sales – was one of the main reasons we actually succeeded in funding Innocence.

What do you think is most important when you apply to funding schemes (script, interview, awards previously received, application form...)?

The script's the thing! If there is no hard-nosed belief in the script by the director and producer, from a realising perspective, especially in the tiny budget world of shorts, how can you expect anyone else to fund it? I work very closely with Brendan, and as well as writing and directing he takes on a lot of producing responsibilities. So if a script is short-listed a lot of hard work is done in showing not only the way he plans to direct it, but also that it is achievable for the budget, and that creatively the project will not suffer. In a sense the director is posing harder questions than the interview panel, or anybody else, about producing the short at a very early stage. The difficult and boring work that this involves helps, in a strange way, to feed the enthusiasm of discussing the project in an interview setting. Needless to say, experience on previous shorts – especially if they have done well – also becomes jumbled up in this belief to want to get the short made. Everything is subjective, so it's fair enough if someone just doesn't like your script and doesn't fund you. But at the very least, filmmakers should have an honest and enthusiastic conviction why they want to make something.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of making films funded by film
centres?

In reality, getting a short film funded at all, by anyone, is an advantage, and not getting funded a massive huge disadvantage! SP Films has had shorts funded by private sources (Innocence), Filmbase/RTÉ (The Honourable Scaffolder), Galway Film Centre/RTÉ (The Ten Steps), Short Cuts (Beauty Queen) and Short Shorts (Final Journey).

In my opinion, the advantages of having shorts funded with budgets of approx. €10,000 (Filmbase/RTÉ, Galway Film Centre/RTÉ) is that there is far more control for the director in what they want to do – as they are less affected by cash flow problems, contractual issues etc because of the small budget involved. In a way, they are more aware of what resources they have in directing and just get on with it. The disadvantages: the small budget. It is difficult to expect, and get, cast and crew to work for nothing time after time, and facilities/equipment companies to support you for token amounts. There is just less money - not only for the actual production of the film, but most importantly for the post-production of the film. A lot of time is required in waiting around for favours etc. to get the film finished. There is no money for a 35mm print of the film, which can become crucial at a certain stage when trying to screen the film – which is the whole point after all.

Against that, with the Irish Film Board/RTÉ Short Cuts funding scheme, the budget is up to approx. €75,000. And yet, while it sounds like a massive amount for a short film, because of the schedule of payments, lots of contractual issues, paying cast and crew, and finishing on a 35mm print, the director – in my opinion – is weirdly dealing with only slightly more resources as a €10,000 budget to get the film directed. A definite advantage is the immersion into the reality and best practice of making a budgeted film, and an introduction to the Irish Film Board way of doing things, which could prove crucial in displaying responsibility to funders when trying to get a future feature project as a first time director or producer off the ground. As well as that there are advantages from a promotional point of view in that there is a 35mm print, and the Short Cuts brand.

Once the film is finished, how do you deal with promotion and distribution? What do you think of the existing options?

If the writer spends the time to write the script, the director to direct the short, the funders to fund it, the cast and crew to invest their time and talent (mostly for no money), and all the supporting companies to put up with and help the filmmakers actually finish the short – well then getting it out there to actually be screened is paradoxically the most important aspect of the whole process. The producer and filmmakers must promote the short to the best of their ability out of respect for their belief in the short itself and all of those people who worked on it – and to do this means putting the short on the film festival circuit and trying to get it picked up on television and the internet (via getting a distributor or doing it yourself), and even a theatrical release in the cinema with a feature.

Every application to every film festival costs money – the DVD copies of the short, stills, envelopes, postage, festival application fees, promotional materials. There is no funding out there for this, and it can really mount up – the money comes out of the filmmaker's pockets. Assuming that the film gets accepted to the festivals, screening copies on 35mm or other formats (Digibeta, NTSC, etc.) have to be prepared and paid for, and couriers have to get them to the festivals. This again costs lots and lots of money over a year to two-year period, never mind the amount of time actually devoted to keeping the film going around. Although a busy print moving from festival to festival pays for itself, as each festival just moves it onto the following one. However, exposure on the film festival circuit has become a currency of sorts – you never know who or where will like the short, the director's take on things, or a performance, etc. Winning awards can definitely help in trying to get other projects off the ground, and most sales are helped by a good festival run – we have discovered that with Innocence and The Ten Steps. But the whole promotion of the short is a leap of faith. Once all the festival applications are sent out, festivals might not like it – even though it might be a very good film.

In my experience, accessing Irish Film Board completion funding to get a 35mm print is completely dependent on your short getting into the big important film festivals – which is really difficult, and something you can't count on. In our case we were lucky that The Ten Steps got into the London Film Festival. Getting exposure in cinemas, such as an Irish theatrical release with a feature, is dependent on the type of short it is, the length of the short, the type of feature, and the commitment of a distributor for the whole package. Then getting the prints ready on time and funded is another battle – again dependent on support from the Irish Film Board. There is obviously only so much money and so many worthy shorts. I think that being a horror film helped The Ten Steps to go around with Wolf Creek, and the distributor Ronan Glennane of Abbey Films also liked the film.

Promotion and distribution is not easy – it's expensive, confidence-sapping and time consuming, but if you believe enough to make the short, you have to believe enough to get it out there.

Since any funding for promotion/distribution of shorts means less funding for actual productions of shorts I can understand why there is, in reality, no support beyond a vague possibility of getting a 35mm print. However, if there was a general film festival fund that could be accessed, once proof was provided by the filmmakers of a good reaction to their short on the festival circuit, it could provide encouragement to people who might have otherwise given up on the promotion of their shorts at the crucial early stages of their careers. And, in my experience, just the pure logistics of promoting shorts have frightened many filmmakers and stopped them getting their really good shorts out there, and the knock-on effect of actually getting a chance to make another film… and for the rest of us, the chance to see their talent.

What should an award-winning short film have from a producing point of view?

Impossible to answer. At the very least, belief at an early stage in the script and what the director is trying to do. After that, who knows? The elixir of life would be easier to work out… another more flippant answer would be pots and pots of money.

How many short films should you make before going to feature length?

Somewhere between none and a hundred! I think a lot of directors want to be always making something – challenging themselves and, if that means making lots of shorts, so be it. And most shorts are made, or should be, out of love of the short rather than a grand plan to make a feature. It appears development of feature projects go on at the same time as making shorts, promos, etc., and then somehow everything magically clicks and the director just gets the massive opportunity to make a debut feature. And while shorts no doubt should help in that regard, there are so many other factors - script, talent, the size of the wallet of the guy that believes in the project… Mind you I have produced seven shorts now, and no features, so what do I know?