Newbies Make a Short Film

I attended an info hour in FilmBase in Dublin this week where I found out about Lasair. The speakers were Proinsias Ní Ghráinne, Commissioning Editor for TG4, Alan Fitzpatrick, Director of Filmbase along with writer/director Daniel O’Hara and actor/comedian Paddy Courtney. Daniel and Paddy’s Lasair, Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, was one of the standout successes of the scheme winning over 40 international awards.


Deffo watch it guys; it is fantastic, funny, mixture of English and Gaeilge and it's sweet!

Lasair (funded by TG4) has EUR 10,000 to give to new, expienced, inexperienced and even students to make their own short film.


To qualify for this scheme, which is administered by Filmbase, you must write a TV treatment with some Irish dialogue, get short listed and then win the grant to make your short. You will own the rights to it and it will be broadcast at the Cork film festival and on TG4. If you want to get it into film festivals then it is up to you to do so.

You can write the script in English and get help translating some of the dialogue to Irish. They said they are looking for a really great idea, not a monologue on the state of Irish. You can have a combination of dialogue in English and Irish. Another tip was to keep the dialogue short and snappy. It is usually a page for one minuet of air time and the short must be 10 mins. And yes, yes animated shorts are accepted, and they are open to shorting the time (of ten minutes) for an animated short.

So, this scheme is open to ALL, and I don't want to hear, 'after 14 years of learning Gaelige I can't speak it,' cause trust me, everyone has some Irish, beside you can get help if needed.

If you get shortlisted you will be interviewed, so you will have to source your own production team, do a search online, ask your mates, ask film students.....but a tip they gave was that to meet your team before your interview so that you are on the same page with the same focus.

Deadline for Lasair is 5pm Friday 27th January 2012.

As you know, I am a primary school teacher, so I have a bit of Gaeilge! I just completed a TV treatments course....so,yeah, yeah I am going to write up a Tv treatment and enter it for a giggle. Sure, I started this blog for a laugh in April '11 and it is a finalist in the Int EduBlog Awards 11, so who knows!

For more details read below links

Lasair
Lasair Guidelines


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Writerly Nails

I am delighted to announce that this blog was a runner up in the heated contest of Most Influential Blog Post in the International EduBlog Awards 2011. 


Thanks to Caren Kennedy for being a fantastic creative writing teacher and thanks to you guys for voting and reading. 


Onwards
Michelle






So you fancy yourself to be a writer, eh? Do you go to book shops almost daily? Can pass a  stationary shop without going in? When you shop in Tesco, do you spend more time in the book section than the food section?

Well if you do all of the above thing, you gotta ask yourself a question, ‘I act like a writer but do I look like a writer?' Well I have the answer for you. 







Writerly Nails. Yeap, that right; Writerly Nails, people! I wrote about crackle glaze before, so check that out.

You will need:

1.       Rubbing alcohol (or alcoholic hand wash)

2.       A base nail varnish colour (neutral colour)

3.       A light grey/pink/white nail varnish colour

4.       A newspaper

5.       Cotton buds

6.       Nail varnish remover

Directions:

1.   You can do this part the night before, or not at all. File your nails, buff them and apply oil or cream to give them a bit of TLC.

2.   Cut the newspaper into small squares (double the size of your nails.)

3.   Apply the base coat, this will prevent the grey colour discolouring your nails. Leave it dry for 2 minutes.

4.   Apply the light grey nail varnish colour and leave dry for 6 minutes.

5.   Put some rubbing alcohol into a small container and dip one finger in for about 5 seconds.

6.   Pick up one piece of newspaper and then press one it onto your nail for 15 seconds, then peel off slowly.

7.   Dip a cotton bud into nail varnish remover and use this to remove any excess newspaper print from your finger.

8.   Apply a clear top coat.

9.   A great tip is to also apply the clear varnish  to the tip and under the tip of your nail, thus sealing the varnish and ensuring it will last even longer.

Hey presto you now have writerly nails.

You can send me in pictures of your fab writerly nails via Twitter @MoloneyKing and I will publish the pictures along with your Twitter and blog link here.

If you like my blog, you can subscribe to the blog by entering your email address in the box on the right hand sidebar. And sure throw us an aould vote here (just one click).

Thanks and Reki Blessings for stopping by! The fact that anyone would be interested in what I have to say....well it still shocks me. :-)

Clouds of Confusion

A thank you to all who stop by here and who voted. I won a runner up place in the Int EduBlog Awards 11

 If you are an educator, ICT head or just like discussing/reading about technology then join the CESI  I received the below story from a member in this group. It certainly made me laugh, and in these days we all need a laugh.

Onwards

Michelle

'A GALWAY councillor has refused to apologise for swearing at a County Council committee meeting after he told a fellow councillor to "go **** himself."

Local area councillor Seamus Tiernan made the amazing outburst after he was told he was a "feckin eejit" for thinking that cloud computing was only suitable in areas with lots of rain. He had told the Infrastructure Committee meeting this week that his native Connemara would be ideal for cloud computing because it has heavy cloud cover for nine months of the year."

The Independent councillor said that the Government should be doing more to harness clean industries for the Connemara area and he named wind energy and cloud computing as two obvious examples. "Connemara in particular could become a centre of excellence for wind energy harnessing, as it is open to the Atlantic. Also in terms of cloud computing, we have dense thick fog for nine months of the year, because of the mountain heights and the ability to harness this cloud power, there is tremendous scope for cloud computing to become a major employer in this region."

However his mistake was pointed out by an incredulous Cllr Martin Shiels who said that "this is taking the biscuit. I've heard it all now. You must be a fecking eejit to think that the cloud computing had anything to do with climate." Cllr Tiernan took umbrage at the remarks of his colleague and called for them to be withdrawn. When Cllr Shields refused to do so, Tiernan said "go **** yourself, Cllr Shields."

Chairman Sile Ni Baoill asked for both councillors to withdraw their comments, but Cllr Tiernan was repentant that Cllr Shields was wrong and that cloud comouting is linked to cloud cover.

"Tell me why large companies are opening server farms in cold wet countries then", he asked Cllr Shields.

HOWEVER it is a fake.  Just check the list of Galway Co Councillors for all 5 electoral areas and none of the names quoted in the piece are listed. Pity! There is no Infrastructure Committee either. There are no such entities as Local Area Councillors - just Councillors who represent local electoral areas (5 in all for Galway, with 30 Co Councillors) the list is here.

Sometimes the truth is better that fiction, sometimes we just wish it was. It still is good for a laugh though. '

If you like my blog, you can subscribe to the blog by entering your email address in the box on the right hand sidebar.