Too Much, Too Young

Any young filmmaker in Ireland will know how tough it is to break into the film industry. Unreturned phone calls and ignored emails have them banging their heads up against a brick wall – without ever knowing if it’s the right wall. Stephen Byrne, a 25-year-old producer, kick-started the Waterford Film Festival this year while Michael Lafferty, a 21-year-old from Clady in Co. Tyrone joined the Young Irish Filmmakers on Youtube. He has his own blog where he tells us that he is going to make a video diary of his trials and tribulations of becoming a filmmaker.

For his final year college project, Michael wrote and directed a short film called ‘The Hitman’, which is “a story about revenge and murder” (handy given the title). Renamed The Vendetta, Michael tried his luck by entering it into the New York International Independent Film Festival. The film was greeted warmly stateside (it won the Best Action Genre For A Short Film) and Michael has since applied for funding his new film. We’ll let Michael tell his own here, and you can catch the first part of The Vendetta below.